8 The media and politics
The nature of the American media
Communication is vital to all systems of government in the modern world,
but nowhere more so than in the pluralistic politics of the United States, with
its frequent elections, groups ceaselessly competing for influence over policy,
and a complex institutional structure. The print media – newspapers, broad-
sheets, journals and books – were important features of American colonial
societies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and remained the only
medium of communication, other than word of mouth, until well into the
nineteenth century. The situation began to change with the development of
the telegraph and the use of the Morse code, so that messages which would
previously have taken days to carry by horse or train could be sent from one
side of the continent to the other in minutes. The invention of the telephone
made possible direct communication from one individual to another across
the country. It was the invention of radio, however, that really inaugurated
the era of ‘the mass media’ so that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, with his
‘fireside chats’, could potentially reach every citizen. After the Second World
War television began to transform the role of the media in politics. In the late
twentieth century the development of the internet brought a new dimension
of person-to-person communication, the impact of which on the conduct of
politics is only now becoming apparent.
The importance of the media in the modern state raises a number of ques-
tions. What effect do the media have on the outcome of elections and how
do they affect policy decisions? Do the media simply report the news or do
they make it? Do the media reflect public opinion or do they shape it? Are the
media manipulated by government or do they control it? We may not be able
to give satisfactory answers to these difficult questions, but at least we may
hope to throw some light on the impact of the media on the political system
of the United States.