AP Government Chapter 16

News Media

Broad term that includes newspapers, magazines, radio, television, internet sources, blogs, and social-media postings that cover important events

Social Media

Forms of electronic communication that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking

Agenda Setting

the media’s ability to highlight certain issues and bring them to the attention of the public

Mass media

Sources of information designed to reach a wide audience, including newspapers, radio, television, and internet outlets

Wire service

an organization that gathers and reports on news and then sells the stories to other outlets (significance: enable the widespread distribution of news and press to a wide variety of news outlets and enables timely updates)

Investigative Journalism

an approach to newsgathering in which reporters dig into stories, often looking for instances of wrongdoing

muckrakers

people who used investigative journalism to expose wrongdoing and also to shape public opinion in support of regulating businesses and reducing corruption in government

Broadcast media

Outlet for news and other content including radio and television that bring stories directly into people’s homes (significance: deliver timely information to the public and to shape public opinion)

New media

various digital platforms through which individuals receive, share, and produce content

Federal Communications Commission

agency that regulates the federal broadcast media

media consolidation

the concentration of ownership of the media into fewer corporations (may reduce media diversity and pushes pro-business perspectives onto the public)

Telecommunications Act of 1996

significantly raised the percentage of a national audience a corporation was allowed to reach

horse-race journalism

focuses on who is winning in an election rather than the candidate’s policy issues (significance: potentially misleading voters with its sports-like coverage and alienates the actual policy issues)