AP U.S. Government and Politics Notes- Chapter 15
Chapter 15 Identifications
Yellow Journalism: A form of newspaper publishing in vogue in the late-nineteenth century that featured pictures, comics, color, and sensationalized, oversimplified news coverage.
Muckraking: A form of journalism, in vogue in the early twentieth century, concerned with reforming government and business conduct.
Print Press: The traditional form of mass media, comprising newspapers, magazines, and journals.
Electronic Media: The broadcast and cable media, including television, radio, and the internet.
Chains (s): Large media conglomerations owning a large portion of the daily newspapers. Chain ownership usually reduces the diversity of editorial opinions and can result in the homogenization of the news.
Niche Journalism: Journalism catering to specific groups of people, such as CNN and Fox News.
Networks: An association of broadcast stations (radio or television) that share programming through a financial arrangement.
Affiliates: Local television stations that carry the programming of a national network.
Wire Service: An electronic delivery of news gathered by the news service’s correspondents and sent to all member news media organizations.
Press Release: A document offering an official comment or position.
Press Briefing: A relatively restricted session between a press secretary or aide and the press.
Press Conference: An unrestricted session between an elected official and the press.
Press Secretary: The president’s main disseminator of information to the press. Must be adept at dealing with the press.
Investigative Journalism: reporters go beyond headlines and scrutinize public officials and public policy to find wrongdoing.
Character issue: What some people see as a press obsession with the sins and foibles of our politicians.
Watergate (s): The Watergate scandal began a chain reaction that today allows for intense media scrutiny of public officials’ private lives. Moved journalism away from description (providing an account of happenings) to prescription, helping to set the campaign’s and society’s agenda by focusing attention on the candidates shortcomings as well as on certain social problems. Increased emphasis on character, and on the press holding the government accountable.
Libel: Written defamation of character that unjustly injures a person’s reputation.
New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964): Supreme Court ruling stating that simply publishing a defamatory falsehood is not enough to justify a libel judgment. Public officials would have to prove “actual malice” henceforth. This rule made it very difficult for public figures to win libel cases. (Extended to all public figures 3 years later)
Telecommunications Act of 1996: The passage of this law would benefit media corporations with television holdings. Scholars found that articles appearing in newspapers owned by the corporations with the potential to benefit from this law failed to report the negative impact of the law, thus putting corporate interests above providing fair and complete coverage of an important issue.
Equal Time Rule: The rule that requires broadcast stations to sell air time equally to all candidates in a political campaign if they choose to sell it to any.
Fairness Doctrine: Rule in effect from 1949 to 1985 requiring broadcasters to cover events adequately and to present contrasting views on important public issues.
New York Times Co. v. U. S. (1971) (s): Case in which the Supreme Court ruled that the government couldn’t prevent the New York Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers, documents stolen, photocopied, and sent to the Times by Daniel Ellsberg. This stated that the government cannot censor press, reaffirming the first amendment.
