Politicians, Policy, and Public Opinion

In: The Journal of social, political and economic studies, Band 7, Heft 3, S. 281-292

Abstract

A suggestive analysis of the reasons for the apparent failure of US conservatives to effectively make their case through the national media, based on 1977/78 data. The ability of conservative politicians to generate public support for their policies will be crucial to their ability to turn their antiliberal 1980 election victory into a conservative national policy. It is probably inaccurate & certainly self-defeating to blame conservative media problems simply on a liberal bias in the media. An "us vs them" attitude must be avoided. Reporters are dependent on suppliers of stories. The biggest suppliers tend to be government bureaucrats, who try to justify their program of liberal big government. The media feed on crisis, making it easy for liberals to justify their programs by creating a crisis mentality about issues for which they want government action. Finally, an analysis of Senatorial staffing shows that liberals put more resources into media staffers & concentrate greater efforts on the national, as opposed to home state audience. 3 Tables. J. Woodward.