terms of interest	Agenda Setting	Spinning & Spin doctors
Bias	Trial balloon	Broco vs. Print Journalism
Framing	Horse Race Elements	media concentration
Priming	Cold Fax

The Media - Setting the Agenda

Key Concepts from the Text
- Broadcast, print and internet media are the three mains sources from which Americans get their news. - the First Amendment protection of free press pretects print media more than electronic media. - Journalists, media organizations, news sources, and consumers all influence the content of news.

For political science, Media really means News Media.

There are no investigative reporters, or at least very very few.  Sure, in movies and on TV there are, but not in this world. Reporters have to work on several stories at once and rarely have time to "pursue a story" unless others are interested in it.

If you've ever had dealings with news people, you may have felt manipulated. But the news producers (those who do the work and make the news shows and the newspapers) are much more often manipulated by the newsmakers (those public and private officials who are covered by the newspapers and news shows).

Most people complain that the news is biased to one political position or another. In reality, our news is biased to our culture and the political divisions in that culture are not as important as the over-riding power of our own cultural biases. Those biases can be described as "Northern" and "Western." "Northern" refers to the rich countries of the world (north of the Tropic of Cancer) and "Western" refers to the western tradition ( Greece , Rome , etc.).

Cold fax.

A "cold fax" is just one recent example of how easy it is for those with information to manipulate the press. I'm a reporter investigating the Lewinsky affair a few years ago and I receive an anonymous fax of Linda Tripp's arrest record. It's valid and true, I've called and confirmed. Trip lied on her Pentagon application where she said she'd never been arrested. It's a "true" story. If we run it, she loses her job and her credibility. If we don't run it, some other company will and we'll lose our story. Of course, you know it was faxed to you by enemies of Tripp who want her to lose her job and her credibility, but you can't prove anything. Of course you run the story.  

Scroll down to see an activity called "Should We Run It?"

Spin doctor

"Spin doctors" are just the new name for spokesmen, spokespeople, or public relations officers.  They used to be called "flax" (as in those WWII air explosions you see in movies).  To "spin a story" means to present your client in the best light without lying mostly by using "Ugly English").

Horse Race Issues

News (TV especially) is much better at covering " horse race issues " (who's ahead, who's trailing, etc.) than in-depth, complex events. Often complex events take a certain perspective of time or distance to understand. But the news is focused on the here and now, the 24 hour "news cycle."

Trial balloons - Is it Leaked or is it a test?

A common way for those with power to manipulate the news producers is to release a "trial balloon." That is purposefully "leaking" a proposal before it is "official." Then you can gauge the reaction to the proposal.  If it's a positive, you can take credit, if it's negative, you can deny the entire matter.

Print vs. Broco

Most news stories start in the print news and then are covered by broadcast news (what professionals call Broco). Print news   and Broco news are different products. You should think about the differences between these two products, including what goes into making them as products that are consumed each day. Here's some things to think about: Time to get a story, time to report a story, depth and complexity of the story reported, emotional impact of each product, relative money involved in each industry. Email me any more you can think of…or if you have any question or comments. (This is directly related to answering one of the potential final essay questions)

The news industry needs information. They are addicted to it. Governments love to give out information and so do corporations. Most news stories are written from press releases issued by governments, corporations or interest groups.

"Setting the Agenda"

The various news providers (all large corporations which usually produce products other than just the news) compete daily with each other for a shrinking market of "news consumers (people who watch TV news or read newspapers).  Setting the agenda has top do with that completion, in a way.  Newspapers and TV news do not call each other and ask "what are you covering?"  They try to scoop each other (be the first to report a story - or the first with a new angle on the story).  Over a period of time (a month or a year or whatever) we can see that what TV news and newspapers are covering is what the US population is most likely to be talking about.  In many ways the TV news and newspapers set the agenda of the national dialog (if such a thing exists)  The internet is not used and viewed by everyone and TV is still supreme in numbers of viewers, but still the main topics of discussion around the country are those issues covered by the news industry.  It's an inescapable fact.

"All the news that's fit to print."

That used to be a famous newspaper's motto, now it just seems a little strange.  What does "fit" to print mean, anyway?  Figuring out what is "fit" for you to know is no longer the news industry's job. It's up to each of us. That's what the internet gets us all - more work...Now with the internet, there is even more information available than any of us (all of us?) could ever view (let alone use) in our life time(s). The problem is deciphering what information is credible and what is not. Fortunately or unfortunately political science cannot answer that question with an easy formula or typology. But we must always "consider the source." We must remain ever vigilant and critical when reading or viewing any information.
 
Here's a fun (non-required) activity 

In my regular classes we do several activities in class - I haven't adopted these to my online classes yet - but I'm working on it.

In the activity on the Media, I supply the groups with twenty or so headlines and brief stories and they have to choose five (and only five) to put on the front page (if they are a newspaper) or their broadcast (if they are a TV news show).  Check it out and see which five you would have picked... Talk to others about it - did they pick the same five, probably not.  You don't have to do anything in this activity - you don't even have to do it - but if you have any ideas on how I could (for future classes) uses this activity on line - send me an email.

Should we run it?

some things to think about (Remember - half of the final exam questions come from these "some things to think about" questions) You should be able to discuss each of these.

1. With campaigns using YouTube and facebook, do you think that the internet promotes and helps democracy? What challenges are there in making sure that citizens relying on the internet are informed political participants? 2. The intent of the Communications Decency Act was to prevent children from obtaining obscene or pornographic material from the internet. Would you support broad censorship of the internet to protect children? Do you think you should be protected from such material? Whose responsibility is it to protect children from offensive materials? 3. Why is a free press essential to democracy? If there were no free press, how would you get your information? If you couldn't trust the information, what effect would that have on your political attitudes? Can we maintain a democracy when most Americans pay little attention to political events? 4. In wartime, can media criticism of government action provide aid and comfort to the nation's enemies? Should there be limits on media criticism of the government during time of war, or does criticism actually enhance the nation's strength? 5. To what extent are the media biased? As more news sources have become available, has this led to more or less bias in the media? What is media concentration? Is it a serious problem? Why or why not?