The Press and the Voter

Abstract

Whatever improvements have taken place in political reporting, the voting public has become increasingly critical of press performance. Primarily because of the lack of adequate feedback mechanisms, reporters still fail to rec ognize how their views of politics differ from those of the voter. Greatest use of the media is made by the portion of the public most attentive to politics, and the newspaper rather than television seems to be the most effective of the political media. While the research literature has tradition ally indicated that media serve a reinforcement function rather than a change agent function, instances of the polit ical impact of the media are being documented with increas ing frequency. The more significant role that the media play at the elite levels of politics has received little systematic research attention. Such research attention might well allow reporters to be more resistant to manipulation by public officials and also to bring voters more closely into the re alities of the political process.