Importance of Media in the New American Democracy Representative democracy Citizens need to know...
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![Page 1: Importance of Media in the New American Democracy Representative democracy Citizens need to know Events Media News Tree falling in the forest News.](https://reader035.fdocuments.us/reader035/viewer/2022062407/56649d425503460f94a1d094/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Importance of Media in the New American Democracy Representative democracy Citizens need to know Events Media News Tree falling in the forest News shapes public opinion Need to “make news” shapes government’s
activities Inevitable concern about Bias and
Accountability
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3 Potential Sources of Bias
Ideological bias of reporters/editors Profit bias of corporate owners Personal or selection bias of reporters
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Bias in Historical Context
Party or House papers– Big Bias– Federalists, Gazette of the United State– Jeffersonians, National Gazette – Funded by government contracts, print party line
Penny Press– Depend on sales– Emergence of independent press – Muckraking, sensationalism– Increase in corporate ownership
TV, Radio & internet– 99% of houses have TV, 65% cable
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Primary Source of News
Newspapers only 10% TV and newspapers 22% TV only 55%
Evening News audience declined 30% since 1980s
But 50 million in audience each night
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Most Credible Source of News
Radio 5% Magazines 5% Newspapers 19% Television 58%
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Criteria for Newsworthiness
Drama, color, brevity– Human interest story are always #1 – Media loves conflict – News is New!!
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Framing
Systemic explanations – the increase in natural gas prices and decline in
federal heating assistance to low income families – National trend in increasing unemployment
Individual Explanations– high costs of heat- two families unable to pay
heating bills– unemployed worker-- unemployed auto worker in
Ohio
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Framing (cont)
what is the most important cause of poverty --78% of people who saw the national trends
and high unemployment stories pointed to economic explanations (the recession) or government and society (references to Reagan’s policies)
--62% of people who saw the homeless story believed that motivation (laziness) or skills were most important.
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Implications of Framing
Episodic frames encourage people to hold individual responsible for the situation they are in
thematic frames encourage people to hold the public officials responsible.
68% of CBS news poverty related stories presented a particular victim
People are more compelling than bar graphs (better copy), cheaper, and free of criticism
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Personal Selection Bias
How Accurate is Media Framing? African Americans constitute 29% of the
nation’s poor. Surveys 50% of all poor people are
black? white Americans w/least accurate
perceptions oppose welfare
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Pictures of Poor on CBS News
CBS News– 66% black, 34% non-black
Reality– 29% black, 71% non-black
CBS News– 15% working, 85% non working
Reality– 51% work, 49% non-working
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Avg Time Devoted to 9 News Categories by local tv
state policy9% national policy
7%
local policy5%
local economy4%
Happy talk28%
sports16%
human interest14%
weather8%
disaster9%
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Media as Corporate Entity
Merger of entertainment and news– Tabloid quality of Monica-gate
Ratings driven– Emphasis on spectacle stories (Diana, JFK Jr, OJ,
JonBonet)– No other news
Increasing corporate ownership– Time Warner-AOL– stock options– Disney---ABC, pedophiles at Disney?
Shift in Business Model– Profitability > Reporting
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Gotcha Journalism
NBC Dateline on Valujet 1996 crash kills 110– "our government did not do enough to protect us.
It failed to implement the recommendations of its safety experts. It failed to warn us about dangers it knew of well before the crash. And one year after Flight 592 crashed here in the Florida everglades, it has failed to make sure that a similar accident cannot happen again."
– "I would probably favor listing the FAA as directly causing the accident."
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Was it the Gov’s fault?
ValuJet a troubled airline string of mishaps Fire caused by oxygen canisters labeled
empty The immediate cause of the crash, was the
failure of both a private-sector airline and its private-sector contractor to follow government rules already on the books.
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Increasing Gotcha Journalism
TV newsmagazine every night of the week
the rise of 24-hour-a-day cable news viewers harder to attract RESULT= personality-based "gotcha"
stories, grounded in scandal.
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Negativity Bias towards Gov
a mismatched sense of the private sector's virtue and the government's vice – Government is in spotlight – Private companies are not, How much
does the Gap lose to shoplifters
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Declining amount of News
Government news stories on "ABC World News Tonight" dropped from 40.2% of all stories in 1977 to 15.9% in 1997
In 1997, Time Magazine, ¼ the number of government stories as in 1977
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Avg Time Devoted to 9 News Categories by local tv
state policy9% national policy
7%
local policy5%
local economy4%
Happy talk28%
sports16%
human interest14%
weather8%
disaster9%
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Less Coverage of Gov
Department of Veteran's Affairs, 2 reporters
Interior Department, not 1 Full time Wisconsin state government
reporters, 24 in 1972, 12 in 1996
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48 Hours
Bad Girls What would drive well-educated suburban girls to become armed robbers? 48 Hours looks at the case of four Texas teen-agers charged after a robbery spree last year. (Dec. 28,
Dead Men Tell No Tales Tommy Lynn Sells
claims he's killed scores of people over the past 18 years. And as 48 Hours reports, it was a 10-year-old girl that helped bring him to justice.
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Dateline
Actor leading the fight for a cure for Parkinson’s disease
Conjoined twins Kathleen and Charity Lincoln
undergo a risky operation.
Breaking away Follow four families as they struggle to move out of the housing projects. Maria Shriver reports in this Special Interactive Documentary
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Conseq of Neg. Bias
undermines citizen trust in gov Depicts public officials as self-serving
– Neumann on Seinfeld Media focus on scandal, rather than
preventing – Case of Challenger Disaster
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Politics in Cyberspace
Will new technologies revive democratic politics?– “Offer a means of reestablishing the connection
between voters and candidates” email, chat room– “dramatically change the quality of information
readily available to voters”, wide spectrum of political groups
– CNN et al will develop multimedia sites devoted to political coverage
– More “unmediated sources of information”
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Politics in Cyberspace
Will new technologies revive democratic politics?– Will reduce the cost of political contributions ..
Open the electoral process to groups and candidates who have traditionally been priced out of the political market
– Voters will have more candidates to choose from– Will make it easier to participate via email– Easier to do fund raising
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Politics in Cyberspace
Concerns– Fair and equitable access, certain
segments of the electorate may be disadvantaged
– Requires a hgih level of motivation– Rise of formal and informal neo-
intermediaries
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Bias in the Media
Accuracy in Media – Examples of bias
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting – Examples of bias
Who is right Change your perception
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The Deliberately Biased Media
Article from biased sources Differences in news coverage between
the ideological press and the mainstream media
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Being an intelligent citizen
Newspapers Magazines Commercial orientation of networks