POSC150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Winnowing

• School: University of Delaware
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POSC150
• Professor: Oskooii

Document Summary

Lecture 22: how the media covers politics: coverage of politics. Focus on the president: president 60, congress 37, supreme court 3% The president is a single person; cheap to cover. Congress is a large institution, not seen as interesting unless there is conflict. The supreme court is not public; expensive to cover. Very little coverage of executive branch agencies: these are large institutions; often expensive to cover; audience believed to be uninterested. Little detailed coverage of positions on issues: news organizations assume that people will tune out such coverage, ca(cid:374)didates p(cid:396)oposals a(cid:396)e(cid:374)(cid:859)t ti(cid:373)el(cid:455) a(cid:374)d (cid:374)o(cid:448)el. But, e(cid:454)te(cid:374)si(cid:448)e (cid:272)o(cid:448)e(cid:396)age of (cid:272)a(cid:374)didates(cid:859) (cid:271)a(cid:272)kg(cid:396)ou(cid:374)ds a(cid:374)d pe(cid:396)so(cid:374)al (cid:395)ualities: can we relate with them, not a good indicator of a good president. E(cid:454)te(cid:374)si(cid:448)e (cid:272)o(cid:448)e(cid:396)age of the (cid:862)ho(cid:396)se (cid:396)a(cid:272)e(cid:863: ca(cid:374)didates(cid:859) st(cid:396)ategies, s(cid:272)a(cid:374)dals, a(cid:374)d gaffes, reporters and pundits are called upon to predict political events in the near and distant future.