News The Politics of Illusion

by Bennett, W. Lance

• ISBN13: 9780205082414
• ISBN10: 0205082416
• Edition: 9th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-02-22
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

Updated in a new 9^th Edition, News: The Politics of Illusion, by W. Lance Bennett discusses and analyzes the dramatic shifts in news consumption and creation that have both ended and begun new eras of journalism in our time.   How well does the news, as the core of the national political information system, serve the needs of democracy? In exploring this core question, this book examines both how political actors work their messages into the news and how journalists and news organizations report the news.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vi
Preface	p. xiii
The News About Democracy: Information Crisis in American Politics	p. 1
The Economic Collapse of the News Business	p. 2
Who Needs Journalists with Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter?	p. 5
Who Follows the News?	p. 7
Scare Them and They May Pay Attention: Communicating with Elusive Audiences	p. 8
Governing with the News	p. 11
How the News Went to War in Iraq	p. 12
What About Evidence? An Uncomfortable Truth About Journalism	p. 14
A Definition of News	p. 19
Gatekeeping: Who and What Make the News	p. 20
Politicians, Press, and the People	p. 22
The First Amendment: Why Free Speech Does Not Guarantee Good Information	p. 26
The Fragile Link Between News and Democracy	p. 28
Notes	p. 30
News Stories: Four Information Biases That Matter	p. 35
Putting Journalistic Bias in Perspective	p. 38
What's Wrong with a Partisan Press?	p. 41
A Different Kind of Bias	p. 42
Four Information Biases That Matter: An Overview	p. 44
Four Information Biases in the News: An In-Depth Look	p. 48
Bias as Part of the Political Information System	p. 68
News Bias and Discouraged Citizens	p. 69
Reform Anyone?	p. 70
Notes	p. 71
Citizens and the News: Public Opinion and Information Processing	p. 76
News and the Battle for Public Opinion	p. 77
Reaching Inattentive Publics	p. 82
Selling the Iraq War	p. 86
News and Public Opinion: The Citizen's Dilemma	p. 88
Processing the News	p. 90
Entertainment and Other Reasons People Follow the News	p. 98
Citizens, Information, and Politics	p. 106
Notes	p. 107
How Politicians Make the News	p. 111
The Politics of Illusion	p. 118
The Sources of Political News	p. 118
News Images as Strategic Political Communication	p. 122
The Goals of Strategic Political Communication	p. 123
Symbolic Politics and Strategic Communication	p. 127
News Management: The Basics	p. 130
News Management Styles and the Modern Presidency	p. 137
Press Relations: Feeding the Beast	p. 144
Government and the Politics of Newsmaking	p. 147
Notes	p. 148
How Journalists Report the News	p. 153
How Spin Works	p. 155
Work Routines and Professional Norms	p. 158
Explaining Differences in the Quality of Reporting	p. 160
How Routine Reporting Practices Contribute to News Bias	p. 166
Reporters and Officials: Cooperation and Control	p. 167
Reporters as Members of News Organizations: Pressures to Standardize	p. 170
Reporters as a Pack: Pressures to Agree	p. 174
The Paradox of Organizational Routines	p. 178
When Journalism Works	p. 179
Democracy With or Without Citizens?	p. 182
Notes	p. 183
Inside the Profession: Objectivity and the Political Authority Bias	p. 187
Journalists and Their Profession	p. 190
The Paradox of Objective Reporting	p. 194
Defining Objectivity: Fairness, Balance, and Truth	p. 195
The Curious Origins of Objective Journalism	p. 197
Professional Journalism in Practice	p. 200
Objectivity Reconsidered	p. 216
Notes	p. 218
The Political Economy of News and the End of a Journalism Era	p. 223
The News Business in Freefall	p. 224
The Loss of News as a Public Good	p. 225
How We Got Here: Profits vs. the Public Interest	p. 226
Replacing Quality News with Infotainment	p. 229
The Economic Transformation of the American Media	p. 229
Corporate Profit Logic and News Content	p. 231
The Political Economy of News	p. 235
Effects of Media Concentration: Why Government Deregulation Was Bad for Public Information	p. 240
News on the Internet: Perfecting the Commercialization of Information	p. 244
Technology, Economics, and Social Change	p. 246
Notes	p. 247
All the News That Fits Democracy: Solutions for Citizens, Politicians, and Journalists	p. 250
Media Convergence and the Loss of Gatekeeping	p. 252
The Isolated Citizen	p. 254
The Deliberative Citizen	p. 255
Personalized Information and the Future of Democracy	p. 256
Whither the Public Sphere?	p. 257
Three American Myths About Public Information	p. 258
News and Power in America: Ideal vs. Reality	p. 262
Why the Myth of a Free Press Persists	p. 263
Proposals for Citizens, Journalists, and Politicians	p. 266
The Promise and Peril of Virtual Democracy	p. 282
Balancing Democracy and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Place to Start	p. 284
Notes	p. 285
Index	p. 289
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