A paper by Montague Kern, spring 1992 fellow, and Marion Just, professor at Wellesley College, investigates the role of news and advertising in influencing public discourse about campaign issues, and in turn, candidates. The extent to which public discourse during a campaign centers on issues favoring one candidate over another is considered a good predictor […]
A paper by Sissela Bok, spring 1993 fellow, applies the perspective of philosopher and social critic to analyze public policy debates in the press about violent television. Bok exposes the weaknesses of eight common arguments: 1. America has always been a violent nation and always will be. 2. Why focus the policy debate on TV
TV Violence, Children and the Press: Eight Rationales Inhibiting Public Policy Debates Read More »
A paper by Nik Gowing, spring 1994 fellow, challenges the idea that real-time television coverage of armed conflicts impact foreign policy decisions. Conventional wisdom is that real-time television coverage creates a demand that “something must be done” and drives the making of foreign policy. This paper argues that frequently the relationship is not as profound
A paper by Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, fall 1992 fellow, analyzes media coverage of the presidential and vice presidential candidates’ wives during the 1992 election. Campbell examines some of the major influences on coverage of Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton, Tipper Gore, and Marilyn Tucker Quayle: 1. the history of presidential wives; 2. modern beliefs about their
Shadowboxing with Stereotypes: The Press, The Public, and the Candidates’ Wives Read More »
A paper by Gadi Wolfsfeld, fall 1992 fellow, develops and applies a theoretical model to analyze the role of the news media in political conflicts, particularly unequal conflicts in the Middle East. Under what conditions are the news media most likely to play an independent role in political conflicts? The answer to this question, argues
A paper by Bernard Roshco, spring 1992 fellow, analyzes the failures of the Bush administration’s policies toward Iraq prior to the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and the failings of the press in reporting on them. Roshco explores numerous questions. Why did President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker misread Hussein’s motivations so badly?
When Policy Fails: How the Buck Was Passed When Kuwait Was Invaded Read More »
A paper by Betty Houchin Winfield, spring 1991 fellow, examines free speech and press freedom in the U.S. during wartime. If wartime governments are more autocratic, writes Winfield, then it is assumed that presidents will take a more authoritative stance concerning free expression. This paper looks at two presidencies that inflicted “extreme infringements” on civil
Two Commanders-in-Chief: Free Expression’s Most Severe Test Read More »
A paper by Santiago Sanchez Gonzalez, fall 1991 fellow, takes a close look at press freedom as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Gonzalez argues that freedom of the press is as much about freedom to as about freedom from, and as much about fostering the conditions for democratic deliberation as about the libertarian goal of
The American Pattern of Freedom of the Press: A Model to Follow? Read More »
This paper by Marvin Kalb, Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice Emeritus, was first presented as the keynote address at the Shorenstein Center’s fifth anniversary celebration. He discussed President Nixon’s complicated relationship with the press, focusing on a memo Nixon wrote that was critical of President Bush’s foreign policy on Russia, which was leaked to
A paper by Marion Just, professor at Wellesley College; W. Russell Neuman, professor at University of Michigan; and Ann Crigler, fall 1991 fellow, explores an economic approach to understanding how people select, pay attention to, and learn from news stories. Their research finds that as economic theory would suggest, study participants were most interested in
An Economic Theory of Learning from News Read More »
This report by the Shorenstein Center explores the U.S. media coverage of the 1989 Beijing Spring. Although the U.S. was not directly involved in the events that took place, media coverage made Americans deeply involved in them. Among the “firsts” in the coverage was the presence of television anchors night after night in an East
Turmoil at Tiananmen: A Study of U.S. Press Coverage of the Beijing Spring of 1989 Read More »
A paper by Michael A. Russo, fall 1990 fellow, addresses the interrelationship between the Catholic Church and the news media in the U.S. abortion debate. Russo tells the story of three Catholic Bishops and how they frame their moral teachings for the pulpit and the press. He also examines how journalists who cover religious and
The Church, the Press, and Abortion: Catholic Leadership and Public Communication Read More »
The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy is a Harvard Kennedy School research center dedicated to exploring and illuminating the intersection of press, politics and public policy in theory and practice. The Center strives to bridge the gap between journalists and scholars, and between them and the public.
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