political comm
Why does "horse race" news dominate coverage of presidental campaigns
-Political journalism of elections that resempbles coverage of horse races because of the focus on polling data public perception instead of candidate policy ,and almost exclusive reporting on candidates differences rather than similarities -reporters invaribly frame the elction not as a notest of ideas or policy platforms, but as a race between two teams -it dominates because it is the most popular element of interpretive reporting
What can be said public's evaluation of news credibility
1. American rate most outlets with skepticism 2. The credibility of the media in the eyes of the American public has declined sharply in recent decades
What explains the increasing tendency of journalists covering political campaigns to engage in ad watching?
1. Descriptive reporting ---> interpretive reporting 2. after this transition, campaign ads were no longer described exactly as they were 3. instead journalist adopted a new genre of reporting- the 'ad watch' or 'reality check' 4. Ad watching- reporters dissect and enumerate errors, exaggerations, or undoccumented alligations 5. Ad watching changed the behavior of advertisments, but sometime sin a counterintuitive direction
What do FCC regulations regarding election campaign advertising on television ensure?
1. Equal time and equal access rule: ensured that the public would have roughly equal oppertunity to encounter perspectives of opposing political canidates was rendered meaningless 2. the rule requires broadcasters only to make available time to canidates on equal terms. The rule does not require the lesser funded candidate advertisements for free
What occured in the aftermath of the 1988 presidental campaign
1. Modern journalism rest on two dowminant values and autonmoy 2. After the 1988 campaign, the press decided that merely reporting both candiates words compromised journalistic autonomy 3. Leading reporters argues that recycling the canidates message of the day was in inappropriate form of campaign journalism because it made reporters captive to the agenda of campaign consultants
In comparison with other democratic societies what makes the american system distinctive?
1. More private ownership- media entities in the US including broadcast media are almost entirely provately owned and operated, most other democracies have at least one govenremnt- funded broadcast network 1. Less regulation: The regulatory structure governing the behavior of American media is considerably more lax than in most other democracies
Explain why news outlerts often isnert the analysis of "experts" and "pundits" into their coverage of political campaigns. This is an example of what phenomemon?
1. Pundit- a learned person, expert, or authority 2. sources are the most critical elements of the news gathering process 3. Basic principle of modern journalism is that news is whatever public officials say it is... most news is not what happened, but what someone says happened 4. Most newsworthy issues are the province of governemnt agencies or departments
What best predicts CNN's coverage on foreign nations
1. The GDP for a foreign nation 2. Wealthier countries get more air time
What is the consequence of American dependency on commerical broadcast?
1. There is a significant knowledge gap 2. America tends to compete with Europeans only when it comes to domestic soft news 3. Americans lag inknowing about both international domestic hard news (and international soft news)
How do European and PBS broadcasters compare with respect to amounts of daily news programs?
1. They are state owned 2. dont carry commercial advertising 3. they are free from poliical interference and are expected to follow certain principles such as providing universal service and informative educational and diverse programing
American news media tend to underperform relative to their European counterparts with respect to the delivery of substantive public affairs news programming. What explains this?
1. a more stingent framework that requires the media to provide a certain level of public affairs 2. viewed as an institution that must be run under the authority of the state as a representitive of the general interest 3. affords the broadcasters some protection from the ravages of the market, publicly funded tv networks have the cushion to deliver a steady fow of substantive news (hard news). they need not constantly look at their market share when making programming decisions 4. Neither the regulatory framework nor market protection conditions hold in the US, generally providing programming that is more entertaining than is informative (soft news)
What is necessary to assure that the news media delivers a steady flow of substantive news programming
1. broadcasting as a social institution for which the state has an important respoinsablility 2. the responsability is to ensure that privately owned broadcast outlets, in response to powerful market forces, do not under produce public affairs programming
What best predicts BBC coverage of foreign nations
1. population 2. this suggest that it have a broader allocation of international affairs.
What is the media expected to do in a democratic society
1. provide a forum for canidates and political parties to debate their qualifications for office before a national audience 2. contirbute to informed citizenship by providing a variety of perspectives on the important issues of the day 3. seve as a watchdog
which system is most likely to ensure programming that enables citixens to exercise civic responsability
Federal Communications Commission (FCC)- agency that is responsible for setting and enforcing the requirements that broadcasters must follow to meet public interest standard
In distinguishing between "open" and "closed" flows of foreign policy information, what is the most critical determinant of openness?
In distinguishing between open and closed flows of foreign policy info, the most critical determinant of openness is the geographical location of the policy event that is in question.
