News : The Politics of Illusion
by Bennett, W. LanceEdition: 8th
Format: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2009-01-01
Publisher(s): Longman
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Summary
Part of the "Longman Classics in Political Science" series, this renowned book, known for a lively writing style, provocative point of view, and exceptional scholarship, has been thoroughly revised and updated, including up-to-the-minute case studies and the latest research. This favorite of both instructors and students is a "behind-the-scenes" tour of news in American politics. The core question explored in this book is: How well does the news, as the core of the national political information system, serve the needs of democracy? In investigating this question, the book examines how various political actors - from presidents and members of Congress, to interest organizations and citizen-activists - try to get their messages into the news.
Table of Contents
| Foreword | p. xi |
| Preface | p. xix |
| The News About Democracy: An Introduction to Governing the American Political System | p. 1 |
| What Happened to Politics? | p. 3 |
| Governing with the News | p. 5 |
| How the News Went to War | p. 6 |
| What About Evidence? An Uncomfortable Truth About Journalism | p. 9 |
| Case Study: The "Truthiness" About News | p. 10 |
| News and Democracy: From the Pony Express to the Web | p. 13 |
| Gatekeeping: Who and What Make the News | p. 15 |
| Politicians, Press, and the People | p. 16 |
| A Definition of News | p. 19 |
| Consumer-Driven Democracy: A New Gatekeeping? | p. 19 |
| Soft News and the Turn Away from Politics | p. 21 |
| The First Amendment: Why Free Speech Does Not Guarantee Good Information | p. 24 |
| What the First Amendment Is Protecting and the FCC Is Licensing | p. 25 |
| What Kind of News Would Better Serve Democracy? | p. 26 |
| The Fragile Link Between News and Democracy | p. 27 |
| Notes | p. 28 |
| News Content: Four Information Biases That Matter | p. 32 |
| Putting Journalistic Bias in Perspective | p. 33 |
| What's Wrong with Press Bias and Political Partisanship? | p. 36 |
| A Different Kind of Bias | p. 37 |
| Four Information Biases That Matter: An Overview | p. 40 |
| Case Study: How George W. Bush Got His Swagger | p. 45 |
| Four Information Biases in the News: An In-Depth Look | p. 48 |
| Bias as Part of the Political Information System | p. 65 |
| News Bias and Discouraged Citizens | p. 65 |
| Reform Anyone? | p. 67 |
| Notes | p. 68 |
| Citizens and the News: Public Opinion and Information Processing | p. 73 |
| News and the Battle for Public Opinion | p. 74 |
| Reaching Publics with News Images | p. 77 |
| Selling the Iraq War | p. 79 |
| News and Public Opinion: The Citizen's Dilemma | p. 81 |
| Case Study: National Attention Deficit Disorder? | p. 84 |
| Processing the News | p. 86 |
| News Frames and Politicial Learning | p. 94 |
| Entertainment and Other Reasons People Follow the News | p. 94 |
| Citizens, Information, and Politics | p. 102 |
| Notes | p. 103 |
| How Politicians Make the News | p. 107 |
| Case Study: How Global Warming Became a Partisan News Story | p. 109 |
| The Politics of Illusion | p. 112 |
| The Sources of Political News | p. 113 |
| News Images as Strategic Political Communication | p. 117 |
| News Bias and Press-Government Relations | p. 118 |
| The Goals of Strategic Political Communication | p. 120 |
| Symbolic Politics and the Techniques of Image Making | p. 124 |
| News Management: The Basics | p. 127 |
| News Management Styles and the Modern Presidency | p. 134 |
| Press Relations: Feeding the Beast | p. 140 |
| Government and the Politics of Newsmaking | p. 144 |
| Notes | p. 146 |
| How Journalists Report the News | p. 151 |
| Work Routines and Professional Norms | p. 154 |
| When Routines Produce High-Quality Reporting | p. 156 |
| Case Study: Top Ten Reasons the Press Took a Pass on the Iraq War | p. 157 |
| How Reporting Practices Contribute to News Bias | p. 162 |
| Reporters and Officials: Cooperation and Control | p. 163 |
| Reporters as Members of News Organizations: Pressures to Standardize | p. 167 |
| Reporters as a Pack: Pressures to Agree | p. 170 |
| The Paradox of Organizational Routines | p. 175 |
| When Journalism Works | p. 177 |
| Democracy With or Without Citizens? | p. 180 |
| Notes | p. 181 |
| Inside the Profession: Objectivity and the Political Authority Bias | p. 184 |
| Journalists and Their Profession | p. 186 |
| The Paradox of Objective Reporting | p. 187 |
| Defining Objectivity: Fairness, Balance, and Truth | p. 187 |
| The Curious Origins of Objective Journalism | p. 189 |
| Professional Journalism in Practice | p. 192 |
| Objectivity Reconsidered | p. 208 |
| Case Study: Why Mainstream Professional Journalism Favors Spin over Truth | p. 209 |
| Notes | p. 213 |
| The Political Economy of News | p. 217 |
| Profits and News Bias | p. 219 |
| The Economic Transformation of the American Media | p. 220 |
| Corporate Profit Logic and News Content | p. 222 |
| The Political Economy of News | p. 226 |
| Economics Versus Democracy: Inside the News Business | p. 227 |
| The Media Monopoly: Arguments For and Against | p. 231 |
| Case Study: Ownership Deregulation and the Citizen's Movement for Social Responsibility in Broadcast Standards | p. 232 |
| Effects of the Media Monopoly: Five Information Trends | p. 235 |
| How Does Corporate Influence Operate? | p. 246 |
| News on the Internet: Perfecting the Commercialization of Information? | p. 247 |
| Commercialized Information and Citizen Confidence | p. 248 |
| Megatrends: Technology, Economics, and Social Change | p. 249 |
| Notes | p. 251 |
| All the News That Fits Democracy: Solutions for Citizens, Politicians, and Journalists | p. 256 |
| The Isolated Citizen | p. 258 |
| The Deliberative Citizen | p. 259 |
| Personalized Information and the Future of Democracy | p. 260 |
| Whither the Public Sphere? | p. 261 |
| The News About Corporate Ownership in the Media System | p. 263 |
| The News About Public Broadcasting | p. 264 |
| The News About Objective Journalism | p. 265 |
| News and Power in America: Ideal Versus Reality | p. 266 |
| Why the Myth of a Free Press Persists | p. 267 |
| Proposals for Citizens, Journalists, and Politicians | p. 270 |
| Case Study: Citizen Input-From Interactive News to Desktop Democracy | p. 282 |
| The Promise and Peril of Virtual Democracy | p. 285 |
| Balancing Democracy and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Place to Start | p. 288 |
| Notes | p. 289 |
| Index | p. 291 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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