J395 News Media & Politics
Dr. Regina Lawrence
Spring 2014
Class meetings: Tues/Thurs 12:30 – 2:00 p.m. CMA 3.108
Office Hours: Tuesdays 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. or by appointment
Office phone: 232-4433
Email: [email protected]
Course Description: This course examines central controversies, theories, and research questions about the role of the media in politics and governing. Some key questions we will consider are: What are the appropriate functions of mass media in a democracy? What laws, economic imperatives, and cultural forces affect the quality of the news citizens get? How do political elites attempt to manage the news, and how does that matter? What is “media bias” and how does it matter? How do news routines affect not just the news the public receives but the ability of political officials to lead? And to what degree and how has all of this been transformed by the rise of today’s “hybrid” media system?
The following required books are available at various on-line booksellers and are available through the UT book store.
Andrew Chadwick, The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power
Timothy Cook, Governing with the News: The News Media as a Political Institution Robert Entman, Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion, and U.S. Foreign Policy Robert Entman & Andrew Rojecki, The Black Image in the White Mind: Media and Race in America Daniel Hallin & Paolo Mancini, Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics
Kathleen Hall Jamieson & Joseph Cappella, Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative Media Establishment
David Ryfe, Can Journalism Survive? An Inside Look at American Newsrooms
Bruce Williams and Michael Delli Carpini, After Broadcast News: Media Regimes, Democracy, and the New Information Environment In addition, journal articles and book chapters marked with “**” on the course reading schedule below will be available on the Blackboard website for this course.
AUDIENCE FOR THE COURSE: There are no formal prerequisites for this course. No previous specific coursework in political communication is required or expected, though students should have a strong background in political science, mass communication, or journalism.
RATIONALE FOR THE COURSE: 40 years ago, Washington reporter and columnist Douglass Cater published a slim volume he titled The Fourth Branch of Government. Cater’s book described a fundamental dynamic of governance: “Publicity is as essential to [the] orderly functioning [of modern American government] as the power to levy taxes and pass laws” (1959: 25). As Cater saw it, in a government operating by separation of powers, journalists play the role of "broker and middleman.” Political actors in turn find it in their interest to make news in order to accomplish their political and policy goals. But Cater also worried that the news values of journalism could come to drive the policy- making process.
Thought-provoking as Cater's argument was, it was largely ignored by political scientists, who in the late 1950s were writing a series of classic books suggesting that American politics was largely played out through bargaining among mobilized elite groups, usually behind closed doors. The journalist was deemed a bit player, and the concern of political actors for the news was thought to be secondary at most. Cater had the last laugh, of course. Nowadays, with the rise of digital and social media and fascination with the new powers of “the people formerly known as the audience,” the traditional news media are often dismissed as key players in contemporary American politics. Though journalists have rarely been comfortable thinking of themselves as political actors, they have exercised considerable political and cultural power. News coverage has been shown to be crucial in a variety of ways, including setting the public agenda and framing issues, events, and actors in political life. And to a far greater extent than when Cater wrote his book, political actors of all sorts are "going public" in order to win influence and make policy in a fragmented political system.
Understanding how these dynamics play out in a rapidly changing media environment is one of our goals in this class. We will focus in particular on theories of press-state relations—that is, theories that attempt to explain and predict how news responds to and shapes the political environment. We will also place the American media/political system into cultural context, understanding how it is different than virtually any other system in the developed world, and how the particular economic and legal underpinnings of the American media shape the kinds of news journalists routinely produce and therefore the information American citizens most readily receive. A final goal for this class is to think critically about how political journalism functions today, the considerable challenges it faces in the near future, and how political journalism and political communication might be made more democratically robust.
Learning Outcomes: Upon completion of this course, students should be able to demonstrate:
1. Familiarity with a broad body of literature on the news media and politics. 2. Ability to think analytically about the dynamics and problems of media and politics. 3. Ability to thoughtfully apply theories and data presented in the class to course assignments. 4. Experience conducting original research on topics related to media and politics. 5. An improved ability to write clearly and engagingly.
Professional Values & Competencies Addressed
Engage in research and critical evaluation. Think creatively and analytically. Apply theories in presenting information. Write clearly and accurately.
