Politics and Mass Media Spring 2012
What is the public or civic journalism model?
"Democracy's cultivator, as well as its chronicler" to "restore the work of the press so that it supports a healthier public"
What do the authors mean by "frontstage" versus "backstage" personality, and how does it square with their thesis?
"backstage" - more relaxed settings - try to keep a private life = sketchy. "frontstage" - more formal performance is required.
Okrent: watchdog journalism is "often lost among the other considerations that drive news decisions." What is meant here?
"hunger for scoops", "hit-and-run journalism", "cuddling sources", "end-run ending"
How do the authors respond to the argument that "a tiny group has a stranglehold on the media?"
"nonsense". FCC report that there were more outlets in 2000 than 1960. They believe there are tons of sources.
"Following up"
go beyond bear witness, answering the question "why", being able to stay with a story rather than move on
What practical imperatives do the authors offer in the conclusion?
(1) Don't fear new media. (2) Embrace the variety of modern media. Never has it been so easy to be informed. (3) Encourage parental involvement and education-based strategies to address concerns about children's online safety instead of banning social networds and other content.
How do Bennett and Cerrin define watchdog journalism?
(1) independent scrutiny (2) documenting, questioning, and investigating these activities in order to (3) provide publics and officials with timely information on issues of public concern
What does he mean when he suggests that journalists limit the range of opinion present in the news?
It is not the job of the press to offer the public a range of issues, but rather to cover, analyze, and discuss the main issues.
What does the proper organization of electoral opinion require?
It must be capable of seeing the larger picture and not in small pieces. It must have incentives that cause it to identify and organize these interests that are making demands for policy representation. And it must be accountable for its choices so that the public can reward it when satisfied and force amendments when dissatisfied.
What does it mean to say that the press is a "restless beacon?"
Its concern is the new, unusual, and sensational. Its agenda shifts abruptly when a new development breaks.
Katrina created "a moment of truly independent press coverage"? "normal" relationship between the press and the government?
Journalists were on the same to see the devastation for themselves, and had the technical capacity to show that reality directly to viewers. The normal relationship is a dependence between the press and the government.
Why do politicians use narratives?
The persuasive power they bring and how needy reporters are for intriguing stories. If a story is compelling enough, it can increase the chances that information will pass through to the public.
Prescriptions for "strengthening the watchdog role in these times"
1.) Expand sources to give more voice to those who are currently left out of democratic debate, and who might subscribe to papers and watch the news if they saw themselves represented and more fairly there 2.) Find new ways to define the democratic responsibilities of the press through journalism education, foundation support, and public discussion
In attempting to alleviate the problem of media polarization, she offers "three general approaches to improving the situation." What are they, and why does she reject them?
- Push for less commercial pressure - loses attractiveness to viewers - "In order to do good or harm, political news must have large audiences; high-minded programs with small audiences are hardly better than no programs at all." - Point blame at the civically bankrupt American public - Change the shape of political media so that they can draw audiences without inadvertently polarizing the public - doing this would yield a bad result further chipping away at the proportion of Americans who expose themselves to politically relevant tv content.
"Bearing witness"
- meat and potatoes of accountability news - lets citizens know the fundamentals of what is happening in their world and in corridors of power
"A Measure of Media Bias" by Tim Groseclose and Jeffrey Milyo
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"A New Standard of News Quality: Burglar Alarms for the Monitorial Citizen" by John Zaller
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"Audience Fragmentation and Political Inequality in the Post-Broadcast Media Environment" by Markus Prior
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"Domination Fantasies" by Ben Compaine
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"How the Mass Media Divide Us" by Diana Mutz
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"Losing the News: The Future of the News that Feeds Democracy" by Alex Jones
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"Monica Lewinsky's Contribution to Political Science" by John Zaller
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"News and the Visual Framing of Elections" by Maria Elizabeth Grabe and Erik Page Bucy
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"Open Season" by Larry Sabato
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"Polarizations and Cybercascades" by Cass Sunstein
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"Special Interests in Mind" by Drew Westen
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"The Burglar Alarm that Just Keeps Ringing" by W. Lance Bennett
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"The Media Cornucopia and its Critics" by Brian Anderson and Adam Thierer
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"The Miscast Institution" by Thomas Patterson
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"The Need for Negativity" by John Geer
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"The News Shapers" by Jarol Manheim
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"The Press as Amateur Psychologist-Part 1" by Kathleen Jamieson and Paul Waldman
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"The Press as Storyteller" by Kathleen Jamieson and Paul Waldman
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"The Problem of the Media" by Robert McChesney
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"The Reasoning Voter" by Samuel Popkin
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"The Watchdog Role of the Press" by W. Lance Bennett and William Cerrin
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"What Moves Public Opinion?" by Benjamin Page, Robert Shapiro, and Glenn Dempsey
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"When the Press Fails" by Lance Bennett et. al.
