Conditional Press Influence in Politics Book

1 Introduction 1

The News Media as a Political Institution 2

Effects of News Content: Beyond All or Nothing 3

Plan of the Book 5

2 Understanding Media Influence in Politics 7

The News-Making Process 8

Core Norms of the News Profession 9

Realistic Norms and Their Implications 11

Financial Constraints in Journalism 13

Independent Media Influence: The Case of Horse-Race Election Coverage 15

Spurious Media Influence 17

Note 20

3 The Theory of Conditional Media Influence 21

Principles 21

Hypotheses 22

Theory Meets Data 25

4 Economic News 27

Dependent Variables: Two Types of Economic News 28

Measuring Economic Reality 30

Media Influence in the Economic Realm 32

Elite Influence 34

Full Model 36

Discussion 38

Appendix 39

Notes 40

5 Foreign Conflicts News 43

Conflicts Coverage 44

Predictors of Coverage 44

Analysis 49

Discussion 55

Appendix 56

Notes 57

6 Supreme Court News 59

News Coverage of the Supreme Court 60

Other Predictors: Independent vs. Spurious Media Influence 62

Analysis 65

Discussion 69

Appendix 69

Notes 71

7 Conclusion 73

Iraq War Revisited 76

The Future: News, Public Opinion, and the Internet 77

Note 80

References 81

Index 87