CONCEPT PAPER FOR TOPIC PRESENTATION

Topic:

Toward a Political Sociology of News Media

Source/Reference:

Michael Schudson and Silvio Waisbord. pgs. 350 364. The Handbook
of Political Sociology. States, Civil Societies, and Globalization. Thomas
Janoski, Alford, et al (eds)

A. Salient Points/Summary
There are three approaches sociology offered in response to how journalism

work and affect politics.

The three approaches were the macro-institutional approach, micro-

institutional approach and cultural approach.

The three approaches are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. This
approaches are integrated in order to capture a holistic view on the dynamism
and complexity of the relationship of journalism and the society, as well as

journalism and politics.

(Bernard Cohen) Media scholars for a long time took agenda setting to be a
leading and powerful mass media influence the capacity of the press not to

tell people what to think but what to think about

Politics and Media affects each other.
Macroinstitutional Approach
o Constrained by Political and Economic structures of ownership and
control.
o Corporate ownership and commercial organizations necessarily
compromise the democratic promise of public communication.
o Where the news media are not controlled by corporations, they are
generally voices of the state.
o Dominant media, whether commercial or state-sponsored, typically
support political understandings that reinforce the views of political
elites.
o The result is news coverage tailor-made to the goals of a powerful
minority to sustain inequalities in a capitalist system.
o Recent policies and technological innovations
contemporary media markets more open than before.

have

made

o The availability of cheaper technologies for producing and distributing

news content coupled with the deregulation of media markets has
facilitated the entry of new companies.
o There is a considerable optimism in many quarters that the Internet
offers a vast new location for dissent, diversity and political activism.
o One cannot approach journalism as a one-dimensional institution that
obsequiously and inescapably collaborates in the maintenance of social

order.
Microinstitutional Approach
o Stresses the power of occupational routines, rules, and social structures
on journalists but generally hold that journalists can resist, sabotage,
bend, or challenge this constraints without normally losing their jobs.
o Interactional determinants of news in the relations between people.
o News organizations maybe constrained by political and economic
structures of ownership and control, but daily reporting follows
specific rules that define the practice of journalism even across
different structures.
o News is the product of bureaucratic and occupational routines and
rules.
o News is not a gathering of facts that already exists.
o In many media systems, government officials exercise considerable
power in news making and in the construction of reality.
o News is not what happens but what someone says has happen or will
happen.
o Reliance on government officials does not guarantee pro-government
news.
o Official wrongdoing is itself a form of government news.
o A more alert, professional, cynical, and competitive press corps around
the world has more eagerly sought out scandals, and more readily
taken advantage of accidents that discredit powerful institutions, both
public and private.
o The finding that official sources dominate the news is often presented
as a criticism of the media.
o If the media were to fulfill their democratic role, they would offer
citizens a wide variety of opinions and perspectives, not just the

narrow spectrum represented by those who have attained political

power.
Cultural Approach
o A cultural perspective finds symbolic determinants of news in the
relations between facts and symbols
o A cultural accounts of news helps explain generalized images and
stereotypes in the news media.
o A deep fascination on violence and moral transgression crosses
national political cultures.
o The cultural dimension of news concerns its form as well as its
content. News is a form of literature. It draws on cultural traditions of
narrative.

B. Objectives of the Presentation

At the end of the presentation, the class will be able to:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Understand the salient ideas of the Political Sociology of News Media.

Have a depth understanding on the different approaches.
Relate the understanding in the local and national realities.
Be more critical in the happenings in our daily lives in relation to News Media.

C. Discussion Outline
First, I will announce the subject matter to be discussed.
Second, I will present to the class the subject matter, give examples and relate this
to the local and national happenings.
Third, as I am discussing the subject matter, I will urge the class to participate by
asking questions about the agreement and disagreement of the things discussed in the
article.
Fourth, I will also urge the class to critique the article based on what they feel,
what they think, and how they understand.
D. Conceptual Application Plan
I will analyze the national news networks such as the ABS-CBN, GMA,
and TV5 particularly their news trends or styles of journalism in the lens

of Macrointitutional Approach, Microinstitutional Approach and Cultutral

Approach.
E. Synthesis

The article basically answered the question how does journalism work in

relationship to and as a component of politics?

The sociology offered three approaches such as macroinstitutional,

microinstitutional, and cultural in analyzing the news media.

These three approaches are complementary rather than mutually exclusive.
This approaches are integrated in order to capture a holistic view on the
dynamism and complexity of the relationship of journalism and the society, as

well as journalism and politics.

None of the three perspectives by itself can account for what we might want to

know about how journalism works.

A combination of macro- and microinstitutional developments coupled with
broad cultural transformations have produced news that is not a stand-in for

political-economic interests nor simply the perpetuation of cultural traditions.

Journalism is not simply an agent of domination in liberal societies nor of
dissent, nor is it a forum that offers equal play to all view or all coherent views

or even all view with substantial popular support.

A nuanced understanding of how journalism works requires a historically
situated, cross-sectional perspective to grasp the relations among the factors
that shape the production of news.

F. Reflection and Personal Insights

After reading the article, I came to conclude that none of the three perspectives by
itself can account for what we might want to know about how journalism works. I learned
that these three approaches are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. This
approaches are integrated in order to capture a holistic view on the dynamism and
complexity of the relationship of journalism and the society, as well as journalism and
politics. Hence, one cannot approach journalism as a one-dimensional institution that
inescapably collaborates in the maintenance of social order. Moreover, journalism is not
simply an agent of domination in liberal societies nor of dissent, nor is it a forum that

offers equal play to all view or all coherent views or even all view with substantial
popular support.