More than News: Media Power in Public Affairs

1982 ◽  
Vol 76 (3) ◽  
pp. 739
Author(s):  
Margaret K. Latimer ◽  
Michael Bruce MacKuen ◽  
Steven Lane Coombs
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Media Power

How to Tell the Truth without Outraging the Press?

MedienJournal ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Li Xiguang
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Stories ◽  
The Press ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Chinese News Media

The commercialization of meclia in China has cultivated a new journalism business model characterized with scandalization, sensationalization, exaggeration, oversimplification, highly opinionated news stories, one-sidedly reporting, fabrication and hate reporting, which have clone more harm than good to the public affairs. Today the Chinese journalists are more prey to the manipu/ation of the emotions of the audiences than being a faithful messenger for the public. Une/er such a media environment, in case of news events, particularly, during crisis, it is not the media being scared by the government. but the media itself is scaring the government into silence. The Chinese news media have grown so negative and so cynica/ that it has produced growing popular clistrust of the government and the government officials. Entering a freer but fearful commercially mediated society, the Chinese government is totally tmprepared in engaging the Chinese press effectively and has lost its ability for setting public agenda and shaping public opinions. 

Political Knowledge and Misinformation in the Era of Social Media: Evidence From the 2015 UK Election

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Kevin Munger ◽  
Patrick J. Egan ◽  
Jonathan Nagler ◽  
Jonathan Ronen ◽  
Joshua Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
News Media ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Political Information ◽  
The Political ◽  
Election Campaign ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
Media Platform

Abstract Does social media educate voters, or mislead them? This study measures changes in political knowledge among a panel of voters surveyed during the 2015 UK general election campaign while monitoring the political information to which they were exposed on the Twitter social media platform. The study's panel design permits identification of the effect of information exposure on changes in political knowledge. Twitter use led to higher levels of knowledge about politics and public affairs, as information from news media improved knowledge of politically relevant facts, and messages sent by political parties increased knowledge of party platforms. But in a troubling demonstration of campaigns' ability to manipulate knowledge, messages from the parties also shifted voters' assessments of the economy and immigration in directions favorable to the parties' platforms, leaving some voters with beliefs further from the truth at the end of the campaign than they were at its beginning.

scholarly journals How Mediated Opinion Polls Influence Political Parties: Revisiting the Arena Framework

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-265
Author(s):  
Per Oleskog Tryggvason
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
News Media ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Previous Election ◽  
Media Power ◽  
Party Behavior ◽  
Opinion Polls ◽  
Unique Dataset

Abstract One key question in research on the mediatization of politics concerns how political actors are influenced by the news media. Using a unique dataset of more than 2,400 Swedish politicians, this study bridges two literatures—the arena framework of strategic party behavior, and research on elite perceptions of media power—by investigating how politicians assess the influence of mediás publication of opinion polls. The results show that published opinion polls are seen as highly influential, but that perceptions of influence vary between the internal, electoral, media, and parliamentary arenas on which political parties act. Furthermore, on the electoral and media arena, the perceived influence of published opinion polls is found to be a function of how the politician’s party has performed on the polls. More specifically, politicians who believe their party to have either increased or decreased their poll support since the previous election deem polls as more influential compared to politicians who perceive that their party has not moved in the polls.

scholarly journals Bursting the filter bubble: the mediating effect of discussion frequency on network heterogeneity

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 1161-1181
Author(s):  
Nadine Strauß ◽  
Laura Alonso-Muñoz ◽  
Homero Gil de Zúñiga
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Mediating Effect ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Network Heterogeneity ◽  
Mediation Analyses ◽  
Filter Bubbles

