Table of Contents
Media Politics: A Citizen's GuideChapter 1: Introduction
Outline of the Book
Chapter 2: The Press and the Democratic Process
Media Politics as the Successor to Party Politics
Patterns of Media Ownership and Regulation
Public vs. Commercial Ownership of Broadcast Media
Alternative Approaches to Media Regulation
Regulating News Media Coverage of Campaigns
Chapter 3: Getting the News
Markets and Audiences
The Antecedents of News
Market Pressures
A Case Study of Local Television News
The Organizational Process Account of News
Chapter 4: The Demise of Adversarial Journalism
Indexing the News to Official Views
National Security News: The Triumph of Official Journalism
News Coverage of the Vietnam War: A Case Study of Indexing
The Legacy of Vietnam: Restricted Press Access
Chapter 5: The Rise of New Media
Potential Effects of New Media on Consumers
Internet Use as Time Displacer?
Biased Exposure to Online News?
The Partisan Polarization Hypothesis
The Issue Public Hypothesis
The Attentive Public Hypothesis
Impact of the Internet on Political Organizations
Chapter 6: Campaigning Through the Media
Strategies for Managing the Press
Advertising Strategy
Negative Advertising
Direct Mail as an Alternative to Televised Advertising
Campaign Finance Reform: A Brief Overview
Candidate Debates
Chapter 7: Governing Through the Media
Managing the Media
Getting Out the Message
Presidential Speechmaking
The Press Conference
Alternatives to the Press Conference
The Public Congressperson
Policy versus Electoral Goals
The Rise of Issue Advertising
Chapter 8: How News Shapes Public Opinion
Full Circle: Alternative Conceptualizations of Media Influence
Methodological Pluralism
Varieties of Media Effects
A Case Study of Partisan Differences in Message Acceptance
Chapter 9: Campaigns that Matter
Overview: The Political Context versus Engineering
Forecasting Presidential Elections
Voting as an Expression of Partisanship
Holding the Base
Attracting Swing Voters
Educating Voters
The Special Case of Primary Campaigns: "Big Mo"
Campaigns and Turnout
Chapter 10: Going Public and Political Leadership
Theories of Presidential Popularity
Assessing the Effects of Events and News Coverage On Presidential Popularity
Going Public and Public Policy: Power to the People?
Chapter 11: Evaluating Media Politics
Issueless Campaigns
The "Free Time" Movement
Why Not A More Partisan Press?
Freedom from the Press?
Reaching the Technology Generation