Key Terms
- agenda setting
- the media’s ability to choose which issues or topics get attention
- beat
- the coverage area assigned to journalists for news or stories
- citizen journalism
- video and print news posted to the Internet or social media by citizens rather than the news media
- cultivation theory
- the idea that media affect a citizen’s worldview through the information presented
- digital paywall
- the need for a paid subscription to access published online material
- equal-time rule
- an FCC policy that all candidates running for office must be given the same radio and television airtime opportunities
- fairness doctrine
- a 1949 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) policy, now defunct, that required holders of broadcast licenses to cover controversial issues in a balanced manner
- framing
- the process of giving a news story a specific context or background
- Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
- a federal statute that requires public agencies to provide certain types of information requested by citizens
- hypodermic theory
- the idea that information is placed in a citizen’s brain and accepted
- indecency regulations
- laws that limit indecent and obscene material on public airwaves
- libel
- printed information about a person or organization that is not true and harms the reputation of the person or organization
- mass media
- the collection of all media forms that communicate information to the general public
- minimal effects theory
- the idea that the media have little effect on citizens
- muckraking
- news coverage focusing on exposing corrupt business and government practices
- party press era
- period during the 1780s in which newspaper content was biased by political partisanship
- priming
- the process of predisposing readers or viewers to think a particular way
- prior restraint
- a government action that stops someone from doing something before they are able to do it (e.g., forbidding someone to publish a book he or she plans to release)
- public relations
- biased communication intended to improve the image of people, companies, or organizations
- reporter’s privilege
- the right of a journalist to keep a source confidential
- slander
- spoken information about a person or organization that is not true and harms the reputation of the person or organization
- soft news
- news presented in an entertaining style
- sunshine laws
- laws that require government documents and proceedings to be made public
- yellow journalism
- sensationalized coverage of scandals and human interest stories