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"Why Democracies Need an Unlovable Press" by Michael Schudson
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Sabato examines several of the assumptions behind the historical origins of the character trend in reporting. Which assumptions does he label as valid, and which are invalid?
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Sunstein notes that "mixed groups have been shown to have two desirable effects." What are these effects?
1. Increases political tolerance 2. Mixing increases the likelihood that people will be aware of competing rationales and see that their own arguments might be met by plausible counterarguments
Bennett lists three core problems with Zaller's thesis. What are they?
1. Nearly all of Zaller's examples of ideal, burglar alarm news involves news practices that already exist. 2. There is no provision for instances in which a public problem exists but no alarm sounds. 3. Zaller articially sets the two news standards up as though they were choices or alternatives.
Why does Zaller believe that mass media frenzies may have positive value?
An intense, dramatic story that keeps up a "critical mass" over one or several news cycles in all information media breaks through the fog of disjointed news and engages the attention of the monitorial citizen. People talk, think, learn, see the big picture and form opinions.
Why is the "iron core in trouble?"
As audience declines and advertisers experiment with new media, news papers are declining. Newspaper are cost-wasting. More readers care to know about Housewives than important/boring/experienced news.
(1) In his critique of Zaller, what does Bennett mean when he contends that the argument "to endorse his [Zaller's] standard is almost perfectly backwards."
Bennett argues that the news is always sounding burglar alarms all the time. "This incessant ringing of alarms about dubious problems, unseemly scandals, and daily threats to health and safety discourages citizens from taking the press, politicans, and public life seriously."
What does Compaine say about the debate between localism and corporate ownership?
Both driven by the profit motive. Localism prevails over centralization. "In fact, the notion that local owners of newspaper or TV and radio stations are inherently 'better' than a large corporation has no standing in the real world."
(2) What does it mean to say that the media "brackets acceptable opinion"?
By defining the boundaries of acceptable controversy, the media define the range of legitimate opinions that the public may adopt. By relying on elite sources, reporters mirrored the division of elite opinion and subsequently their coverage influenced the range of opinions held by the mainstream public as well.
What do the authors mean when they note that "visuals convey information on multiple levels?"
Because not only is it the type of display but the timing of different modes of nonverbal behviour that makes a difference in building or weakening voter support.
Why do the authors argue that the left's criticism of today's media universe is contradictory?
Because the FCC claimed that there are an abundance of sources while the left disagrees.
How do the "entertainment fans" described by Prior measure up against Schudson's monitorial citizen"?
Even by Schudson's 'relaxed' standards, the citizenry in the high-choice media environment seems handicapped by the growing inequality of political involvement. The drop in news and knowledge among entertainment fans reduces the monitoring capabilities among the electorate.
What does it mean to suggest that there is an asymmetry between negative and positive campaign appeals?
For a negative appeal to be effective, the sponsor of the appeal must marshal more evidence, on average, then for positive appeals. The public, like our legal system, operates on the assumption of "innocent until proven guilty". Attacks place different demands on politicians and their staffs than do self-promotional propaganda.
What is enclave deliberation?
Form of deliberation that occurs within more or less insulated groups, in which like-minded people speak mostly to one another
In a media cornucopia, what is the relationship between freedom of choice and inequality?
Freedom of choice inevitable yield media inequality in systems where many people are free to choose between many options, a small subset of the whole will get a disproportionate amount of attention even if no members of the system actively work toward such an outcome.
What led to the press's role in current presidential elections? How were Jimmy Carter's efforts in 1975 a representation of that new reality?
Changes in the nomination structure led to the press's current role. Carter's efforts showed how by changing the traditional rounds with party leaders to meeting with journalists. Journalists were his gateway to the public.
What role do "critical junctures" play in this thesis?
Critical junctures are times when society puts the media on convention of sorts. There arises a greater criticism of media systems and policies much more organized public participation. They come about when new media technologies emerge.
How do the authors characterize today's media environment?
Great development for free society, but the left is highly archival. A "defector" constant consumption of media.
What arguments does Compaine offer against the notion that a few large companies have a monopoly on mass media content?
