Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Matt Guardino
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Unintended Effects ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
News Content ◽  
Media System ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Media

This chapter introduces the argument and analyses. It explains the broader political importance of media coverage and public opinion during policy debates. The chapter also discusses how structural and institutional factors in the media system can contribute to often unforeseen or unintended effects on news content, and can ultimately shape the ideological direction of public opinion. It summarizes the book’s data and key claims about corporate news media’s role in rising economic inequality across the neoliberal era, and discusses the broader implications of the book’s argument and evidence for American democracy. The chapter ends by previewing the structure of the book.

“Gipper Sweeps Congress”

2019 ◽  
pp. 50-97
Author(s):  
Matt Guardino
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Newspaper Coverage ◽  
Economic Plan ◽  
Media System ◽  
Regressive Tax ◽  
The Media

This chapter analyzes media content, elite discourse, and public opinion surrounding Ronald Reagan’s 1981 economic plan. It demonstrates that major television and newspaper coverage of this early neoliberal policy significantly favored free-market perspectives that justified economic inequality. It also shows that media outlets marginalized elite and nongovernmental criticism of the Reagan plan. Commercial tendencies of the media system in that historical context are connected to these patterns in the news. Survey data suggest that such media coverage shaped public opinion to support this influential model of regressive tax policy.

Toward a Critical Understanding of News Media, Public Opinion, and the Politics of Economic Inequality

2019 ◽  
pp. 9-49
Author(s):  
Matt Guardino
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
News Media ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Social Welfare Policy ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Media ◽  
Critical Understanding ◽  
Material Power

This chapter sets the conceptual and historical context of the argument and describes patterns of U.S. public opinion that the book seeks to explain. It situates the book’s argument within scholarship on the politics of economic inequality, public opinion, news framing of policy debates, and the political economy of the media. The chapter also develops a new theory of media dynamics. This theory explains how corporate and governmental influences shaped by media policies filter news coverage of economic and social welfare policy issues. The chapter also summarizes the book’s contribution to empirical research on material power in American politics and to scholarship about the tensions between neoliberalism and democracy.

Framing Inequality

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matt Guardino
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
News Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Media Policy ◽  
News Content ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Political Economic

This book examines how major news media have influenced the politics of economic inequality by shaping U.S. public opinion toward key policies since the early 1980s. The book describes the substance and ideological texture of news coverage during economic and social welfare policy debates across the neoliberal era. It also compares this news content to patterns of official and nongovernmental discourse. The book argues that the media’s structural position as a corporately organized and commercially driven institution helps to explain politically significant discrepancies between news coverage and broader policy discussions. The book also shows how framing patterns in the news produced through these political-economic processes may influence concrete policy attitudes. Its experimental analysis demonstrates that news coverage can shape public opinion to favor neoliberal policies, including among key segments of the American public that otherwise would not express support. The book contends that structural and institutional shifts which mark the rise of neoliberalism as a governing framework for media policy and practices have reinforced patterns of superficial and narrow news content during policy debates. Ultimately, the book argues that media coverage has fostered political climates conducive to neoliberal domestic policies at important historical moments. It suggests that changing media technologies have done little to arrest these trends in corporate news media, and that significant shifts in public policy coverage would require changes in media policy.

Media and Economic Inequality

2020 ◽  
pp. 70-88
Author(s):  
Andrea Grisold ◽  
Hendrik Theine
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Economic Inequality ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Data Analyses ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
Approaches To Study ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media Power ◽  
Information Providers

Chapter 4 reviews a focused selection of the existing research which sheds light on the role that the media play in relation to the circulation of certain sets of ideas and discourses concerning inequality issues and redistribution policies (i.e., the shaping of inequality preferences and beliefs). The main aim in this chapter is to analyse prior empirical studies which explore how this is shaped and informed by media coverage and engagement. To do so, the authors first outline the findings of survey data analyses on individuals’ perception of inequality, and their related position towards the necessity of redistribution. After that, the chapter provides a systematic overview of contemporary empirical studies which examine the media coverage of economic inequality and redistribution policies, and thus debate the role mass media play as information providers. We assess the underlying assumptions and the methodological approaches guiding the respective empirical findings, highlight the merits of this body of work and identify open questions for further research. The last part of this chapter provides a discussion of (currently rather neglected) political economy theories that offer rich theoretical approaches to study media, power, and inequality, thus an enhanced theoretically informed understanding beyond the mere empiricism.

Czech Public Opinion on Turkey's Accession to the EU: An Analysis through the Lenses of Sociological and Discursive Institutionalism*

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-95
Author(s):  
Pelin Ayan Musil
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Discursive Institutionalism ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Eu

While Turkey lacks significant levels of public support from the Czech Republic in its EU bid, the existing studies of European public opinion on the question of Turkey do not bring any reasonable explanation as to why this can be so. To shed light on this problem, this article offers an analytical framework derived from sociological and discursive institutionalism. First, it shows that the historical/cultural context in the Czech Republic has created an informal institution built around the norms of “othering” Muslim societies like Turkey (sociological institutionalism). Second, based on the media coverage of selected political issues from Turkey between 2005 and 2010, it argues that this institution both enables and constrains the “discursive ability” of the media in communicating these issues to its audience (discursive institutionalism). Since the media—as a political actor—mostly acts to maintain this institution and does not critically debate it, the public opinion of Turkey as the “cultural other” remains as a dominant perception. The official support of the political elite for Turkey's accession to the EU does not countervail the media influence, as this support is often not conveyed to the Czech public agenda.

