-media have become more interpretive in their approach
-news analysis pieces put events in context
-Ad Watches critique candidate claims
-reflects scholarly trends emphasizing interpretation and context
Rise of character reporting--Gary Hart sex scandal with Donna Rice in 1987
-change from JFK era--reporters know about President Kennedy's affairs but did not define them as newsworthy
-Hart case ushered in period where we saw in-depth coverage of personal lifestyle, affairs, drinking, drug use

2) media fragmentation
-fragmentation of marketplace
-rise of cable viewing options
-rise of new television networks
-loss of network audience share (91 to 45 percent over past 20 years)
-growth in market competitiveness influences how media industry operates

1) strategic environment

-decline of broadcasting model

-rise of narrowcasting model

2) more tabloid coverage
-media establishment used to censor coverage (JFK affairs; Bay of Pigs invasion)
-now any outlet can break news and have it picked up by mainstream press
-change between core and periphery
-CNN
-National Enquirer
3) loss of public credibility
-rising mistrust towards reporters
-growing signs of backlash against media
-drop in media job performance ratings from two-thirds excellent to half
-ambivalent about character reporting--feel it pries too much into personal background

-view that press exaggerates, makes things up, and distorts the truth
-decline of media messenger

4) return to weak media (similar to early American history)
-drop in credibility
-less homogeneous coverage
-smaller audiences for any single outlet

-dramatic increase in viewing options

-1995 web pages: 1.3 million

-2000 web pages: 1 billion

-150 million Internet searches a day

Short History of WWW
-Started in 1991 in a Swiss lab as World Wide Web (now used interchangeably with term Internet
Computer scientist named Tim Berners-Lee devised a novel way for computers to share information
-by creating electronic links involving text, pictures, and sound, and putting them on computer file servers, people anywhere around the world could simultaneously see and share information
-out of that ingeneity, the Internet was born
-Today, millions tap into it every day
-Thousands of new sites added every day

-estimated that there are a billion hits per day in the United States alone

-Media Metric (which is the online Nielsen) recorded 32 billion page views, up 49 percent from previous year

-said there were nearly 64 million unique users in America, up 12% over previous year

-shows geometric increase in Internet usage

You can find literally anything you want on WWW:
-religious texts
-art exhibits
-political manifestos
-job ads
-chat rooms

-blend of mainstream press and new media cybercasters

-traditional media outlets (CNN, MSNBC, USA Today)

-source of breaking news (constant updates, not just one edition a day)

-Election night 2000--check actual vote tallies in various Florida counties

-Sept. 11--updates on new developments

-smaller-scale websites maintained by individuals or organizations other than traditional media companies

-examples include "The Hotline" (http://nationaljournal.com/pubs/hotline)

-example of newsletters include The Polling Report (http://www.pollingreport.com)

-variety of political niches

-gay sites, environmental sites, anti-tax sites (www.gaynewsnetwork.org)

-shows fragmentation of media marketplace

-1996 was for Internet what 1952 was for television
-first election where Internet introduced candidate home pages, media pages, campaign finance information, and parodies
-early stages of revolution
-1996--less than 10% had access to Internet, compared to 87% in 1960 who had access to television
-users tend to be white, male, middle class, and well-educated

-problem of digital divide based on class, race, gender, age, and education
-10% surf political pages, whereas many more use for entertainment, travel, weather, and sports
-only area which is profitable is pornography

-most controversial example of new cybercasters is Matt Drudge

-Video: Drudge Speech on June 2, 1998 to professional journalists at the National Press Club
-in 1998 during Clinton scandal, Click to see Drudge's website www.drudgereport.com/ was received 6 million visitors a month. Drudge runs this website out of his Hollywood, California apartment. He is the sole writer and editor for the website. He claims to receive 10,000 email messages a day. His greatest claim to fame is having been the first outlet to publicize the accusation that President Clinton was having an affair with Monica Lewinsky

-key question: what does rise of cyber-journalists due to media as whole? Impact on coverage and credibility?

Key Questions for Internet
1) need to be more imaginative in using Internet technology
-virtues of Internet are interactive features, detailed information, 24/7 information access
-organizers haven't learned how to use technology to full potential
2) influence of Internet depends on source credibility--will Internet sites be respected as accurate source of information
-problem of peripheral units narrowcasting distorted messages which gives all webcasters a bad name
-in addition, mainstream media outlets have made factual errors in news dissemination via their websites

Internet Impact on Media Coverage: Case of Clinton scandal with Monica Lewinsky (1998-99)
-early analogies to Watergate (pres scandal; saturation negative coverage, drop in polls, end of political career)
-we saw first two features (scandal and saturation coverage), but no drop in polls and survival of the president)
-press has less ability to frame issues in ways that influence public
-illustration of broader changes in structure, operation, evaluation, and role of media

-dot.com bust

-financial meltdown of many Internet companies and news services

-problematic financial model for Internet news (how to make money when people want information for free)

-NYTimes versus Wall St Journal models

-declining viewership

-Drudge no longer big player with exclusives (fired by ABC Radio in Fall, 2000)

-mergers and acquisitions--large media companies buying up Internet properties (Time/Warner and AOL)

-cross-marketing technology (NBC, MSNBC, Today, Evening News, MSNBC.com)

-goal to tame unfettered competition of media marketplace

-similar to situation in 1890s (danger of unresricted competition)

-however, convergence model not being very successful at integrating old and new media

-suggests media marketplace will refrain fragmented and based on narrowcasting

Conclusion
-most recent media period resembles weak press of partisan and commercial eras
-implications for major theories: agenda-setting and framing (harder for journalists to set agenda and frame our view of particular events when heterogeneous coverage and weak media credibility)

-contemporary trends continue to weaken credibility of journalists

Tim Berners-Lee and Mark Fischetti, Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by its Inventor, Harper San Francisco, 1999

Richard Davis, The Web of Politics, Oxford University Press, 1999

Richard Davis and Diana Owen, New Media in American Politics, Oxford University Press, 1998

Bill Gates, The Road Ahead, revised edition, Penguin Books, 1996

Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, Warp Speed, Century Foundation Press, 1999