Media as a Political Institution and the Marketplace of Ideas

The Coronavirus Pandemic and the Vital Role of Media

• Timeline of the 2019\u20132020 Outbreak:

  • New Year\u2019s Eve 2019: Reports break regarding mysterious cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, China.
  • Initial Identification: Within days, Chinese researchers identify the cause as a new, previously unidentified coronavirus.
  • First Fatality: Within two weeks of the first reports, Chinese media officially record the country\u2019s first death from the virus.
  • Containment and Global Spread: Within three weeks, the government closed Wuhan (a city of $11,000,000$ people). Simultaneously, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States reported their first cases.
  • Historical Comparison: While the trajectory matched the SARS (2003) and H1N1 (2009) outbreaks, this pandemic proved far more severe.
  • Global Emergency: By the end of January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency.
  • Scale by March 2020: Two months later, at least $1,000,000$ people were infected globally and $100,000$ had died.

• Social and Behavioral Changes via Media:

  • Awareness: Despite only a small number of early cases, the public became aware of the threat through the media.
  • Information Hunger: On March 10, 2020, mentions of \"coronavirus\" across all media reached nearly $20,000,000$, which was five times the mentions of the president of the United States on that same day.
  • Media Consumption Spikes: Broadcast TV news viewing nearly doubled. A YouTube video featuring mathematical simulations of epidemics reached $3,000,000$ views in $10$ days.
  • Preemptive Action: Individuals and organizations (firms, churches) changed behavior\u2014wearing masks, hand washing, and social distancing\u2014long before official government shutdowns in the United States and Europe.

Defining the Media as a Political Institution

• Definition of Media:

  • Collectively, media refers to organizations and individuals who generate publicly valuable information and manage distribution networks.
  • Components: Includes reporters, journalists (investigators), editors (gatekeepers who decide story merit), and the firms/non-profits/governments maintaining distribution channels.

• The \"Fourth Branch of Government\":

  • Media serves as a check on the three formal branches: legislature, executive, and judiciary.
  • It acts as a venue for vetting leaders and national issues.
  • Unlike Congress or the presidency, it is not a singular institution designed specifically to represent or govern; rather, it is an industry centered on profit through communication and entertainment.

• The Media Business Model:

  • Goal: Attract an audience to sell to advertisers.
  • Revenue Streams: Subscriptions, cover prices, access charges, and most significantly, advertising payments from other businesses/individuals.
  • Scale of Consumption:
    • $90\%$ of U.S. households have internet or smartphone access.
    • Television remains dominant: the typical American adult watches $5$ hours of TV per day.
    • Total interaction: American adults spend an average of $11$ hours per day interacting with media across all devices.

Ownership and the \"Marketplace of Ideas\"

• The Informational Ecosystem:

  • Informing the Electorate: Democracy assumes an aware public. Most Americans learn about politics through the lens of media sources rather than firsthand experience.
  • The Principle of the Free Press: Established by the First Amendment, which prohibits Congress from \"abridging the freedom of speech, or the press.\" This has been expanded to cover all government levels/branches and all forms of communication.
  • Marketplace Hierarchy: The U.S. system relies on competition. Outlets that fail to attract consumers perish, while successful ones provide the information the public desires.
  • International Contrast: Most other countries regulate speech more strictly (limiting ads, requiring public affairs programming) or own their primary broadcasters, such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) or British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

• The Decline of Local Competition:

  • Local news monopolies are common as many cities have only one major newspaper.
  • Economic pressure from the internet has forced layoffs of expensive staff (investigative reporters).

Categories of American Media

• Print Media:

  • History: In $1792$, there were only $96$ papers. By $1828$, there were $861$, and by $1945$, $1,800$.
  • Current State: There are currently only $1,400$ daily newspapers in the U.S. Less than $10\%$ of Americans consult a newspaper as their first morning news source.
  • Agenda Setting: Major outlets like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post set the news agenda for broadcast and digital media.
  • Economic Crisis: Total circulation fell from $63,000,000$ in $1984$ to $20,000,000$ in $2022$. Advertising revenue dropped from $\$50,000,000,000$ in $2006$ to less than $\$10,000,000,000$ by $2022$ (an $80\%$ drop).
  • Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post: Purchased by the Amazon founder in $2013$. Bezos emphasizes focusing on readers over advertisers but still faces losses around $\$100,000,000$ annually.

• Broadcast Media:

  • Reach: Reaches more Americans than any other source.
  • Depth: Often provides only \"headline service\" with pictures rather than in-depth analysis. Cable news (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC) offers slightly more detail and commentary.
  • Radio: Heavily reliant on headline repetition. Conservative hosts (e.g., Glenn Beck) have large audiences. Podcasts have grown from $8\%$ of adults in $2008$ to $41\%$ in $2020$.
  • Infotainment/Soft News: A shift toward celebrity and health tips. Programs like The Daily Show and the Joe Rogan Experience rival traditional news outlets for audience size among younger demographics.

