A non-partisan study of media political coverage debunks some of the conventional wisdom about the mass media's performance, and confirms (again) concerns about bias. Past experience says the media bosses will not comprehend.
There is far less news about the federal government than there used to be on the evening network news broadcasts, as well as on the front pages of national and regional newspapers. In addition, news reporting on the federal government tends to focus largely on the executive branch, to be negative in tone and increasingly judgmental. The use of unnamed sources in television and print news is decreasing.Posted by Alan at July 26, 2003 12:01 PMThese are some of the key findings from Government: In and Out of the News - a study released today by the Washington-based Council for Excellence in Government that looks at how news coverage of the federal government has changed in the past 20 years.
Overall, evaluations of the federal government were negative by a 2 to 1 margin, and evaluations of institutions (“the government” or “the White House” for example) were more negative than those directed at individual officials.
Coverage of federal government is becoming more judgmental or opinionated over time, with an overall increase of 20 percent in the number of “evaluations” per story during the years examined from 1981 to 2001. Evaluations on TV news increased by 138 percent and by 14 percent in the regional newspapers, but dropped by 42 percent in the two national newspapers studied.
The study was conducted for the Council for Excellence in Government by S. Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs and Stephen Farnsworth, Associate Professor of Political Science at Mary Washington College. It was funded by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts.
The study used one of the most comprehensive datasets brought to bear on questions of how the news media have covered government. An overall sample of nearly 30,000 news stories (television and print) was examined.
via the Council for Excellence in Government
Kudos to NewsyMustang at SMU for the tip.