154 CHAPTER 5|PUBLIC OPINION AND THE MEDIA
News media are Americans’ primary source of public information about poli-
tics and policy. The news media landscape today is undergoing a massive transi-
tion, as the Internet supports an ever-growing variety of new information sources
and fewer people rely on newspapers or television for news. Even so, these tradi-
tional sources remain the most popular for political information. Although jour-
nalists can shape public opinion, media coverage is also substantially infl uenced
by the need to attract an audience. There is little evidence, however, to support
claims of an ideological bias in media coverage.
The average American is not an expert on government policies and knows rela-
tively little about possible alternatives. But even a small amount of information
is enough to inform his or her beliefs about what policies should be enacted. Poli-
ticians, moreover, generally take care to behave in accordance with the public’s
demands. Changes in the last few years in government policy, politicians’ state-
ments, and election outcomes all refl ect changes in the policy mood.