Describe the fundamental change campaign journalism
Influences on whats reported-- 1. Market change: as commercial enterprises, news orgnizations are subject to the same logic that drives all other economic activity- minimizes costs and maximize revenues 2. Soft news attracts much larger audiences than does serious news, so producers are under pressure to make their programs more entertaining
What has been the trend in terms of audience share for the "Big Three" networks since
It has been declining
what is the most serious threat to network news today?
Local news
What ad shaped the long- term effect of news coverage of American political campaigns?
The Willie Horton ad released from teh George W Bush campaign. Us of racial imagery to attack Democratic Opponent Governers Dukakis's record on time, made into Bush's major story line for his campaign.
In wake of the turmoil that engulfed the 1968 presidential campaign, a commission to reform the delegate selection process was reformed. What system was adopted to prevent such turbulence from happening in the future?
The democratic party established a commision to reform the delegation process. This comission recommended primary elections as the means of selecting candiates.
What is meant by the knowlege gap
The supply of news can contribute to civic competence, citizen who are not especially interested in politics none the less find themselves in the path of news reports, this allowing them to acquire information in America there is a significant narrowing of this information being released to the public, causing a sufficient knowledge gap
What is meant by the golden triagle?
The three premier beats are the white house, state department, and pentagon.
15. Since 1960, the "character issue" has emerged as a major theme in campaign coverage. Describe one explanation for this trend. pp. 81 - 85
a) "Character Issue": Personal misconduct and other signs of instability for office (Example: Bill Clinton and sexual harassment) b) The "character issue" in recent history raises an important historical question: Why were reports about candidates'' personal lives missing from news coverage campaigns in the 1950s and 1960s? c) The "character issue" was not big news in 1960 because the all-male press corps did not deem womanizing as especially unethical or immoral; 1960s reflected the culture of an all-male press corps, more recently the effects of an all-white newsroom d) Since 1960, the "character issue" has emerged as a major theme in campaign coverage because the newsroom underrepresents people of color (minorities); journalism and media are meant to match the population they serve in racial or ethnic background → Absence of diversity
What is indexing?
a) Indexing: The process of adjusting coverage of an issue according to the level of disagreement and debate about that issue among policy elites b) Indexing is due in large part to the journalistic norms of using official sources and of seeking objectivity by reporting different sides of a debate.
What factors are considered the orginizational process of model news?
a) Organizational Process (1): The standard operating procedures of news organizations influence what's reported and what's ignored—thus to the degree that news reporters deviate from reality, the discrepancy is attributable to organizational procedure and news-gathering routines and not to political preferences as journalists (p. 66) b) Organizational Process (2): The routines and procedures followed by news organizations—deadlines in the news cycle, the assignment of reporters to beats, and reliance on official sources—have substantial impact on the content and form of news, as do the accessibility and appropriateness of competing stories (p. 72) c) "Organizational processes and the professional principles of journalists also influence what is reported. Modern political journalism rests on two dominant values: objectivity and autonomy. In attempting to protect their autonomy, reporters tend toward a more analytic form of news coverage centered on interpretation and analysis. Ad watches, candidate strategy, the horse race, and the scandal stories feature prominently in this coverage" p. 90
What is the primary focus of local tv news in the US
audience
On any given day in Los Angeles, which news source is likely to win the ratings contest?
local news
What genre of news programming has the largest daily audience
local news, it runs continuously, provides info that is closer to home, more useable info like weather forecast, and local sports
What does news coverage of political campaigns tend to emphasize?
resisting simple regurguitations of the canidates' ads
what is a watchdog
scrutinizing the actions of the government officials on behalf of the citizens- most of whom do not have the oppertunity to closely follow the actions of politicians and the government. As well as blowing the whistle when those officials cross boundries.
Has deregulation of the broadcast industry decreased or increased or had no effect on the diversity of perspectives offered in the marketplace?
the quality of news and diveristy of voices is a big concern. the idea is the larger the company or source the lower the quality. Deregulation has also weakened directives that aim to increase diversity of perspectives of news content. broadcasters arent required to present oppsing side on controversial issues. it has significantly decreased the nunmber of voices offered in the marketplace.
What does top to bottom model of pack journalism predict?
the tendency of high presitge news org. to define the daily agenda, referts to a top down process of influence -when there is a great uncertainty over the outcome, inexperienced journalist often follow the lead of the well know veterans (prestige press) -prestige press can chase after the suppliers of soft news
