Chapter 7.

The Mass Media & the Political Agenda

Todays American political system has entered a new period of high-tech politics.
High-Tech Politics = politics where the behavior of citizens and policy makers are shaped by
technology.
In this new schema, the key technological players are the mass media.
e!. "i!on#$%&, '
st
televised presidential debate( radio = "i!on victor # T) = $%& victory*
Mass Media = television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, and other means of pop+lar
comm+nication( the mass media not only reaches and profo+ndly infl+ences elites, it also
infl+ences the masses.
,ith this as a backdrop, the chapter foc+ses on vario+s aspects of media politics.
The Mass Media Today
,hether promoting a candidate, drawing attention to a social iss+e, or generating a government
program, effectively comm+nicating a message is critical to political s+ccess.
-oliticians have learned that one way to g+ide the medias foc+s is to create scripted media events.
Media Events = events p+rposely staged by the media which appear spontaneo+s( these events
may be staged by individ+als, gro+ps, or government officials.
.eagan is a perfect case in point. As noted by /ark 0ertsgaard, news management in the .eagan
,hite 0o+se operated +nder seven principles1
-lan ahead
2tay on the offensive
3ontrol the flow of information
4imit reporters access to the president
Talk abo+t iss+es yo+ want to talk abo+t
2peak in one voice
.epeat the same message many times
5!. To avoid having .eagan give +nrehearsed answers, his advisers wo+ld place the media at a
distance, and have a helicopter rev its engine so that the president co+ld not hear reporters
6+estions.
5!. 7+sh, 6+estions ahead of time, rehearsed answers8
7eca+se we live in a high tech political age, presidents and other political actors m+st learn to
comm+nicate effectively thro+gh the media 9 whether staged, scripted, rehearsed8
If the political actors do not comm+nicate their message, others will.
5!. 7+sh, &erry campaign( attacks on &errys military involvement and &errys lack of defense(
iss+e of framing.
The Development of Media Politics
,hen the 3onstit+tion was written, there was virt+ally no daily press. The daily newspaper
emerged in the mid-':
th
cent+ry, and television and radio emerged in the '
st
half of the ;<
th

cent+ry.
5!. =+ring the 0oover administration ':;:->>*, reporters s+bmitted their 6+estions to the
president in writing, and he 9 if he chose to 9 responded in writing.
As noted by 0oover, ?The -resident of the @2 will not stand and be 6+estioned like a chicken
thief by men he does not even know.A
Imagine if George W. Bush made such a statement today. What would be some of the
repercussions?
0owever, 0oovers s+ccessor did not feel the same. In fact, %ranklin =. .oosevelt ':>>-BC*
practically invented media politics.
To %=., the media was a potential ally. 0e even promised reporters two press conferences a
week( this res+lted in over '<<< press conferences d+ring his '; years in the ,hite 0o+se.
Press Conference = meeting of p+blic officials with reporters.
%=. was also the first president to +se the radio to broadcast his ?fireside chatsA to the
=epression-ridden nation.
,hen %.= learned that Thomas 5. =ewey had p+rchased 'C min+tes of airtime on "73
immediately following his address, he c+t his talks down to 'B min+tes. 7eca+se he chose to
remain silent d+ring the last min+te of his time, many Americans tho+ght the network had
e!perienced technically diffic+lty and changed their dials before =ewey came on.
The fact that he was confined to a wheelchair and Americans were +naware, ill+strates the respect
he received from the media. In fact, +nlike today where the presidents health is p+blic b+siness*,
the idea that a political leaders health stat+s might be p+blic b+siness was alien to reporters.
@ltimately, .oosevelts crafty +se of the media helped him win fo+r presidential elections.
Amendment ;;, -residential Term 4imits, ':C'*
This cozy relationship between politicians and the media lasted thro+gh the ':D<s. As noted by
A73s 2am =onaldson, ?many reporters saw themselves as an e!tension of the government,
accepting with very little skepticism what government officials had told them.A
In addition, coverage of a politicians personal life was generally off limits.
5!. ., Apple, "ew Eork Times, saw a bea+tif+l yo+ng woman being escorted to $%&s s+ite.
,hen he took the story to his editor, he was told ?yo+r s+ppose to report on political and
diplomatic policies, not girlfriends.A
Do you agree with the reporter? Should we focus on political issues and not personal issues?
Would this produce more policy-focused political campaigns?
Consider the case of Bill Clinton and onica !ewins"y.
The cozy relationship between the media and politicians came to end with the )ietnam ,ar and
the ,atergate scandal.
Todays newspapers work in an environment of cynicism. To them, politicians rarely tell the
tr+th( therefore, it is +p to them to dig o+t the tr+th aka investigative reporting*
Investigative Reporting = the +se of in-depth reporting to +nearth scandals, scams, and schemes,
which at times p+ts reporters in adversarial relationships with political leaders.
