Chapter 1

• read the news often

  • all news has bias

• framing exercise

  • iv

    • extraversion (opportunity)/ agreeableness

    • self disclosure

  • dv

    • no. of close friends

• define politics

  • very abstract, huge umbrella

  • affects your relationships

• 3 most imp issues in the ‘public sphere’ today

  • the public sphere is influenced by media, news outlets

• Human Nature

• political communication

  • new, lack of synthesis

    • there are no unifying theories

    • interdisciplinary (mix of various disciplines)

  • science of poli comm

    • scientific method, variables, being ‘systematic’

• politics

  • group-level of decision making

  • typically in context of government

    • but also family, org/professional

  • democracy, US - open system?

• poli comm

  • marketing

    • image is primary

      • formerly propaganda, now mass media

    • goffman, 1959- presentation of self

      • front and back stage, public and private self

    • culture tdy

      • transparency, celebrity

      • being out there, being physical

• foundational research

  • lippmann, Public opinion

    • direct strong effects (strong and direct) for mass media

      • generally, no; very limited and indirect

      • but lippmann said otherwise because a lot of anecdotal evidence was being looked at

    • based on anecdotal evidence

      • not systematic, not scientific

      • media or broadcast can have powerful effects but it’s anecdotal

    • basis for contemporary political comm research

    • increase in pop tv led to a result in rise of roman and forensic science programs; drop out rate increases due to the lack of expertise and scientists in CSI

    • 4th estate- is journalism, news; the basis of power

    • churches-the 1st estate

    • property owners; 2nd estate owners

    • common ppl- 3rd estate owners

• foundation

  • direct effects cont

  • Laswell

    • first content analysis

    • hypodermic needle hypothesis

• foundation

  • lazarsfeld (columbia uni)

    • focus grps, ‘domestic propaganda’

    • erie county Study (1940); dv: voting behavior

      • results: few ppl switched parties

      • limited effects

      • media elites influence ppl arnd them

  • 2 step flow model

• summary

  • early research: direct, strong effects

    • based on poor evidence

    • not systematic

  • pendulum swings; indirect effect

    • eg. agenda setting

• agenda setting (exam qn)

  • media can have direct effects, but generally don’t

  • agenda setting: media influence

    • now what to think but what to think about

    • correlation btwn media coverage (time) of an event and ‘public agenda’

    • what ppl view

  • 3 steps

    • the media agenda

      • measure it through content analysis

      • ppl are measuring the media agenda everyday and quantifying it

      • journalists are following a plan; sharing what they’ve researched and reported on

    • public agenda

      • media agenda is correlated w public agenda; what the public finds imp to discuss

      • they know how to report on something based on what’s being talking about (polling, questionnaires, survey)

      • they sell this data to corps, politicians etc

      • public data measure by survey data

    • policy agenda

      • law, regulations, appropriations

      • should be a function of what ppl think is imp (hence public agenda)

  • these policies are not always linear

  • individual level tragedy vs real world indicators

• framing

  • how issues are given meaning

    • how stories are packaged to encourage a certain interpretation (particular understanding)

    • example headline: ‘rat bites baby, single mother left baby alone to cash welfare cheque’ vs ‘rat bites baby; landlord, tenant dispute’

    • the first frame is more likely to influence conservatives; christian morals; ‘single mother’

• media

  • traditional mass media

  • new mass media?

    • internet, promise of democracy and participation

    • web 2.0

      • shift from media consumers to media producers

• coverage of elections

• media is profit driven

• disproportionately cover more trump (republicans) then liberals or other candidates

• summary

  • research is individual level

    • major issues are societal; eg. voter turnout

• goal is what? (media agenda) (exam)

  • to change background of low frequency stories abt climate change and start reframing it as physical health issues, environment issues, but more about the people

  • ‘teen is in treatment over anxiety by future planet’

  • ‘grandma died during heatwave’

  • reframe stories about climate change so that they can steadily influence the media agenda and hence influence the public agenda, the policy agenda will change

  • if you want to change the policy agenda, it has to start w the media agenda

  • actively influence media agenda to increase the frequency of these kind of stories to influence public and change in policy

politico article