The News Media:

Communicating Political Images

Chapter 10

INTRODUCTION

The news is an account of events that are

timely, dramatic, and compelling.

Press or news media

Coverage is driven by a need to attract an

audience in order to sell advertising

Sensational events that will catch people’s

attention

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Historical Development: From the

Nation’s Founding to Today

Partisan press – backed one party or the other

Yellow journalism

Objective-journalism era

Radio, the new mass communication system

The FCC and the Fairness Doctrine

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Historical Development: From the

Nation’s Founding to Today

Rise of the “new” news

Cable news

CNN

Fairness Doctrine and its demise

Partisan radio talk shows

Without the Fairness Doctrine, radio programmers were

free to move to a politically partisan format

Emergence of the Internet

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The Politics of News

Signaling function

Alert the public to important developments

Performed by the traditional media

Wire services (AP, UPI, Reuters)

Daily newspapers

Television networks

Agenda setting – the media’s ability to influence

what is on people’s minds

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The Politics of News

Watchdog function

Fourth branch of government because of its checks

and balances on abuses of power

Objective journalism fosters watchdog reporting

Muckrakers

“No prior restraint” reporting principle

Libel cases

Watchdog function failures

Investigative reporting

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The Politics of News

Common-carrier function

Conduit for political communication

News beat for the presidency

Topics sometimes distilled to the “sound bite”

It is the journalist and not the candidate that does most

of the talking

Framing the story

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The Politics of News

Partisan function

Traditional media: mostly neutral

Network’s preference for the negative

Talk shows: mostly conservative

The Internet: mostly liberal

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Attention to News

The shrinking audience for news

Entertainment vs. news

Alternate programming

Newspaper circulation has declined

Age and attention to news

News audience typically older adults

Reading habits vs. on-demand access

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Media and the Public in

the Internet Age

Old media dominated by a few outlets

New media can lose “news” focus

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