He argues that there are a ton of different players and that today's top percent does not have a significantly larger monopoly than it did two decades ago. The combination of companies is not as the newspapers make it seem.
What is his interpretation of the first amendment?
His point is to discredit the position that freedom of the press means strictly the right of private individuals to do as they please in the realm of media - regardless of the social implication - to suite their own commercial interests. Nothing to do with Founding Fathers.
What is "accountability news"?
Hold govt and those with power accountable. "News of verification"
What do the authors suggest about journalistic "truth"?
Hone in on what is found in between the two extremes of no truth and there is ONE to be found.
What is the advantage of candidate negativity over press negativity?
The press appears interested in being critical but its coverage of campaigns, for example, tends to be more about the horserace and campaign strategy then about the relative merits of the contender's policy views or about the respective leadership traits.
What does Patterson say about the watchdog role and the coalition building role?
The press still plays as the watchdog role but it is different than when the nomination system originally changed. The critical stance of the watchdog role is not to be confused with the constructive task of the coalition builder. The new role require the press to act in constructive ways to bring candidates and voters together.
Journalistic coverage of bin Laden 12/01 videotape
Inaccuracies surrounding bc they didn't get corrected. This became part of the historical memory of some journalists and could be repeated.
What does Jones claim is the "genuine crisis" in journalism?
It is a crisis of diminishing quantity and quality of morale and sense of mission, of values, and leadership. Taking place in a technological and economic change
(1) What is meant by the phrase "politics by default"?
Encountering politics at least occasionally because of a like to watch television more than other leisure activites. Cable tv and the Internet have helped form it into politics by choice though. By their own choice, entertainment fans learn less about politics than they used to and vote less often.
Difference between free press and free speech?
Engaging in the free press is technically an industrial enterprise requiring considerable resources. Unlike speech, it has not been open to speech. Also unlike speech, how the press system is structure d will go along way toward determining what ideas get heard and silences.
What does Prior mean when he notes that the origins of political inequality are voluntary?
Entertainment fans abandon politics not because it has become harder for them to be involved, but because they decide to devote their time to media that promise greater gratification than the news.
It's important to ask the question of who goes into journalism today"
Many reporters/editors now come from upper-class to middle-class backgrounds. Well bred, impressive educations, not much knowledge of classes below.
understand the authors' call for a "new news standard".
More independence by individual news organizations would in turn lead us closer to the marketplace or ideas model of press performance.
How does the difference between primary and general elections fit into this thesis?
News media consistently overestimates the voters' knowledge of the candidates and the speed with which they acquire it. Overwhelmed at primaries.
Understand the manner in which the authors find liberal bias
News scales. Count the times that a particular media outlet cites various think tanks and policy groups and then compare this with the times that members of Congress cite the same groups.
How do the authors define bias?
Not honesty or accuracy; it's taste or preference. An instance where a journalist fails to report a relavent fact, rather than chooses to report a false fact.
Who is AJ Liebling and what does he argue about the profit system?
Outspoken press critic. He argues that the profit system guarantees that there will be a cartoon amount of dissidence. The American press has never been so monolithic, like that of an authoritarian state. One reason is that there is always money to be made in journalism.
What is commodity news?
Plain news that is generated by a few news companies and sold cheap, mass produced like fast food.
What do the two differing schools of leftist media criticism have in common?
Pure elitism. They want to tilt the direction of the news their way.
What does it mean to suggest that the press operates as "semi-independent"?
Rather than exhibiting consistent independence from government so that it might be reliable in sounding alarms about failure in democratic politics, the press can be best characterized as semi-independent.
What is Schudson's "monitorial citizen"?
Rather than try to follow everything, the monitorial citizen scans the environment for events that require responses for many purposes just scanning the headlines is sufficient.
What is the major problem with the press playing the role of amateur psychologist?
Reporters have attempted to discover who the candidate really is, but have spent far less time explaining how the character - or, more specifically, these character flaws - relate to governance.
Valid assumptions.
The press correctly perceives that it has mainly replaced the political parties as the "screaming committee" that winnows the field of candidates and filters out the weaker or more unlucky contenders. Recognize the mistakes made under the rules of lapdog journalism and see the need to tell people about candidate foibles that affect public performance. The press assumes that it is giving the public what it wants and expects, more or less.
What does Mutz say about "the demands of incivility on human attentional processes"? How is incivility related to polarization?
She says that psychologists are correct in how demanding it is. Incivility is related directly to polarization because incivility is polarized and dramatized because rational thought is not necessarily I play here. Society is attracted to this craziness, whether they admit it or not and essentially demands it.
