The Media (American Government)

Recall cards on the news media in American democracy. What the media are: mass media, public relations, beats, soft news, the fourth estate and public-forum roles, and the concentration of media ownership. The evolution of the media: the party press and penny press, yellow journalism, muckraking and Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, digital paywalls, citizen journalism, and the rise of radio and television. Regulating the media: the FCC, the defunct fairness doctrine, the equal-time rule, indecency rules and the safe-harbor hours, prior restraint, the Freedom of Information Act, sunshine laws, reporter's privilege, and Branzburg v. Hayes. And the impact of the media: agenda setting, episodic and thematic framing, priming, cultivation, hypodermic, and minimal-effects theories, the shrinking sound bite, and coverage of women candidates.