What do the media focus on in its coverage of elections?
Do you think the media has a liberal or a conservative bias?
How might you reform media coverage of elections?
What are the potential problems that proposed reforms might cause?
How do candidates use the media to aid their campaigns?
Television has replaced newspapers as the dominant media in America. Do you think newspapers retain influence despite the far greater reach of television? Do you think new forms of media may gradually undermine the influence of television?
What is the experiment devised by Ansolabehere et al to assess the impact of negative advertising on voting behavior?
According to Ansolabehere et al, does negative advertising change the level support for the candidate attacked? If so, why?
How did Ansolabehere et al confirm the results of their experiment by studying actual elections?
The Annenberg Public Policy Center studies the media and politics. Their site contains various information about studies of media coverage as well as proposals to reform how the media covers politics such as free air time for candidates.
C-SPAN Terrific public-service politics media site.
Most of the major American media have big web sites you can surf, including CNN (also see CNN's Politics Page), MSNBC (Microsoft and NBC), ABC, CBS, the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, and the LA Times.
You can also check out my undergraduate media page for a list of domestic and English-language foreign newspapers.
The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the American University. If you have any questions about this page, please email David Lublin at dlublin@american.edu. This page was last updated on August 21, 2002.