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An elite survey of members of the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union conducted in 2007 reveals that the vast majority of climate scientists positively assess both national print news reports and Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth as informative, with lower grades being assessed on climate change content that appeared on network and cable television news as well as in Michael Crichton’s novel State of Fear. Multivariate analysis reveals that more positive scientific assessments are associated in most cases with the level of confidence scientists have in the research conducted by their colleagues as well the severity of the impact they anticipate from global warming in the years ahead. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Content analysis of network evening news coverage of the 2008 presidential election revealed a slight increase in the amount of coverage and a decline in the coverage of policy matters compared to 4 years earlier. Barack Obama received the most positive coverage recorded for any major party nominee on network television since the Center for Media and Public Affairs started analyzing election news content in 1988. The tonal gap between the Democratic and Republican nominees was also the largest recorded over the past six presidential elections. The one-sided coverage on ABC, CBS, and NBC was in sharp contrast to the more uniformly negative coverage of the two candidates during the evening newscasts on Fox News. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Content-coded network newscasts are used to examine the relationship between news coverage and the daily New Hampshire poll standings of the four major Democratic presidential candidates in the weeks before the 2004 primary. The study finds powerful network news effects, particularly with respect to horse-race reports on which candidate was gaining or losing ground, for John Kerry, Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, and John Edwards. The influence of network news coverage on New Hampshire tracking poll standings casts doubt on claims by those who support New Hampshire's status as the first primary because the state is thought to differ from the media-dominated electoral contests found elsewhere in American politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content analysis of 6,480 front page stories in the New York Times and the Washington Post that deal with the federal government in 1981, 1993, and 2001 reveals a clear focus on the executive branch at the expense of the legislative branch. Capitol Hill is treated more negatively than the White House during these three years. The content analysis also reveals some evidence of partisan disparities in congressional coverage, particularly for the New York Times. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Content analysis of 6,480 front page stories in the New York Times and the Washington Post that deal with the federal government in 1981, 1993,and 2001 reveals a clear focus on the executive branch at the expense of the legislative branch. Capitol Hill is treated more negatively than the White House during these three years. The content analysis also reveals some evidence of partisan disparities in congressional coverage, particularly for the New York Times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content analysis of local television newscasts during Election 2000 showed marked differences between stations participating in two news improvement projects and those stations that did not participate in the “5/30” and “Best Practices” initiatives. Stations participating in those projects offered more news coverage overall and more candidate-centered coverage than did their in-market competitors. Stations enrolling in either of those programs also provided candidates with longer sound bites than did stations not participating in the programs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses issues in the increasing candidate-centered television news broadcasting during political election campaign, by evaluating local news coverage of campaign in 2000 in the U.S. Scholarly examinations of television's coverage of presid

During the 2000 national election season, there was unprecedented attention paid by the media, and by presidential campaigns, to the political content of late night comedy shows such as the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Late Show with David Letterman. Focusing on the more than thirteen thousand jokes about U.S. political figures from 1996 to 2000 on late night comedy talk shows, this study explores the choice of targets and subjects of political humor. The authors find that late night humor is heavily centered on the president and top presidential contenders, that the various late night shows tend to exhibit the same patterns in their choice of targets, and that the humor is generally devoid of issue content. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Content-coded network newscasts were used to examine the relationship between news coverage and the daily New Hampshire poll standings oral Gore and Bill Bradley; the two major Democratic presidential candidates, in the weeks before the primary. The study found powerful network news effects, particularly with respect to "horse race" reports on which candidate gained and fell back but also with respect to televised evaluations of more substantive matters such as character and issue positions. The results cast doubt on claims by those who support New Hampshire's status as the nation's first primary because the state is thought to differ from the media-dominated electoral contests found elsewhere in American politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Last year's election night blunders by the networks highlight the extent to which the news media--and particularly television--have become major actors in presidential elections. This article employs a content analysis to examine how thorough, balanced, and substantive network news was in Campaign 2000 as compared with 1996, 1992, and 1988. Although the principal focus is on the broadcast networks, data on other news genres, as well as candidate discourse, are brought to bear on the research questions. The study finds little or no improvement in election coverage over time despite numerous reform efforts from inside and outside the newsroom. The amount of coverage has declined, along with the airtime available to candidates. Attention to the horse race increased sharply in 2000, but issue coverage did not. The tone of coverage has remained consistently negative, but Democrats sometimes fared better than Republicans. Media discourse was also less substantive and more negative than candidate discourse, and voters continued to give the media low marks for their performance. These findings call into question the effectiveness of recent efforts to make election news more useful to voters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Last year's election night blunders by the networks highlight the extent to which the news media—and particularly television—have become major actors in presidential elections. This article employs a content analysis to examine how thorough, balanced, and substantive network news was in Campaign 2000 as compared with 1996, 1992, and 1988. Although the principal focus is on the broadcast networks, data on other news genres, as well as candidate discourse, are brought to bear on the research questions. The study finds little or no improvement in election coverage over time despite numerous reform efforts from inside and outside the newsroom. The amount of coverage has declined, along with the airtime available to candidates. Attention to the horse race increased sharply in 2000, but issue coverage did not. The tone of coverage has remained consistently negative, but Democrats sometimes fared better than Republicans. Media discourse was also less substantive and more negative than candidate discourse, and voters continued to give the media low marks for their performance. These findings call into question the effectiveness of recent efforts to make election news more useful to voters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Presents a study which examined the role of television in forming public opinion concerning the United States government from the 1950s to 1998. Methods used in the study; Historical analysis of public officials; Contemporary analysis of civil servants; Conclusion of the study.

Content-coded network newscasts were used to determine the importance of news coverage to the poll standings of leading candidates in the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic Primary. It was found that "horse-race" coverage mattered much more than reporting on more substantive matters, such as a candidate's capacity to be president. This was particularly true for Bill Clinton, who suffered an "antibandwagon" effect from the predominantly negative coverage he received. The findings here raise questions about whether there really is anything special about the New Hampshire primary. The state's 1992 Democratic primary differed little from the television-dominated contests seen elsewhere in American electoral politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Thematic Apperception Test (TA T) was administered to a group of adults previously active in the political "New Left" of the 1960s and a group of more politically "moderate" adults involved in various community affairs. The TA T stories were scored for four social motives: power, intimacy, affiliation, and achievement. For both sexes, adult radicals scored significantly lower on intimacy motivation than did moderates. Further, radical males scored significantly lower on achievement and significantly higher on power than did moderate males. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]