Media Audiences Essay

Question 1

Identification of three basic models of political communication based on four dimensions

Answer 1

development of media markets
political parallelism
development of journalistic professionalism
degree and nature of state intervention

Question 2

Polarized Pluralist Model

Answer 2

• Mediterranean area of Southern Europe
• lows levels of newspaper circulation and journalistic professionalization
• high levels of political parallelism and state intervention
• weaker development of commercial media

Question 3

Democratic Corporatist Model

Answer 3

• central and northern Europe
• high levels of all four dimensions
• historical coexistence of commercial media/media tied to social and political groups

Question 4

Liberal Model

Answer 4

• North Atlantic region and UK
• medium levels of newspaper circulation
• commercial newspapers dominate
• strong role of the market
• strong professionalization
• low levels of parallelism (except UK) and state intervention

Question 5

Propaganda Mode

Answer 5

-Hypodermic/Indoctrination model
the media inject ideas into a passive and defenseless public
-Criticism: historian George Moss writes that public opinion during Vietnam influenced television coverage of the war more than television influenced public opinion

Question 6

Media in Liberal Democracies

Answer 6

media are primarily private businesses
primacy of press freedom
regulation by legal system

Question 7

Media in Welfare State Democracies

Answer 7

media are social institutions
state is responsible
collective goals (pluralism, democracy, racial harmony, national culture and language)
regulated by government

Question 8

Media Bias

Answer 8

• news is not a mirror of reality
• it is representation of the world, and all representations are selective
• journalists, editors, and media executives make decisions about what to present as news and how to present it
• Ex. executives choose whether to publish a letter from a terrorist, or to conceal information that might bear on national security
• the process of selecting what the reader reads involves not just objective facts but subjective judgements, personal values and prejudices
• the very purpose of the opinion columnist or the editorial page is to interpret, analyze, and persuade