Media Attention Congress & the Media & Name Recognition

Congress & the Media
Media Attention
& Name Recognition
• 1st step in campaign: get name recognition
Rep. J. Sensenbrenner
– People vote for names they recognize
– “To be known is to be known favorably”
• 2nd step: Create a positive image
Reps. M. Waters, K. Mfume,
and B. Franks
• Candidates can buy ads, but news coverage is
better because it’s neutral & credible
Press Secretaries
• Every MC has a press secretary
– Not true 20 years ago
• Duties
– Responding to press inquiries
– Generating press releases
– Some press releases designed to be articles for
newspapers with few resources
– They write “letters home” as newspaper columns
or radio opinion pieces
– They work with other press secretaries to
coordinate efforts to get issues on the agenda
Competition for Coverage
National Media
• High resources:
– Quality reporters
– Resources to allow
reporters to invest time on
single stories
– Investigative reporters
– Better lists of contacts
Local Media
• Low resources
– Weak reporters
• Less experience
• Less training
• Successful reporters leave
– No resources to investigate
– Reporters must file many
stories per day
– Fewer contacts
Competition for Coverage
National
• Low supply (relative)
– ABC, CBS,CNN, Fox
– Wash. Post, NY Times,
USA Today, Wall St. Journ
• High demand
– President, cabinet sec., top
officials (Fed, FBI, …),
ambassadors, 535 MCs,
issue advocates
Local
• Low supply
– KEYT, KCOY
– SB News-Press,
Independent, ...
• Even lower demand
– Rep Capps, State Senator &
Assy, mayors, supervisors,
city councils, issue
advocates
Competition for Coverage
• Politicians & journalists bargain over coverage
– Bargaining is usually not explicit, but both sides
realize the comparative advantages
• Bargaining situations determined by supply &
demand situations, and news media resources
– National reporters can pick & choose stories
– They can spin stories as they like
– Local reporters have little choice
– They usually take what they are offered
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What do they Bargain over?
• Reporters need access to write good stories
– MCs, staff, etc.
Wilbur Mills and Michael Huffington
“Later in life, he faced the challenge of his own alcoholism, becoming
an inspiration to millions in their struggle to overcome this disease
afflicting so many individuals and families. Always one to help others,
he dedicated his later years to helping others confront and conquer this
complex problem.”
Agenda Setting
• Agenda: The issues that dominate the news
media & Congress’s attention
– Usually 3-5 big issues at one time
• MCs want positive coverage in the district for
reelection
–
–
–
–
Positive character stories
Pork brought home to district
Issue stands that everyone likes (tough on crime)
No stories on controversial stands (abortion, war, ...)
Agenda Setting
• Public Agenda: The issues about which the
public thinks. What is important
• Media Agenda: What the news media covers
• Political Agenda: The issues that dominate
the attention of Congress & political elites
– Usually 3-5 big issues at one time
Rogers, E; Dearing, J (1988). "Agenda-setting research: Where has it been, where is it going?". Communication Yearbook 11: 555–594
Agenda Setting
Agenda Setting
• Naïve idea: People know what matters to
them. The news media report on issues of
intrinsic importance. Politicians act on what
they see as important issues.
• When the news media cover an issue, people begin
to think about it and think it is important
• "The mass media may not be successful in
telling us what to think, but they are stunningly
successful in telling us what to think about.”
– Bernard Cohen
Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw, “The Agenda-setting Function of Mass Media.” Public Opinion Quarterly, 36 (1972): 176-187; Maxwell
McCombs, Setting the Agenda, 2nd ed. (2014)
• Politicians respond to news media coverage &
public opinion
– Congressional hearings; bills introduced; bills going to
the floor; executive orders from the President
• News media coverage of issues drives public
opinion & politicians’ efforts to change policy
Frank R. Baumgartner and Bryan D. Jones in, Agendas and Instability in American Politics
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993); John Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives, and
Public Policies (1984, 1995)
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Why address
global warming
in 2010?
Why address
Social Security
under Bush?
John Kingdon, Agendas, Alternatives,
and Pulbic Policy; Frank Baumgartner
& Bryan Jones, Agendas & Instability in
American Politics; G. Edwards et al.,
“Who Influences Whom.” American
Political Science Rev. 93 (1999): 32744; A. Taylor, “Domestic Agenda
Setting.” Legislative Studies Quarterly
23 (1998); J. Peake et al., “The Agenda
Setting Effect of Major Presidential TV
Addresses.” Political Communication
25 (2008): 113-37.
Agenda Setting
• When the news media cover an issue, people begin
to think about it and think it is important
Who & What Influences the Agenda?
• Wars, Disasters
– “If it bleeds, it leads”
• The President has special
influence
• Interest groups & politicians
want to push their issues
http://www.gallup.com/poll/184193/racism-edges-again-important-problem.aspx;
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2015/12/26/a-year-of-reckoning-policefatally-shoot-nearly-1000/; http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/
Indexing & the Agenda?
• The news media report on the issues discussed
by gov’t elites
– Aspects of issues not discussed by elites are
usually ignored
• Immigration example:
– Illegal border crossings from Mexico are
covered (60%)
– Over-staying visas, fake marriages, other legal
entries are not covered (40%)
Getting Attention can mean Winning
• Public opinion may be so one-sided that if a
bill gets attention & gets to the floor, it will win
– Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act
• Public overwhelmingly behind it
• Opponents tried to avoid attention, but lost
– Partial birth abortion ban
– Minimum wage hikes, CAFÉ fuel standard hikes
• So one side works to get attention, while the
other side works to hide the issue
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Getting Attention can mean Losing
• Public opinion may be so one-sided against a bill
that it can only win if it gets no attention
– Salary hikes for members of Congress
– Creating a new “carbon tax” to fight global warming
by lowering the CO2 released into the air
• So one side works to get attention, while the
other side works to hide the issue
Getting Attention:
Politics as Theater
• Getting attention is hard unless you are a
leader, chair, or Ranking Minority
Member
– Hearings with movie stars, sports stars,
heroes, cute kids
• Recall Steroid hearings
– Set the stage
• MC’s at scene of forest fire, illegal border
crossing, on aircraft carrier off Iraq, …
– Come up with a gimmick
– Jim Nussle on House banking (1991)
Framing Issues
• Frames are the ways in which we think about issues
• Frames are the set of connections that come to mind
– Is a carbon tax a question of fighting global warming or
another big govt tax?
– Are gun controls about reducing crime or taking away
the rights of hunters
– Was the invasion of Cambodia an “incursion” to protect
US forces or a widening of the Vietnam War?
• So MCs fight over how to frame issues
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