The Media

 

So here's some Key Terms:

Cold Fax
Spin doctor
Horse Race Elements
Trial balloon
Broco vs. Print Journalism
Bias

For political science, Media really means News.

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

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 - click here to see 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?