Media and the State Legislature: How State Legislators Use Media Tactics to Achieve Legislative Goals

Media and the State Legislature: How State Legislators Use Media Tactics to Achieve Legislative Goals

University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 5-2002 Media and the State Legislature: How State Legislators Use Media Tactics to Achieve Legislative Goals Christopher Alan Cooper University of Tennessee Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Recommended Citation Cooper, Christopher Alan, "Media and the State Legislature: How State Legislators Use Media Tactics to Achieve Legislative Goals. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2002. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/6110 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Christopher Alan Cooper entitled "Media and the State Legislature: How State Legislators Use Media Tactics to Achieve Legislative Goals." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Political Science. Anthony Nownes, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Christopher Alan Cooper entitled: "Media and the State Legislature: How State Legislators Use Media Tactics to Achieve Legislative Goals." I have examined the final paper copy of the dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Political Science. A~~l~ Anthony Nownes, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: William Lyons ~wAccepted for the Council: Vice Provost and of Graduate Studies MEDIA AND THE STATE LEGISLATURE: HOW STATE LEGISLATORS USE MEDIA TACTICS TO ACHIEVE LEGISLATIVE GOALS A Dissertation Presented For the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Christopher Alan Cooper May2002 Copyright © Christopher Alan Cooper, 2002 All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION To my parents iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are a number of people I would like to thank for giving me the support I needed to finish this dissertation and to complete a Ph.D. First, I was fortunate to have a number of professors at Winthrop University who took an interest in my growth as an academic and a person. Without the help and encouragement of Karen Kedrowski, Jessica Kulynych, Jon Marx and Stephen Smith, I never would have entered graduate school, much less finished a dissertation. In particular, Dr. Kedrowski has continued to give generously of her time over the years. Much of this dissertation is based on her work and I appreciate her help and advise throughout this process. At the University of Tennessee, a number of professors have given generously of their time. First, my committee members, Dr. Patricia Freeland, Dr. William Lyons and Professor Daniel Foley have been tremendously helpful. Each has contributed something to whatever is good about this dissertation. Dr. David Houston has also been a tremendous help throughout my graduate career. I certainly owe Dr. Lilliard Richardson a large thanks. Although he left UT for the University of Missouri, he was (and continues to be) very important to my intellectual development. Despite the fact that he consistently beats me in fantasy sports, I thoroughly appreciate the advice, encouragement and friendship he has given me over the years. Finally, I owe my largest thanks to my chair, Dr. Nownes. Dr. Nownes was the perfect dissertation chair. His comments were always tough, but constructive. He has spent a tremendous amount of time (and money) working with me over the years-surely often at the expense of his own research. There is not iv enough I can say or do to properly thank him. In addition, Dr. Nownes' wife, Dr. Elsa Nownes and his son, Cleve have given me a tremendous amount of help. Third, I must thank my friends I knew before coming to UT: Matt Clark, Jack Davis, Adam Dudak, Bryan Nye, Rob Marchi, Bryan Jeter, Brad Davis, Jeff Puller, Steve Distasio, Russ Mullen and Mason Adair. Since arriving at UT, I have also benefited from the help and friendship of a number of UT graduate students: Marc Schwerdt, Greg Neddenriep, Greg Ryan, Chris Neddenriep, Dan Masters, Keith Clement, Nikkigiles, John Barbrey, and Claudia Bryant. I especially owe Jennifer Barnhart a large thanks. For some reason, she has decided to put up with me for the last year and a half. I hope her poor decision-making continues. Finally, I owe a big thanks to my family. They have all been supportive of this endeavor, even when they weren't sure exactly why I was doing it. In particular, I would like to thank my parents and my brother. Each has contributed to who I am today in a very different, but valuable way. V ABSTRACT Despite a spate of research discussing the importance of media in national politics, as well as the importance of state legislatures, we know virtually nothing about how media and state legislatures work in tandem. Using a survey of state legislators in California, Georgia and Iowa, I ask a number of questions regarding this relationship. Among my findings. I conclude that state legislators do use media tactics for a variety of purposes, although traditional means of legislating still prevail. Next, moving from Susan Herbst's (1998) finding that state legislators often use media content as a surrogate for public opinion, I examine the ways in which state legislators consume media. Here, I find that they consume media from their district more often than media from other places. Certainly this has important implications for the changing nature of representation in the state legislature. Most importantly, I find most state legislators feel similarly about the usefulness of using media tactics, but they vary considerably in how often they use those tactics. This variation appears to be a result of the resources afforded the legislator, rather than personal or district factors. In the end, I make a number of suggestions for future research in this understudied, but vitally important area of study. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS I INTRODUCTION: THE QUESTIONS, THE DATA AND THE OUTLINE 1 Why State Legislators and the Media ....................................... 2 Media-A Short Definition .................................................... 4 What We Know About State Politics and the Media ..................... 4 What the Study Examines .................................................... 7 The Data ........................................................................ 10 What Follows ................................................................... 18 Summary ....................................................................... 21 II SETTING Tiffi STAGE ......................................................... 22 Achieving Legislative Goals ................................................. 22 The Media Effects Studies ................................................... 31 Representation ................................................................. 50 Conclusion ...................................................................... 57 III Tiffi MEDIA ENTERPRISE IN THE STATE LEGISLATURE .......... 59 . Questions and Hypotheses ................................................... 59 Results .......................................................................... 64 :: Types of Media Activities .................................................... 67 Whom Are Legislators Trying to Reach With Their Media Strategies ....................................................................... 70 Which Legislators Use Media Tactics? ..................................... 71 When Do State Legislators Use Media Tactics? .......................... 74 What Have We Learned? .................................................... 77 Implications For Representation ............................................ 79 Implications For the Policy Process ........................................ 81 IV MEDIA CONSUMPTION IN Tiffi STATE LEGISLATURE ............. 83 Information and Communication in Legislatures ......................... 84 What We Know About Media As An Information Source .............. 85 Questions and Hypotheses ................................................... 86 Results .......................................................................... 88 Who Consumes Media? ...................................................... 90 Conclusions and Implications For Representation ........................ 98 V ESTABLISHING A PLACE FOR E-MAIL AND THE INTERNET: COMPUTERIZED MEDIA AND Tiffi STATE LEGISLATURE ......... 101 E-Mail and the Internet in Congress ........................................ 101 E-Mail and the Internet in State Legislatures .............................. 102 Plan of This Chapter .......................................................... 103 The Data........................................................................ 104 vii Results: Electronic Mail. ....................................................

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