Chapter 9 Notes

-279400-228600Date: 10/24/2014 Name:
Source: Introduction To Political Science – Chapter Nine: Political Communication
00Date: 10/24/2014 Name:
Source: Introduction To Political Science – Chapter Nine: Political Communication

Main Points/Questions Notes
The Mass Media and Politics Mass media strongly influences politics. Scholars have long recognized the dependence of politics on communication. The mass media reach an infinitely larger audience and therefore yield a greater voter or public-opinion return than face-to-face communication.Newspapers Many major newspapers, long money losers, have drastically cut their staffs and Washington and overseas bureaus.
Radio On the decline like newspapers. With the rise of television in the 1950s, radio became less important, with the exceptions of talk radio.
The News Services Most hard news in newspapers and on radio and television is not produced in-house but comes from a printer hooked up to the New York offices of The Associated Press (AP), wire service.
The Elite Media The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times are read by a small fraction of the U.S. population, but they carry by far the most clout.
The New Social Media Fewer Americans follow news on TV and in newspapers, but news online gains, especially among young people of the current generation. Popular choice also because it is free.
The Giant: Television Some two-thirds of Americans still get their news from television and most accord it higher credibility than newspapers.
Television News Television favors the visual. Talking heads provide no more news than radio, although they do provide a sense of personality and hence credibility, and imitation face-to-face communication.
Television and Politics Incumbency, especially in the White House, has always brought recognition, and television has enhanced this, but not always in the incumbent’s favor. Television news is heavily focused on the president.
Nomination by Television Television does much to nominate presidential candidates. With all eyes focused on the early presidential primaries, commentators grandly proclaim who is the real winner and who has momentum.
Television and Apathy Observers have long suspected that television induces passivity and apathy. A related charge is that television has lowered Election Day turnouts.
Television Ownership and Control The U.S. attitude of Nonpaternalism has led to the freest airwaves in the world, but it has also brought some problems. With the rapid growth of radio in the 1920s, the electromagnetic spectrum was soon jammed with stations trying to drown each other out.
Are We Poorly Served? The U.S. mass media do not serve Americans very well. News coverage is highly selective, overconcentrating on some areas while ignoring others.
What Can Be Done? Professional newspeople generally agree that the public is ill-informed and that their coverage could be wider and deeper. But the limiting factor, they emphasize, is the public itself.
The Adversaries: Media and Government Over the centuries, the press has criticized government. Not all the media entered into the fray; most newspapers with their wire-service stories continued to quote official sources.
Key Terms:
Adversarial – Inclined to criticize and oppose, to treat with enmity
Bandwagon – Tendency of front-runners to gain additional supporters
Blog – Short for “web log”; online free magazine, often partisan and idiosyncratic
Cross-Pressured – Pulled between opposing political forces; said to produce apathy
Electromagnetic Spectrum – The airwaves over which signals are broadcast
Elite Media – Highly influential newspapers and magazines read by elites and the attentive public
Face-To-Face – Communication by personal contact
Framing – A news story’s basic direction and interpretation
Incumbent – Official who already occupies the office
Introspective – Looking within oneself
Media Event – News incident planned to get media coverage
Nonpaternalism – Not taking a supervisory or guiding role
Oligopoly – A few big firms dominate a market
Opinion Leaders – Locally respected people who influence the views of others
Source – Whom or where a news reporter gets information from
Status Quo – Keeping the present situation
Stump – Verb, to campaign by personally speaking to audiences
Sullivan – Short for New York Times v. Sullivan, 1964 Supreme Court decision protecting media against public officials’ libel suits
Wire Service – News agency that sells to all media