POL 106 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: Earned Media, Chinese Whispers, Muckraker
●Politics of Media
○Mass media
■Mass Media
●The means by which information is transmitted to a large
population across a large region
●The mass media includes
○Television
○Radio
○Magazines
○Newspaper
○Internet
●Media is business***
■Marketplace of ideas
●The concept that ideas and theories compete for acceptance among
the public, allowing for public debate and heightened awareness
■Walter Cronkite
●Anchor for CBS evening news
●Most trusted people in the country
●Trademark was “And that’s the way it is”
○Efforts to present fair, accurate, and reliable news to
viewers
■Growth of mass media
●Print media
○Newspaper for the elite
○Newspapers for the ordinary citizen
●Electronic media
○Radio
○Television
■Started as a family affair to sit around and watch
television
■99% of households own at least one television
■65% own three televisions or more
○Internet
■Compelling because it combines immediacy and
visual aspect of television but you can get greater
depth of detail like you could get in print
●Ways media is accommodating short attention spans
○Make coverage more interesting by sound bites
○Adding opinion to coverage
○Exaggerating the headlines
○Clickbait articles and titles
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●Soft news source
○News sources that work to inform you and entertain you at
the same time
○Examples
■Reader’s digest
■Paper copies of TV guide
■Time Magazine
●Trying to educate and inform
●While also trying to entertain
●Technology gap - digital divide
○Differences in access to and mastery of information and
communication technology between segments of the
community (typically for socioeconomic, education, or
geographical reasons)
■Functions of the media
●Inform you with current events and opinion
●Entertainment
○Hard news sources becoming softer
●Surveillance, interpretation, and socialization
○Watchdog function
■Holding government accountable for wrongdoings
●Not representing constituents correctly
●Corruption
■Helps ratings
○Serve as accomplice
■Work to push what the government actually wants
people to see
●Ribbon cutting
●Congressional/presidential candidates
○Force government to do something about a particular issue
they perceive to be important
■Salient
●Highly covered and highly visible to the
public
●Puts demands on government 1
●The more visible the issue is, the more likely
people have an opinion on it
○Even if they don’t know much about
it
●Primary role
○To inform the public of current events
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The means by which information is transmitted to a large population across a large region. The concept that ideas and theories compete for acceptance among the public, allowing for public debate and heightened awareness. Trademark was and that"s the way it is . Efforts to present fair, accurate, and reliable news to viewers. Started as a family affair to sit around and watch television. 99% of households own at least one television. Compelling because it combines immediacy and visual aspect of television but you can get greater depth of detail like you could get in print. Ways media is accommodating short attention spans. Make coverage more interesting by sound bites. News sources that work to inform you and entertain you at the same time. Differences in access to and mastery of information and communication technology between segments of the community (typically for socioeconomic, education, or geographical reasons) Inform you with current events and opinion.