This Shorenstein Center report examines media coverage of the 1988 presidential election and proposes recommendations for campaign coverage moving forward. In the aftermath of the 1988 election, Republicans wondered how the personal background of vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle could, for a time, sweep away all other issues in the campaign. Democrats mused bitterly about […]
Campaign Lessons for ’92 Read More »
A paper by Timothy Cook, fall 1988 fellow, evaluates press coverage of the AIDS epidemic, and argues that many standard journalistic practices contributed to poor coverage of the issue, and may have led to slow policy responses. Cook cites several factors that led to inadequate coverage in the early years of the epidemic: the reliance
Notes for the Next Epidemic, Part One: Lessons from News Coverage of AIDS Read More »
A paper by Sylvia Poggioli, fall 1990 fellow, focuses on media consolidation in Italy in the early 1990s. For most of its history the Italian press was a “politically-subsidized” institution, writes Poggioli, with Italian newspapers often representing political parties or movements. More recently, this institution was turned on its head and converted into a business,
The Media in Europe After 1992: A Case Study of La Repubblica Read More »
A paper by Alexander Merkushev, fall 1990 fellow, traces the history of press freedom in Russia from the rule of the Czars in the 17th century to the end of the Cold War under Gorbachev. Merkushev details how the Russian press has always reflected the tug-of-war between authorities unwilling to yield powers and a public
A paper by Glyn Davis, fall 1988 fellow, compares the United States’ decentralized public broadcasting system to its Australian counterpart, which was built on the British government monopoly model. Starting with a historical analysis of how the two different systems developed from their early radio days, Davis documents the various political assaults and supports for
Different Strokes: Public Broadcasting in America and Australia Read More »
A paper by Lewis W. Wolfson, spring 1990 fellow, explores the implications when government officials change careers to become journalists. What is the impact on press freedom and public policy? Wolfson conducted 62 interviews, including veterans of the Washington press and political communities who have “crossed the line,” as well as member of the press
Through the Revolving Door: Blurring the Line between the Press and Government Read More »
A paper by James McEnteer, spring 1990 fellow, evaluates the phenomenon of the revolving door between journalism and politics or government. McEnteer challenges the idea that moving from government roles to journalism is always a conflict of interest. Journalists should be detached from the subjects they cover, yet “insider information” also has value. Based on
This Shorenstein Center report by John Ellis provides recommendations for improving election coverage during the nine Sundays between Labor Day and Election Day, when public interest in the presidential campaign increases. This proposal recommends that major broadcast networks provide 90 minutes of evening or prime time coverage every Sunday to a serious and substantial discussion
Nine Sundays: A Proposal for Better Presidential Campaign Coverage Read More »
A paper by John J. Watkins, spring 1990 fellow, explores a question often confronted by the lower courts: whether the First Amendment right of access extends to settlement agreements and related documents in civil cases. These records are not inconsequential for journalists, argues Watkins. Modern civil litigation involves myriad issues of public importance: corporate and
A paper by Linda Jakobson, spring 1990 fellow, focuses on Chinese press coverage of the student-led Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. For this paper, Jakobson interviewed dozens of Chinese journalists, scholars and other observers, read and watched Chinese press coverage, and placed it within a Chinese social and political context. Her paper provides insight into
A paper by Dieter Buhl, spring 1990 fellow, examines how television from West Germany influenced political developments in East Germany in the 1980s. Buhl’s study suggests that television functioned on at least two levels leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall: it educated people, feeding information from the West into millions of East
A paper by Kiku Adatto, fall 1989 fellow, analyzes how televised news coverage of presidential campaigns has changed, and finds that sound bites have been steadily shrinking. The average sound bite, or block of uninterrupted speech, from a presidential candidate fell from 42.3 seconds in 1968 to only 9.8 seconds in 1988, writes Adatto. In
Sound Bite Democracy: Network Evening News Presidential Campaign Coverage, 1968 and 1988 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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