News: The Politics of Illusion

by Bennett, W. Lance

• ISBN13: 9780321421616
• ISBN10: 0321421612
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-01-01
• Publisher: Longman

Summary

This favorite of both instructors and students is a "behind-the-scenes" tour of news in American politics. The core question explored in this book is: How well does the news, as the core of the national political information system, serve the needs of democracy? In investigating this question, the book examines how various political actors-from presidents and members of Congress, to interest organizations and citizen-activists-try to get their messages into the news.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Doris A. Graber	vii
Preface	xv
CHAPTER 1 THE NEWS ABOUT DEMOCRACY	1	(35)
News and Democracy	4	(1)
Gatekeeping: Who and What Makes the News	5	(1)
News as a Democratic Information System	6	(2)
Politicians, Press, and the People	8	(3)
A Definition of News	11	(1)
The New Gatekeeping	11	(2)
How Mediated Government Works	13	(6)
Case Study: Governing with the News as Terror Comes to America	14	(5)
The Fragile Link Between News and Democracy	19	(1)
Why Free Speech Cannot Guarantee Good Information	19	(2)
Soft News and the Turn Away from Politics	21	(3)
Myths About News Bias	24	(1)
Putting Journalistic Bias in Perspective	25	(5)
What Kind of News Would Better Serve Democracy?	30	(1)
Notes	31	(5)
CHAPTER 2 NEWS CONTENT	36	(38)
A Different Kind of Bias	38	(2)
Four Information Biases that Matter: An Overview	40	(9)
Case Study: How Geortx W. Bush Got His Swagger	45	(4)
Four Information Biases in the News: An In-Depth Look	49	(18)
Bias as Part of the Political Information System	67	(1)
News Bias and Discouraged Citizens	67	(2)
Reform Anyone?	69	(1)
Notes	70	(4)
CHAPTER 3 CITZENS AND THE NEWS	74	(35)
Priming Public Opinion on Iraq	77	(2)
News, Stragetic Information, and Public Opinion: The Citizen's Dilemma	79	(3)
Internet Versus Mass Media: Why Mainstream News Still Matters	82	(1)
Processing the News	83	(1)
Why People Prefer TV: Audio and Visual Information	84	(1)
News Frames and Political Learning	85	(4)
Case Study: National Attention Deficit Disorder?	86	(3)
News and Personal Experience: What Gets Through	89	(5)
Uses and Gratifications: Other Reasons People Follow the News	94	(10)
Citizen, Information, and Politics	104	(2)
Notes	106	(3)
CHAPTER 4 HOW POLITICIANS MAKE THE NEWS	109	(44)
The Politics of Illusion	110	(2)
The Sources of Political News	112	(7)
Case Study: Selling the Iraq War	116	(3)
News Images as Strategic Political Communication	119	(2)
News Bias and Press-Government Relations	121	(1)
The Goals of Strategic Political Communication	122	(5)
Symbolic Politics and the Techniques of Image Making	127	(3)
News Management: The Basics	130	(6)
News Management Styles and the Modern Presidency	136	(6)
Press Relations: Feeding the Beast	142	(5)
Government and the Politics of Newsmaking	147	(2)
Notes	149	(4)
CHAPTER 5 How JOURNALISTS REPORT THE NEWS	153	(33)
Work Routines and Professional Norms	156	(2)
When Routines Produce High-Quality Reporting	158	(5)
Case Study: Top Ten Reasons the Press Took a Pass on the Iraq War	159	(4)
How Reporting Practices Contribute to News Bias	163	(1)
Reporters and Officials: Cooperation and Control	164	(4)
Reporters as Members of News Organizations: Pressures to Standardize	168	(3)
Reporters as a Pack: Pressures to Agree	171	(6)
The Paradox of Organizational Routines	177	(1)
When Journalism Works	178	(3)
Democracy With or Without Citizens?	181	(1)
Notes	182	(4)
CHAPTER 6 INSIDE THE PROFESSION	186	(34)
Journalists and Their Profession	187	(1)
The Paradox of Objective Reporting	188	(1)
Defining Objectivity: Fairness, Balance, and Truth	189	(2)
The Curious Origins of Objective Journalism	191	(3)
Professional Journalisms in Practice	194	(16)
Objectivity Reconsidered	210	(6)
Case Study: Why Mainstream Professional Journalism Favors Spin over Truth	211	(5)
Notes	216	(4)
CHAPTER 7 THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF NEWS	220	(39)
The Economic Transformation of the American Media	221	(3)
Corporate Profit Logic and News Content	224	(4)
The Political Economy of News	228	(1)
Economics Versus Democracy: Inside the News Business	229	(4)
The Media Monopoly: Arguments for and Against	233	(4)
Case Study: The Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the Citizen's Movement for Social Responsibility in Broadcast Standards	234	(3)
Effects of the Media Monopoly: Five Information Trends	237	(12)
How Does Corporate Influence Operate?	249	(1)
News on the Internet: Perfecting the Commercialization of Information?	250	(1)
Commercialized Information and Citizen Confidence	251	(1)
Megatrends: Technology, Economics, and Social Change	252	(2)
Notes	254	(5)
CHAPTER 8 ALL THE NEWS THAT FITS DEMOCRACY	259	(34)
The Deliberative Citizen	260	(1)
Personalized Information and the Future of Democracy	261	(1)
Whither the Public Sphere?	262	(2)
The News About the Private (Commercial) Media System	264	(1)
The News About Public Broadcasting	265	(1)
The News About Objective Journalism	266	(1)
News and Power in America: Ideal Versus Reality	267	(1)
Why the Myth of a Free Press Persists	268	(3)
Proposals for Citizens, Journalists, and Politicians	271	(16)
Case Study: Citizen Input—from Interactive News to Desktop Democracy	284	(3)
The Promise and Peril of Virtual Democracy	287	(2)
Corporate Social Responsibility: A Place to Start	289	(1)
Notes	290	(3)
Index	293