Course Policies
Citation and academic honesty: Plagiarism is defined to include any unattributed use of another's work and/or submitting others’ work as one's own. Most of the work you will do for this class will require you to deal closely with books and articles assigned for this class; some projects may require you to do additional research. In either case, the rule of thumb is this: If you use material from a source (either one assigned from this class or something you’ve retrieved through outside research), you must cite it. I will not require a particular citation style (e.g. MLA vs. another citation style; parenthetical citations vs. footnotes). Instead, I will simply require that whatever style you use, you clearly describe the original source, including the page number, if applicable.
University Policy on Scholastic Dishonesty: Students who violate University rules on scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the University. Since such dishonesty harms the individual, all students, and the integrity of the University, policies on scholastic dishonesty will be strictly enforced. For further information please visit the Student Judicial Services Web site: http:// deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs.
Use of IT in class: Use of cell phones is not allowed in my classroom. Laptops are allowed, even encouraged, but I will revoke that privilege if it becomes a distraction rather than an enhancement of our learning environment.
Use of Blackboard: In this class I use Blackboard--a Web-based course management system with password-protected access to distribute course materials, to make course announcements, to post grades, and to submit assignments. You can find support in using Blackboard at the ITS Help Desk (see http://www.utexas.edu/its/helpdesk/).
Use of E-mail for University Correspondence with Students: All students should become familiar with the University’s official e-mail student notification policy. It is the student’s responsibility to keep the University informed as to changes in his or her e-mail address. Students are expected to check e-mail on a frequent and regular basis in order to stay current with University-related communications, recognizing that certain communications may be time-critical. It is recommended that e-mail be checked daily, but at a minimum twice per week. The complete text of this policy and instructions for updating your e-mail address are available at http://www.utexas.edu/its/policies/emailnotify.html.
Students with disabilities: The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone).
University of Texas Honor Code: The core values of The University of Texas at Aus- tin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fair- ness, and respect toward peers and community.
University policy on holy days: A student who misses classes or other required activities, including examinations, for the observance of a religious holy day should inform the instructor as far in advance of the absence as possible, so that arrangements can be made to complete assigned work.
Q drop Policy: The State of Texas has enacted a law that limits the number of course drops for academic reasons to six. The University may not permit an undergraduate student a total of more than six dropped courses, including any course a transfer student has dropped at another institution of higher education, unless the student shows good cause for dropping more than that number.
Behavior Concerns Advice Line (“BCAL”): If you are worried about someone who is acting differently, you may use the Behavior Concerns Advice Line to discuss by phone your concerns about another individual’s behavior. This service is provided through a partnership among the Office of the Dean of Students, the Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC), the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and The University of Texas Police Department (UTPD). Call 512-232-505 or visit http://www.utexas.edu/safety/bcal.
Resources for Learning & Life at UT Austin: The University of Texas has numerous resources for students to provide assistance and support for your learning. You are particularly encouraged to use the Learning Skills Center on campus for help on writing assignments. Also, the PCL reference librarians can assist you with online news retrieval and other information finding tasks.
The UT Learning Center: http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/ Undergraduate Writing Center: http://uwc.utexas.edu/ Counseling & Mental Health Center: http://cmhc.utexas.edu/ Career Exploration Center: http://www.utexas.edu/student/careercenter/ Student Emergency Services: http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/emergency/ Safety issues: http://www.utexas.edu/safety/terms/
COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Our class meetings will include both lecture and discussion of readings. If we are to have robust and well-informed participation in class discussion, all the reading should be completed before each meeting, and students must make every effort to attend each meeting. Absences under any circumstances other than those actuated by documented health or personal emergencies adversely affect the participation portion of your grade.
Course Assignments
There are several components of your final grade in this course:
1) Class discussion papers: FIVE times during the semester you will write a brief analytical response to the week’s readings, to be submitted them to me by Friday at 4:00 via email at [email protected]. These essays should be approximately 3 pages in length. Each paper should answer one of the following sets of questions: a. What tools (concepts, theories, or questions) do this week’s readings furnish for us as scholars of the media and politics? b. What practical lessons for real-world political communication can be gleaned from these readings? How do this week’s readings shed light on current affairs involving the media and politics? c. What do you find unpersuasive or questionable about the week’s readings? Do the authors make assumptions that should be challenged? Do the authors’ arguments need to be updated in light of real-world developments? How could their theory or empirical findings be improved?
Weekly discussion papers will be evaluated based upon their concision and clarity, demonstrated understanding of the readings, and on the quality of the points and questions you raise.
