The Media

Mass Media:

• the collection of all forms of media that communicate information to the general public (Krutz et al 2019)

Roles of Media:

• Accountability: the media provides a check on those in power – this is why sometimes people call the media “The Fourth Estate”, or “The Fourth Branch”

• Political knowledge to the people: the vast majority of political knowledge is learned through the media

• Connects elites: political elites also consume media

Agenda Setting:

• deciding what issues we should all pay attention to

• This depends on which issues are mentioned and discussed in the media

• Some issues cannot be ignored, especially big events and news that take place on a daily basis

• However, many times the media itself decides to highlight issues that they care about, or that are not discussed broadly

• Example: highlighting child poverty

Media Diet:

• the news sources a person consumes on a daily basis

Framing:

• is “the process by which people develop a particular conceptualization of an issue or reorient their thinking about an issue”

• Particularly, framing refers to the method of presenting an issue or an event in an attempt to alter its meaning, and allow it to be viewed from a specific perspective while highlighting specific considerations regarding a social or political issue

• Many times, media reports frame the way we think about issues

• For example, different framing for the death penalty might include:

• Effectiveness / Racist / Innocence / Religious Perspective

News Deserts:

• full counties and regions in the U.S. that include few to none local news sources

Media and Polarization:

• Media plays an important role in and sustaining polarization creating in the public

• Some of the culprits: Partisan media – Fox News in particular

• Algorithmic social media

• Decline of broad national newspapers and broadcast TV

• Partisan media environments might create closed information loops

• One loop for conservatives, another for moderate liberals, another for far leftists…

• Closed information loops change how we interpret new information If we learn new information, we will start seeing it only from the angle we got used to adopting – we keep feeding our own bias

• An example on how election claims and messages developed in a Republican closed circle:

  • The 2020 election was sketchy -> they were stolen -> it’s justified if we steal elections

Algorithmic Social Media:

• Social media sites and platforms use algorithms to personally show content to the user

• Most algorithms reward engagement – if you engage more with a specific kind of content, your algorithm will adapt to that content, and you will be shown more similar content in the future

• If polarizing content increases engagement, social media might increase polarization

Brief History of U.S. Political Media:

• Until the 1990s, the dominant sources of political media were network television news and newspapers

• Both network TV news and newspapers were local monopolies advertising funded by

• News organizations back then wanted to appeal to the broadest possible audience and not anger advertisers, so news was more in the center

• Political news did not have to compete for attention with other entertainment.

• There was nothing else on TV . Stations were required by law to only broadcast news

• If you wanted your cartoons, sports news or restaurant reviews, you had to buy the newspaper

• When the internet (and to a lesser extent, cable TV) arrives, TV network news and newspapers had to start competing for attention

• Most people opted out of regular old fashioned news sources. Those that remain are more likely to be older and highly engaged

• Newspaper readership and revenues fell off a cliff

• Today, most news organizations have small, dedicated audience of the most politically engaged voters

• Elites are also rabid news consumers

Biased Media Outlets:

The media can definitely have an effect on public opinion – these effects are called “Media Effects”

• Media effects include elements, among them: agenda setting and framing

• Ways to measure media effects: number of mentions, framing labeling, number of key words used (terrorists vs. freedom fighters), who do they quote

• Media outlets also have economic interests, power interests, and ideological interests

• These interests are often represented in the owners of the media outlets, and in their bias

Major News Outlets in the U.S. and their owners:

ABC News:

• founded in 1945, is owned by Disney since 1996. Is considered to be in the political center

CNN:

• founded in 1980, is owned by Warner Brothers. Also considered in the center, but is fiercely attacked by Trump supporters as their covering was critical of him

Fox News:

• founded in 1996, is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Fox News is a conservative network, fiercely supporting the Republican party and Trump

MSNBC:

• founded in 1996, is owned by NBC and Comcast. It is a liberal-leaning network

NPR:

• is the American public broadcasting network, funded partly by the government and by donations

New York Times:

• one of the oldest newspapers in the U.S. – founded in 1851. Is self-owned by the paper, and is considered to be liberal-leaning

Wall Street Journal:

• is a conservative, free market oriented newspaper and was founded in 1889

The Washington Post:

• founded in 1877, was considered to be more liberal. Is owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. Bezos has been cozying up to Trump, and instructing the Post to change its stances lately