In a democracy, communication must go both ways; from the government
to citizens and from citizens to government. The media are important
in a democracy, in that one of their primary roles is the promotion
of communication between citizens and their government.
The media are made up of the mass media, which allow for communications
to large, heterogeneous audiences, and group media, which allow
for communication between members of common-interest groups. Examples
of mass media are the print media (newspapers and magazines) and the
broadcast media (radio and television). Group media consist of fax
transmission and the internet.
The growth of the country, technological inventions, and shifting
political attitudes about the scope of government, as well as trends
in entertainment, have all shaped the development of the media.
The print media were more important to politics earlier in our history.
Even today, however, some newspapers and magazines enjoy mass circulation.
Most news magazines, however, because they have small circulations
and select readership are considered group media. Though radio was
once a prime source for the coverage of live news, its salience today
lies in its role as a forum for talk. Television has become the major
medium for mass communications about politics. Television's main appeal--
that it shows people and events-- accounts for the influence of television
news coverage.
The technology revolution produced the 'fax' and the internet, both
of which have been adapted to politics. These are called group media--
communications technologies used primarily within groups with common
interests. Campaign managers and interest groups frequently make use
of the fax to communicate among themselves. The internet is also used
as a source of political information.
Private ownership of the media in the United States means that the
media operate free of government control, but it also means that they
operate to make profits. In order to make a profit, they must attract
large audiences, therefore their programming and content must have
mass appeal. Only a portion of broadcast programming and newspaper
content can be classified as political news. Much of their content
is really news that is entertaining.
In their efforts to increase their profits, media owners have acquired
additional media outlets. Early fears of concentrating ownership of
the broadcast media under a single entity led to government regulation
of media ownership. Government regulation began with the technical
need to regulate competition for a limited number of airwaves. The
Federal Communications Act of 1934 established the Federal Communications
Commission and formed the basis for media regulation for over sixty
years. Such regulation consisted of technical regulations, ownership
regulation and, in some cases, regulation of content. More recently,
the FCC has swung toward the view that the broadcast media should
be given the same freedom as the print media, which means that television
and radio would not be required to offer air time to those broadcasting
contradictory sides of an issue.
In 1996, Congress responded to pressure from business that wanted
to exploit new electronic technologies and, in a bipartisan effort,
swept away mot regulations. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 relaxed
or eliminated ownership regulations and rate regulation for cable
television. The 1996 law immediately led to a number of media mergers,
in which already large media companies purchased other large media
companies.
The media have five functions: reporting the news, interpreting the
news, influencing citizen opinion, setting the political agenda, and
socializing citizens about politics.
Together, the mass media employ thousands of reporters to cover news
firsthand as it breaks in major news centers of the world. Washington,
D.C., has the largest press corps of any U.S. city. Most of the government
news reported to the public comes from official government sources.
The media executives‹news editors and prominent reporters‹function
as gatekeepers in deciding what events to report and how to handle
the coverage. In an effort to appeal to their audiences, the media
tend to personalize news stories, which leads to horse-race journalism
in election coverage, and to focus on media events‹activities
that show well on television.
Studies of the public's source of news clearly demonstrate that most
people rely on television as their main source of news. They also
view television as the most credible source of news. Their attentiveness
is related to several factors. However, people seem to recall little
of the news to which they have been exposed over the year, and studies
show that those who rely most on television tend to have less ability
to see differences among political candidates than those who rely
on other sources of information. Despite the image of the mass media
as manipulators of the news to influence voters, the actual content
of the news‹whether it is good or bad in the minds of the viewers‹seems
to have more effect on voters than the way the news is reported.
Ample evidence supports the charge that working journalists tend to
hold liberal views. On the other hand, it also seems that their editors
and publishers (the gatekeepers) tend to reflect countervailing conservative
views. What seems clearest from studies of media bias is that journalists
tend to distrust politicians of either party, which encourages them
to act in an adversarial manner when researching stories.
The media have more subtle effects on the political system in setting
the political agenda‹often emphasizing social problems like crime
in an unsettling way‹and in socializing the young through entertainment
programs. Unlike early radio programs about cops and robbers, contemporary
television police drama tend to undercut confidence in the criminal
justice system. Overall, the media play contradictory roles in the
socialization process, both supporting the system by celebrating national
holidays and undermining order by publicizing grievances, corruption,
and even terrorism. As new media systems, such as the information
highway, develop more fully, their impacts on the political process
will also require analysis.
The media contribute to democracy by critical reporting of government
actions and by communicating to the government the public's attitudes
and reactions. Reporters have advanced equality in the United States
by their sympathetic coverage of minority groups, particularly during
the civil rights movement. In their uncompromising effort to defend
freedom of the press, however, the media have also exacted social
costs by emphasizing the role of the sensational at the expense of
content.
Summary
