Mass Media and American Politics

Doris A. Graber is professor emeritus of political science and communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has written and edited numerous articles and books on the news media, public opinion, and information-processing. They include Media Power in Politics, Sixth Edition (2010), The Power of Communication: Managing Information in Public Organizations (2003), a prize-winning book about Processing Politics: Learning from Television in the Internet Age (2001), and On Media and Making Sense of Politics (2012), a comparative study of learning about politics from entertainment broadcasts. Johanna Dunaway is associate professor of communication at Texas A&M University and a recent Joan Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy. She has written extensively on the relationship between the structural and contextual features of media outlets and election news content.  Within this research program, she has examined news coverage of political campaigns, immigration, and events such as the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Her current research examines the impact of the changing media environment across individuals, communities, and the news industry. In addition to these primary research agendas, she has published in numerous other areas, including public opinion, political behavior, and political advertising. Her work appears in journals such as the Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, Journal of Communication, Political Communication, Political Research Quarterly, Political Behavior, Journalism Studies and Social Science Quarterly. 

Tables, Figures, and Boxes
Acknowledgments
Preface
About the Authors
PART I: Media Purpose and Structure
1 Media Power and Government Control
Political Importance of Mass Media
Functions of Mass Media
Who Should Control News Making?
Models of News Making
Summary
2 Ownership, Regulation, and Guidance of Media
Control and Ownership: Public and Semipublic
Patterns of Private Ownership
The Costs and Benefits of Big Business Control
The Regulation/Deregulation Debate
Pressures by Media Associations and Advertisers
Citizen Lobby Control
Summary
3 Press Freedom and the Law
Censorship in the Twenty-First Century
The Public and Freedom of the Press
Policy Limits on the Press
Access to the Media
Public Access to Information
Transparency, Secrecy, and National Security
Individual Rights versus the Public’s Right to Know
Summary
4 Media and Politics in the Changing Media Landscape
The Expansion of Choice
Media Polarization and Selective Exposure
Changing News Habits and Political Journalism
Political Campaigns and Campaigning
Digital Democracy?
Engagement, Citizenship, and Civic Life
Summary
PART II: Who and What Makes the News?
5 News-Making and News-Reporting Routines
Profile Sketch of U.S. Journalists
Gatekeeping
Effects of Gatekeeping
Reporting Extraordinary Events
Covering Pseudo-Crises
Summary
6 The Media as Policy Makers
The Ethics of Melding Political Activism with Journalism
Manipulative Journalism in Perspective
Muckraking Models
Fact-Checking
Journalists as Political Actors
Agenda Building
Documentaries and Docudramas
Methods: Fair and Foul
Summary
7 The Struggle for Control: News from the Presidency
The Adversarial Relationship
The Media and the Executive Branch
Summary
8 Media Coverage of Congress and the Courts
The Media and Congress
Writing Stories about Congress
The Media and the Courts
News about Crime and the Justice System
Summary
9 State and Local News
Covering State and Local Affairs
The Content of Subnational News
Decline of Mainstream State Venues and the New Venues
Summary
10 Foreign Affairs Coverage
The Foreign News Niche
Making Foreign News
Wars in the Modern Age
Summary
PART III: Media Effects
11 Media Influence on Attitudes and Behavior
Differential Effects of News
The Role of Media in Political Socialization
Patterns in Socialization
Choosing Media Stories
How People Learn
Learning Effects: Knowledge and Attitudes
Learning Effects: Behavior
Summary
12 Elections in the Digital Era
The Consequences of Media-Dominated Politics
Media Content
What People Learn from Campaign Coverage
Summary
13 Incivility, Negativity, and Bias in the Media
Bias in the News
Affective Biases
Information Biases
Ideological and Partisan Biases
Causes of Bias
Effects of Bias
Summary
PART IV: Current Trends and Future Directions
14 Current Trends and Future Directions
Appraising News Making
The Impact of Digital Technologies
Regulation as a Barrier to Development
The Shape of the Future
Summary
Index