A paper by Dean Alger, spring 1993 fellow, examines the evolution of Bush and Clinton’s public personas during the 1992 presidential campaign. Alger traces the increasing importance of a candidate’s character and personality to the rise of campaign consultants, the increase of citizen involvement in the primaries, and the rise of television. This paper uses […]
A paper by Richard Parker, spring 1993 fellow, explores the potential opportunities and challenges for a new era of “global television.” After seeing TV coverage of Tiananmen Square and the Gulf War broadcast live around the world, it’s hard to doubt that some sort of transformation is going on, writes Parker. But in the future,
The Future of Global Television News Read More »
A paper by Sanjoy Hazarika, fall 1993 fellow, analyzes the press coverage of India’s Bhopal disaster in 1984. Hazarika was one of the first reporters to cover the industrial accident, a gas leak from a pesticide plant that killed more than 4,000 and hospitalized 200,000 more. As New Delhi correspondent for The New York Times,
From Bhopal to Superfund: The News Media and the Environment Read More »
A paper by C. Edwin Baker, fall 1992 fellow, analyzes the claim that concentration in media ownership has mostly objectionable effects on the media produced. Baker finds numerous flaws in the methodology of the research published on this topic, and writes that the research creates only a “tepid” case for the reduction of chain ownership.
Ownership of Newspapers: The View from Positivist Social Science Read More »
A paper by Erna Smith, fall 1992 fellow, examines framing in the TV news coverage of the 1992 Los Angeles riot. Smith analyzes the content of television broadcasts before, during and after the riot on ten television stations, and draws three main conclusions. First, the study suggests that television news coverage of the 1992 Los
Transmitting Race: The Los Angeles Riot in Television News Read More »
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 »
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 »
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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