Do the media work? 255content online as well, including footage that was never used in broadcasts, so that
people can watch at any time.
One downside of audience pressures is that they lead reporters to search for
stories—any stories—to have something new to offer their audience, who otherwise
might get its news from somewhere else. For example, although most theories of
elections show that polls taken during the early days of a political campaign are
almost irrelevant, the media still cover poll results. Early on most people know very
little about the candidates, so a well-known figure such as Donald Trump may attract
support simply because people know his name. Because reporters need something
to write about, they may focus on a new poll even though they are well aware that the
poll’s findings are almost meaningless. The mere fact that reporters focus so much on
each new poll may lead some readers to pay more attention to the findings than they
actually deserve.
More generally, audience pressures lead reporters to focus on making their stories
simple and dramatic in order to catch the attention of a distracted audience. Stories that
say “nothing much happened today in the presidential campaign” or “today’s events
are hard to explain but almost surely will not affect who wins the election” will lose out
to reports that cast events in simple, life-and-death terms. Consider media coverage
of special congressional elections in 2017 and 2018. Each election was framed in a way
that made it seem significant, and thus more interesting to media audiences, as though
it would provide deep insights about Democratic prospects in the 2018 midterms. This
coverage often ignored important facts, such as the facts that most of the elections
were in strongly Republican districts, most of the candidates received much higher
contributions than they would have received in a normal election, and turnout in the
elections was much lower than normal. All of these factors should have suggested to
reporters that these elections were so atypical that they would not, in fact, be useful in
predicting midterm election outcomes. For example, the 2017 Alabama special Senate
election was held in one of the most Republican states in the country and featured a
Republican candidate, Roy Moore, whose campaign was based on strong religious
themes (and who was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women during the
campaign), and a Democratic challenger, Doug Jones, who was much more moderate
than Democrats serving in the House and Senate. While Doug Jones ultimately won,
his victory said little about how other Democrats, running in different districts and
facing different challengers, would fare in 2018. (See the How It Works feature earlier
in this chapter.)
The media’s efforts to spin a story to attract an audience are nothing new.^36
For decades, scholars have documented the rise of attack journalism, in which
journalists focus on scandal, government failures, and politicians’ personal
failings.^37 Other researchers have argued that campaign coverage overemphasizes
the horse race aspects, such as which candidates are ahead and which are falling
behind, rather than offering a complete description of each candidate’s promises
and an analysis of how he or she is likely to behave in office.^38 Similarly, coverage
of debates over public policy often focuses on personalities and predictions about
who is likely to achieve his or her goals, not the details of what the policies include.
Media coverage of politics also emphasizes soft news (stories that are sensational or
entertaining) over hard news (stories that focus on important issues and emphasize
facts and figures).^39 The media also often give disproportionate coverage to events
that are more likely to be recognized by the average American. For example, media
coverage of Hurricane Harvey, which hit land in Texas, was much more extensive
than coverage of Hurricane Maria, which devastated Puerto Rico only a month
later—and both of these disasters were covered far more aggressively than the far
more deadly monsoon storms in Bangladesh.^40The bias of the mainstream
media is toward sensationalism,
conflict, and laziness.— Jon Stewartattack journalism
A type of increasingly popular
media coverage focused on political
scandals and controversies, which
causes a negative public opinion of
political figures.horse race
A description of the type of election
coverage that focuses more on poll
results and speculation about a
likely winner than on substantive
differences between the candidates.soft news
Media coverage that aims to
entertain or shock, often through
sensationalized reporting or by
focusing on a candidate or politician’s
personality.hard news
Media coverage focused on facts
and important issues surrounding a
campaign.Full_08_APT_64431_ch07_232-261.indd 255 16/11/18 1:40 PM