By Popular Demand: Revitalizing Representative Democracy Through Deliberative Elections By John Gastil. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. 275p. $48.00 cloth, $18.95 paper.

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 637-638
Author(s):  
Christopher Wlezien
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Campaign Finance ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
The State ◽  
University Of California ◽  
Trust In Government ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Over Time

A growing chorus of academics, journalists, and politicos alike bemoans the state of American democracy. The symptoms are well known. Public trust in government has declined over time, the stock of social capital has shrunk, and turnout remains low. Some observers even argue that politicians now are less responsive to public opinion on various issues. Perhaps understandably, there is increasing pressure for reform of the electoral process, including campaign finance, the conduct of campaigns, media coverage of campaigns, and election rules themselves. In By Popular Demand, John Gastil joins the call for reform, but in an original and provocative way.

Media vs. candidates and minorities vs. majorities

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Briana Trifiro ◽  
Yiyan Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Time Series Analysis ◽  
Agenda Setting ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Subsequent Performance ◽  
Setting Process ◽  
The Media ◽  
Online Web

Abstract Despite an abundance of research dedicated to the first level agenda setting process in political elections, there is a considerable gap within the literature regarding how the amount of media coverage granted to minority candidates – people of color and women – influence their salience in public opinion. The current study seeks to address this gap by analyzing the effects of online coverage of minority candidates and their subsequent performance in national polling data from June 1, 2019 to November 20, 2019. The present study utilizes a time-series analysis to compare three information formats: Twitter accounts of major media organizations, online web mentions of candidates from these organizations, and the candidates’ own Twitter presence. The presented findings illustrate important relationships – specifically, where candidates of color were able to set their own agenda through their Twitter accounts as opposed to coverage that they received from the media.

scholarly journals Connecting Supreme Court Decisions, Media Coverage, and Public Opinion: The Case of Lawrence v. Texas

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 209-230
Author(s):  
Mahalley D. Allen ◽  
Donald P. Haider-Markel
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Gay And Lesbian ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Media ◽  
Supreme Court Decisions ◽  
The Relationship

Many scholars have examined the relationship between public opinion and the U.S. Supreme Court, but most researchers have often failed to take into account the fact that the press mediates this relationship. Due to the public’s lack of independent knowledge about Supreme Court decisions, the media has the potential to play an influential role in the communication and interpretation of Supreme Court decisions. In this article, we examine the relationship between the Supreme Court, the media, and public opinion. First, we examine whether increased public tolerance on gay and lesbian issues has resulted in increased media coverage of gay-related cases before the Supreme Court. Second, we examine how media coverage of the Court’s 2003 decision to strike down state sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas may have been associated with decreased public support for gay and lesbian civil rights. Our analysis suggests that increased support for gay and lesbian civil rights may have lead to increased media attention to the Lawrence case and that the tone of this coverage may have subsequently resulted in an observed decrease in support for gay and lesbian civil rights following the Court’s decision. We also suggest that the release of a highly critical dissenting opinion by the Court in the case may have encouraged negative media coverage and the resulting shift in public opinion. Our research has broad implications for media coverage of Supreme Court decisions.

scholarly journals Framing Catalonia: Evidence from Québec media

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-247
Author(s):  
Philippe Dubois ◽  
Katryne Villeneuve-Siconnelly
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Mirror Effect ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Position Data ◽  
Projection Effect ◽  
The Media ◽  
Stateless Nations

This article assesses the media treatment of the Catalan referendum on independence (October 2017) in the Québec context. By conducting a quantitative and deductive content analysis of articles published in the four major Québec newspapers, we analyse how Québec newspapers frames the conflict regarding their historical editorial position about the Québec independence project. In addition, we examine how the comparison between Québec and Catalonia fit into the media coverage. Our results confirm the dominant use of the conflict frame for media coverage of political issues. They also point out the importance of internal and institutional factors like the importance of press agencies or the presence of correspondent on the ground as features influencing frames. In terms of editorial position, data suggest that similar issues between two stateless nations do not automatically involve a similar media treatment. We suggest the concept of ‘projection effect’ to bring nuances to the ‘mirror effect’ proposed in the literature.

scholarly journals Functions of Hybrid Media: How Parties and Their Leaders Use Traditional Media in Their Social Media Campaign Communication

2022 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Paatelainen ◽  
Elisa Kannasto ◽  
Pekka Isotalus
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Media Campaign ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Media System ◽  
The Media ◽  
Campaign Communication ◽  
Media Systems ◽  
Personalization Of Politics

Political campaign communication has become increasingly hybrid and the ability to create synergies between older and newer media is now a prerequisite for running a successful campaign. Nevertheless, beyond establishing that parties and individual politicians use social media to gain visibility in traditional media, not much is known about how political actors use the hybrid media system in their campaign communication. At the same time, the personalization of politics, shown to have increased in the media coverage of politics, has gained little attention in the context of today’s hybrid media environment. In this research we analyze one aspect of hybrid media campaign communication, political actors’ use of traditional media in their social media campaign communication. Through a quantitative content analysis of the Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts of Finnish parties and their leaders published during the 2019 Finnish parliamentary elections, we find that much of this hybridized campaign communication was personalized. In addition, we show that parties and their leaders used traditional media for multiple purposes, the most common of which was gaining positive visibility, pointing to strategic considerations. The results have implications for both the scholarship on hybrid media systems and personalization of politics.

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