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Chapter 19 - Section 1.
Mass Media












***Mass Media: Includes all of the means of communication that bring messages to the general public.
-The growth of the electronic media, in turn, affects the print media- news papers, magazines, newsletters, and books.

***Print Media: (paper and ink communication)
-Newspapers have conveyed political information since colonial times.
*Newspapers
-Early newspapers provided a sense of a national community.
-Papers in the 1800's only coast a penny or two.
-In the 1960's, the daily circulation of the newspaper failed to keep pace with population growth for the first time.
-After that, TV was blamed for the newspaper decline.
*Concentration of newspaper ownership
-National chains have bought many independent newspapers.
Newspaper Chain: Refers to the ownership of daily and weekly papers across the country.
-Newspaper chains now account for 77% of daily newspaper circulation.

*Magazines and Books
-Approx. 10,000 magazines are published every year in the U.S.A.
-Approx. 40,000 books are published every year in the U.S.A.

***Wire Services
-A wire service is an organization that employs reporters throughout the world to collect news stories for subscribers.
---2 major wire services: Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI).
-Wire services send news electronically to radio/television stations.

***Electronic Media
-Radio, television, and the Internet make up this section of mass media.
-Political life in the U.S.A. is affected by development and use of electronics.
*Radio
-99.9% of all Americans have radios.
-Radios transmit political messages through political programming and advertisers who buy time on stations to reach the voting audience.

*Television
-T.V. is a powerful force in American politics
-The first televised debates took place between Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon in 1960.

*Broadcast Licensing
-The Federal Communications Comission (FCC) regulates and licenses private owners of broadcast stations in two categories: commercial and non-commercial.

*Cable T.V.
-Television networks began to lose their dominant position in providing news and entertainment in the late 1980's.
-CNN challenged the national networks in news coverage.

*Public Broadcasting
-The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 created the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to distribute federal money for non-commercial, or nonprofit, radio and television.
-NPR: National Public Radio.
-PBS: Public Broadcasting System.
--NPR and PBS provide alternatives to the commercial networks programs.
-Public radio and T.V. stations depend on 3 sources of money:

    1. Funds from National Gov.
    2.Grants for private foundations
    3.Donations from individuals and businesses

*Government Broadcasting
-National Gov. owns and operates radio ant T.V. stations for 2 purposes

    1. Gov. sends radio/T.V. programs to American people throughout the world through the armed forces radio and T.V. networks.
    2. Gov. sends out news and info. through shortwave, medium wave, and FM broadcasts throughout the world.


-International Broadcasting Act of 1994 reorganized all U.S. nonmilitary Broadcasts, placing them under the U.S. Info Agency.

*Online Services
-The rapid growth of internet use is greatly affecting politics.
-In 1996, homepages were established on the World Wide Web.

*Media Ownership
-In democratic countrys, newspapers are privately owned.
-In the U.S., the print and nearly all the broadcast media are privately owned, they are profit seeking businesses.

**What Makes News??

*News or Entertainment?
-Rating Services provide staistics that show audience size.
-These ratings help determine who gets the advertiser's dollar.

*International News
-Foriegn and Domestic News
-Americans are more interested in Domestic News.
-Foriegn affairs often must involve violance and diaster.
-As predicted, foriegn news in the U.S. may replace all other news.
-4 Newsgathering organizations

    1. Associated Press (AP)
    2. United Press International (UPI)
    3. Reuters of Britain
    4. Press of France