Video Player

New Roles for Established Media

Moderator: Stephen W. Van Evera
Amy Mitchell Alex Jones Mark Jurkowitz: October 28, 2004; Running Time: 1:52:49

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

These panelists purvey grim news about the media’s 2004 election coverage.

Amy Mitchell offers results of a study showing that the vast majority of reporting in the 2004 election concerned “inside politics” such as candidates’ performance and tactics; a measly 4% of debate coverage explained policy. As network news withdraws from conventions, expect to see cable TV’s “live, extemporaneous” and often slip-shod approach to politics assume greater dominance.

From Alex Jones, we learn that voters in the most recent election had so committed themselves to a candidate that no reporting on issues could move them, even if the facts stood squarely against their stated reasons for supporting the candidate. Says Jones, “for many people, voting is an emotional issue and what they gather from the media are impressions and not facts. So what are they seeing and reading?” Unfortunately, a lot of misinformation and opinion from the “blogosphere,” Jones believes. Cable TV is so driven by its need to fill 24 hours of airtime that it jumps on every sensational internet posting. It’s a “cutthroat, competitive environment of fragmented audiences, so invest what you have with as much snap, crackle and pop and spend as little as possible on reporting.”

Mark Jurkowitz says journalism is “dominated by ‘he said, she said coverage’” and is “no longer about getting the truth or testing claims.” He fears a trend where the public loses confidence in press objectivity and “no longer puts up with a messenger it doesn’t agree with on potent issues.” Jurkowitz predicts a partisan divide of news outlets as stark as the schism between red and blue states.

Lecture Details

Location: Bartos Theater

About the Speakers

Moderator: Stephen W. Van Evera

Professor of Political Science at MIT Associate Director, Center for International Studies

Stephen W. Van Evera is an Associate Professor of Political Science at MIT. A specialist in international affairs and security studies, he has written on American foreign and defense policy, nationalism and war, military policy and the causes of war, and social sciences methodology. His books include Causes of War: Power and the Roots of Conflict and Guide to Methods in Political Science.

Amy Mitchell

Director
Project for Excellence in Journalism

Alex Jones

Laurence M. Lombard Lecturer in the Press and Public Policy Director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy

Mark Jurkowitz

Media Writer
The Boston Globe

Mark Jurkowitz became The Boston Globe media writer in 1997, after spending two years as the paper's ombudsman. Prior to that, he spent seven years as media critic for The Boston Phoenix and author of its "Don't Quote Me" column. Jurkowitz began his journalism career at the Tab Newspapers where he served a two-year stint as editor. He spent a number of years as a talk radio host, appearing on WRKO, WHDH, and WBZ and is a regular panelist on the weekly “Beat the Press” program on Boston's PBS outlet, WGBH-TV. Jurkowitz teaches media ethics at Northeastern University and Tufts University.