Title: The Impact of the Media | American Government
Headings: The Impact of the Media
The Impact of the Media
Learning Objectives
Media Effects and Bias
Coverage Effects on Governance and Campaigns
Coverage Effects on Society
Summary
Practice Questions

Content: In 1992, both Bush’s and Bill Clinton’s campaigns maintained their carefully drawn candidate images by also limiting photographers and television journalists to photo opportunities at rallies and campaign venues. The constant control of the media became known as the “bubble,” and journalists were less effective when they were in the campaign’s bubble. Reporters complained this coverage was campaign advertising rather than journalism, and a new model emerged with the 1996 election. [ 4]
Campaign coverage now focuses on the spectacle of the season, rather than providing information about the candidates. Colorful personalities, strange comments, lapse of memories, and embarrassing revelations are more likely to get air time than the candidates’ issue positions. Candidate Donald Trump may be the best example of shallower press coverage of a presidential election. Some argue that newspapers and news programs are limiting the space they allot to discussion of the campaigns. [ 5] Others argue that citizens want to see updates on the race and electoral drama, not boring issue positions or substantive reporting. [ 6] It may also be that journalists have tired of the information games played by politicians and have taken back control of the news cycles. [ 7]
All these factors have likely led to the shallow press coverage we see today, sometimes dubbed pack journalism because journalists follow one another rather than digging for their own stories.