History of news, late 20th century to early 21st century

Question 1

What is the overall rising trend in the news media?

Answer 1

shift towards news that is segmented ideoligically rather than regionally

Question 2

Endogenous causes

Answer 2

-objective news became bland and people wanted something interesting
-collapsing center: people with extreme opinions view neutral media as biased against their opinions, so they seek out news that align with their views
-centrist papers losing market share to niche media

Question 2

Exogenous factors

Answer 2

-End of the Fairness Doctrine
-Tech changes: cable tv and the internet

Question 3

Fairness Doctrine

Answer 3

-case of Red Lion v FCC in 1969 established the fairness doctrine
-argument was that the broadcasting spectrum was technolgically scarce, so stations had offer a diverse set of views
-However, this was repealed in 1987 by the FCC, which made it so that stations no longer had to present a variety of views
-as a result there was a rise of right wing and left wing talk shows

Fairness Doctrine ONLY applied to broadcasting

Question 4

How can repealing a regulation that only applied to broadcasting change the written word and televisual media?

Answer 4

Radio developed a genre and a set of talent that later crossed into other media

Question 5

Cable TV

Answer 5

-cable tv doesn’t rely on the spectrum and therefore there is no technological scarcity
-this meant greater availability for news programming that could be opinion based

Question 6

Internet

Answer 6

-no technological scarcity
-facilitates national distribution and cheap production - doesn’t cost anything additional to distribute over the internet
-hot takes business model (e.g. Vox) that is an economic incentive to provide cheap opinion stories (it is not reporting)

Question 7

Cultural Trend Towards Hyperpartisanship

Answer 7

-increase in hyperpartisan identities in the 90s
-negative partisanship: people don’t want to be friends with people in the other ideological party
-this trend is reflected in the media but it’s hard to tell if partisanship caused the media or vice vera (likely were mutually reinforced)

Question 8

3 Main Causes for Rises of Ideologically Aligned News

Answer 8

1. Endogenous factors
2. Exogenous factors
3. Rise of hyperpartisanship