Unit 13: The Media

Role of the Media 1. Media as reporter - Americans rely on the media to condense, yet accurately report the workings of the government 2. Media as agenda setters - also report on what the government should be doing - bring to light issues that the government must address

3. media as investigators - serves as an independent check on the activities of politicians and government

Trends in the Media 1.shift from print (newspapers and magazines) to electronic (radio, tv, internet) 2. shift from network news to cable news - between 1980 and 2010, viewership of NBC, CBS, and ABC fell from 52 to 25 million people

3. consolidation - only about two dozen companies own all media outlets in the U.S. 4. shift from reporting to analyzing news - growth of talk shows and pundits 5. Americans distrusting the news (only 29% think the news is accurately reported)

Bias in the Media Both sides claim bias in the media Most people agree it is more liberally biased Journalists tend to be liberal, but editors and owners tend to be more conservative

How to identify Bias: 1. number of times politicians, party members, special interest groups or think tanks are cited or appear on the show 2. the programming – the hosts of the shows, both pundit shows and reporting shows (reporting shows should be neutral, but today they are not…the lines are being blurred) 3. the ownership – which corporations or individuals own these companies