News Coverage And Democratic Governance In Local Communities
Download News Coverage And Democratic Governance In Local Communities full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online free News Coverage And Democratic Governance In Local Communities ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!
| Author | : Deserai A. Crow |
| Publisher | : |
| Total Pages | : 0 |
| Release | : 2014 |
| Genre | : |
| ISBN | : |
If we value governance based on democratic principles, openness, transparency, and accountability must all be present in public policy decisions. Mass Media help shape the policy agendas from which new policies emerge. Furthermore, media communication helps shape public understanding of complex issues. We expect that media should act as watchdogs of government, communicate information that citizens need to know, and hold elected officials accountable for their actions. Through this, media can help to promote the democratic values outlined above. But in the changing world of news media, does this happen? This study analyzes the role that local media played in covering and communicating important issues related to local water rights policies in Colorado. The study uses a comparative research design involving 18 community case studies. Using interview data, document analysis, and content analysis of all media coverage within these communities related to local water rights decisions, this study finds that the principles associated with democratic ideals of a watchful press were not apparent. Additionally, previous research shows that experts were the most influential actors in initiating and advocating for these policy decisions (Crow 2009). These two factors interact to diminish democratic governance within these communities, which means that citizens do not have the information or influence that is desirable in democratic policymaking.
| Author | : Pippa Norris |
| Publisher | : World Bank Publications |
| Total Pages | : 446 |
| Release | : 2009-11-19 |
| Genre | : Business & Economics |
| ISBN | : 0821382012 |
What are the ideal roles the mass media should play as an institution to strengthen democratic governance and thus bolster human development? Under what conditions do media systems succeed or fail to meet these objectives? And what strategic reforms would close the gap between the democratic promise and performance of media systems? Working within the notion of the democratic public sphere, 'Public Sentinel: News Media and Governance Reform' emphasizes the institutional or collective roles of the news media as watchdogs over the powerful, as agenda setters calling attention to social needs in natural and human-caused disasters and humanitarian crises, and as gatekeepers incorporating a diverse and balanced range of political perspectives and social actors. Each is vital to making democratic governance work in an effective, transparent, inclusive, and accountable manner. The capacity of media systems and thus individual reporters embedded within those institutions to fulfill these roles is constrained by the broader context of the journalistic profession, the market, and ultimately the state. Successive chapters apply these arguments to countries and regions worldwide. This study brought together a wide range of international experts under the auspices of the Communication for Governance and Accountability Program (CommGAP) at the World Bank and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. The book is designed for policy makers and media professionals working within the international development community, national governments, and grassroots organizations, and for journalists, democratic activists, and scholars engaged in understanding mass communications, democratic governance, and development.
| Author | : Stuart N. Soroka |
| Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
| Total Pages | : 215 |
| Release | : 2022-02-03 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 1108865178 |
Around the world, there are increasing concerns about the accuracy of media coverage. It is vital in representative democracies that citizens have access to reliable information about what is happening in government policy, so that they can form meaningful preferences and hold politicians accountable. Yet much research and conventional wisdom questions whether the necessary information is available, consumed, and understood. This study is the first large-scale empirical investigation into the frequency and reliability of media coverage in five policy domains, and it provides tools that can be exported to other areas, in the US and elsewhere. Examining decades of government spending, media coverage, and public opinion in the US, this book assesses the accuracy of media coverage, and measures its direct impact on citizens' preferences for policy. This innovative study has far-reaching implications for those studying and teaching politics as well as for reporters and citizens.
