Media as Policy Makers

Overview

• Aims of Investigative Journalism

• Investigative Models

• Agenda Building

Aims of Investigative Journalism

• Three primary objectives:– Generate an exciting story that appeals to mass

audience– Secure positive reviews/prestige from

journalistic profession– Trigger political action

Aims of Investigative Journalism

• Investigative journalism fits within the “social responsiblity” school of journalism

• Social responsibility is flexible, though, and journalists (and their corporate sponsors) have wide latitude in determining and defining the relevant actors, institutions, and forces in society

Aims of Invetigative Journalism

• Resources to accomplish this include:– News stories– Documentaries– Docudramas– Themed “Entertainment” programming

Investigative Models

• Investigative journalism has three main avenues to influencing public policy:

1. Generating public reaction which in turn forces political leaders to act

2. Arouse political elites to take action to remedy the problem and prevent wider public criticism

3. Collaborate with one or more government agency to coordinate stories and supportive political activities

Models

investigation publication publicopinion

policyinitiatives

policyconsequences

Classic “Muckracking” Model

Investigative Models

• Media generated public pressure is rarely sufficiently strong to produce enough pressure on political leadership to make policy changes

• Producing changes in public policy frequently requires moving beyond media-generated public pressure

Investigative Models

• For this reason, we frequently find journalists collaborating directly with public officials to together manipulate public opinion to acquiece to policy changes or to pressure recalcitrant political actors to change policy

Models

investigationwith

collaboration

publication publicopinion

policyinitiatives

policyconsequences

Leaping Impact Model

Note that we’ve moved the policy initiative andthe public pressure steps

Investigative Models

• Finally, sometimes the point of the investigation is not to generate policy change so much as to call public attention to a social or political issue

• Sometimes political leaders fail to respond to the investigation, hoping public attention wanes and dissipates before reform necessary

Models

investigation publication publicopinion

Trucated Model

Note: the policy initative and policy consequencesteps are omitted

Models

• Note the relatively minor role of public opinion in all of this

• Why is public opinion relatively less important?

• Why is the media relatively unsuccessful in rousing public opinion in a meaningful way?

Agenda Building

• Media can sometimes create the climate that helps shape political action

• Journalists can shape the public agenda by focusing attention on a story and building the idea that a particular issue is important and needs public attention

Agenda Building

• Media can:– “construct climate” for public policy– nourish social movements and interest groups