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Chapter 7 Outline
Traditional Media
 The American news media are among the world’s freest and most diverse. The
freedom to speak one’s mind is one of the most cherished of American political
values.

 Americans obtain their news from broadcast media (radio and television), print
media (newspapers and magazines), and the Internet.

 Even though television news reaches more Americans than any other single
news source, it covers relatively few topics and provides little depth of
coverage.

 Newspapers, though no longer the primary news source for most Americans,
remain important nevertheless because they are influential among the political
elite. The broadcast media also rely on leading newspapers to set their news
agenda.

 Today, even as the newspaper business struggles for its life, readership of
online news has soared. Online media is more diverse and has created a more
democratic and participatory press.

Chapter 7 Outline 1
 Forms of Online News
 While many traditional news sources, such as newspapers, now publish online,
other Web news outlets tend to be smaller, more specialized, and have lower
personnel and overhead costs than mainstream publishers. The types of
online news sources include niche journalism, citizen journalism and blogs,
nonprofit journalism, and social media.

 News consumers have shifted from a few general purposes sources, such as
the evening television news and a local newspaper, to a large number of niche
publications and specialized new sources. The rise of niche journalism has
fundamentally changed how Americans consume news and what they read.

 The open nature of blogging by citizen journalists often means that there’s
little of the traditional quality control employed by “respectable,” institutional
old media. Many of the opinions found in blogs are unsupported or simply
untrue, but blogs do potentially increase the ability of ordinary people to
engage in effective political action.

 As traditional news organizations have cut budgets and especially

investigative journalism, political information is increasingly emanating from
universities, think tanks, nonprofit organizations, and private foundations.

 Social media are becoming increasingly popular means for Americans to

receive political information from the candidates and interest groups they
support. In turn, candidates for political office, elected officials, political
organizations, and interest groups have been quick to adopt Facebook and
Twitter as a means of communicating with their supporters and providing
them a continual feed of new information.

 New media has become so popular because of its convenience, currency, in-
depth coverage, and diversity of sources.

 Democracies depend upon news organizations to inform the people about

current events and to help citizens hold their leaders accountable for their
actions. There are concerns that a shift to online news could create a loss of
investigative power, more variation in the quality of news, and potentially less
tolerance of differing political viewpoints.

Chapter 7 Outline 2
 Mass Media Ownership
 The second most significant trend in America’s largely unregulated media
system is the growing concentration in ownership of traditional media. The
popularity of online news may in part be a response to the growing
homogenization of traditional corporate media that has been occurring over
the last three decades.

 As major newspapers, television stations, and radio networks fall into fewer
and fewer hands, the risk increases that less-popular or minority viewpoints,
and the politicians who express them, will have difficulty finding a public forum
in which to disseminate their ideas.

Media Influence
 In recent political history, the media have played a central role in the civil
rights movement, the ending of American involvement in the Vietnam War, the
Watergate investigation, and the U.S. decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

 The power of the media stems from several sources, all of which contribute to
the media’s great influence in setting the political agenda, shaping electoral
outcomes, and interpreting events and political results.

 The media may also report information that is leaked by government officials.
A leak is the disclosure of confidential information to the news media.

 Media consultants and issues managers may shape the news for a time
through the use of press releases, but it is generally not difficult for the media
to penetrate the smoke screens thrown up by news sources if they have a
reason to do so.

 The political power of the news media visà-vis the government has greatly
increased in recent years through the growing prominence of “adversarial
journalism.” Aggressive use of the techniques of investigation, publicity, and
exposure allowed the news media to enhance their autonomy and carve out a
prominent place for themselves in American government and politics.

Regulation of the Media

Chapter 7 Outline 3
  In the United States, the government neither owns nor controls the
communications networks, but it does regulate the content and ownership of
the broadcast media. American radio and television are regulated by the
Federal Communications Commission FCC, an independent agency.
Generally speaking, FCC regulation applies only to the over-the-air broadcast
media. It does not apply to cable television, the Internet, or satellite radio.

 Under federal regulations, broadcasters must provide candidates seeking the

same political office equal time to communicate their messages to the public.

 Regulations also require that individuals be granted the right to rebut personal
attacks (the right of rebuttal).

 Although recently diminished in importance, the fairness doctrine for many

years required that broadcasters that aired programs on controversial issues
provide time for opposing views.

 Since the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, a wave of mergers

and consolidations in the media industry has reduced the number of
independent media in the United States.

 Part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, known as the Communications

Decency Act, attempted to regulate the content of material transmitted over
the Internet, but the law was overruled by the Supreme Court in the 1997
case Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union. The rise of online media requires
revising our thinking about regulation of the media, as it is more difficult—
some say impossible—to regulate political content online.

Digital Citizens, the Media, and

Democracy
 Because the media provide the information citizens need for meaningful
participation in the political process, they are essential to democratic
government.

 Increasing ideological and partisan stridency in the media is an inevitable

result of the expansion and proliferation of news sources. The end result

Chapter 7 Outline 4
 may be to encourage greater division and disharmony among Americans.

 There is no doubt that the new digital media are more diverse, more
representative of multiple viewpoints, more interactive and participatory,
and, to many, more interesting than traditional news media. Time will tell
whether the shift to online news strengthens or harms American
democracy.

Chapter 7 Outline 5