The Mass Media and the Political Agenda

1. The Mass Media and the Political Agenda Chapter 7

2. High-Tech Politics • Politics that are shaped by technology. • Mass Media are key parts of this technology.

3. Mass Media • Communication that reaches and influences the elites and the masses. • Includes television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet.

4. Media Event • A staged event with the media, where politicians speak about certain issues. • The purpose is not to spontaneously answer questions, but rather to make them look good.

5. The Reagan administration carefully- and masterfully- controlled the president’s image as presented by the media. To avoid having Reagan give unrehearsed answers, for example, his advisors would place the media at a distance and rev the helicopter engine so the president could not hear the reporters’ questions. Example of Staged Media Event:

6. Press Conference • Started by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, they are presidential meetings with reporters. • He [FDR] promised two press conferences per week. (About 1,000 overall during his presidency.) President Obamain a Press Conference.

7. Investigative Journalism • Detective-like reporting used to unearth scandals. • Has contributed to greater public cynicism and negativity about politics. HELEN THOMAS

8. Print Media • Includes newspapers and magazines. • Has helped reshape political communication at different points in American history, along with Broadcast Media.

9. Broadcast Media • Includes radio, television, and the Internet. • Has helped reshape political communication at different points in American history, along with Print media. Recent “Hot” Media Stories

10. Narrowcasting • To transmit creative content confined to the interests of a specific target audience. MTV has a lot of narrowcasting, usually their target group is teens.

11. Chains • Chain owners such as Gannett, Knight-Ridder, and Newhouse control over 80 percent of the nation’s newspaper circulation.

12. Beats • Locations that the news media assigns their best reporters because the news frequently comes from there. • Some Beat spots are the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department.

13. Trail Balloons • Those who make the news depend on the media to spread certain information and ideas to the general public. • Information leaked to see what the Political reaction will be.

14. Look at Figure 7.2 on page 226. It shows “The Incredible Shrinking Sound Bite.” Sound Bites • Rather than reporting entire speeches from the president or politicians the media now produces 15 second “Sound Bites.”

15. Talking Head • A shot of a person’s face talking directly to the camera. • People find the “talking head” boring and change the channel. • Ratings go down when this method is used. President Bush’s Talking Head. Talk Show Hosts

16. Policy Agenda • A list of issues that require attention from public officials. • Some issues on the Policy Agenda right now are health care, education, unemployment, and the Great Recession.

17. Policy Entrepreneurs • Political activists that invest their political “capital” into an idea for making money. • They use press releases, press conferences, and letter writing to get their way.