Public Opinion/MediaI. Finish PollingII. The American MediaIII. Is the press biased?IV. Journalistic BiasV. Influence of the PressI. -First concern- Sometimes polls don’t just measure, sometimes they create opinion. Example: BandwagonPolls create allusion of saliency- some issues are really important but polls are only asking what you thought about it. Pros and cons-Second concern- Polling can push out other forms of participation. “Why bother since he’s going to lose anyway”Causing you to change your participation-Third concern- Polling can’t measure the intensity of your opinion. How strongly you feel about something. -1970 poll- You would have a very different picture of what was important in American society compared to what was really going on. 5% of questions were about Vietnam, 1% on race. The rest touched on business concerns. -Fourth concern- polls have become news. Used to be a secondary tool that the media would use but now they’ll just be up.Easy to get sucked in because of polling numbers -Fifth concern- Political polls as marketing toolsMarketing an issue or a candidateUsing polls as ideological tools2 phrases associated with these: 1) seeding the electorate 2) push pollsSurveys to start rumors that are true or falseExample: first use of push poll- Republican primary in South Carolina- Bush and McCain- in Bush campaign put out a question to seed the electorate: “If you found out that McCain had an illegitimate black child, would that alter your vote?”Pushed people away from McCain to BushII. -Media- “Why?”-Freedom of the press is in the BoR. We feel strongly about giving our media room inorder to tell us what’s going on. -Exchange of opinion/ideas- 1st amendment-Press includes tabloids. -Back then- local media & heavily partisan media-2 parties- Federalist party- AdamsDemocratic Republicans- Jefferson-Adams was disgusted by democratic republican media so he passed Alien And sedition Acts- illegal to criticize government meaning no false, scandalous and malicious writing. -Repealed by 1802. -Less tied to one party so press realizes that they’ll get better business if they play both fields by writing about both parties. -When FDR was president, you didn’t see many pictures of Roosevelt in his wheelchair because they said it was a personal issue. -When Kennedy was president and the rumors about his mistresses, the media didn’t cover it.-Today we look more like the Founding with the rumors and mudslinging. *****LINK TO PARTIES AND POLITICAL PARTIES. MEDIA WITH THE PARTIES*****-Print media (magazines, newspapers) and broadcasted media (telephone, TV, radio)-Few restrictions on media-NY Times v. USA liberal opponent of the Vietnam War gets his hands on the Pentagon Papers and gives them to the New York Times to publish. Can the NY Times publish them? Can the national government stop the NY Times by placing prior restraint on them? Supreme Court says they’re allowed to publish them because no prior restraint on print media. -NY Times v. SullivanYou are suing a magazine on liable grounds (false and malicious stories). Supreme Court explains what you need to do in order to sue. Supreme Court makes it difficult to win a liable case. Supreme Court explains you must prove that the publication was done with actual malice or reckless intent. -Broadcast media is more heavily regulated. -FCC- Federal Communications Commission- group that regulates the air waves like the radio and TV stations by giving the stations 8 year licenses. -FCC has two rules that effect political campaigns and political candidates- 1) the equal time rule- equal price and equal time of commercials with candidates. Example-Arnold Schwartz 2) right of rebuttal that the FCC enforces. People must be given the right to respond to defend themselves from personal attacks. III. -Is the press biased?-Started because conservatives noticed that polls surveying journalists, showed that journalists tended to be liberal and voted democratic.-How could there be a liberal bias if journalists tended to be liberal? -Publishers and corporates tend to be conservative- counter pressures to the journalists-Press is in it for money and also concerned about the audience. -Not ideological bias but journalist bias-Need funds so they get people to go to their websites, etc by creating fun stories.-Bias means that we don’t know we are missing out on the information we actually
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