| Author | : Martha Minow |
| Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
| Total Pages | : 257 |
| Release | : 2021 |
| Genre | : LAW |
| ISBN | : 0190948418 |
"As traditional for-profit news media in the United States declines in economic viability and sheer numbers of outlets and staff, what does and what should the constitutional guarantee of freedom of the press mean? The book examines the current news ecosystem in the U.S. and chronicles historical developments in government involvement in shaping the industry. It argues that initiatives by the government and by private-sector actors are not only permitted but called for as transformations in technology, economics, and communications jeopardize the production and distribution of and trust in news and the very existence of local news reporting. It presents ten proposals for change to help preserve the free press essential to our democratic society"--
| Author | : Freedom House |
| Publisher | : Rowman & Littlefield |
| Total Pages | : 1265 |
| Release | : 2019-01-31 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 1538112035 |
Freedom in the World, the Freedom House flagship survey whose findings have been published annually since 1972, is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The survey ratings and narrative reports on 195 countries and fifteen territories are used by policymakers, the media, international corporations, civic activists, and human rights defenders to monitor trends in democracy and track improvements and setbacks in freedom worldwide. The Freedom in the World political rights and civil liberties ratings are determined through a multi-layered process of research and evaluation by a team of regional analysts and eminent scholars. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information, including foreign and domestic news reports, academic studies, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region, in conducting their research. The methodology of the survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.
| Author | : Carmel O'Toole |
| Publisher | : Routledge |
| Total Pages | : 282 |
| Release | : 2019-05-01 |
| Genre | : Social Science |
| ISBN | : 1351697307 |
This is a critical examination of the impact of sustained large-scale austerity cuts on local government communications in the UK. Budget constraints have left public sector media teams without the resources for robust citizen-facing communications. The "nose for news" has been downgraded and local journalists, once the champions of public interest coverage, are a force much diminished. The book asks, what is lost to local democracy as a result? And what does it mean when no one is holding the country’s public spenders to account? The authors present extensive interviews with communications professionals working across different council authorities. These offer important insights into the challenges currently being faced by communicators within local public services. The book also includes in-depth case studies on the Grenfell Tower disaster, the Rotherham child-grooming scandal and the Sheffield tree-felling controversy. These events all raise serious questions about the scrutiny and accountability of local authorities and the important role the media can and does play. Local Democracy, Journalism and Public Relations provides new empirical data on, and the real-world views of, working communications teams in local government today. For students and researchers interested in local journalism and public relations, the book illuminates the current relationship between these professions, local democracy and political accountability.
| Author | : |
| Publisher | : |
| Total Pages | : 0 |
| Release | : 2022 |
| Genre | : Democracy |
| ISBN | : |
"Between 2005 and 2020, one quarter of the nation's newspapers closed, leaving 1,800 communities with no local news outlet. Several national studies have shown the impact of these closures on various aspects of our society, particularly those that are fundamental to our democratic system of government. Until this report, there has been no comprehensive study of the situation as it pertains to Washington state. At the 2021 convention of the League of Women Voters of Washington, delegates authorized a study of the decline of local news in Washington to support League development of a policy position. The charge of the study committee was to evaluate the condition of news outlets in Washington. Were they disappearing at the same rate as other states? If so, were Washington residents experiencing the same known impacts of lower political participation, less government oversight, higher government costs, reduced community engagement, and a lack of communication about public health? We consider these elements fundamental to our democracy and system of government. Using standard reporting techniques, committee members gathered information from more than 50 scholars, journalists, elected officials, and government and civic leaders, including public health professionals. The committee also reviewed more than 500 documents, from scholarly studies to articles in the popular press. Other efforts included tracking circulation and staffing trends within the state, closures of newspapers and the occasional rise of a new outlet. Newspapers with a general population readership as well as those that serve specific ethnic communities were reviewed. The committee also examined potential measures to protect local news--such as legislation, nonprofit ownership, community partnership, and philanthropy. The task was not to present solutions. Rather it was to provide information to make readers aware of the significance of the issue with a goal of reaching consensus on a League policy."--Amazon.com.