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify the structural processes that lead citizens to escape their common social circles when talking about politics and public affairs (e.g. “filter bubbles”). To do so, this study tests to what extent political attitudes, political behavior, news media consumption and discussion frequency affect discussion network heterogeneity among US citizens.Design/methodology/approachSupported by the polling group Nielsen, this study uses a two-wave panel online survey to study the antecedents and mechanisms of discussion network heterogeneity among US citizens. To test the hypotheses and answer the research questions, ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions (cross-sectional, lagged and autoregressive) and mediation analyses were conducted.FindingsThe findings imply that political discussion frequency functions as the key element in explaining the mechanism that leads politically interested and participatory citizens (online) as well as news consumers of traditional and online media to seek a more heterogeneous discussion network, disrupting the so-called “filter bubbles.” However, mediation analyses also showed that discussion frequency can lead to more homogenous discussion networks if people score high on political knowledge, possibly reflecting the formation of a close network of political-savvy individuals.Originality/valueThe survey data give important insights into the 2016 pre-election situation, trying to explain why US citizens were more likely to remain in homogenous discussion networks when talking about politics and public affairs. By using two-wave panel data, the analyses allow to draw tentative conclusions about the influential and inhibiting factors and mechanisms that lead individuals to seek/avoid a more heterogeneous discussion network.

Direct and Indirect Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Public Affairs Knowledge

1994 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 433-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas M. McLeod ◽  
Elizabeth M. Perse
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
News Media ◽  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Direct And Indirect Effects ◽  
Perceived Utility ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Lisrel Model

This study investigates the impact of socioeconomic status (SES), perceived utility indicators, and news media use on public affairs knowledge. A LISREL model was used to evaluate various theoretical arguments that have been used to account for public affairs knowledge. Results reveal that SES was significantly linked to knowledge through each of the aforementioned factors. In addition, we located a strong direct SES effect on public affairs knowledge.

Combining Big Data and Survey Techniques to Model Effects of Political Content Flows in Facebook

2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Wells ◽  
Kjerstin Thorson
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Hybrid Approach ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Survey Techniques ◽  
Data Measurement ◽  
Novel Method

This article introduces a novel method that combines a “big data” measurement of the content of individuals’ Facebook (FB) news feeds with traditional survey measures to explore the antecedents and effects of exposure to news and politics content on the site. Drawing on recent theoretical and methodological advances, we demonstrate how such a hybrid approach can be used to (a) untangle distinct channels of public affairs content within respondents’ FB news feeds, (b) explore why respondents vary in the extent to which they encounter public affairs content on the site, and (c) examine whether the amount and type of public affairs content flows in one’s FB is associated with political knowledge and participation above and beyond self-report measures of news media use.

The Watchdog Still Barks

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Knobel
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Social Action ◽  
News Media ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Free Press ◽  
The Public ◽  
Internet Age ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Public Sphere

This chapter discusses the erosion of the newspaper business and presents arguments as to why the free press is important, even in the Internet age. It also details the research behind this volume, and argues that no other function of a free press is as important as its ability to monitor the work of the government. The presence of a vibrant press to monitor government is not just important on the micro level but is essential to the proper functioning of our democracy. In fact, the work of the news media is valued because it helps empower the “public sphere,” meaning a realm of our social life in which something approaching public opinion can be formed. Here, the public sphere is not just a virtual or imagined place to discuss public affairs, but it is also a mechanism to enable citizens to influence social action.

scholarly journals Young people’s news orientations and uses of traditional and new media for news

2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Van Cauwenberge ◽  
Leen d’Haenens ◽  
Hans Beentjes
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Public Service ◽  
News Media ◽  
Public Affairs ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Online Media ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Media Environment ◽  
National Quality

AbstractThis article reports on Flemish college students’ news orientations and their uses of traditional and new media for news within a public service media environment. We used five homogeneous focus groups that covered variation in news media use. The analysis of the focus groups revealed major differences in news behaviors and attitudes between participants who mainly depended on traditional media for news, and those who also went online for news. While a growing body of research reports on young people’s increasing use of online media for news, particularly among those that are most disengaged with traditional news media, our findings indicated that only the most eager news-users were motivated to gather information online. Additionally, we found that traditional media, in particular national quality papers and the Flemish public service newscast, were still the main reference points for public affairs information among our participants.

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