Preview

The Mass Media Today

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2043 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Mass Media Today
INTRODUCTION

The American political system has entered a new period of high-tech politics in which the behavior of citizens and policymakers, as well as the political agenda itself, is increasingly shaped by technology. The mass media are a key part of that technology. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and other means of popular communication are called mass media because they reach out and profoundly influence not only the elites but the masses. This chapter describes the historical development of the mass media as it relates to news coverage of government and politics. Questions regarding how news is defined, how it is presented, and what impact it has in politics are also addressed.

THE MASS MEDIA TODAY

Modern political success depends upon control of the mass media. Image making does not stop with the campaign. It is also a critical element in day-to-day governing since politicians' images in the press are seen as good indicators of their clout. Politicians have learned that one way to guide the media's focus successfully is to limit what they can report on to carefully scripted events. A media event is staged primarily for the purpose of being covered. A large part of today's so-called 30-second presidency is the slickly produced TV commercial. Few, if any, administrations devoted so much effort and energy to the president's media appearance as did Ronald Reagan's.

The Reagan White House operated on the following seven principles: plan ahead stay on the offensive control the flow of information limit reporters' access to the president talk about the issues you want to talk about speak in one voice repeat the same message many times

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MEDIA POLITICS

The daily newspaper is largely a product of the late nineteenth century, while radio and television have been around only since the first half of the twentieth century. As recently as the presidency of Herbert Hoover (1929-1933), reporters submitted their questions to the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Throughout history, media has presented current events and effectively channeled information to large groups of people. As technology evolved, the format of media transformed, beginning with printing presses generating newspapers that wrote descriptions of news stories, followed by the introduction of the radio that allowed the masses to hear transmissions of news for themselves, and later the creation of the television that let the public see events. Most recently, social media has been used to spread news among people, with audience rather than reporters generating the news stories. The ubiquity of media is particularly evident in election years, with media and technology constantly following candidates around. The contenders in an election must exercise caution about what they say, their actions, and how it is translated to the general public, since the media communicates and displays to the public what the candidates stand for and can influence public opinion. In this regard, candidates can both be aid and hurt by the media: helped because the media can present an unbiased version of the candidate and harmed because the general public may focus on superficial aspects of the candidate, such as outward appearance, rather than on issues. Both media and technology can have a profound influence on elections as evidenced by the 1960 presidential debate, the book Fahrenheit 451, and the 2008 presidential election.…

    • 1598 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The constitutional theory and the modern theory are two prominent frameworks of presidency seen in American history. The constitutional theory is a framework of presidency that the president confines his powers to ones strictly given in the constitution. The modern theory of presidency is a framework that the president explores the options and gains of power; use of more external factors and less restraint of the constitution. Throughout American history, from first president, George Washington to later presidents, these frameworks covered most of the actual practices implemented by American presidents. The two frameworks, however, at times differ greatly from each other, in terms of practice and focus. Despite their contrasting differences…

    • 1350 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Today’s technology allows access to a multitude of mass media resources. With the advent of the internet and the ability to get news and information 24 hours a day makes it easy to affect public perception on an enormous level, at lightning speed.…

    • 1642 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    “Between 1947 and 1955, the percentage of American homes owning television sets rose from less than 1 to 65 percent; today, almost everybody has a TV set.” (Rannay, 1985, p. 6) The television set became commercially available in the 1920s, but did not begin to have a political effect until the 1952 presidential campaign between Dwight D. Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson. While Stevenson did not approve of electronic campaigning, Eisenhower to took the screens, creating “short spot commercials to enhance his television image.” (Kaid, 1981, p. 47) These commercials helped Eisenhower to create an image that was friendly and charming, which eventually led to him winning the campaign. Since this pioneering campaign, “Every presidential campaign […] has relied heavily on political television spots.” Television campaigning dominates the political world, and 50-75% of all campaign budgets in the 1992 presidential campaign were devoted to TV spots, commercials,…

    • 2017 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Best Essays

    Cnn Effect

    • 2454 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Hess, S., & Kalb, M. (2003). The Media and the War on Terrorism. The Brookings Institution…

    • 2454 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Mass media has played a crucial role in the American politics. TV commercials have influenced the outcome of elections. One Timeline theme is the effect of technological advances on the development of the media. Like how the invention of the printing press made the mass production of newspapers possible, the invention of high-speed Internet access has led to an increase in the diversity and specialization of news to individual audiences. A second Timeline theme is the shift in the economic aspects of mass media. When newspapers were the most likely form of mass media, there were hundreds of newspapers in circulation in the US, with a wide selection of editorial perspectives and appealing to all kinds of audiences. Recently television has…

