Chapter 7: The Media

Interest groups try to secure media coverage of their issues ultimately to get the attention of politicians and passage of favorable policy proposals. Interest groups do this because of the ____ power of the media

Agenda-setting

The first source of media power is

Agenda-setting

WikiLeaks published confidential government documents that showed that the ______________ government and press concealed news, including war crimes against civilians and the use of torture by American forces.

American

According the the authors of the textbook, most publishers today

Are business people and are more concerned with business operations than with editorial content

Studies have shown that followers of comedic talk shows like The Colbert Report and The Daily Show

Are well informed about politics

Penny press

cheap, tabloid-style newspaper produced in the nineteenth century, when mass production of inexpensive newspapers first became possible due to the steam-powered printing press; a penny press cost one cent compared to other papers, which cost more than five cents.

According to the textbook, the media's adversarial posture toward government may

decrease levels of political participation.

If an idea lacks or loses media appeal, its chance of its resulting in new programs or policies is

decreased.

Citizen journalism is a distinguishing feature of ___________ more interactive and participatory.

digital media, which are

Niche journalism

news reporting devoted to a targeted portion. (subset) of a journalism market sector or for a portion of readers/viewers based on content or ideological presentation.

The fairness doctrine is ____________ enforced by the FCC, the equal time provision is ____________ enforced by the FCC.

no longer; still

The noted benefits of _______________ include a diversity of viewpoints, up to the moment information, and a depth of available information.

online news

Priming

process of preparing the public to take a particular view of an event or political actor.

Which of the following sources of news typically covers topics with the least depth of coverage

television

Broadcast media

television, radio, or other media that transmit audio and/or video content to the public.

A classic example of a media leak is

the "Pentagon Papers," published by the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Media monopoly

the ownership and control of the media by a few large corporations.

Agenda setting

the power of the media to bring public attention to particular issues and problems.

Framing

the power of the media to influence how events and issues are interpreted.

Equal time rule

the requirement that broadcasters provide candidates for the same political office equal opportunities to communicate their messages to the public.

Selection bias (news)

the tendency to focus news coverage on only on aspect of an event or issue, avoiding coverage of over aspects.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was an attempt to do all of the following except

tighten federal restrictions of media ownership.

Universities, think tanks, nonprofit organizations, and private foundations are providing more political analyses and information as ____________________ have cut their budgets and resources.

traditional news organizations

Howard Stern was fined millions of dollars by the FCC because of his

use of obscenity and profanity on the air.

Both Facebook and Twitter have contributed to political mobilization and information sharing by creating ________________ where groups of like-minded individuals, or individuals with shared interests, can easily share information.

virtual social networks

The media have a bias in favor of

whoever will provide the largest audience.

As major newspapers, television stations, and radio networks fall into fewer and fewer hands, the risk increases that politicians and citizens who express _________________ will have difficulty finding a public forum in which to disseminate their ideas.

Less popular or minority viewpoints

As major newspapers, television stations, and radio stations fall into fewer and fewer hands, the risk increases that politicians and citizens who express ____ will have difficulty finding a public forum in which to disseminate their ideas

Less popular or minority viewpoints

Politicians generally consider ____________ friendlier venues than the ____________.

Local broadcasts; national news

______________ can rally support for, or intensify opposition to, national policies on matters as weighty as health care, the economy, and international wars.

Media coverage

____ is noted by the authors as a possible reason for the relatively scant mainstream media coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests

Media monopolies

The FCC requires broadcasters to provide individuals with the opportunity to respond to personal attacks, which is known as the

Right of rebuttal

Conservative radio talk show hosts such as ______ have helped to mobilize support for conservative political causes

Rush Limbaugh

That many U.S. media outlets published few stories critical of the possible U.S. invasion of Iraq leading up to the war in March 2003 or of the U.S. government's failure to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp is an example of

Selection bias

_____________ refers to the media's ability to decide which issues are covered or ignored and to provide more information or less information about important political issues.

Selection bias

Most political leaks originate from ___________ with the purpose of cultivating relationships with journalists and influencing coverage of the issue.

Senior-level government officials

________________ regularly leak confidential information in order to cultivate long-term relationships with journalists to have their stories published on a priority basis in an acceptable form.

Senior-level government officials

Social media

Web-based and mobile-based technologies that are used to turn communication into interactive dialogue between organizations, communities, and individuals; social media technologies take on many different forms including blogs, Wikis, podcasts, pictures, video, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

Which age group cites the Internet as their main source of news?

