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 »
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 »
A paper by William Lanouette, spring-fall 1988 fellow, provides a case study on the role of the press in nuclear weapons policy. For more than a decade, pieces of a nationwide scandal had surfaced from the vast and sprawling system that produces the U.S’s nuclear weapons as health, safety and environmental stories in local papers
A speech delivered by author and philosopher Sissela Bok, on March 29, 1990, at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, as part of the Shorenstein Center’s conference “School for Scandal: Lessons for the Politicians and the Press.” Bok addresses voters mistrust of and disillusionment with government, as well as an obsession with scandal. “At
School for Scandal Read More »
A paper by Lawrence K. Grossman, Visiting Stanton Lecturer, 1987-1988, explores why, despite a high volume of campaign coverage, voter turnout for the 1988 election was at its lowest point since 1924. Grossman argues that the problem is partly television, which distorts the political process through its “conventional mainstream bias,” its role as a medium
Reflections on Television’s Role in American Presidential Elections 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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