/any political scientists have become critical of investigative reporting beca+se it pits reporters
against political leaders, and it fosters greater p+blic cynicism and negativity towards politics.
Therefore, whether or not mass media coverage is +ltimately in the p+blics best interest is m+ch
debated.
,hen scholars e!amine the mass media, they disting+ish two kinds1 print media and broadcast
media.
Print Media = newspapers and magazines
Broadcast Media = television and radio
0owever, there is a third new aven+e of political comm+nication 9 narrowcasting
Narrowcasting = media programming on cable T) or the Internet that is foc+sed on one topic
and aimed at a partic+lar a+dience e!. /T) = m+sic, 52-" = sports, 3-2-A" = politics*
Private Control of the Media: one of the main reasons America has s+ch a rich diversity of
media so+rces is that Fo+rnalism has long been big b+siness in the @2, with control of virt+ally
all media o+tlets being in private hands.
The maFor media in America = 7ig 7+siness
@ltra 3oncentrated /edia chart*
The 2i! 4argest /edia 3orporations in the ,orld notes*
,ith corporate b+siness managers increasingly calling the shots, American Fo+rnalism has
definitely been affected. As ill+strated in the following section, striving for profits greatly shapes
how the news is reported in America.
Reporting the Nes
/illions of new and different events happen every day( Fo+rnalist m+st decide which are
newsworthy and which are not.
5!. Altho+gh state dinners take place all the time, they are rarely reported8 +nless something
interesting takes place 8 7+sh 2r throwing +p over the $apanese -rime /inister in '::;.
5!. -olitical candidates talk to s+pporters all the time when campaigning, b+t only
?newsworthyA events are reported 8 0oward =ean screaming to a crowd of s+pporters after the
;<<B Iowa ca+c+s clip repeated D<< times in B days, th+s obsc+ring any serio+s disc+ssion of
the iss+es*
,hat this shows is that in their search for the +n+s+al, the news media gives its a+dience a
pec+liar view of events and policymakers.
This also ill+strates that news reporting has become a b+siness in America.
The 6+est for profits shape how Fo+rnalists define what is newsworthy, where they get their
information, and how they present it.
7eca+se some types of news stories attract more viewers or readers than others, certain biases are
inherent in what the American p+blic sees and reads.
#hus the reason you are doing media $ournals % to really understand how the media presents
news and how news is oftentimes bias.
!inding the Nes: most maFor news organizations assign their best reporters to partic+lar beats.
Beats = specific locations from which news often emanates 9 3ongress, ,hite 0o+se.
7eca+se policymakers depend on the media to spread certain information, they oftentimes feed
stories to reporters in the form of trail balloons.
Trial Balloons = information leaked to see what the political reaction will be.
5!. 7efore -resident 3linton admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with 4ewinsky,
top aids leaked the story to the "ew Eork Times. 7eca+se the p+blic reacted that it was time he
admitted the relationship, it was easier for 3linton to come clean.
Presenting the Nes: once the news has been ?fo+nd,A it is neatly compressed into a >< second
news segment or a small article. As a res+lt of limited time and space, the stories that are
reported tend to be s+perficial. In addition, comple! and diffic+lt iss+es s+ch as /edicare
reform, ta! c+ts, and the dereg+lation of the comm+nications ind+stry tend to be ignored by the
media.
2trangely eno+gh, even tho+gh technology has enabled +s to pass along information at a greater
speed, news coverage has become less thoro+gh.
5!. Altho+gh newspapers +sed to print the entire te!t of important speeches, only the "ew Eork
Times contin+es to do this 9 and even they have c+t back sharply.
In place of speeches, Americans now hear so+nd bites.
Sound Bites = short video clips of appro!imately 'C seconds
2ee %ig+re G.;, The Incredible 2hrinking 2o+nd 7ite 7ook, p. ;;D*
.ather than presenting their a+dience with the chicken, the media typically gives +s the
/c"+gget. 3onse6+ently, politicians have fo+nd it diffic+lt to get their messages covered by the
maFor networks beca+se the networks are foc+sed on viewer ratings.
"ias in the Nes: many people believe that the media is biased in favor of one point of view.
Altho+gh many claim that the media is liberal, st+dies have shown that the media is not
systematically biased toward a partic+lar ideology or party.
/ost stories are presented in a point#co+nterpoint format in which two opposing points of views
are presented, and the a+dience is left to draw its own concl+sions.
Two factors e!plain the ne+trality in the media 9 Fo+rnalists believe in obFectivity beca+se it is
rewarded by their editors( and, media o+tlets have a direct financial stake in attracting viewers
and s+bscribers so they do not want to lose their a+dience by appearing biased.
