Civic Engagement in the Era of Big Stories

Most scholars agree that news coverage of politics is the product of complicated interaction between journalists and politicians. Yet, we know little about how the interaction affects the coverage. Our analysis examines U.S. senators' press events and subsequent national network coverage from 1980–1996. Our evidence suggests that all senators can increase journalists' interest in their press events by carefully choosing the type of event and which politicians attend. In turn, such interest often translates into actual news stories, although that coverage is not guaranteed. Thus, senators can structure press events in order to increase the likelihood of coverage, but reporters understandably resist their attempts to do so. As a result, the most newsworthy press events require senators to give up control over content, creating more potential for revealing unexpected information.     

First- and Third-World Newspapers on World Opinion: Imagined Communities in the Cold War and Post-Cold War Eras

This article considers the role of the "tabloid press" in Jordan's post-1989 liberalization process. Most studies of media in society and in processes of political transition have either ignored the role of tabloid media or derided them as examples of what is worst in media functioning. The present article seeks to compensate for this neglect by placing the tabloid press at the center of analyses of the media and democratization. In Jordan, the proliferation of such media after 1989 stands as one of the best indicators of the country's gradual, halting, but nonetheless real liberalization process. Tabloid performance was also perhaps the most prominent point of controversy, contention, and conflict between the Jordanian media and the regime in power. A brief comparative and theoretical analysis considers the role of the "yellow" press in transitions from authoritarianism to democracy worldwide. The article then turns to consider the Jordanian experience from the onset of liberalization in 1989 through to the present.