Transcript Chapter 8- Mass Media and Public Opinion

Mass Media
The History of Media in Politics
BREAKING NEWS: The crawl at the bottom of the 24-hour news channels was born on 9/11
What percentage of
Americans…..
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Are black?
Are white?
Are American Indian?
Are Asian?
Are of Hispanic/Latino origin?
Were born in a foreign country?
Speak a language other than English at home?
Graduated from high school?
Graduated with a BA/BS or higher?
Live below the poverty line?
Yellow Journalism- 1890s
• Newspaper battle between Pulitzer and
Hearst
• “You provide the pictures, I’ll
Provide the war.”
FDR’s Fireside Chats- 1930s
Checkers Speech
September 23, 1952
• How television and
A black and white spotted
Dog saved Nixon’s career
• “And I don’t care what
they say, we’re going
to keep him.”
Nixon-Kennedy Debates
1960
• First ever
Televised debates
• People who
listened on radio
thought Nixon
won but people
on TV thought
Kennedy won.
LBJ
The Great Communicator(s)
The Amazing Shrinking
Soundbite
“If you spin….. you will win”
• Spin Doctors
• Spin Alley
• Can you spin it?
• “Why does a dog wag
its tail? Because a dog is
smarter than its tail. If the
tail was smarter, the tail
would wag the dog.”
-Is the dog public opinion,
and the tail the media?
- Is the dog the media,and
the tail campaign managers?
- Is the dog the people and
the tail the government?
White House
Press Secretary
• Ari Fleischer, Scott McClellan, Tony
Snow, Dana Perino, Robert Gibbs, Jay
Carney
• “Outer Orbit”
White House Press
Conferences?
• “We’ve secretly
Replaced the
White House Press
Corps with actual
Reporters.”
To have a good career as a reporter
Do you have to drink the KoolAid?
Heroic Secret Service
Agent
Takes question
intended for
Bush.
Take Out the Trash Day
Dump your smelly news on the
day that people pay the least
attention to the news
Which is?
LEAKS
Media Conglomerates
• Concentrated ownership of the media
• Gannett owns USA Today and controls
the biggest daily circulation in the nation
+ owns 100 additional papers
• Rupert Murdoch owns 124 radio
stations, New York Post, Weekly
Standard, FOX News, and Wall Street
Journal
• Regulates the content, nature, and
existence of radio and television
broadcasting.
• Need a license to broadcast
• Rules
- Broadcast TV>Cable>Print
• Fines for violations
• Control the airways (digital cable
switchover)
The Amazing
Race
How I Met Your
Mother
Young and the
Restless
NCIS
The Big Bang
Theory
Person of Interest
Conservatives
Teens
Children
Men
60 Minute
Liberals
Adults
women
“old people”
Conservatives
Children
Teens
Men
Liberals
Adults
Women
“Old people”
Essential Question: To what extent does
the media influence your political views?
Propaganda Techniques and
the Media
• Name-calling
- use of derogatory language or words carrying a
negative connotation; attempt to arouse prejudice
• Card-stacking
- aka selective omission; only presenting information
that is positive to an idea and omitting information
contrary to it
• Plain Folks
- views reflect those of the common person; working
for benefit of common person; “one of you”
• Transfer
- transfer blame or bad feelings from one politician to
another
• Glittering generalities
- words that have different positive meaning for
individual subjects, but linked to highly valued concepts;
i.e. honor, glory, love of country, freedom
• Bandwagon
- one side is the winning side; join in because others
are doing so as well
• testimonial
- endorsements, in or out of context, attempting to
connect a famous or respectable person with a product
or item.
Follow Up:
• Which advertising techniques do you
think are the most effective, and why?
• The least effective, and why?