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Power of the Media
Historical examples of media impact: Civil rights – peaceful demonstrators v violent police Vietnam war – media helps turn sentiment against war Watergate – Investigations by the Washington Post lead to disclosure of abuses that led to Nixon’s resignation Agenda setting: The media declare problems an “issue” that then must be resolved – Groups will often try to entice the media to begin covering a problem (egs MADD publishing reports that drunk driving deaths are up or AAUW publishing a report that sexual harassment is prevalent) Framing: Media can influence how events are interpreted (egs Gov. shutdowns in 1995-1996 were interpreted as a hardship, while Republicans had hoped that the shutdowns would show people don’t really need government that much) Elections: The medias ability to set agendas and frame issues can have a big impact on elections – media decide which candidate gets the most attention and determines which candidate has “momentum” (a prediction that they will start doing better) Presidency: Roosevelt, Wilson, and Kennedy
were presidents who successfully used the media to build a power base
independent of party and strengthen their power relative to Congress – – The
relationship between the executive soured since Vietnam and Watergate and the
press became more adversarial – But the president, because he has access to
the myriad of news sources that come from the federal bureaucracy, still has the
best ability to “spin” the news Comedy shows have become an important source of news information for many Americans and can define perceptions – the shows maintain they are neutral but the writers are consistently liberal and that their jokes reflect that – Gore may be stiff, but Bush is a heartless idiot (but Gore could also have been portrayed as a lier or fraud) (unwritten argument: comedy is an important source of information but the question of bias is almost never raised) |
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