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Chapter 7: The Mass Media and the Political Agenda

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	The Development of Mass Media In the past half century, the mass media has become an important part of the political process. However, in recent years another trend has developed that is perhaps more worrisome: fewer and fewer companies own the mass media. In recent years consolidation in the mass media has taken place just like it has in other areas of the economy. Why might this be a concern? If only a few people control what gets reported in the media then that makes those few very powerful. Is this already happening? Let's try to find out. Three of the top media conglomerates are Gannett, Knight-Ridder, and Newhouse News Service. Collectively they control dozens and dozens of newspapers. Go to one of their websites and look at the same day's issue of at least five newspapers. Look for stories about national politics such as stories about the president or the Supreme Court. Search Tips Go to Gannett at http://www.gannett.com/, Knight-Ridder at http://www.kri.com/, Newhouse News Service at http://www.newhouse.com/. Once at the site, look for the link to the newspapers and then begin your exploration. Try to look at daily newspapers in different parts of the country. Pay attention to the names of the reporters and where they are writing from (their bylines). Questions to Ask Of the papers you looked at, how many carried basically the same story? Did you notice whether the author of the story was the same or not? Why it Matters Information is an important commodity in the political process. When the flow of information is controlled by a few, they become very powerful and have the ability to shape what the rest of us hear and read. In the wrong hands, this could be dangerous for democracy. Get Involved Make an effort to get your news from different sources to guarantee that you get as many different views as possible.   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.

	The News Media and Public Opinion Much of what we know about things is based on what we hear on the news and read in the newspapers. Thus, it only stands to reason that our opinions are shaped by the news—right or wrong? Try a little experiment of your own. Make a list of all stories covered on the front page of your local daily newspaper for one week. If you don't have a local daily newspaper then you might have to use the nearest daily or the state daily. Once the week is up ad up the number of times each story was covered on the front page of the newspaper. Now take the top three and the bottom three stories (you'll have six total) and randomly ask 10 people you know whether they thought each story was very important, important, somewhat important, not very important, or not important at all. The goal is to see whether the participants in your survey think that the stories that got the most coverage are the most important and whether the stories covered the least are least important (we would call this our hypothesis). Search Tips While not all newspapers are online, most are. You can find out whether your local newspaper is online at Online Newspapers.com at http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/. Questions to Ask Did you find that the hypothesis was correct or not? Based upon your findings do you think the news shapes our opinions of what is important and what isn't important? Why it Matters What we think is important shapes what we want our political leaders to tackle. It is important that we pay as close attention as possible to all of the issues, not just those on the front page. Get Involved Do you think your newspaper is paying too much attention to an issue that isn't as important as other issues? If so, send the newspaper a letter asking that it pay more attention to the issues you think are important.   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.

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