Invalid assumptions
Some journalists insist upon their obligation to reveal everything of significance discovered about a candidate's private habits; to do otherwise, they say, is antidemocratic and elitist. That matters so much because policy matters so little, that the issues change frequently and the pollsters and consultants determine the candidates' policy stand anyway. The universally accepted belief that private conduct affects the course of public action.
Using the discussion section, make sure you understand the major findings of the author
Strong impact of news commentary. The commentary we have examined may reflect the positions of many journalists or other elites who communicate through additional channels besides TV news or even a widespread elite consensus in the country. "Experts" have a substantial impact on public opinion. Popular presidents' actions and statements reported in the media do affect public opinion. Groups and individual representing various special interests, taking together, tend to have a negative effect on public opinion.
Why does Schudson suggest that journalism education should consider "disorienting" the prospective journalist?
Supposed to be institutionalized outsiders even though they became institutionalized insiders. There is much more that might be done to keep journalists at arm's length from theirs sources. This is something that journalism education could orient itself to more conscientiously. The idea would be to disorient rather than orient the prospective journalist. Disorientation - and ultimately alienation of journalists - helps the press to be free.
What do the authors say about television news in the conclusion of the piece?
Television news could be the future of what is to come. We could have supposedly gotten all that we can out of the newspaper and other print media. Network news has played a fundamental but underappreciated role in realizing these transformations.
What is the "Full News" standard? Why does Zaller view it as unrealistic?
The "Full News" standard is that the news should provide citizens with the basic information necessary to form and update opinion on all of the major issues of the day, including the performance of the top public officials. Zaller argues that the Full News standard makes unrealistically heavy demands on many citizens.
Precisely, what is the standard of news coverage that Zaller advocates?
The Burglar Alarm standard. Journalists should routinely seek to cover non-emergency but important issues by means of coverage that is intensely focused, dramatic, and entertaining that affords the parties and responsible interest groups, especially political parties, ample opportunity for expression of opposing views. Reports may use simulated drama to engage public attention when the real thing is absent.
What is the "watchdog" model of journalism?
The press keeping a skeptical eye trained on the government, guarding the public's interest and protecting from misinformation, incompetence, and corruption.
Metaphor of cannonball.
The cannonball is a total mass of each day's serious reported news, the iron core of information that is at the center of a functioning democracy. Iron core is big and unwieldy reflecting each day's outcome comes from traditional news media. Inside core news from a broad news of politics, business, public issue.
What does Mutz mean when she notes that "television provides a uniquely intimate perspective on conflict"?
The closeness of the television to a person creates an intense experience for the viewer. In this , the viewer views conflict more intimately.
What does Geer argue is the relationship between negativity and democracy?
The country was founded in large part through political attack. Without such negativity, the argument for establishing a new nation that derived its 'just powers from the consent of the government' would not have been possible.
Make sure you have an understanding of the section titled "Consequences for the Political System"
The enhanced influence of the contemporary press is pushing the American political system. Positive - increased openness and accountability visible in government and campaigns during the last two decades. This is balanced by two disturbing consequences: the trivialization of political discourse and the dissuasion of promising presidential candidates.
What conditions must hold in order to alter an individual's preferences and choices among policies?
The information must be 1) actually received 2) understood 3) clearly relevant to evaluating policies 4) discrepant with past beliefs and 5) credible
What is the Burglar Alarm standard?
The key idea is that news should provide information in the manner of attention catching "burglar alarms" about acute problems rather than "police patrols" over vast areas that pose no immediate problems.
Why does ideological audience specialization pose "a lesser problem than the audience specialization among the fault lines of news and entertainment?"
The latter not only exacerbates inequalities in political involvement, it also contributes to partisan polarization in a very different way. Ideological audience specialization raises the specter of partisan polarization because exposure to ideologically biased political content may persuade moderates or reinforce partisans.
What is the measure of a media system in political terms? Would McChesney argue that the American media system is a democratic force?
The measure is whether the media system on balance and in the context of the broader social and economic situation, challenges antidemocratic pressures and tendencies or reinforces them. The media's relationship with economics goes a long way toward shaping the media's political role and their relationship with dominant political and economic forces in society. Anti-democratic force.
Conclusions?
The media are liberal compared with US voters. Consequently, it is better to err on the side of making voters appear more liberal than they really are then the opposite. Regardless of how we define centrist, most outlets examined fall left of center.
What is the "marketplace of ideas" model?
