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Title: The Media: -INFLUENCE -Regulation


1
The Media -INFLUENCE-Regulation
2
The Future of the Media
  • The printed daily newspaper as we know it in
    decline
  • More and more people access news and information
    via the Internet
  • Important questions
  • Is democratic accountability threatened by the
    loss of newspapers?
  • Is web-based journalism democratizing?

3
People, Government, and Communications
  • Mass communication transmits information to large
    audiences
  • Mass media do the communicating
  • Print media
  • Broadcast media
  • Media has important role
  • Information from government to citizens
  • Information from citizens to government

4
Audiences of Selected Media Sources
5
Magazines
  • More specialized news than daily newspapers
  • Can influence attentive policy elites
  • Two-step flow of information then influences mass
    opinion
  • However, circulation also has declined

6
Radio
  • Regular radio broadcasting began as local
    broadcasts in 1920
  • Coast-to-coast broadcasts first heard in 1937
  • More than 13,000 licensed stations today
  • Audiences continue to grow
  • News and talk radio popular

7
Television
  • First major broadcasts in 1940 color and
    coast-to-coast broadcasts in 1951
  • In 2009, U.S. had over 1,300 commercial and 300
    public television stations
  • Around 99 percent of homes have TV
  • TV has biggest news audience after Internet

8
The Internet
  • Majority of government agencies and political
    organizations have websites
  • Private citizens operate websites and blogs on
    politics and public affairs
  • Rapid way to transmit information and mobilize
    public opinion
  • Major stories starting to originate on blogs
    many authors consider selves journalists

9
Compared With What?
10
Private Ownership of the Media
  • In U.S., private ownership of media taken for
    granted
  • China has Internet police to prevent subversive
    content
  • In some countries, print media privately owned
    but broadcast media run by government
  • U.S. has only about 300 public TV stations and
    400 public radio stations

11
Private Ownership of the Media
12
The Consequences of Private Ownership
  • Private media ownership means more political
    freedom, but also dependence on advertising
    revenues
  • When looking at overall coverage, media functions
    more for entertainment than news
  • Criteria for newsworthiness is audience appeal

13
Getting the News Consider the Source
14
Market-Driven Journalism
  • Larger audiences earn higher advertising rates
  • Outside agency determines market share of shows
    for broadcast media
  • So, news broadcasts and commercials are targeted
    for viewing audiences, both national and local
  • Major news organizations like CBS, ABC, and NBC
    are part of larger corporations
  • Must make a profit

15
Government Regulation of Media
  • Although privately owned, mass media regulated by
    government
  • Broadcast media more regulated than print media
  • Technical regulations
  • Ownership regulations
  • Content regulations

16
Regulation of Content
  • The First Amendment prohibits Congress from
    abridging freedom of the press
  • Federal courts have decided many cases defining
    how far freedom of the press extends in various
    areas
  • Most news allowed, except for strategic
    information during wartime
  • FCC initially designed to ensure radio and TV
    served the public interest
  • Fairness doctrine and equal opportunity rule

17
Regulation of Content
  • Fairness doctrine repealed in 1987
  • U.S. Court of Appeals struck down rules
    regulating political endorsements and personal
    attacks in broadcast media
  • Print media not subject to restrictions
  • Some advocate deregulation of broadcast media

18
Functions of the Mass Media for the Political
System
  • Reporting the news
  • Interpreting the news
  • Influencing citizens opinions
  • Setting the agenda for government action
  • Socializing citizens about politics

19
Reporting the News
  • News media reports on important political events
    with journalists on location
  • Washington, D.C. has largest press corps
  • Media relationships with president controlled by
    the Office of the Press Secretary
  • Opportunities include news conferences, press
    releases, background information, off the
    record comments, and photo opportunities

20
Interpreting and Presenting the News
  • Media executives, news editors, and reporters
    function as gatekeepers of news flow and validity
  • Personification makes news more understandable
  • Rise of Internet has made more views available
  • More information available, but no gatekeepers to
    check validity of content

21
Media Coverage of Elections
  • Personification of political news encourages
    horse race journalism
  • Most Americans want more coverage of issues
  • Changing poll numbers and media events
    considered more newsworthy

22
Where the Public Gets Its News
  • Newspaper most important source until 1960s, then
    TV
  • Today, 65 percent of Americans name TV or cable
    news networks as primary news source
  • Newspapers 14 percent
  • Internet 11 percent
  • Multiple sources used by many, including
    late-night talk shows

23
What People Remember and Know
  • Although 80 percent of public access news media
    each day, most retain little
  • National survey in 2009 found respondents could
    only answer five of 12 questions about current
    events correctly
  • Those who rely on TV retain less than those who
    read print media
  • Some media researchers believe TV is behind low
    level of citizen knowledge about public affairs

24
Figure 6.5Gagging on Late-Night TV
25
Influencing Public Opinion
  • Difficult to measure extent of medias influence
    on public opinion
  • Does the media create public opinion by its
    reporting of events?
  • Studies on specific areas, such as pretrial
    coverage of serious criminal cases, show
    significant influence

26
Setting the Political Agenda
  • Most scholars see medias greatest influence in
    its ability to identify issues needing government
    attention
  • Media can force government to address unpopular
    or unknown issues
  • Some issues, such as crime, disproportionately
    covered
  • Public also influences media coverage