Each Thursday, paper authors will be asked to initiate class discussion by raising questions related to the week’s readings. A sign-up sheet will be handed out on the first day of class.
2. Final paper. Students may choose one of two formats for their final paper. You may choose to write an original research paper or an in-depth literature review (approximately 10-15 pages) examining a topic related to media and politics. In either case, this paper should explore the theories and concepts in our readings and extend them to new situations and cases -- at any level of government or in international politics or in other political systems outside the United States. And in either case, students must submit a 1 – 2 page prospectus describing their intended final paper project by Thursday February 19th. We will devote the last class meeting to brief presentations on your final paper projects. A selected list of additional readings immediately follows our course reading schedule below, which may point you toward additional literature useful to your final paper.
Grades are calculated as follows:
• Weekly Papers (cumulative) -- 40% • Final paper -- 30% • Final Paper Presentation – 10% • Classroom participation -- 20%
Late work/missed assignments: For your weekly discussion papers, you will lose one letter grade if you fail to hand an assignment in when due (e.g. a B paper will automatically become a C paper), and another grade increment for each day after that. No work will be accepted more than three days late. Please note that in the case of final papers, late papers will not be accepted except in cases of doctor-certified illness or documented family emergency. Please plan your schedule accordingly.
Course Reading Schedule
Note: Articles and chapters marked with asterisks (**) are available on the Canvas site for this course.
Section #1: Introduction to the Study of News and/as Politics
Week #1 (1/20 & 1/22) Course Introduction & Overview
Week #2 (1/27 & 1/29) Studying the News Media as a Political Institution
Cook, Governing with the News, introduction and chapters 4-7
Week #3 (2/3 & 2/5) News and Politics in a Fragmented Media Environment
Williams & Delli Carpini, After Broadcast News: Media Regimes, Democracy, and the New Information Environment, chapters 1, 2, 4, & 7
Week #4 (2/10 & 2/12) Situating Political Coverage in Today’s Daily News
Ryfe, Can Journalism Survive?: An Inside Look at American Newsrooms
Section #2: Structural & Cultural Determinants of News
Week #5 (2/17 & 2/19) Culture & History: American Media and Government in Comparative Perspective
[Final paper prospectus due Thursday 2/19]
Hallin & Mancini, Comparing Media Systems, chapters 1 – 4 and 7 – 9
**Katrin Voltmer, “How Far Can Media Systems Travel?”, from Comparing Media Systems Beyond the Western World, ed. Hallin & Mancini
Week #6 (2/24 & 2/26) Legal & Economic Structure of the US Media; Current Practice and Future of Press Freedom
Cook, Governing with the News, chapter 8 **Lawrence (ed.), Freeing the Presses: The First Amendment in Action, chapters by Clark, Schauer, Schudson, Lawrence, Bennett, Owen, and Stein
** Dunaway, Johanna. 2008. “Markets, Ownership, and the Quality of Campaign News Coverage,” Journal of Politics 70(4) pp. 1193-1202.
Week #7 (3/3 & 3/5) Race and Gender in Political News
Robert Entman & Andrew Rojecki, The Black Image in the White Mind
**Lawrence & Rose, Hillary Clinton’s Race for the White House, chapters 1, 3, & 6
Section #3: Theories of Press-State Relations
Week #8 (3/10 & 3/12) The Theory of Indexing
**Bennett, “Toward a Theory of Press-State Relations”
**Bennett, Lawrence, and Livingston, When the Press Fails, Introduction & chapters 1 - 3, 5 & 6
** Lawrence, “Indexing,” Oxford Bibliographies, http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756841/obo-9780199756841- 0090.xml?rskey=DitXFX&result=21&q
[SPRING BREAK – no class 3/17 and 3/19]
Week #9 (3/24 & 3/26) Press-Government Relations and US Foreign Policy
Robert Entman, Projections of Power
Week #10 (3/31 & 4/2) Beyond Indexing: Unexpected Events, Active Journalists, and Other Theoretical Vistas
**Althaus, “When News Norms Collide, Follow the Lead: New Evidence for Press Independence,” Political Communication (2003)
**Lawrence, “Defining Events: Problem Definition in the Media Arena,” from Hart & Sparrow, Politics, Discourse, and American Society
**Tim Groeling and Matthew Baum, “Crossing the Water’s Edge: Elite Rhetoric, Media Coverage, and the Rally-Around-the-Flag Effect,” Journal of Politics (2008)
Section #4: Political Information in a Rapidly Changing Media Environment
Week #11(4/7 & 4/9) Technological Transformations/New Media and Democracy
**Prior, Markus. 2005. “News vs. Entertainment: How Increasing Media Choice Widens Gaps in Political Knowledge and Turnout.” American Journal of Political Science 49(3): 577-592.