In fact, competition prod+cers +niformity in reporting.
Based on the wor" you ha&e been doing with your media $ournals' would you argue that the
media is unbiased?
As noted by the a+thors, F+st beca+se the news lacks partisan bias, does not mean that they never
distort reality in their coverage of events.
Ideally, the news sho+ld mirror reality( in practice, there are far too many possible stories for this
to be the case.
$o+rnalist m+st choose which stories to cover and to what degree. 3onse6+ently, the overriding
bias is to cover stories that will draw large a+diences.
5!. Talking 0ead vs. Infotainment
Taling Head = a shot of a persons head talking directly to the camera( beca+se this is vis+ally
+nappealing and viewed as boring, the maFor commercial networks rarely show a politician
talking one-on-one for very long.
Infotain!ent = the merging of hard news and entertainment in news presentations( prod+ces
short, snappy, and sensational news
The Nes and P#$lic %pinion
2t+dying the effect of the news media on peoples opinions and behaviors is a diffic+lt task. %or
instance, the effect of one story on p+blic opinion may be trivial, whereas the effects of
n+mero+s stories may be important.
0owever, n+mero+s scholars have fo+nd a link between the mass media and p+blic opinion1
7a+mgartner and $ones, mass media infl+ences policy o+tcomes
Iyengar and &inder, mass media shapes and intensifies viewers sense of which national
problems are important and which are not.
/iller and &rosnick, the media does not manip+late the p+blic( in fact, sophisticated citizens rely
on the media as a credible instit+tional so+rce of information
Hverall, by increasing p+blic attention to specific problems, the media infl+ences how the p+blic
eval+ates political leaders. This is done thro+gh framing = how an iss+e is presented.
5!. ,hen +nemployment goes +p b+t inflation goes down, does s+pport for the president
increase or decreaseI
This depends on which story the media emphasizes.
In '::;, the media foc+sed on slow economic growth rather than low inflation rates(
conse6+ently, this hindered 7+sh 2rs reelection campaign.
In ;<<<, the media foc+sed on Jores character, as opposed to the e!cellent economic
performance +nder the 3linton-Jore administration( th+s hindering Jores presidential
campaign.
The media also has a dramatic effect on how the p+blic eval+ates specific events by emphasizing
one partic+lar news aspect over others.
5!. The press gave s+bstantial coverage to the -resident when he stated that there were ,/= in
Ira6. 3onse6+ently, many Americans s+pported the war in Ira6. 0owever, regardless of the fact
that 7+sh later claimed that he never said there were ,/=, beca+se of the media coverage,
many Americans contin+e to believe that there are ,/= in Ira6.
5!. The medias foc+s on Al Jores misstatements d+ring his first presidential debate in ;<<<
e!, he invented the Internet* led to dramatic decreases in p+blic s+pport.
Altho+gh m+ch remains +nknown abo+t the effects of the media and the news on American
political behavior, eno+gh is known to concl+de that the media is a key political instit+tion.
The media controls m+ch of the technology( conse6+ently, they control m+ch of what Americans
believe abo+t politics and government.
Therefore, it is important to e!amine the American political agenda and the medias role in
shaping it.
The Media&s Agenda 'etting !#nction
$ohn &ingdon defines the policy agenda as ?the list of s+bFects or problems to which government
officials, and people o+tside of government closely associated with those officials, are paying
some serio+s attention at an given time.A
-olitical activists depend heavily on the media to get their ideas placed on the government
agenda. -olicy activists are often called policy entreprene+rs.
Polic" Entrepreneurs = people who invest their political capital in an iss+e( policy entreprene+rs
can either be in or o+t of government, elected or appointed officials, or interest gro+ps or
research instit+tions.
5!. 55H policy, 4inda 3havez, 3enter for 56+al Hpport+nity, 2+n Times editorials, advocates
color blind policy*
Their arsenal of weapons incl+de1 press releases, press conferences, letter writing, and even
interest gro+p formation.
0owever, the media is not always monopolized by elites( the poor also have access.
5!. 3ivil .ights gro+ps in the ':D<s relied heavily on the media to tell their stories of +nF+st
treatment.
(nderstanding the Mass Media
The mass media acts as a key linkage instit+tion between the people and policymakers, and has a
profo+nd impact on the political policy agenda.
The medias watchdog f+nction helps to restrict politicians. In other words, every new
government proposal is met with skepticism beca+se reporters view their Fob as a cr+sade against
fo+l play and +nfairness in government and society.
5!. This is evident with the attacks on government by reporters after 0+rricane &atrina.
Information is the f+el of democracy, yet media coverage tends to be s+perficial.
7eca+se of economic press+res, the media is biased towards dramatic stories that attract peoples
interests rather than e!tended analysis of comple! iss+es.