Transcript Chapter 12

Chapter 12
The Media
Media Facts
• The rise of the blog
• 60 Minutes story in 2004
• By 2004, 1/5 of all people between 18 and 29
got campaign news from the Internet.
• American government are less tough with
restrictions on the media and speech
• Long tradition in America of the privately owned
media
• Newspapers require no permission from
government to operate. Radio and TV stations
must obtain licenses from the FCC.
Potential Limits on media freedom
• Privately owned newspapers and
broadcast stations must make a profit
• Media bias
Bias?
• Payroll tax
– http://nbcpolitics.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011
/11/30/9113617-obama-massive-blow-if-gopblocks-payroll-tax
– http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/11/30/b
oehner-payroll-tax-relief-must-be-paid-forwith-budget-cuts/
– http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/30/news/econo
my/payroll_tax_cut_republicans/index.htm?hp
t=hp_t3
History of American Journalism
• The Party Press
– In the early years of the United States, newspapers
could not be easily distributed, and printing them was
very expensive.
– Newspapers were basically controlled by factions and
political parties to further their interests
– Hamilton- Gazette of the United States
– Jefferson- National Gazette
– Many different party papers, but rare to find a paper
that presented both sides of an issue.
The Popular Press
• Changes in society and technology made
mass publication of newspapers possible
• Invention of telegraph in the 1840s
allowed news to travel very quickly
• Associated Press created in 1848.
– Hard to be biased or partisan when you are
giving out brief stories that are going to
newspapers of all different types of opinions
and partisan beliefs.
The Popular Press
• Urbanized nation means larger concentrations of
people in areas
• Newspapers become cheaper because of larger
populations in a given area as well as merchants
advertising
• The new mass-readership newspapers were not
unbiased or nonpartisan, but the bias was not
because of party sponsors.
– Bias was because of the publishers and editors
views.
Yellow Journalism
• Joseph Pulitzer vs. William Randolph
Hearst
• Both had large newspaper empires, and
they subscribed to the idea that the way to
attract many readers was to sensationalize
the news
• Spanish-American War
Opinion Magazines
• National magazines developed as a result
of the belief in the Progressive movement
and political reform
• Provided a forum for muckrakers to do
“investigative reporting”
• National magazines that focus on politics
have been steadily dying out. Most focus
on entertainment and leisure today.
Electronic Journalism
• Radio in 1920s, TV in 1940s
• Television is more expensive
• News segments must be brief to avoid
boring the audience
• Rise of the talk show
• Sound bites- short video or audio clips of a
politician speaking. (7.2 seconds in 2000)
Changes in Electronic Journalism
• The Big 3 Networks (ABC, CBS, NBC)
dominated media coverage of politics until
around 1990.
• Since 1990, the creation of 24-hour news
networks (FOX News, CNN, MSNBC) have
steadily increased their share of viewers.
• The Daily Show, Colbert Report, The Tonight
Show are rapidly becoming ways that politicians
gain access to new groups of people who may
not tune into traditional news stations.
The Internet
• Blogs, online newspapers, web magazines
all are becoming increasingly important
ways that Americans get their news
• Every candidate for an important office
now has a website
• The Internet has made it possible for
ordinary voters to have their voices heard
by politicians and political activists through
blogs, Email, etc.
Competition in the Media
• Large decline in the number of newspapers
serving large communities in the 20th Century.
By 1972, only 4 percent of American cities had
competing newspapers
• Many large cities have competing newspapers,
but in some of these cities the “competing”
newspapers operate under a joint operating
agreement (JOA)
– Business side merges, and editorial independence is
preserved…..to a certain extent.
Competition in the Media
• Less than 40 percent of Americans age 18-34
read newspapers today.
• As newspaper competition has declined,
television and radio competition has intensified.
– Over 1,000 TV stations
– Nearly 10,000 radio stations
– Not all of these cover “news”, but the number
is sufficiently large to create huge competition
for viewership and listeners
The National Media
• While many media have a distinctly local flavor with
newspapers, local newscasts, local radio stations, the
national media has been steadily increasing
• Wire services- AP and UPI
• Magazines- Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World
Report
• 24-Hour Cable News
• Newspapers such as USA Today, NY Times, Wall Street
Journal have a national distribution.
– Huge distribution
– Read by political elites
– Radio and TV take news cues from these publications
– Editors and reporters for these are better educated
and better paid.
Media as Gatekeeper
• The media influences what subjects become
national issues and for how long they stay in the
public spotlight
• Crime example
– Media paid little attention to rise in crime rates in early
1960s, so Washington gave it little attention.
– Attention increased in late 1960s and early 1970s,
decreased in late 1970s, and rose again in 1980s.
– The reality is that crime was going up during most of
these years. The reality did not change, but the
perception did because of media coverage
Media as Scorekeeper
• The media keeps track of and helps to
make political reputations
• Getting the press to cover you is half the
battle in becoming a candidate for a major
office
• Doing well in Iowa and New Hampshire
gets you lots of free media publicity in
presidential primary season.
Media as Watchdog
• The media closely scrutinizes candidates
• The media knows it is profitable to investigate
and expose scandal
• Tolerant of underdogs, tough on front-runners
• This trend really developed after Woodward and
Bernstein broke the Watergate scandal.
