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Review sheet for Media Quiz

(An exam so difficult the CDC has quarantined my home computer, lest the test spread to other school computers, leading inexorably to panicked students rioting, pillaging, and wearing ever droopier pants. The horror, the horror.)

  History of the Media

            Party press

            Rise of mass media

            Objectivity

            Rise of broadcast journalism

            Vietnam, Watergate and the adversarial press

Current issues

Libel

            What do you need to show to win a libel case

            Libel defenses

            New York Times V. Sullivan

                        Willful negligence and actual malice

            The Zenger case

Prior restraint

            Near v. Minnesota

            New York Times v. US

            CNN v Noriega

Regulation of the broadcast media

            Fairness doctrine, equal time rule, right of rebuttal, decency

Bias

            Goldberg’s allegations

            Parenti’s allegations

            Sella’s allegations

            Reporter-editor bias

            Source bias

            Audience bias

Power of the media

            Agenda setting

            Focus

            Ability to sway voter decisions

            Dependency of politicians on the media

            Dependency of the media on politicians

Off the Record/on the record/on background