The media should provide robust public debate among a diversity of views so that the "best" or "truest" ideas can rise to the top and societal consensus on public issues can emerge.
What does the reference "The Great Mentioner" mean?
The nominating campaign of a candidate who is largely ignored by the media is almost certainly futile, while the campaign of one who receives close attention gets an important boost. In this sense, the press performs the party's traditional role of screening potential nominees for the presidency - deciding what ones are worthy of serious consideration by the electorate and which ones can be dismissed.
(4) What does the author conclude is the relationship between media frenzies and political substance?
The observations suggest a rough generalization about when media frenzies have lasting effects on opinion and when they don't. The closer media frenzies get to what I am calling political substances the more likely the effects are to be lasting.
What does Patterson mean when he says that the press is not politically accountable?
The public has no hold on the press as it does public officials. They can vote out officials, but if they refuse to get a certain newspaper, that business won't go under. Journalists are neither chosen by the people nor removable by them.
As part of their methodology, the authors do not include editorial opinions. Why?
The slant of editorials. The effect that the media has on individuals. Difficulties uncoding the data/writings.
What is the "fundamental attribution" error and how is it related to the thesis?
The tendency to overestimate the influence of dispositioned factors and underestimate the influence of situational factors when evaluating the behavior of others (but not ourselves). Factual mistakes are seen as dishonest or unintelligence not seen as common mistakes we make everyday.
Zaller suggests that the Lewinsky affair buttresses some work in political science and undermines the importance of the other work. What does he mean by this?
The tradition of studies on economic and retrospective voting, which maintains that the public responds to the substance of party performance, seems strengthened by the Lewinsky matter. On the other hand, the tradition of studies that focuses on the mass media, political psychology, and elite influences seems somewhat weaker. It is reasonable to contend that the ground has shifted beneath these two traditions in a way that scholars will need to accommodate. However poorly informed, it is capable of recognizing, and focusing on its own conception of what matters.
What do the authors say about the "minimal effects" model?
They are aware of the nation that the contents of mass media have minimal effects and find that is continues to persist despite findings of agenda-setting effects upon perceptions of what are important problems. They find the model to not be correct with respect to policy preferences. It has probably escaped refutation because of the failure of researchers to examine the collective opinion over substantial periods of time in natural settings and to distinguish among news sources.
Why is it important to study "image bites"?
They bring an accurate representation of what the voter sees. They are a large part of what is broadcast in the media.
What is the "burglar alarm" model?
This standard admonishes the press to sound warnings when truly vital public problems arise, once journalists cannot talk about every potential problem be their audience would ignore them.
What does she mean by the term "selectivity" or "biased assimilation of information"?
To the extent that the many sources of political news have identifiable political complexions, some people may end up choosing news sources that reinforce and intensify their preexisting views.
Make sure you understand the section titled "Of Dangers and Solutions."
We don't know for sure if anything can be done about fragmentation.
Availability heuristic and how does it tie in with the thesis?
We rely on what is most easily available in our memories. This plays directly on narratives. Horrible stories are easy to remember because they get ingrained in our minds.
One of the stories?
Willie Horton. Painted Dukakis as soft on crime.
Can "political substance" as defined by Zaller, move public opinion?
Yes. It seems entirely plausible to suggest that the poll bounce that Clinton got at the time of the Lewinsky matter was driven by the same thing that drives presidential election outcomes and presidential popularity in general political substance. It was not admiration for Clinton's character that boosted his ratings, it was the public's reaction to the delivery of outcomes and policies that the public wants.
What is group polarization? What are the three main explanations for group polarization?
after deliberation, people are likely to move toward a more extreme point in the direction to which the group's members were originally inclined 1. Persuasive arguments and information 2. Social comparison 3. Confidence, corroboration, and extremism
What are informational cascades?
in an informational cascade, people cease relying on their private information or opinions. They decide instead on the basis of the signals conveyed by others. The behvaiour of the first few people can produce similar behaviour from countless followers.
"Explanatory journalism"
more time and expertise bore deeply into a subject, speaking to sources, unearthing data, gathering facts
When does the news fulfill its democratic responsibility?
news meets the important responsibility when information obtained from the administration is challenged by info obtained independently from other sources and presented to the public as coherent and culturally resonate ways.
What are reputational cascades?
reputational cascade - people think that they know what is right or what is likely to be right, but they go along with the crowd in order to maintain the good opinion of others.
"Investigative journalism"
toughest kind. Time and expertise but also done in the face of efforts to keep info on secret. News someone with power does not want the public to know.
