W. Lance Bennett

I picked this up for free - had been a textbook. But I enjoyed it and passed it around to others. It was eye-opening to a teenager 10+ years ago, but by now it's probably too out-of-date. The concept of news "normalization" has stuck with me, however - the idea that issues are turned into events, presented heavily for a few days, then "normalized" (by being ignored or by other means) into non-events, even though the issue may be on-going or even worsening. Maybe it's not so out-of-date?

Critical, important examination of how the journalistic tradition of objectivity became confused (if not synonymous), in recent decades, with deference to authority and power. "The confusion about standards of political accountability starts with the implicit journalistic shortcut that assumes reporting to the citizenry what those at the center of power are doing is the most reasonable and unassailable thing to do ... setting the news agenda independently, while producing a refreshing show more diversity of information, would also bring noisy criticisms of bias and crusading -- from the same public officials [not to mention citizenry] who have come to depend on the current news system as a tool of public relations and governance. The confusion of objectivity with power is so profound that journalists who depart from narratives reported by the rest of the press pack are typically challenged by their editors for not getting the story right. [p. 178] ... news organizations repeatedly decided to apply the unwritten rule that without some government mechanism such as a congressional hearing ... [or] opposition from opponents deemed capable of actually influencing or defeating them", contrary views are seldom given attention in the mainstream press. [p. 35, 179]
"n news about most government policy issues, the absence of credible and potentially decisive opposition from inside government itself leaves the mainstream press generally unable to build and sustain counterstories. This is true even when credible sources outside government can offer evidence to the contrary, and for the most part, even if opposition exists from domestic public opinion or foreign governments. This process is so regular that it has been referred to by one of the authors as 'indexing' the range of news content to the degree of institutional conflict (as noted by the journalists themselves)." [p. 36] show less

How media make the news this book about media news serves links to various political actors to appears into the network like a puppet, so the Introduction to the political information system that if like to make contend this works freedom from the press, it is a solutions for citizens and public opinion, so this escape from technological society, and the hide of interaction between Christianity and politics, a marriage between nationalism and the politics examines both how political actors show more work for customers, can search inside this book about the propaganda of secular politicians are not less religious of today politicians the translation of illusion into political boomerang, many question explored in this book about media news propaganda, that for many public opinion are freedom, from newspapers to the television but non-voters choose to dispel the myth of the media, that make the news for governments, but for now Internet it is free of governments control, that still are international level to discuss, instead of networks tv, and newspapers that used preconcertedness make away news, and informations for the people, this mass media use technologies which are intended to reach a large audience collectively considered curbs. show less