• Digital Media:

  • Dominance: Now rivals TV as the primary news source. Individuals under age $24$ often get their first daily news contact through social media ($57\%$).
  • Aggregators: Services like Google, BuzzFeed, Politico, and HuffPost collect news from various sources. Facebook is used by half of those who receive news online.
  • Two-Way Communication: Unlike traditional media, digital platforms allow citizens to contribute via comments, blogs, and real-time social media posts.

News Deserts and Digital Challenges

• News Deserts: Estimated $1,300$ in the U.S. Over $2,000$ out of $3,143$ counties no longer have a daily newspaper. $171$ counties have no newspaper at all. These areas typically have higher poverty, lower college grad rates, and lower broadband access.
• Clickbait and Fake News: Online outlets use sensational content to drive ad revenue. A study by the Oxford Internet Institute showed that leading up to the $2016$ election, the top source of news retweets in Michigan was Russia Today (RT), surpassing Fox News and the New York Times.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI): Used by NYT and BBC for fact-checking and curation but introduces biases, privacy concerns, and copyright legalities (e.g., the case of Linwei Ding and Google files).

Factors Affecting News Coverage

• Journalists:

  • Bias Statistics: Democrats/liberals outnumber Republicans/conservatives by $2$ to $1$. $28\%$ identify as Democrats, $7\%$ as Republicans, and $50\%$ as independent.
  • Historical Influence: Publishers like William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer used \"yellow journalism\" to influence events (e.g., Hearst pushing the U.S. into the 1898 war with Spain).
  • Citizen Journalism: Reliance on the \"subjective participant\" rather than the \"objective reporter.\" Mobile tech allows anyone to report (e.g., BBC iReporter).

• News Sources:

  • Leaks: Disclosing confidential info (e.g., Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, Edward Snowden and the NSA, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks).
  • Press Releases: Stories written by advocates; over $50\%$ of news articles in some papers are based on these. Invented by Ivy Lee in $1906$ for the Pennsylvania Railroad.
  • Hired/Planted News: Cases like the Lincoln Group being paid by the military to place stories in Iraqi papers, or pharma-bankrolled authors in journals.

• Consumers:

  • Media caters to affluent, well-educated segments because they are valuable to advertisers. Issues relevant to lower-class Americans (labor unions, religious affairs) are often ignored unless scandal-related.
  • Knowledge Gap: As source variety increases, the gap between the politically interested and uninterested grows.

Analyzing the Evidence: Entertainment Media Consequences

• Researcher: Eunji Kim (Columbia University).
• Concept: Reality TV shows depicting \"rags-to-riches\" (e.g., Shark Tank, America\u2019s Got Talent, American Ninja Warrior) reinforce belief in the American Dream.
• Experiment: Using a mobile lab (box truck), Kim showed participants clips highlighting upward mobility.
• Finding: These programs significantly increased belief in the possibility of starting poor and becoming well-off (America\u2019s Got Talent scored $0.8$ on a $0\u20131$ scale vs. a control show Cesar 911 at $0.65$).
• Implication: This belief dampens support for government redistribution and social safety nets, despite rising income inequality.

Media Regulation and Legal Frameworks

• Models of Regulation:

  • Free Press Model: Media operates separately from the government (print/digital).
  • Public Utility Model: Media acts as a public institution charged with protecting the public good (broadcast).

• The Federal Communications Commission (FCC):

  • Established by the Communications Act of 1934.
  • Regulates radio/TV licenses every $5$ years to prevent signal interference and prohibit indecency between $6\,a.m.$ and $10\,p.m.$.
  • Telecommunications Act of 1996: Broad effort to eliminate regulations and allow cross-platform competition.

• Freedom of the Press Legal Precedents:

  • Near v. Minnesota (1931): Established the doctrine against prior restraint.
  • New York Times v. United States (1971): Ruled the government could not block the Pentagon Papers.
  • New York Times v. Sullivan (1964): To be libelous, a story about a public official must be untrue and involve \"actual malice\" or \"reckless disregard\" for the truth.

• Internet Regulation Concerns:

  • Net Neutrality: The principle that all internet traffic is treated equally.
  • Intellectual Property: A&M Records v. Napster sided with copyright holders against free distribution.
  • Who Runs the Internet: Gov is dispersed among voluntary organizations like the World Wide Web Consortium and the Internet Society.

Media Industry Consolidation

• Trend: In $1983$, $50$ corporations controlled the majority of U.S. media; as of $2019$, only $5$ corporations did.
• Major Mergers:
  • ABC bought by Walt Disney Company.
  • CNN bought by Time Warner.
  • NBC owned by Comcast.
  • Fox plus others owned by Rupert Murdoch.
  • CBS owned by Paramount (formerly Viacom).

Strategies for Savvy Media Consumption

• Be Your Own Editor:
  1. Consider the Source: Check transparency, citations, and the URL.
  2. Read Beyond Headlines: Ensure the story is balanced and backs claims with facts.
  3. Check for Authenticity: Verify dates, photos, and ensure it isn\u2019t \"sponsored content.\"
  4. Check Personal Biases: Be most skeptical of stories you are inclined to believe.
  5. Use Variety: Compare coverage between outlets like Fox News and MSNBC to see what stories are featured or omitted.