The Media &

American PoliticsAP GOVERNMENT

What are the elements of the media?

DISCUSSION QUESTION ONE…

What impact can the media have on politics?

DISCUSSION QUESTION TWO…

Influence of the Media: Internet

The Internet was extremely beneficial to Barack

Obama’s campaign

By March 2008, Obama had about 1 million “friends”

on MySpace and Facebook

“Friends” received invitations to campaign events, links to

speeches, and requests for campaign contributions

Music videos supportive of Obama on YouTube

Obama also advertised on Web sites

The Internet

More than 153 million unique domains have been registered worldwide

More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month; Over 6 billion hours

of video are watched each month on

YouTube; 100 hours of video are

uploaded every MINUTE

For 37 percent of Americans, the Internet is their primary source of news

Politico.com

The Internet provides an inexpensive way to communicate with volunteers, contributors, and voters

Influence of the Media: Television

Most people in the U.S. watch some

kind of TV news every day

Recent growth of around-the-clock cable news and information shows

(less reporting and more analysis and

bias)

Fox News: Conservative

MSNBC: Liberal

Voters now rely more on TV

commercials for information about

candidates and issues, and less on

news coverage

Radio and Newspapers

Continues to reach more U.S.

households than TV

Candidates use radio ads to

“microtarget” particular

audiences

Daily newspaper circulation has

been declining, especially among

younger persons (why?)

USA Today is the nation’s top-

circulation newspaper

Radio Newspapers

The Impact of Broadcasting

Franklin D. Roosevelt

was the first president

to recognize the

effectiveness of radio

to reach the public

The Impact of Broadcasting

TV added a dramatic

visual dimension

In 2004, an investigative team at CBS News

uncovered and aired this and other photos

of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib. Although

the military had been privately investigating the situation for several months, the actions

of the CBS reporters brought the tragedy

into the national spotlight.

Media Consolidation

Emergence of large

conglomerates

owning multiple

media outlets

Rupert Murdoch, founder of the FOX

network, owns 35 TV stations in the

U.S., DirecTV, 20th Century Fox, HarperCollins

Publishers, MySpace.com, and TV

Guide, which has the largest magazine

circulation in the U.S.

Regulation of the Media

The national government oversees TV and radio licensing,

financing, and even content

Bias Examples

What is Bias?

Are the Media Biased?

Video Examples

Katie Couric interviews Sarah Palin(22:00)Jon Stewart making fun of Fox News

(slide 8)Glenn Beck on President ObamaBlaming the president for bridge

collapse

The Media and Public Opinion

The ability of TV to present images and

communicate events has influenced U.S. public

opinion

Civil Rights movement

Vietnam War

Watergate hearings

September 11

Hurricane Katrina

Public Opinion

Issue Framing

The power to set the context,

to frame the issue, to interpret

the facts, and potentially to

provide legitimacy for people, issues, or groups are powerful

and controversial functions of

the media

Agenda Setting

Deciding what will be

decided, defining the

problems and issues to be

addressed by decision makers

Mediated Politics

The pervasiveness of the media confers

enormous influence on the individuals who

determine what we read, hear, and see

because they can reach so many people so

quickly

The news media have also assumed the role of

speaking for the people—do they?

Let’s examine: Outfoxed & News watching

assignment