| Author | : Doris Appel Graber |
| Publisher | : C Q Press College |
| Total Pages | : 296 |
| Release | : 1998 |
| Genre | : Language Arts & Disciplines |
| ISBN | : |
Citizens rely upon mass media as their principal sources of information on government and politics, but who decides what is reported and how? The selection of stories to be covered on the nightly news or in the morning newspaper, along with the content and framing of those stories, are subject to daily struggles between journalists, politicians, and others who seek to influence public opinion and public policy. Written by a distinguished group of authors that includes Walter Cronkite, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, and Kathleen Frankovic, this book explores who should, and who does, influence press coverage of politics in democratic countries. It considers how the media operate as an intermediary for communications between governments and citizens, between various political actors, and even among citizens. The new is indispensable for students of politics and government and for every reader interested in learning more about how news is made, where the problems and tensions lie, and how they can be corrected.
| Author | : Robert M. Entman |
| Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
| Total Pages | : 256 |
| Release | : 1990-09-27 |
| Genre | : Language Arts & Disciplines |
| ISBN | : 0190281715 |
"The free press cannot be free," Robert Entman asserts. "Inevitably, it is dependent." In this penetrating critique of American journalism and the political process, Entman identifies a "vicious circle of interdependence" as the key dilemma facing reporters and editors. To become sophisticated citizens, he argues, Americans need high-quality, independent political journalism; yet, to stay in business while producing such journalism, news organizations would need an audience of sophisticated citizens. As Entman shows, there is no easy way out of this dilemma, which has encouraged the decay of democratic citizenship as well as the media's continuing failure to live up to their own highest ideals. Addressing widespread despair over the degeneration of presidential campaigns, Entman argues that the media system virtually compels politicians to practice demagoguery. Entman confronts a provocative array of issues: how the media's reliance on elite groups and individuals for information inevitably slants the news, despite adherence to objectivity standards; why the media hold government accountable for its worst errors--such as scandals and foreign misadventures--only after it's too late to prevent them; how the interdependence of the media and their audience molds public opinion in ways neither group alone can control; why greater media competition does not necessarily mean better journalism; why the abolition of the FCC's Fairness Doctrine could make things worse. Entman sheds fascinating light on important news events of the past decade. He compares, for example, coverage of the failed hostage rescue in 1980, which subjected President Carter to a barrage of criticism, with coverage of the 1983 bombing that killed 241 Marines in Lebanon, an incident in which President Reagan largely escaped blame. He shows how various factors unrelated to the reality of the events themselves--the apparent popularity of Reagan and unpopularity of Carter, differences in the way the Presidents publicly framed the incidents, the potent symbols skillfully manipulated by Reagan's but not by Carter's news managers--produced two very different kinds of reportage. Entman concludes with some thoughtful suggestions for improvement. Chiefly, he proposes the creation of subsidized, party-based news outlets as a way of promoting new modes of news gathering and analysis, of spurring the established media to more innovative coverage, and of increasing political awareness and participation. Such suggestions, along with the author's probing media criticisms, make this book essential reading for anyone concerned about the state of democracy in America.
| Author | : Eiri Elvestad |
| Publisher | : Routledge |
| Total Pages | : 242 |
| Release | : 2018-04-09 |
| Genre | : Social Science |
| ISBN | : 1315444348 |
Misunderstanding News Audiences interrogates the prevailing myths around the impact of the Internet and social media on news consumption and democracy. The book draws on a broad range of comparative research into audience engagement with news, across different geographic regions, to provide insight into the experience of news audiences in the twenty-first century. From its inception, it was imagined that the Internet would benignly transform the nature of news media and its consumers. There were predictions that it would, for example, break up news oligarchies, improve plurality and diversity through news personalisation, create genuine social solidarity online, and increase political awareness and participation among citizens. However, this book finds that, while mainstream news media is still the major source of news, the new media environment appears to lead to greater polarisation between news junkies and news avoiders, and to greater political polarisation. The authors also argue that the dominant role of the USA in the field of news audience research has created myths about a global news audience, which obscures the importance of national context as a major explanation for news exposure differences. Misunderstanding News Audiences presents an important analysis of findings from recent audience studies and, in doing so, encourages readers to re-evaluate popular beliefs about the influence of the Internet on news consumption and democracy in the West.
