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Media, Society and Politics: ALL LECTURE NOTES
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1Media, Society and Politics - ALL LECTURE NOTES
Lecture 1: Controlling the media:
Five principles of Political Communication:
1. Political power can usually be translated into power over the news media.
2. When authorities lose control over the political environment they also lose
control over the news.
3. There is no such thing as objective journalism (nor can there be).
4. The media are dedicated more than anything else to telling a good story and
this can often have a major impact on the political process.
5. The most important effects of the news media on citizens tend to be
unintentional and unnoticed.
● Being biased is not a choice. It exists. News cannot be objective.
● The media loves a good story.
● The effects are not intended by the influencers and are not noticed by the
audience.
Making Sense of Media and Politics - Wolfsfeld
Chapter 1: Political power and media power
Political power → power over the media:
● Powerful political actors are always relevant and easily get media coverage
and they get positive media coverage → “Front door”.
For powerful people. People will listen to them.
● Less powerful actors need to make themselves interesting somehow (e.g.
violence, nakedness, (internal) conflict) → “Back door”.
Less powerful people, they have to do something in order to be heard.
● Civil disobedience strategy → "Side door".
Less powerful people that are getting into the media by breaking the law and
waiting to get a reaction. The frame is that you are the victim of the
government.
Politics:
, 2
“Politics is above all a contest”.
Money, land, supermarket.
- About the allocation of scarce resources.
- And setting generally binding norms (laws). Making things clear to the people.
- That can be enforced with organized violence.
Ideally, politics allows for the non-violent resolution of societal conflicts through the
representation of interests.
Power:
The ability of a powerful person to ...
1. Force a certain outcome (Dahl 1957). With a gun.
2. Set the Agenda (Bachratz/Baratz 1962). Obedience. Decisions that have to
be made. The power to decide what will be the topic of the class.
3. Set the Frame/influence preferences (Luke, 1974). To influence the
preferences of people. Convincing someone to do something because a, b,
c…
We talk about setting an agenda and setting the frames in this course.
Why do politicians need journalists?
The need to be heard is a central part of the political game.
The media provides the audience.
"If you don't exist in the media, you don't exist politically".
Why do journalists need politicians?
● Information: politicians are often the only source of information. The powerful
people know a lot.
● Legitimacy: a politician is an accepted/authoritative source. The journalist
needs a strong source in order to have a claim.
● Impact: plans of politicians can impact daily life. Strong people's actions can
influence other people.
Why would journalists prefer powerful politicians?
Powerful people are well-known and have an impact.
Other people need a "back door" → negativity, conflicts…
"Competitive symbiosis" - they need each other and they both try to get what is best
for their side.
Social media, power, and media attention:
● Social media can act as a megaphone but now everyone has a megaphone.
, 3
● Dissemination and channels multiplied, but the audience capacity/attention is
still limited. Can't follow every newspaper that can be noticed. Can't read
everything, even if want to.
● Still need to find/create an audience but offer new ways to bypass
gatekeepers. The gatekeepers are still in control.
Doors for getting into the news:
There are basically two doors for getting into the news.
- The front door is reserved for VIPs: the people with political power. When
these people enter, they are usually treated with respect. They are covered
because of who they are as much as for what they are doing or saying.
- The other way to get into the news is through the back door. This door is
reserved for weaker political actors who only become newsworthy if they
do something especially weird or deviant. The powerful can be pretty boring
and still get into the news. But if you are not important you better be
interesting.
- There could also be a side door of getting into the news, mostly
characterized by a civil disobedience (not violent), sometimes turning the
protesters into victims rather than aggressors and this tactic provides drama
with a minimal amount of downside. So less powerful political people get
positive media attention. The public has to be sympathetic to the cause
though for the effect to work.
Mullen & Klaehn (2010) - The Herman-Chomsky Propaganda Model:
The propaganda model.
Who controls, who dominates public debates?
The general idea - the media is supposed to be a "democratic watchdog". Politicians
do a lot of things but the media is here to alert if something goes wrong.
The media have an independent and critical role.
The media takes initiative, investigates, reports, and questions.
provide the public with information.
He claims that the media power is too dominated by the dominant forces, so it is not
democratic or objective.
News is filtered by:
1. Size and ownership (how much do you own, like in the television market - 5
main companies).
2. Advertising.
3. Sourcing.
4. Flak.
, 4
5. Fear of the Enemy.
Relation with mainstream communication science:
● Manufacturing Consent is mostly ignored in mainstream media and science.
● Herman & Chomsky predicted this as it goes against ‘dominant’ interpretation.
Strongly related with two mainstream models:
● Indexing theory (Bennett).
● Spheres of Consensus (Hallin).
Indexing theory (W. Lance Bennett):
The sources and the views in the media are indexed according to the power balance
among political institutions.
Journalists mostly cite dominant actors.
Journalists mostly used dominant views/frames.
Reasons:
- Dominant actors are most likely to determine political outcomes.
- Dominant actors give legitimacy to a story.
- Journalists need formal challengers to keep the alternative views in the news.
Spheres of Consensus (Daniel C. Hallin):
There are three concentric ‘spheres’ of discourse:
● Consensus: broad (assumed) agreement (own growth, achievements).
Journalist as a cheerleader.
● Legitimate Controversy: (political) debate possible (windmills, tax decrease).
Journalist as neutral/objective.
● Deviance: outside debate/taboo (aims of terrorists, own war crimes).
Ignored by journalist
Spheres shift with (dominant) public debate.
Conclusions:
● Political power gives power over the media.
● At the micro-level, more powerful actors have easier coverage.
● At the macro-level, dominant political forces determine the debate.
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