Younger Americans

According to your textbook, about what percentage of Americans are registered users on the social media site Facebook?

50 percent

About how many Americans are considered digital citizens, defined by having high-speed Internet access at home?

60 percent

It is estimated that _____ million Americans read the news online, a number higher than that for those who read print newspapers.

75

More than ____ of the daily newspapers in the United States are owned by large conglomerates such as the Hearst or Gannett corporations

75%

It is estimated that more than ____________ of Americans have a television set.

95 percent

Digital Citizens, the Media, and Democracy

1. Because the media provide the information citizens need for meaningful participation in the political process, they are essential to democratic government. 2. Increasing ideological and partisan stridency in the media is an inevitable result of the expansion and proliferation of news sources. The end result may be to encourage greater division and disharmony among Americans. 3. There is no doubt that the new digital media are more diverse, more representative of multiple viewpoints, more interactive and participatory, and, to many, more interesting than traditional news media. Time will tell whether the shift to online news strengthens or harms American democracy.

Media Influence

1. In recent political history, the media have played a central role in the civil rights movement, the ending of American involvement in the Vietnam War, the Watergate investigation, and the U.S. decision to invade Iraq in 2003. 2. The power of the media stems from several sources, all of which contribute to the media's great influence in setting the political agenda, shaping electoral outcomes, and interpreting events and political results. 3. The media may also report information that is leaked by government officials. A leak is the disclosure of confidential information to the news media. 4. Media consultants and issues managers may shape the news for a time through the use of press releases, but it is generally not difficult for the media to penetrate the smoke screens thrown up by news sources if they have a reason to do so. 5. The political power of the news media vis-à-vis the government has greatly increased in recent years through the growing prominence of "adversarial journalism." Aggressive use of the techniques of investigation, publicity, and exposure allowed the news media to enhance their autonomy and carve out a prominent place for themselves in American government and politics.

Regulation of the Media

1. In the United States, the government neither owns nor controls the communications networks, but it does regulate the content and ownership of the broadcast media. 2. American radio and television are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an independent agency. Generally speaking, FCC regulation applies only to the over-the-air broadcast media. It does not apply to cable television, the Internet, or satellite radio. 2. Under federal regulations, broadcasters must provide candidates seeking the same political office equal time to communicate their messages to the public. 3. Regulations also require that individuals be granted the right to rebut personal attacks (the right of rebuttal). 4. Although recently diminished in importance, the fairness doctrine for many years required that broadcasters that aired programs on controversial issues provide time for opposing views. 5. Since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a wave of mergers and consolidations in the media industry has reduced the number of independent media in the United States. 6. Part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, known as the Communications Decency Act, attempted to regulate the content of material transmitted over the Internet, but the law was overruled by the Supreme Court in the 1997 case Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union. The rise of online media requires revising our thinking about regulation of the media, as it is more difficult—some say impossible—to regulate political content online.

Traditional Media

1. The American news media are among the world's freest and most diverse. The freedom to speak one's mind is one of the most cherished of American political values. 2. Americans obtain their news from broadcast media (radio and television), print media (newspapers and magazines), and the Internet. 3. Even though television news reaches more Americans than any other single news source, it covers relatively few topics and provides little depth of coverage. 4. Newspapers, though no longer the primary news source for most Americans, remain important nevertheless because they are influential among the political elite. The broadcast media also rely on leading newspapers to set their news agenda. 5. Today, even as the newspaper business struggles for its life, readership of online news has soared. Online media is more diverse and has created a more democratic and participatory press.

Mass Media Ownership

1. The second most significant trend in America's largely unregulated media system is the growing concentration in ownership of traditional media. The popularity of online news may in part be a response to the growing homogenization of traditional corporate media that has been occurring over the last three decades. 2. As major newspapers, television stations, and radio networks fall into fewer and fewer hands, the risk increases that less-popular or minority viewpoints, and the politicians who express them, will have difficulty finding a public forum in which to disseminate their ideas.