    • 1540 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    News coverage of the presidency often tends to emphasize the negative. An example of this is when the story of Clinton’s affair broke regarding his affair with Monica Lewinsky. The desire to keep the public interested and the need for continuous coverage may create in the press a subconscious bias…

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    3-22 Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall The Nature of the News Media • News organizations as businesses • Primary objective is profit • Highly competitive industry • The profession • Journalists are younger, better educated, and more liberal than the American public • Journalism is governed by standards enforced by news media organizations and professional association 3-23 Copyright © 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Prentice Hall…

    • 1540 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Mass Media

    • 7321 Words
    • 30 Pages

    Copyright O Maxwell McCombs 2004 T h e right of Maxwell McCombs to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UIC Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published in 2004 by Polity Press Polity Press 65 Bridge Street Cambridge CB2 lUR, UIC. Published in the United States and Canada by Blackwell Publishing Inc. 350 Main Street Malden, MA 02148, USA All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. ISBN: 0-7456-23 12-3 ISBN: 0-7456-23 13-1 (paperback) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library and has been applied for from the Library of Congress. Typeset in 10.5 on 12 pt Plantin by Kolam Information Services Pvt. Ltd, Pondicheny, India Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books, Bodmin, Cornwall For further information on Polity, visit our website: www.polity.co.uk…

    • 7321 Words
    • 30 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    media

    • 7185 Words
    • 29 Pages

    The term news media refers to the groups that communicate information and news to people. Most Americans get their information about government from the news media because it would be impossible to gather all the news themselves. Media outlets have responded to the increasing reliance of Americans on television and the Internet by making the news even more readily available to people. There are three main types of news media: print media, broadcast media, and the Internet.…

    • 7185 Words
    • 29 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Reality Tv

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Cited: Robinson, John P. and Steven Martin "Of Time and Television." The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 625.1 (2009): 74-86. Print.…

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    media

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Newspapers, radio, television, and the Internet—including e-mail and blogs—are usually less influential than the social environment, but they are still significant, especially in affirming attitudes and opinions that are already established. The news media focus the public’s attention on certain personalities and issues, leading many people to form opinions about them. Government officials accordingly have noted that communications to them from the public tend to “follow the headlines.”…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Mass Media

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Drazen Petrovic was born in Sibenik on October 22, 1964, as the second child of Biserka, a librarian and and Jovan "Jole", a police officer. He and his older brother Aleksandar „Aco“ grew up in a typical Croatian small town family and had a happy childhood. They enjoyed in many activities in their hometown of Sibenik.…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In my another english class of writing for mass media we discuss the power that american companies have over the world. Remember the tsunami accident a couple of years ago in wich thousands of people were killed. After the earthquake the tsunami came minutes later and nobody knew that there was a tsunami coming. After the tsunami passed trough a complete city the countries around also did not know that a tsunami was coming and that was thae reason for thousand people to die. The quiestion is that with all the tecnology that we have today how is possible that countries did not get the tsunami alert notification, its simple the answer because the mayority of the most important media are from the united states and not for the oriental side of the world. CNN, CBS, VIACOM, WARNER BROTHER, FOX, CISNEROS FAMILY, WALT DISNEY. All this companies owns the media outlet from all over the world, imagine if one of this owners decides to use this power for bad and not for good, imagine if he says that the world is going to end, with that power every single channel from tv including telemundo will give that information to the world and it will be a disaster. We are the ones that create those power monsters because we depend of their tv progamming. A great example is have you heard in t.v some news about china or russia?, on the other hand when the world trade center collapsed it was heard all over the entire planet earth. In politics this power is also clearly stated. We are witnesses that newspapers from Puerto Rico defends one specific political party, like for example Luis Fortuno is ahead in all of the statistics from El nuevo dia but in the past we saw that El nuevo dia had problems with Rosello and they crushed him giving all the campaign for Acevedo Vila. To conclude we let this people create this power over us and there is nothing to do about it. The only thing that should stop them is to stop watching tv and newspaper and internet, we all…

    • 369 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    agenda setting theory

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In choosing and displaying news, editors, newsroom staff, and broadcasters play an important part in shaping political reality. Readers learn not only about a given issue, but also how much importance to attach to that issue from the amount of information in a news story and its position. In reflecting what candidates are saying during a campaign, the mass media may well determine the important issues—that is, the media may set the “agenda” of the campaign.…

    • 1118 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays