CONCLUSION| 153phenomenon. Theorists describe four media eff ects that work largely without con-
sumers’ awareness.
¾ Filtering refl ects journalists’ and editors’ decisions about which news
stories to report.
¾ Slant in a story gives favorable coverage to one candidate or policy without
providing “balanced” favorable coverage of other sides.
¾ Priming occurs when media coverage of a story aff ects the importance
people place on the issues or events mentioned in the coverage.
¾ Framing refers to the way in which the presentation of a story, includ-
ing details, explanations, and context, changes people’s reaction to the
information.
The existence of these media effects does not imply that reporters or editors
try to mislead the public or sway public opinion to conform to their own ideas. If
you read an article about a particular issue and decide to change your position,
this doesn’t suggest that the story was inaccurate or biased. Your decision may
be justified by the facts of the situation. Similarly, when slanted campaign cov-
erage praises one candidate and dismisses another as unqualified, you might
conclude that the author agrees with the first candidate’s positions and wrote
the story to help that candidate get elected. But what if the first candidate is
actually the most qualified? If so, then slanted coverage of the campaign might
be objective.
The same is true for other media eff ects. Space limitations mean that some fi l-
tering is inevitable as reporters and editors decide which stories to cover. Similar
decisions about what to report and how to present the information lead to priming
and framing eff ects. Even if everyone in the political media adhered to the highest
standards of accuracy, these infl uences would still exist. And it would be impossi-
ble to escape their eff ects. In fact, diverse research studies have confi rmed that the
details of media coverage do indeed aff ect what citizens know about politics and
government policy, how they evaluate offi ceholders and government programs,
their vote decisions, and the demands they put on elected offi cials. For example,
regular readers of a paper that endorsed a particular candidate were more likely
to hold a positive opinion of that candidate and more likely to vote for him.^92 And a
study of priming found that exposure to press coverage of the Persian Gulf War in
1990 a nd 1991 moved citizens to eva luate then-president George H. W. Bush on the
basis of his eff ectiveness in managing the war rather than on other factors such as
the state of the economy.^93
Conclusion
Public opinion and the media matter in American politics. Our nation’s citizens
have ideas about what they want government to do, and they use these ideas to
guide their political choices. Most of the time these beliefs are formed only when
needed, so they are sensitive to recent events. In a country as large and diverse as
the United States, disagreements over government policy are inevitable. However,
even though public opinion data shows disagreement in many areas, it also shows
areas where compromise is possible.
fi ltering The infl uence on public
opinion that results from journal-
ists’ and editors’ decisions about
which of many potential news
stories to report.
slant The imbalance in a story
that covers one candidate or policy
favorably without providing similar
coverage of the other side.
priming The infl uence on the pub-
lic’s general impressions caused by
positive or negative coverage of a
candidate or issue.
framing The infl uence on public
opinion caused by the way a story is
presented or covered, including the
details, explanations, and context
offered in the report.