News media in the United States

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Mass media are the means through which information is transmitted to a large audience. This includes newspapers, television, radio, and more recently the Internet. Organizations that provide news through mass media in the United States are collectively known as the news media in the United States.

History

This section is an excerpt from History of American journalism.[edit]

Journalism in the United States began humbly and became a political force in the campaign for

U.S. Constitution guaranteed freedom of the press and freedom of speech. The American press grew rapidly following the American Revolution

. The press became a key support element to the country's political parties, but also for organized religious institutions.

During the 19th century, newspapers began to expand and appear outside the cities of the

telegraph

and faster printing presses in the 1840s helped expand the press of the nation, as it experienced rapid economic and demographic growth.

By 1900, major newspapers had become profitable powerhouses of advocacy,

muckraking and sensationalism, along with serious, and objective news-gathering. Starting in the 1920s, technological change again changed American journalism as radio and television

began to play increasingly important roles.

In the late 20th century, much of American journalism merged into big media

media moguls like Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch

). With the coming of digital journalism in the 21st Century, newspapers faced a business crisis as readers turned to the internet for news and advertisers followed them.

PBS and NPR are funded primarily by member contributions and corporate underwriters, with a relatively small amount of government contributions.[4]

Other national public television program distributors include

Holdings include: CNN, the CW (a joint venture with Paramount Global), HBO, Cinemax, Cartoon Network, TBS, TNT, Warner Bros. Pictures, Castle Rock Entertainment and New Line Cinema.^[5]

Paramount Global

Holdings include:

The Walt Disney Company

Holdings include:

Holdings include: NBC, Telemundo, cable networks including USA Network, CNBC and MSNBC, along with 11 NBC-owned and operated stations.

Major outlets

Agenda-setting

An important role which is often ascribed to the media is that of agenda-setter. Georgetown University professor Gary Wasserman describes this as "putting together an agenda of national priorities — what should be taken seriously, what lightly, what not at all". Wasserman calls this "the most important political function the media perform".^[10] Agenda-setting theory was proposed by McCombs and Shaw in the 1970s and suggests that the public agenda is dictated by the media agenda.

Agenda-setting in domestic politics

In a commercialized media context, the media can often not afford to ignore an important issue which another television station, newspaper, or radio station is willing to pick up. The news media may be able to create new issues by reporting or they can obscure issues through negligence and distraction. For example, if neighborhoods are affected by high

One way in which the media could set the agenda is if it is in an area in which very few Americans have direct experience of the issues. This applies to foreign policy. When American military personnel are involved, the media needs to report because the personnel are related to the American public. The media is also likely to have an interest in reporting issues with major direct effects on American workers, such as major trade agreements with Mexico. In other cases, it is difficult to see how the media can be prevented^{[clarification needed]} from setting the foreign policy agenda.

McKay lists as one of the three main distortions of information by the media "Placing high priority on American news to the detriment of foreign news. And when the US is engaged in military action abroad, this 'foreign news' crowds out other foreign news".^[11]

Horse race approach to political campaign coverage

American news media are more obsessed than ever with the horse-race aspects of the presidential campaign, according to a 2007 study. Coverage of the political campaigns have been less reflective on the issues that matter to voters, and instead have primarily focused on campaign tactics and strategy, according to a report conducted jointly by the

The study found that the US news media deprive the American public of what Americans say they want: voters are eager to know more about the candidates' positions on issues and their personal backgrounds, more about lesser-known candidates and more about debates.[12] Commentators have pointed out that when covering election campaigns news media often emphasize trivial facts about the candidates but more rarely provide the candidates' specific public stances on issues that matter to voters.^[13]

The same approach can also apply to issue politics. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center coined the term "tactical framing" to describe news coverage that focuses on the question of how a policy proposal will affect the next election, rather than whether or not it is a good idea. Jamieson cites coverage of the Green New Deal as an example.^[14] Research by Jameson has found the presence of tactically framed stories can make voters more cynical and less likely to remember substantive information.^[15]

See also

• Media bias in the United States
• Media of the United States
• Weather media in the United States

References

Further reading

• Higdon, Nolan; Huff, Mickey (2022). Let's Agree to Disagree: A Critical Thinking Guide to Communication, Conflict Management, and Critical Media Literacy.
  ISBN 978-1032168982
  .
• ISBN 0-8129-2022-8

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Media of the United States.

• Chart – Real and Fake News (2016)/Vanessa Otero (basis) (Mark Frauenfelder)
• Chart – Real and Fake News (2014) (2016)/Pew Research Center