Peffley                                                    

Lecture Outline:

Public Opinion and the News Media

 

I.    To understand the influence of the news media on public opinion, it’s necessary to study both how the news is made (by journalists and newsmakers) and how it influences public opinion. Also need to realize that the news industry is a dynamic one that has changed remarkably over time, making it difficult to generalize about something news that was once transmitted primarily in newspapers and nightly television broadcasts that virtually everyone watched and now is beamed in cell phones, internet and must compete with a huge entertainment industry.

A.  Used to say the potential for mass media to influence public opinion is great due to exposure, trust, and the fact that the media is the sole window to political reality. Now that influence is more limited by a declining, segmented news market and increased distrust of journalists.  

II.   Media as Gatekeeper to Political Reality

A.  News is inherently selective (and therefore biased). Selection is endemic to the definition of the news and the news production process.  Question is: what criteria do media use to decide what stories to cover and how to report them? In what ways are the selection criteria slanted or biased? Do the selection criteria tend to help or hurt democracy in the way they affect public opinion and allow politicians to shape (i.e., manipulate) news coverage? And who or what affects the selection process?

B.  What roles should the news media play in a democracy and why don’t they live up to them? (Robert Entman, Democracy Without Citizens).

1.   Mirror role

2.   Accountability or watchdog journalism

3.   Marketplace of ideas

4.   Entman: News media (i.e., journalists) try to fulfill all of these roles, but they are contradictory and are compromised by economic and political constraints

a)   Economic and political constraints on the news media

(1)  Economic constraints: The news media is a business that must earn huge profits by selling advertising, which often seriously undercuts their ability to live up to ideal roles. Examples.

(2)  Political constraints

(a)  Reliance on official sources

(b) Symbiotic exchange with political elites (“don’t bite the hand that feeds you”)

(3)  Economic constraints in the 21st century

(a)  More competition

(b) More influence by editors and stock holders who are more interested in profits than quality news.

(c)  Fewer political constraints requiring public affairs journalism (FCC). 

C.  News Bias (If we have time)

1.   Journalistic norm of objectivity

2.   Major types of news bias

a)   Political bias:  political preferences of journalists, editors, owners, and the market may make their way into the news.

(1)  Hostile media phenomenon

(2)  Content analysis versus partisanship of journalists

b)   Structural bias: nonpolitical, organizational pressures that influence decisions of what to cover (i.e., criteria of newsworthiness) and how to report it (e.g., Bennett’s biases in content; processes journalists follow to acquire, convert, and present a story).  Journalists work in an organization and are subject to professional socialization, norms, and editorial control.

D.  A closer look at structural biases that influence decisions of what to cover (i.e., criteria of newsworthiness) and how to report it (e.g., framing).

1.   Criteria by which stories are selected as being “newsworthy” (Doris Gaber, Mass Media and American Politics)

2.   Structural biases in the content of the news, particularly TV (Lance Bennett, News: The Politics of Illusion):

a)   Dramatic versus Analytical

b)   Fragmented versus Historical

c)   Personalized versus Institutional

d)   Authority-Disorder bias

E.  Examples of News Coverage in Different settings

1.   Media Coverage of Elections:  Is news coverage of elections too trivial and negative?

a)   Thomas Patterson, Out of Order

(1)  Trends in media coverage of elections

(a)  Positive to negative coverage

(b) Governing to game schema

(c)  Descriptive to interpretive

(2)  Consequences

(a)  Voters distrust candidates, government, media

(b) Voters less informed

(3)  Who is to blame?

(a)  Media?

(b) Voters?

(c)  Candidates?

(4)  Critique of Patterson

(a)  View of media as autonomous actor?

(b) Negative, trivial coverage reflects reality?

b)   Feeding Frenzies, Larry Sabato

(1)  Evolution of media coverage of politics from Lapdog (1941-1966) to watchdog (1966-1974) to junkyard dog (1974 to present)

(2)  Causes

(a)  Advances in media technology

(b) Competitive pressures

(c)  WG, VN

(d) Cultural revolution

2.   Media Coverage of War: Lapdog coverage: Is news coverage of war too passive and supportive of the “official line”?

a)   Censorship in Gulf, Iraq wars: Were censorship rules designed to protect military secrets or produce favorable coverage?

b)   Self-censorship

c)   Structural biases

(1)  Official sources

(2)  News experts, backdrops 

(3)  Visuals

d)   Bennett’s Theory of Indexing: American journalists “index” the range of voices and viewpoints in both news and editorials according to the range of views expressed in mainstream government debate about a topic.

(1)  Testing the theory: Jonathon Mermin examined coverage in NYT, ABC and Lehrer News Hour in 8 post-Vietnam interventions

 

III.  Impact of News Coverage on Public Opinion: Does the news shape public opinion? If so, how?

A.  Conventional wisdom of “minimal effects”

B.  More subtle media effects:

1.   Agenda-setting

2.   Priming

3.   Framing

4.   Direct persuasion, attitude change