**Lawrence, “Campaign News in the Time of Twitter: An Observational Study”
Week #12 (4/14 & 4/16) Partisan Media Bias and Political Polarization
Jamieson & Cappella, Echo Chamber
**Stroud, Natalie. J. (2010). “Polarization and Partisan Selective Exposure.” Journal of Communication 60: 556–576.
Week #13 (4/21 & 4/23) Governing With the News in the New Media Age
**Stephen Farnsworth, “The Many Channels of Presidential Spin” and “Modern Media Channels: Presidents and Presidential Candidates Spin the New Media,” from Spinner In Chief: How Presidents Sell Their Policies and Themselves.
**Paul Starr, “Governing in the Age of FOX News,” The Atlantic http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/01/governing-in-the-age-of-fox- news/307845/
**Jennifer Jerit and Jason Barabas. “Bankrupt Rhetoric: Effects of Misleading Information on Knowledge about Social Security.” Public Opinion Quarterly, 70, 3 (2006): 278- 303. **Regina G. Lawrence and Matthew Schafer. “Debunking Sarah Palin: Mainstream News Coverage of “Death Panels,” Journalism (2012)
Week #14 (4/28 & 4/30) The Future of Political News in the Hybrid Media System
Andrew Chadwick, The Hybrid Media System: Politics and Power
Week #15 (5/5 & 5/7)
Student Presentations of Research Projects & Synthesis/Conclusion of Course
RECOMMENDED “Classic” READINGS on selected topics in news media and governance:
Journalists as Political Actors/The News Media as a Political Institution
Cook, Timothy E. 2006. “The News Media as a Political Institution: Looking Backward and Looking Forward”, Political Communication 23 pp. 159-71.
Dunaway, Johanna. 2011. “Institutional Influences on the Quality of Campaign News Coverage.” Forthcoming, Journalism Studies
Page, Benjamin. 1996. “Mass Media as Political Actors.” PS: Political Science and Politics 29(1): 20-24.
Schudson, M. 2002. “The News Media as Political Institutions.” Annual Review of Political Science 5: 249-269.
Sparrow, Bartholomew H. 2006. “A Research Agenda for an Institutional Media.” Political Communication 23:145-57.
Sparrow, Bartholomew H. 1999. Uncertain Guardians: The News Media as a Political Institution. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Journalistic Norms and Routines and the Precursors of Indexing Theory
Breed, Warren. 1955. “Social Control in the Newsroom: A Functional Analysis.” Social Forces 33: 326- 335.
Epstein, Edward J. 1973. News from Nowhere. New York: Random House.
Gans, Herbert J. 1979. Deciding What’s News: A Study of CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, Newsweek, and Time. Random House, Inc.
Hallin, Daniel. 1978. The Uncensored War. Oxford University Press.
Schudson, Michael. 2003. The Sociology of News. W.W. Norton.
Sigal, Leon V. 1973. Reporters and Officials: The Organization and Politics of Newsmaking. Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath.
Sigelman, Lee. 1973. Reporting the News: An Organizational Analysis. American Journal of Sociology 79:132-151
Tuchman, Gaye. 1978. Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality. New York: Free Press.
Media Economics
An, Soontae, Hyun Seung Jin, and Todd Simon. 2006. “Ownership Structure of Publicly Traded Newspaper Companies and Their Financial Performance.” Journal of Media Economics 19(2):119-136.
Gilens, Martin, and Craig Hertzman. 2000. “Corporate Ownership and News Bias: Newspaper Coverage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.” The Journal of Politics 62(2): 369-386.
Iyengar, Shanto, Helmut Norpoth, and Kyu S. Hahn. 2004. “Consumer Demand for Election News: The Horserace Sells.” The Journal of Politics, 66(1):157-175.
McManus, John H. 1994. Market-Driven Journalism: Let the Citizens Beware? Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Mullainathan, Sendhil and Shleifer, Andrei, “The Market for News” (December 30, 2003). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=485724.
