Assignment
Write a Critique Essays about the media.
At least threefull pages and no more than five pages.
A synthesis and critique need to answer the following questions, but organized in a thematic manner. This should not be a review of the textbook and lecture. This should not be a book report. First, what are the major points of the readings? What are they trying to explain and what are the explanations? While it is tempting to create a ledger of all that was said, recall that you only have three to five pages. Instead present the answers to thequestions in the critique. The critique should answer the following: What are the major problems of the readings? What can be done to improve the situations raised in the readings/media? We will discuss the essays' contenton the first day and all graded critique essays will have comments left by me discussion how I graded your submitted essay.
(MLA format) you will have to cite your sources and integrate them into the discussion that appears in your critique essay. You may choose to support your position with as many sources as you like. However, there must be at least one scholarly (peer - reviewed) source.
Outline
Traditional Media Have Always Mattered in a Democracy
1. The American news media are among the world's freest and most diverse. The freedom to speak one's mind is one of the most cherished of American political values.
2. Americans obtain their news from broadcast media (radio and television), print media (newspapers and magazines), and the Internet.
3. Newspapers, though no longer the primary news source for most Americans, remain important nevertheless because they are influential among the political elite.
4. Competition from broadcast media and free content online have brought financial disaster to traditional print media. The traditional media organizations that survived have been forced to adapt, and most now have a significant online presence, which blurs the distinction between old media and new media.
5. Even though television news reaches more Americans than any other single news source, it covers relatively few topics and provides little depth of coverage. There is also a significant generational divide; while older Americans still get news about politics from TV, more young people get their political news via social media than television.
6. The trend toward less variety in traditional media has been accelerated by changes in media ownership, due to the relaxation of government regulations. One consequence of media monopolies may be a growing distrust of the press.
7. As major newspapers, television stations, and radio networks fall into fewer and fewer hands, the risk increases that politicians and citizens who express less popular or minority viewpoints will have difficulty finding a public forum.
The Rise of New Media Has Strongly Influenced How Americans Get Their News
1. Today, even as the newspaper business struggles for its life, readership of online news has soared. Online media are more diverse and have created a more democratic and participatory press than existed in the past.
2. Digital citizenship refers to the ability to participate in society and politics online.
3. While many traditional news sources, such as newspapers, now publish online, other online news outlets tend to be smaller and more specialized, and they have lower personnel and overhead costs than mainstream publishers. Online news sources include aggregation websites, niche journalism, citizen journalism and blogs, nonprofit journalism, and social media.
4. News consumers have shifted from a few general-purposes sources, such as the evening television news and a local newspaper, to a large number of niche publications and specialized news sources. The rise of niche journalism has fundamentally changed how Americans consume news and what they read.
5. Social media is the most important development in news and political communication, with large and growing numbers of Americans, especially younger Americans, getting their news via Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.
6. Citizen journalism includes news reporting and political commentary by ordinary citizens, and even crisis coverage from eyewitnesses on the scene. Many blogs are citizen-run and are more interactive and representative of the diversity of American views than traditional news. However, misinformation about some political issues is higher among blog readers than among people reading online news from the mainstream press.
7. As traditional news organizations have cut budgets and especially investigative journalism, political information is increasingly emanating from universities, think tanks, nonprofit organizations, and private foundations.
8. New media have become extremely popular because of their convenience, currency, in-depth coverage, and diversity of viewpoints.
9. Democracies depend upon news organizations to inform the people about current events and to help citizens hold their leaders accountable for their actions. There are concerns that a shift to online news could create a loss of investigative power, more variation in the quality of news, and potential effects on knowledge and tolerance. Fears of social media's use in propaganda by extremists have fueled calls for government action around the world.
The Media Affect Power Relations in American Politics
1. In recent political history, the media have played a central role in the civil rights movement, the ending of American involvement in the Vietnam War, the Watergate investigation, and the U.S. decision to invade Iraq in 2003.
2. The power of the media lies in their ability to shape what issues Americans think about and what opinions they hold about those issues. The main sources of media power are agenda setting, selection bias, framing, and priming.
3. Media consultants and issues managers may shape the news for a time through the use of press releases, but it is generally not difficult for the media to penetrate the smoke screens thrown up by news sources if they have a reason to do so.
4. The media may also report information that is leaked by government officials. A leak is the disclosure of confidential information to the news media.
5. The political power of the news media vis-à-vis the government has greatly increased in recent years through the growing prominence of adversarial journalism. Aggressive use of the techniques of investigation, publicity, and exposure has allowed the news media to enhance their autonomy and carve out a prominent place for themselves in American government and politics.
6. In the United States, the print and online media are essentially free from government interference, but broadcast media are subject to federal regulation. American radio and television are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an independent agency. Generally speaking, FCC regulation applies only to the over-the-air broadcast media. It does not apply to cable television, the Internet, or satellite radio.
7. Part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, known as the Communications Decency Act, attempted to regulate the content of material transmitted over the Internet, but the law was overruled by the Supreme Court in 1997.
8. Under federal regulations, broadcasters must provide candidates seeking the same political office equal time to communicate their messages to the public.
9. Regulations also require that individuals be granted the right to rebut personal attacks (the right of rebuttal).
10. Although it is no longer enforced, the fairness doctrine required that broadcasters that aired programs on controversial issues provide time for opposing views.
11. The rise of online media requires revising our thinking about regulation of the media, as it is more difficult-some say impossible-to regulate political content online.
The Media, Democracy, and Your Future
1. Because the media provide the information citizens need for meaningful participation in the political process, they are essential to democratic government.
2. Increasing ideological and partisan stridency in the media is an inevitable result of the expansion and proliferation of news sources.
3. There is no doubt that the new digital media are more diverse, more representative of multiple viewpoints, more interactive and participatory, and, to many, more interesting than traditional news media. Time will tell whether the shift to online news strengthens or harms American democracy.
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Topic
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Chapter Goal
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Related Exercises
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Traditional Media Have Always Mattered in a Democracy
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Describe the role of print and broadcast media in providing political information.
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Video Exercise: Media Habits of Millennials
Simulation: You Are a Producer for a TV News Program
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The Rise of New Media Has Strongly Influenced How Americans Get Their News
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Explain how the Interest has transformed the news media.
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By the Numbers:Advertising Revenue
Who Participates?: Who Participates via Social Media?
Who are Americans?:Where Do Americans Get Their News?
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The Media Affects Power Relations in American Politics
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Analyze how the media, politicians, and public opinion are influenced by one another.
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Simulation: You Are a Producer for a TV News Program
By the Numbers:Advertising Revenue
Video Exercise: Media Habits of Millennials
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