27
Setting the Political Agenda
  • Politicians eager to influence media coverage
  • Public opinion
  • Opinions of attentive elites
  • Presidents sometimes go public to advance a
    political agenda

28
Socializing the Citizenry
  • Young people politically socialized via medias
    entertainment function
  • Media reinforces dominance of existing culture
    and order
  • Today, messages about government very different
    than in past
  • Media has contradictory roles in process of
    political socialization

29
Evaluating the Media in Government
  • Some believe news filtered through ideologies of
    media owners, editors, and reporters
  • Reporters tend to be liberal (32) rather than
    conservative (8)
  • Editors and owners more conservative
  • Talk radio dominated by conservatives

30
Partisanship and the Credibility of the News
31
Evaluating the Media in Government
  • In general, incumbents receive more news coverage
    than challengers
  • Political bias in coverage depends on the party
    in power
  • Media may also be biased in the way news stories
    reported

32
Contributions to Democracy
  • Most political communications from government to
    citizens through media
  • News reporters tend to be critical of
    politicians, serving watchdog function
  • Media polls enable reporting of public opinion on
    major issues
  • Necessary for majoritarian model of government

33
Effects on Freedom, Order, and Equality
  • Media has played important role in advancing
    equality
  • Media coverage of civil rights movement critical
    to its success
  • However, media resists government efforts to use
    it to promote public order
  • What is balance between free press and national
    security?

34
The Advertising License to do business
  • Before advertising became prominent, the price of
    a newspaper had to cover the cost of doing
    business.
  • With the growth of advertising, papers who
    attracted ads could be sold below production
    costs. This placed papers who lacked advertising
    at a disadvantage.
  • The advertisers choices influence media
    prosperity and survival.
  • As a result, working class papers and a more
    radical press are at a disadvantage.

35
The Influence of Advertisers
  • Large corporate advertisers will rarely support
    programs with serious criticisms of corporate
    activities, environmental degradation, and
    interconnections between military and industry.
  • Advertisers will also avoid programs with serious
    complexities and disturbing controversies that
    may interfere with the buying mood of its
    readership/audiences.
  • This dependence on advertising dollars,
    therefore, translates into less critical content
    being printed or aired, resulting in articles and
    programs, which are culturally and politically
    more conservative.

36
TABLOID TV
  • Instead of critical documentaries, Discovery
    and National Geographic Television programs
    feature adventure and travel type shows which
    invite viewers to escape into exotic landscapes
    and scenarios.
  • News programs are becoming increasingly
    tabloidizised, in their relentless search for
    a nightly extravaganza of chaos, conflict,
    confrontation, and controversy (Fleras, p. 47)

37
Constructing News Images
  • Seeing is believing The camera never
    liesare clichés which draw attention to popular
    beliefs and apparent faith in observation and
    visual representation.
  • However, camera positioning and angle, picture
    framing and lighting, image selection,
    photographic retouching, digital image
    manipulation, editorial cropping and final
    juxtaposition can all radically change or even
    invert the sense of depicted scenesthe camera
    can lie.

38
Signifier (shot) Definition Signified (meaning)
Close-up? Media shot? Long shot? Full shot? Face only? Most of body? Setting and characters? Full body of person? Intimacy Personal relationship Context, scope, public distance Social relationship
39
Signifier (film/video) Definition Signified (meaning)
Pan down? Pan Up? Zoom in? Fade in? Fade Out? Cut? Wipe? Camera looks down Camera looks up Camera moves in Image appears on blank screen Image screen goes blank Switch from one image to another Image wiped off screen Power, Authority Smallness, weakness Observation, focus Beginning Ending Simultaneity, exitement Imposed conclusion.
40
Sports is now a mass consumer spectacle
This is a bit different from the time when
gentleman amateurs played for fun and it was
not taken too seriously
Sport
Times have changed. We now have a golden
triangle between the media, sport and sponsors
Media
Sponsorship
41
The Golden Triangle
  • There is no doubt that sport, the media, which in
    turn means sponsorship is linked
  • In all sports with strong media links,
    professionalism is a reality
  • Sports have had to change their rules, format and
    scheduling in order to meet the demands of TV
    companies and sponsors

42
Sports and the Media
  • Sports are becoming increasingly commercialized
  • We are getting the win at all costs ethic
  • The stakes are high, so winning is vital
  • This can intensify ethical problems such as
    corruption, cheating, violence and drug abuse,
    which are highlighted by the media

43
THE REAL ISSUE
  • HOW CAN SPORT RETAIN ITS TRUE NATURE AND VALUES
    WHILE BENEFITING FROM THE MONEY OFFERED BY
    COMMERCIALISM?

44
WHAT HAS HAPPENED?
  • 19th Century sport was seen as a
    valuable experience in its own right
  • 20th Century sport became part of
    the entertainment industry
  • Now just a branch of the advertising
    industry?

45
QUESTIONS
  • Has money corrupted sport or has the media saved
    sport from economic disaster?
  • Has sport benefited from its relationship with
    the media?
  • Has sport been manipulated for the sake of the
    sponsors, advertisers and passive armchair
    spectators, at the expense of the paying
    spectator?
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