The Political Roles of Mass Media

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The Political Roles of Mass Media

• Media as informer-- report on events and people.
  Content trends toward soft news over hard news.
  News is more infotainment.
• Tone-setter-- interpret the events for public.
  Politics complex, media simplifies, in doing so
  focuses on sensational and negative. Tends to
  personalize and dramatize political events.
• Agenda-setter-- issues prominent in the media
  become important to public and government.
• Instruments of Government-- Rely on official
  sources, allowing manipulation. Media Events
  pseudo-events.

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Other Roles of Mass Media

• Political Socialization
• Entertainment Market forces even news media to
  focus on entertaining.
• Watch dogs of government, reporting on scandal.
  Take an adversarial role in order to appear
  objective.
• In politics, if the media does not report on an
  event, does it really happen? Will the people
  even care? Will politicians care?
• CNN-Effect--claim that events in the world arent
  politically important in the U.S. unless the
  media reports on them.

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Critical president/press relationship

• The relationship involves high stakes for both
  -leads to a relationship that can appear
  antagonistic, but one that is usually
  cooperative.
• Likened to a rocky marriage. Each needs the
  other. Text calls this symbiotic.
• Stakes for the President-- Image building to
  have support of the public. Leading public.
• Stakes for the media--
• President biggest ongoing story. Americans want
  news about the president.
• Presidents are dramatic, drama sells. and
  prestige.

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Evolution of Print and Broadcast Media

• 19th media was very partisan. Early 20th century
  focus was on Yellow Journalism and Muckraking.
• Print now--large newspaper conglomerates
  important papers of record (e.g. NY Times) and
  news magazines.
• News has become very generic w/ corporate
  consolidation. Much less variety in info.,
  despite of channels.
• Broadcast media-- Radio and TV. Controlled by
  media giants, and now conglomerates (e.g. Time
  Warner-AOL, Disney-ABC). Their focus is profit,
  not being informative.

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Most people get news from TV most, and they trust
TV most.
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Evolution of the Press in Politics

• Pervasiveness of the media in politics has
  increased w/ technology.
• President Franklin Roosevelt (1930s) started
  press conferences. A Cozy relationship between
  the press and president persisted through 1960s.
• Cozy relationship ended with Vietnam and
  Watergate, which led to media cynicism, and a
  more antagonistic press.
• Nature of coverage has changed
• Superficial coverage, Less covg of politics,
• Incredibly shrinking sound bite.
• Election coverage focuses on horse race instead
  of issues.

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TV Politics

• PR more important than policy. 1/3rd of
  Presidents staff work in PR.
• Public image building has become paramount. 1960
  presidential election debates.
• Elections more about candidates and media events
  than issues.
• TV news focuses on dramatic, the negative and
  human interest. Leads to distorted public view
  of politics.
• TV defines news in terms of entertainment value.
  Soft news is cheaper to produce, more highly
  rated, effects the bottom line.
• News Profit Ratings/Demographics minus
  Production Costs.

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Bias in the Media

• Bias NOT systematic against one party or the
  other. Ideological bias is usually in the eye of
  the beholder.
• Bias tends to be against whomever is in office.
• Bias toward Negative coverage. Good news is not
  stressed as much as bad news, esp. in elections.
• The media still rely on official sources for most
  of their information, and favor authoritative
  sources.

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Bias in the Media

• Information Biases in the News that Matter
• Personalization. Oversimplifies, making politics
  about personalities, human interest.
• Dramatization. Excludes the typical, focusing
  instead of novel dramatic. Not representative.
• Fragmentation. Simplifies events w/o placing into
  larger context confusing viewers.
• These biases distort the publics images of
  reality, creating the illusion of the news.
  E.G. Crime rates.

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Media Influences on Public Opinion

• Media does NOT tell Americans what to think.
• Media profoundly influence what Americans think
  about-- Which issues are important, which
  problems Americans think government should
  address.
• Power of the media has 3 important effects on
  American politics
• Priming influencing the criteria used to
  evaluate political leaders.
• Agenda Setting media ? the policy agenda The
  issues government pays close attention to and the
  problems government attempts to solve.
• Framing By stressing certain interpretations,
  can influence how the public respond to event.

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Media Agenda Setting
Events
Public Opinion
Media Coverage
The Policy Agenda
Politicians are responsive to increased public
concerns and will adjust their agendas. Events/iss
ues not covered by media unlikely to reach
agenda. Ignored issues and events fade from
policy agenda.