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News Grazers
Media, Politics, and Trust in an Information Age

First Edition


January 2018 | 264 pages | CQ Press

How has growing media choice transformed the way we gather news?

 

News Grazers: Media, Politics, and Trust in an Information Age offers students an integration of the emerging effects that cable news, online news, and social media have had on American politics. Author Richard Forgette, an expert on the U.S. Congress and public policy, draws on direct experimental research to argue that the diffusion of media outlets and media technologies has resulted in an increasingly fragmented and distracted news audience. This unprecedented level of media choice is not only altering who accesses the news and how they do it; more important, it is changing the news itself.

With chapters on commentary news, partisan news, breaking news, and fake news, News Grazers gives students the tools they need to critically analyze the ever-shifting media landscape. Special attention is also paid to the effects of the media and political trust on the 2016 election. 


 
Preface
 
Part I: THE MAKING OF A NEWS GRAZER
 
Chapter 1: Why Don’t We Trust Congress and the Media?
News Grazing

 
The Evolution of Media Choice and Screening

 
The Birth of News Grazers

 
News Grazing and Congressional Distrust

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 2: The News Grazer
Selective Exposure

 
The News-Grazing Decision: Practices and Theories

 
News Grazing: Trends and Analysis

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 3: News Makers and Producers: The Emergence of Commentary News
Selling the News: Is News a Private or Public Good?

 
The News Makers

 
Adaptations and Strategies: Making Commentary News

 
The News Producers

 
New Media Strategies: Producing Commentary News

 
Conclusion

 
 
Part II: THE EFFECTS OF NEWS GRAZING
 
Chapter 4: Partisan News
Understanding News Opinion

 
Evaluating the Effects of Opinion News

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 5: Breaking News
Understanding News Urgency

 
The Effects of News Urgency on Attitudes toward Congress

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 6: Fake News
Fake News and Political Trust

 
Fake Satirical News: Evolution, Audience, and Content

 
Political Satire and Public Attitudes Toward Congress: Why and How Does Political Satire Matter?

 
Assessing the Effects of Political Satire on Congressional Cynicism

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 7: Overexposed
A Summary of the News-Grazing Theory

 
An Overexposed Congress: Does It Matter?

 
An Overexposed Media: Does It Matter?

 
Conclusion

 
 
Appendix I: Breaking-News Experiment: Pretest/Post-Test Script
 
Appendix II: Satirical News Experiment: Pretest/Post-Test Script
 
References
 
Index
 
About the Author
Key features

KEY FEATURES:

  • Coverage of the media’s effects on the 2016 election encourages students to discuss the election while taking into account the broader theoretical concerns about changing news consumption habits and declining political trust.
  • The chapter on partisan news helps students understand the impact of politically polarized news audiences.
  • The chapter on fake news offers students current examples of the political impact of this phenomenon.
  • Examples of the ways in which Americans increasingly have become news grazers show students how growing media choice has transformed how we gather news and is resulting in an increasingly distracted news audience.
  • Discussions about the development of commentary news show how producers have combined drama, opinion, immediacy, and entertainment with straight news content—allowing students to see the impact that this form of news has on the public’s trust in Congress and the media. 

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