THE DYNAMICS OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION CHAPTER 9 EXAMINING

THE DYNAMICS OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION CHAPTER 9 EXAMINING THE CONUNDRUMS OF POLITICAL NEWS BIAS © 2018 Taylor & Francis

THE CONTEMPORARY NEWS LANDSCAPE Gatekeeping is “the process by which the billions of messages that are available in the world get cut down and transformed into the hundreds of messages that reach a given person on a given day” (Shoemaker, 1991, p. 1) stream n i a m l itiona d a xert a r t e l l s i t e s o D news over e c n e u ng infl i our p y e e n i k e e t e ga you s s w e n feeds? a i d what e social m © 2018 Taylor & Francis

CABLE NEWS WITH ATTITUDE • Fox News CEO Roger Ailes saw their job as mobilizing the masses around their preferred candidate through the mouthpiece of the media • Ailes told his executives “I want to elect the next president” two years before the 2012 election (Sherman, 2014, p. xvi) © 2018 Taylor & Francis • MSNBC, formed at the same time as Fox News, has taken a liberal perspective

IDEOLOGICAL WEBSITES • The web and social media have taken political journalism in expansive, enriching but sometimes perilous new directions • Some sites seamlessly combine fact and opinion, often concealing their ideological leaning © 2018 Taylor & Francis • Ideologically bent sites such as Breitbart News became major factors in the 2016 election

CITIZENS ENTER THE FRAY • Citizen journalism has become ubiquitous • Often conflates live streaming with truth, opening it to question • Example: Passersby with camera phones recording videos of police shootings of unarmed African Americans, or exposing authorities’ complicity with crimes in online posts cent e r e m re so a t a h itizen c W f o s e l examp becoming ism journal t to political relevan issues? © 2018 Taylor & Francis

FACEBOOK AS DECIDER • Many websites such as Google, Facebook, and Reddit use algorithms to decide what stories to show the viewer • Personalized news raises a lot of questions, such as whether citizens receive news carefully culled to reflect their biases and preferences rather than information they need to make responsible decisions © 2018 Taylor & Francis • A takeaway: gatekeeping is not dead, but the gates and keepers have changed

FAKE NEWS • Fake news is a fabricated story created with an intention to deceive, either to gain profitable clicks or promote a political ideology • Fake news was a significant factor in the 2016 election • Fake stories on Trump’s behalf gained more traction © 2018 Taylor & Francis • Some fake news stories in 2016 originated outside of the US and represented extremist interests as well as promoting the political policies of Russian president Vladimir Putin • The dangers of fake news are real even if its reach is frequently exaggerated

UNDERSTANDING POLITICAL NEWS BIAS Ideologically or politically based news bias occurs when there is a consistent media pattern in presentation of an issue, in a way that reliably favors one side, or minimizes the opposing side, in a context when it can reasonably be argued that there are other perspectives on the issue that are also deserving of coverage 1. There must be a consistent pattern in the nature of the coverage 2. Requires abundant inclusion of content on behalf of the favored side and systematic exclusion of the other group 3. The biases emerge through reliably conducted scientific analyses of news content 4. There must be other reasonable perspectives that are minimized or excluded due to apparent political disposition © 2018 Taylor & Francis 5. The other perspectives are deserving of

THE LIBERAL NEWS BIAS THESIS Is there a liberal bias to the news? If so, to what extent? © 2018 Taylor & Francis

UNPACKING LIBERAL NEWS BIAS Two parts to the liberal news bias thesis: • Reporters and editors hold liberal, left-of -center attitudes • Journalists project these attitudes into news stories • There is evidence that elite journalists have liberal political attitudes • There is anecdotal evidence that national media may tilt liberal on some issues © 2018 Taylor & Francis Problems with the liberal news bias thesis: • While elite reporters and editors lean left, mainstream reporters and editors across the nation do not • In scientific content analyses, there is no newspaper bias, negligible news magazine bias, and moderate but inconsistent Democratic bias in television • Recent study shows news describes issues in primarily nonpartisan terms that depicts both sides negatively

HISTORICAL PROGRESSION OF GENDER BIAS IN POLITICAL NEWS • 1972: Women’s Movement gathers steam; supporters emphasize that more women should run for office • Sex-role prejudice was pervasive • News devoted less coverage to female candidates running for Senate between 1982 and 1988, and coverage was more negative • Female presidential candidates • 1984: Geraldine Ferraro announced received less coverage in 1972, 1988, as Democratic VP candidate, while 2000, and 2004 NBC anchor Tom Brokaw announces “Geraldine Ferraro … The first woman • The gendered double bind is the to be nominated for Vice President nt sexist notion that women cannot be e r a p p … Size six. ” is an a ind in both professionally competent and e r e h t If ble b u o d d e ht feminine gender t impacts mig men , wha d s c n i t a i l n o p wome l world? n o e v litica o © 2018 Taylor & Francis that ha p e h t of

REVIEWING THE 2008 AND 2016 CAMPAIGNS • In 2008, Clinton was described early on in more physical terms than average for male candidates • Cable news and websites were filled with biases, often vicious and vulgar • Clinton received many gender-based insulting messages • Positive Clinton coverage focused on: • Her experience • Primary debate successes • Nearly shattering glass ceiling in 2008 • First woman to gain major party’s presidential nomination © 2018 Taylor & Francis • Negative coverage of Clinton outpaced negative coverage of Obama in 2008 and all candidates in the early 2016 campaign • A key factor: Clinton was a frontrunner • 2008 negative coverage came in part because of newsworthy strategic campaign errors • In 2016, considerable negative coverage centered on Clinton’s use of a private email server that raised national security concerns and sparked FBI investigation • 2008 negative coverage of Sarah Palin mentioned her gender 6 times more often than counterpart Joe Biden • Palin coverage was often blatantly sexist, at other times focused on shortcomings as a

CLINTON AND THE GENDERED DOUBLE BIND Clinton faced a double bind with her preference for pantsuits, and news coverage of her clothing made her wardrobe more salient over the years. © 2018 Taylor & Francis

ces n e r e f f i BIASES ABOUT FEMALE CANDIDATES What d ticed in o ou n and have y AND APPEARANCE e l a m how cians i t i l o p female in the d e r e v are co news? • News coverage of female candidates • Studies find that voters do not judge focuses more on appearance and male and female candidates differently wardrobe when news refers to their clothing • Palin took stereotypically masculine issue positions while displaying “the trappings of femininity” (Lawrence & Rose, 2010, p. 221) • Palin exemplifies the “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” aspect of news of female candidates; journalists scrutinize women’s looks whether they cultivate their appearance and wardrobe or not © 2018 Taylor & Francis • Extensive literature shows that women are objectified more than men • Feminine traits are stereotypically viewed as incongruent with leadership • In the US politics is viewed as a masculine domain (but this may be changing)

CONCLUSIONS • In one sense, political news is biased in that it favors the two major party candidates and frames the election as a game • National reporters are liberal, national news on some issues sometimes tilts liberal • Journalists across the nation are more conservative • Social science studies cast strong doubt on the liberal news bias thesis © 2018 Taylor & Francis • Gender bias historically been a factor in the media treatment of female candidates • The 2016 campaign showed that sextyped and sexist issues continue • Biases become problematic when they take morally offensive, prejudiced positions and when they contain inaccurate information or fake news • Political journalism is flawed and imperfect, but remains endemic to democracy