GOV 310L Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Sound Bite, 8 Seconds, Killian Documents Controversy
Document Summary
Only industry protected by the constitution (1st amendment) Reason to talk about news media is because of dialogue of democracy. The way one makes money in media industry is by attracting viewers and readers. Sexual and violent content tends to attract viewers more and gains money. Conflict between capitalist nature of news media and their responsibility in democratic theory. Imperfections of news media are tendencies to not be servants of democracies. The press can be as good or as bad it can be; only answers to number of readers or viewers it can attract. Press often looks at the surface of things rather than try to discern the profound implications. Reports in sound bites (snippet of quotation, something in news story that news reporter thinks summarizes the political points of politicians) In 21st century, the average soundbite is 8 seconds long. Forces candidates to talk slower and be as superficial as they can be.