Forms of Online News

1. While many traditional news sources, such as newspapers, now publish online, other Web news outlets tend to be smaller, more specialized, and have lower personnel and overhead costs than mainstream publishers. The types of online news sources include niche journalism, citizen journalism and blogs, nonprofit journalism, and social media. 2. News consumers have shifted from a few general purposes sources, such as the evening television news and a local newspaper, to a large number of niche publications and specialized new sources. The rise of niche journalism has fundamentally changed how Americans consume news and what they read. 3. The open nature of blogging by citizen journalists often means that there's little of the traditional quality control employed by "respectable," institutional old media. Many of the opinions found in blogs are unsupported or simply untrue, but blogs do potentially increase the ability of ordinary people to engage in effective political action. 4. As traditional news organizations have cut budgets and especially investigative journalism, political information is increasingly emanating from universities, think tanks, nonprofit organizations, and private foundations. 5. Social media are becoming increasingly popular means for Americans to receive political information from the candidates and interest groups they support. In turn, candidates for political office, elected officials, political organizations, and interest groups have been quick to adopt Facebook and Twitter as a means of communicating with their supporters and providing them a continual feed of new information. 6. New media has become so popular because of its convenience, currency, in-depth coverage, and diversity of sources. 7. Democracies depend upon news organizations to inform the people about current events and to help citizens hold their leaders accountable for their actions. There are concerns that a shift to online news could create a loss of investigative power, more variation in the quality of news, and potentially less tolerance of differing political viewpoints.

The equal time rule requires broadcasters to provide

Candidates for the same political office equal opportunities to communicate to the public

In contemporary American politics, the selection bias of traditional media run by a handful of powerful corporations may be balanced out by the

Diversity of media sources online

Broadcasters must provide candidates running for the same political office equal opportunities to communicate their messages to the public. This is the

Equal time rule

_____ used the radio, through fireside chats, to reach out to votes throughout the nation and to make himself the center of American political life

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

_______________________ are two popular news aggregators that serve a large number of readers by synthesizing coverage from a variety of sources.

Google News and the Huffington Post

Which of the following is NOT a reason that new media have become popular in recent years

It tends to have more accurate reporting

Which of the following is not a reason that new media have become more popular in recent years?

It tends to have more accurate reporting

The originator of the press release, or news release, was a well known New York public relations consultant named

Ivy Lee

In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a staffer at the Department of Defense, sought to discredit official justifications for America's involvement in Vietnam by

Leaking top secret documents to the press

The proliferation of media sources and outlets results in coverage that is

More partisan

____________ journalism caters to specialized interests of news consumers.

Niche

Contemporary public opinion and voting behavior are increasingly shaped by

Partisan media

____________ are the ultimate beneficiaries of free and active media.

People

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is not responsible for regulating which of the following sources of news content?

Print media

American radio and television are regulated by

The Federal Communications Commission

_________________, is particularly influential with regard to setting the news agenda through speeches and actions

The President

In the United States, there are only three truly national newspapers. Which of the following is NOT one of the newspapers?

The Washington Post

Which of the following best describes the relationship between the government and the media in the United States today?

The government does not own but regulates the content and the ownership of broadcast media.

The decline of party organizations since the 1970s has increased the dependence that politicians have on

The media

Which of the following events do the authors not use to illustrate the power of the media in U.S. politics?

The savings and loan scandal

Even though newspapers are not the primary news source for most Americans, why could they still be considered important?

They are still influential among the political elite.

Right of rebuttal

a Federal Communications Commission regulation giving individuals the right to have the opportunity to respond to personal attacks made on a radio or television broadcast.

Fairness doctrine

a Federal Communications Commission requirement for broadcasters who air programs on controversial issues to provide time for opposing views; the FCC ceased enforcing this doctrine in 1985.

Digital citizen

a daily Internet user with regular access to high-speed Internet connections and the technology and literacy skills to participate online for employment, news, politics, entertainment, commerce, and other activities.

Leak

a disclosure of confidential information to the news media.

Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have

accelerated the importance of digital politics by alerting readers to breaking news before the mainstream media do.

News aggregator

an application or feed that collects Web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, online videos, and more in one location for easy viewing.

Misinformation about political issues is higher among people who get their news from

blogs

The Obama administration's labeling of its health care initiative Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, thus defining it as a matter of compassionate responsibility and good economic sense, is an example of

framing.

The FCC's fairness doctrine

is no longer being enforced.

Which of the following is noted by the book's authors as a reason for the recent decline in the American public's trust of the press?

media concentration.

Online media, by representing a wider range of political views than traditional news sources, have created a

more democratic press

When the delivery of news was dominated by only three networks and a handful of national papers, it tended to be _______________ than it is today.

more moderate

Citizen journalism

news reported and distributed by citizens, rather than professional journalists and for-profit news organizations.