Political Communication

1. Political Communication GOVT311 Lecture 12

2. Types of Political Media • Personal Contact • Primary and Secondary Groups • Phoning, Door to Door • Direct Mail • Newspapers and Magazines • Television • Internet

3. Campaign Contact (Besides TV) • Voter Lists (voter registration files) • Target message based on demographic information on voter lists • ID supporters • GOTV (Get Out the Vote) • Recently, absentee balloting requires additional organization to get out mail ballots.

4. Five? Eras of Media • Partisan Press Era (1787-1832): people subscribed to papers without ads. Newspapers printed by the parties. • Commercial Press Era (1833-1900): advertising begins and prices for newspapers drop, rise of “penny press.” “yellow press” evolves. • Era of Objective Media (1900-1984): Emergence of a trained, professional media. • Interpretive Journalism (1985-1995): Consolidation of newspapers and other old media. Rise of national daily newspapers and interpretive journalism. • Fragmentation (1995-Current) Fragmentation of news choices driven by more choices available through cable television, talk radio, and internet.

5. Radio • 1920s – development of radio networks • 1930s – FDR fireside chats, rise of presidential press conference • 1988 – rise of talk radio

6. Video Killed the Radio Star • 1950s – television ownership rises from 0% to 90% of US households in a decade • 1952 – Eisenhower hires a media consultant to make television ads, Stevenson did not • 1960s – first televised presidential debate, images from television credited with Northern support for Civil Rights • 1980 – emergence of cable television • From 1968-present, amount of time dedicated to a single story has shrunk, giving rise to the “sound bite.”

7. Internet Killed the Video Star • By 2008, 27% of people report obtaining their news from the internet. • Cable TV plus Internet means president can no longer command a national audience.

8. Is the Media Biased? • Newspaper editors and owners are more conservative than general public. • More newspapers endorsed Bush than Gore • Newspapers rely on business advertising • Reporters are more liberal (on some issues) than general public • Liberals may gravitate towards media careers • Reporting is a low-paying job attracting young people • Media concerned with “balanced” viewpoints (conflict makes good television). • People perceive bias through their partisan filter.

9. More Subtle Media Biases • Media is biased towards negative “Man bites dog” stories. • Media cover personalities over process • Election coverage is about the “Horse Race” not the issues • Redistricting never made it as a story • Media may be less critical of presidents for fear of losing access to White House

10. Agenda Setting and Gatekeeping • Choice of stories affects how people view the world (Priming: which stories are most important to evaluate candidates?) • Iyengar and Kinder – found that placing a story in the news increased persons perceptions that the story was the “most important” issue and people began evaluating the president on that issue • Limits to agenda setting • People learn from their daily lives, too. Can’t make an issue out of nothing, can’t reduce an important issue to nothing (e.g., inflation). • However, perception of crime rate is tied to media coverage of events. • Media report on stories of interest to people (ratings!)

11. Political Learning • People who read newspapers have higher levels of political information, higher levels of recall of information • Chicken and egg problem: do people with high levels of information seek out newspapers? • Most people don’t follow political news • Opinion leaders and cue givers – only need to follow news if friends who follow it say that something is important

12. Can Politicians “Manipulate” the Media? • The rally effect – in times of crises, people rally in support of the government (and president), even the news organizations • Information is most effective in persuasion when there is no counter argument! • Presidents can demand a national audience, but the networks have only so much time they are willing to devote to the president

13. “Going Public” • Using the media to rally the people to put pressure on government to force an issue on the agenda of elected officials • Only popular presidents are effective in manipulation, as people evaluate presidential proposals in light of their evaluation of the president • Presidents must choose issues that enjoy at least some popular support (president uses gatekeeping of this own to choose issues) • Other politicians can “go public” – presidents are most effective because of bully pulpit.

15. Which approach to use? • Depends on: • If a simple argument can be made. • How the response is framed in existing attitudes towards the politician. How favorably are they viewed? Does the issue relate to other, similar episodes? • Can the response be framed in terms of moral or collective reasons? For example, “I broke the law because it was the right thing to do in this case…” • People do not like blaming others.

16. Negative Advertising • (McDonalds spends more on advertising than all presidential campaigns combined; only 1% of 1996 advertising was political.) • Need to distinguish between “contrast” ads pitting one candidate’s stand on issues against another’s, and pure negative advertising. • Political ads are more negative than regular advertising; no accountability because of 1st Amendment free speech rights. • Academic research divided on whether negative ads reduce voter turnout.