Mass Media How mass media shape our political

Mass Media How mass media shape our political system?

Do Now: Analyze this data! What does this chart reveal? How are people getting their news these days?

Ronald Reagan When President Reagan addressed Congress during prime time in 1981 to speak about economic recovery it was covered by CBS, NBC, and ABC and received a Nielsen rating of 60 (3 out of 5 Americans viewed it!!) and 55% of Americans read the newspaper each day!

Barack Obama As opposed to Reagan, when Obama went to Capitol Hill in 2009 to set forth his plan to confront the growing economic crisis (the Great Recession of 2008), it was covered live on CBS, NBC, and ABC - as well as Fox, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, and Univision. Obama received a rating of 32 on just 10 channels. Also, only about 30% of people read the newspaper each day (as opposed to 55% in 1981)!

Why could the diminishing audiences for presidential messages and addresses be a challenge to our government officials? How else could these messages be communicated?

Mass Media and High-tech Politics High-tech politics- politics in which the behavior of citizens and policymakers as well as the political agenda itself is increasingly shaped by technology!! Politicians must use mass media to get their message out to the public including television, radio, newspapers, magazine and the Internet (websites, youtube, social media platforms etc. )

Decline of Newspapers Daily newspapers are a product of the 19 th century ad television has only been around since the first half of the 20 th century. Since the mid 19 th century newspaper readership has declined (especially over the past several years)

Thomas Jefferson famously said, “If I had the to choose between government without newspapers, and newspapers without government, I wouldn’t hesitate to choose the later. ”

Robert Putnam And Robert Putnam in his highly influential book titled Bowling Alone finds that “those who read the news are more engaged and knowledgeable about the world than those who only watch the news. ”

DISCUSS! Should newspapers be protected? Why or why not?