Napoli, Philip M., and Michael Zhaoxu Yan. 2007. Media Ownership Regulations and Local News Programming on Broadcast Television: An Empirical Analysis.” Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 51(1):39-57.
Schudson, Michael & Leonard Downie, Jr., “The Reconstruction of American Journalism,” http://www.cjr.org/reconstruction/the_reconstruction_of_american.php
Yan, Michael Zhaoxu, and Philip M. Napoli. 2006. “Market Competition, Station Ownership, and Local Public Affairs Programming on Broadcast Television.” Journal of Communication 56:795-812.
Media Bias and Selective Exposure
Druckman, James N., and Michael Parkin. 2005. “The Impact of Media Bias: How Editorial Slant Affects Voters.” The Journal of Politics, Vol. 67, No.4, pp. 1030-1049.
Garrett, R. Kelly. 2009. “Politically Motivated Reinforcement Seeking: Reframing the Selective Exposure Debate.” Journal of Communication 59: 676–699.
Groseclose, Tim, and Jeffrey Milyo. 2005. “A Measure of Media Bias.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics. CXX(4):1191-1237.
Patterson, Thomas E. and Wolfgang Donsbach. 1996. “News Decisions: Journalists as Partisan Actors.” Political Communication 13: 455-468.
Stroud, Natalie. J. 2008. “Media Use and Political Predispositions: Revisiting the Concept of Selective Exposure.” Political Behavior 30:341–366
New Media
Davis, Richard. 2009. Typing Politics: The Role of Blogs in American Politics. Oxford University Press.
Hindman, Matthew. 2008. The Myth of Digital Democracy. Princeton University Press.
Press-State Relations, Governing With the News, Indexing and Beyond
Althaus, Scott. L., Jill A. Edy, Robert M. Entman, and Patricia Phalen. 1996. “Revisiting the Indexing Hypothesis: Officials, Media, and the Libya Crisis.” Political Communication 13:407-421. Arnold, R. Douglas. 2004. Congress, the Press, and Political Accountability. Princeton: Russell Sage Foundation.
Bennett, W. Lance, Regina G. Lawrence, and Steven Livingston. 2007. When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News from Iraq to Katrina. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Blumler, Jay, and Michael Gurevitch. 1981. "Politicians and the Press: An Essay on Role Relationships." In, Handbook of Political Communication, Dan D. Nimmo and Keith R. Sanders, eds. Sage Publications.
Douglass Cater, "Government by Publicity," The Fourth Branch of Government (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1959), pp. 1-21.
Clayman, Steven E., Marc N. Elliot, John Heritage, and Laurie L. McDonald. 2007. “When Does the Watchdog Bark? Conditions of Aggressive Questioning in Presidential News Conferences.” American Sociological Review 72: 23-41.
Cook, Timothy E. 1989. Making Laws and Making News: Media Strategies in the U.S. House of Representatives. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution. (Ch. 3-4; 7-8)
Eshbaugh-Soha, Matthew. 2010. “The Tone of Local Presidential News Coverage.” Political Communication 27:121-140.
Fishman, Mark. 1979. "News and Nonevents: Making the Visible Invisible." In, Individuals in Mass Media Organizations: Creativity and Constraint, James S. Ettema and D. Charles Whitney, eds. Sage Publications.
Hager, Gregory L. and Terry Sullivan. 1994. "President-centered and Presidency- centered explanations of Presidential Public Activity." American Journal of Political Science 38(4):1079-1103.
Kernell, Samuel. 2007. Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership, 4th edition. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.
Lawrence, Regina G. 2000. The Politics of Force: Media and the Construction of Police Brutality. University of California Press.
Molotch, Harvey, and Marilyn Lester. 1974. "Accidental News: The Great Oil Spill as Local Occurrence and National Event." The American Journal of Sociology 81(2): 235-260.
Sellers, Patrick J. 2000. “Manipulating the Message in the U.S. Congress.” The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 5(1): 22-31.
Sellers, Patrick J. 2010. Cycles of Spin: Strategic Communication in the U.S. Congress. Cambridge University Press.
Zaller, John R. and Dennis Chiu. 1996. “Government’s Little Helper: U.S. Press Coverage of Foreign Policy Crises, 1945-1991.” Political Communication 13: 385-405.