The nature and determinants of presidential and congressional media coverage are described in this article, and the untested assumptions concerning political consequences of coverage are discussed. The argument that media coverage inherently enhances power, so that the president's influence is unconditionally increased at the expense of Congress's, is challenged through logic and example. The need to investigate the dynamics of media impact beyond public opinion, the nature of institutional coverage in various political settings, and the promise of congressional hearings for counterbalancing presidential coverage are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
1. Michael J. Robinson, “A Twentieth-Century Medium in a Nineteenth-Century Legislature: The Effects of Television on the American Congress,” in Congress in Change: Evolution and Reform, ed. Norman Ornstein (New York: Praeger, 1975).
2.
Doris Graber , Mass Media and American Politics (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1980).
3.
Graber , Mass Media and American Politics.
4.
4. Martha Joynt Kumar and Michael Baruch Grossman, “The White House and the News Media: The Phases in Their Relationship,”Political Science Quarterly, 94:37-53 (Spring 1979).
5.
5. Michael Robinson, “The Three Faces of Congressional Media,” in The New Congress, ed. Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1981).
6.
The success of this coverage for reelection is discussed in Peter Clarke and Susan Evans, Covering Campaigns: Journalism in Congressional Elections (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1983).
7.
Timothy Cook , “House Members as Rational Newsmakers: Effects of Televising Congress,”Legislative Studies Quarterly, 11(2):203-226 (May 1986).
8.
Susan Miller , “News Coverage of Congress: The Search for the Ultimate Spokesman,”Journalism Quarterly, 55(3):667-663 (Autumn 1977).
9.
9. Stephen Hess, The Washington Reporters (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1981).
10.
10. Herbert Schmertz, “The Media and the Presidency,”Presidential Studies Quarterly, 16(1):11-21 (Winter 1986).
11.
11. Graber, Mass Media and American Politics.
12.
12. Senator William Fulbright, as quoted in Congress and the News Media, ed. Robert Blanchard (New York: Hastings House, 1974), p. 105.
13.
13. Robertson, “Twentieth-Century Medium,” p. 256.
14.
14. Ibid., p. 252.
15.
Elmer Cornwell , “The President and the Press: Phases in the Relationship,”The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 427:53-64 (Sept. 1976).
16.
16. Elliott King and Michael Schudson, “The Myth of the Great Communicator,”Columbian Journalism Review, Nov.-Dec. 1987, pp. 37-39.
17.
17. Arthur Miller, Edie Goldenberg, and Lutz Erbring, “Type-Set Politics: Impact of Newspapers on Public Confidence,”American Political Science Review, 73(1):67-84 (Mar. 1979).
18.
18. Norman Ornstein, “The Open Congress Meets the President,” in Both Ends of the Avenue, ed. Anthony King (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1983), pp. 185-211.
19.
Cook , “House Members as Rational Newsmakers.”
20.
20. Stephen Hess, The Government/Press Connection: Press Officers and Their Offices (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1984).
21.
21. Martin Linsky, Impact: How the Press Affects Federal Policymaking (New York: Norton, 1986).
22.
22. Ranney, Channels of Power.
23.
23. Gladys Engel Lang and Kurt Lang, The Battle for Public Opinion: The President, the Press and the Polls during Watergate (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983).
24.
24. Ibid., p. 50.
25.
25. Ibid., pp. 27, 73.
26.
26. Ibid., p. 93.
27.
27. Ibid., p. 133.
28.
28. Ibid., p. 162.
29.
29. Ibid., pp. 167, 174.
30.
30. Ibid., p. 174.
31.
31. Robinson, “Twentieth-Century Medium.”
32.
Kaid and Foote, “Network Television Coverage of the President and Congress.”
33.
33. Barbara Matuson, “Made for TV,”Washingtonian, 23(3):208-218 (Dec. 1987).
34.
Results of recent Gallup polls are found in Gallup Report, 264:29 (Spring 1987).
35.
35. Daniel Hallin, “The Media, the War in Vietnam, and Political Support: A Critique of the Thesis of an Oppositional Media,”Journal of Politics, 46(1):2-24 (Feb. 1984).
