POLSCI 242 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Institute For Operations Research And The Management Sciences, Planned Parenthood, Fourth Estate
8 May 2018
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POLISCI 9.30 Lecture Notes
Media Coverage of the 2016 Presidential Primary
The Monkey Cage covered Donald Trump’s share of news coverage and national polling numbers
The two variables follow the same pattern
The negative coverage of Trump is not as different from other GOP candidates
News media democracy
o The media is often referred to as the fourth estate or the watchdog
o Protected by the First Amendment
o Allows citizens to monitor the government
o Role of an informed citizenry – free press informs citizens of politics and thus allows
citizens to be informed enough to make a good decision
▪ Important for sub-presidential elections
Historical development of the free press
o Historical origins of the free press – Partisan press
▪ Press is part of the party
▪ Sole function is to promote party platform and party candidates
▪ Profit depends on how the party is faring so it creates an ineffective business model
– this problem led to the penny press
o Penny press
▪ Hearst v. Pulitzer
▪ Yellow journalism/sensationalism
▪ Focus on broad human interest story – shifts away from mainly politics
o Broadcast TV
▪ Objective – to become the most trusted options
• Ex: Walter Cronkite – known as the most objective news voice
• LBJ: )f )’ve lost Cronkite, )’ve lost America.
▪ Limited channels – politics was unavoidable
o Cable TV
▪ More options – people have the option to not pay attention to politics
▪ Move away from an objective press – rise of the partisan news sources
o How has the media evolved?
▪ Partisan Objective Partisan
▪ Partisan media is not a new question
Media Bias
o Is it intentional?
▪ Something that occurs usually not as a result of a political agenda
o What is reported?
▪ A news organization is a business
▪ They have to make decisions about what to report on
▪ Gatekeeping
• A certain story is not worth spending their limited resources covering
▪ Time/space constraint
o How a story is reported?
▪ Facts
▪ Framing
• Two outlets may report on the same story with the same facts, but the story
can be reported in completely different ways
• Ex: unemployment
o Research done about framing in the context of a KKK rally
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