• If you are a young reporter, and you can find a
scandal and report the story, your career is
launched.
Rules in the Media
• The First Amendment has been interpreted to say that
no government can place prior restraints, or censorship,
on the press except in very narrow circumstances
(usually national security issues)
• Terms like libelous, obscene, and incitement are defined
so narrowly that it is nearly impossible to sue or
prosecute a newspaper or magazine for something they
have published.
• To prove libel of a public official, the person must show
the information was wrong and damaging and prove with
clear and convincing evidence that it was printed
maliciously (with reckless disregard for the truth)
Source Confidentiality
• In general, sources may be kept
confidential EXCEPT
• The government may compel reporters to
give up their sources or information if it is
part of a properly conducted criminal
investigation.
Regulation of Broadcasting
• Radio and television stations must have FCC
licenses. Must be renewed every 7 years for
radio stations and every 5 years for TV stations
• Applications for renewal are rarely refused
• There has been massive deregulation of the
broadcast media in the past few decades
• Fairness Doctrine- Required broadcasters that
air one side of a story to give time to opposing
points of view.
Media and Campaigning
• Broadcasters must provide equal time to
candidates for office
• Candidates for president use the television in
large quantities to reach a national audience.
• In more local races, candidates may or may not
use the television in large amounts to campaign.
• Much higher percentage of Senate candidates
use television ads than House candidates.
Important Supreme Court cases
• Near v. Minnesota (1931)
– State governments cannot impose prior restraint
• New York Times v. Sullivan (1964)
– Not libel unless the reporter made the statement
knowing it to be false or with reckless disregard for
the truth
• Miami Herald v. Tornillo (1974)
– Newspapers don’t have to give you the right to reply
to a story
• New York Times v. U.S. (1971)
– Federal government could not prevent the Times from
printing a story about the Pentagon Papers
National Media Bias
• Three questions to answer
– Do members of the media have a distinctive
political attitude?
– Does that attitude affect what they write or
say?
– Does what they write or say affect what
citizens believe?
Views of the National Media
• Majority of the national media is liberal
• 1992- 91% interviewed said they voted for
Clinton (Only 43% of the public did)
• More secular than average American
• Public perceives the media as liberal even as
some conservative outlets are rising
• 30% of Americans listen to talk radio at least
several times a week.
• Media owners care about ratings. Conservative
hosts have better ratings. Therefore
conservatives dominate talk radio.
Do the beliefs of the media affect
how they report news?
• Three types of stories
– Routine stories
• Major political events, usually involve simple
matters and are covered by many reporters
– Feature stories
• Cover public events not routinely covered by the
press
• Typically have to persuade an editor it is worth
publishing
– Insider stories
• Cover things that are often secret.
• Investigative reporters
• Often the story is leaked to a reporter by a
government insider
Do the beliefs of the media affect
how they report news?
• Routine stories typically have little bias
• Feature and insider stories can reflect the views
of the reporters and editors
• Bias can be most easily seen not by how a
reporter or editor covers a story, but by WHAT
they actually cover
– Conservative media- drug abuse, crime, welfare
abuse
– Liberal media- Feminism, civil rights, environment
Media Outlets and Bias in Stories
• Times and Post- Three times more likely to
describe conservative senators as conservative
than liberal senators as liberal
• Time and Newsweek- Did not quote scientists
and engineers that were in favor of nuclear
power because magazines opposed it
• Economic headlines given a more positive spin
with Democratic administration in the White
House by Top 10 Newspapers and AP
• Public perceives media as being less trustworthy
How much does the media
influence what we think?
• Selective attention- People remember or believe
what they want to. We pay attention to what is
consistent with our personal beliefs
• Voters typically have more positive feelings
about endorsed incumbents than nonendorsed
incumbents
• Fox News study- When Fox News was on the air
in one city and not in another similar city, the
vote for Republican candidates increased by 3
to 8 percent, and about half a percent for
Republican presidential candidate.
Government and the News
• Prominence of the President
– White House press secretary and the White
House press corps
– Because of the level of proximity the media
has to the president, we know almost every
move the president makes
Coverage of Congress
• C-Span has greatly increased the
coverage of Congress
• After 1978, television and radio were
allowed on the floor of both Houses of
Congress
• Since 1979, C-Span has shown live
coverage of the House, and the Senate
since 1986.
News Leaks
• Separation of powers and news leaks
– Each branch competes with the other branches for
power
– Using the press to make the other branch look bad on
an issue
• Adversarial Press
– The national media is extremely suspicious of
government officials and loves to reveal stories that
cast them in a negative light
– Era of attack journalism
– Attack journalism and the adversarial press have
made negative advertising in campaigns more
socially acceptable.
Sensationalism in the Media
• Sex wasn’t covered in politics up until the
1980s really.
• What changed?
– The economics of journalism
• Increased competition for viewership leads to
using big stories like sex, violence, political intrigue
to sell the news
• Used to have to have two sources to run a story
• Now you break stories with one unnamed source,
or even about an Internet rumor
Government Constraints on
Journalists
•
•
•
•
On the record
Off the record
On background
On deep background