Suchergebnisse

Introduction: media power, media politics / Jeremy D. Mayer -- The presidency and the news media / Jeffrey Crouch and John Anthony Maltese -- The Congress and the news media / Mark J. Rozell and Richard J. Semiatin -- Interview: the Honorable Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (d-sd) -- Press coverage of the United States Supreme Court / Vincent James Strickler and Richard Davis -- Assignment: generational change in media consumption -- Civil rights and liberties: the gate keeping power of the media / Nina Therese Kasniunas -- Interview: Janet Terry, local news writer/producer -- Bureaucracy and the media / Jan Vermeer -- Assignment: media exposure survey -- A little knowledge is a dangerous thing: what we know about the role of the media in state politics / Tari Renner and G. Patrick Lynch -- Interview: Brenna Holmes, online political activist/consultant -- Political parties and the media / C. Danielle Vinson -- Presidential elections and the media / Mary E. Stuckey and Kristina E. Curry -- Interview: David Marks, politics editor of Politico.com -- The news media and organized interests in the United States / Ronald G. Shaiko -- Assignment: the political message of your favorite movie -- The media and public opinion / Stephen K. Medvic and David A. Dulio -- The new bully pulpit: global media and foreign policy / Maryann Cusimano Love -- Assignment: playing politics on social networks -- The central role of media and communication in terrorism and counterterrorism / Brigitte L. Nacos -- Interview: Ed Morrissey, political blogger -- The new media / Jeremy D. Mayer and Michael Cornfield

Abstract
Based on longitudinal research on the media coverage of terrorist attacks, this article suggests a model of how the coverage of these attacks may be conceptualized as a media event and explores the function this serves within society. The main assumption of the model is that journalists change their ritual of news coverage when dealing with exceptional terrorist attacks; they abandon their usual normative professional frame that encompasses such activities as critical scrutiny of governmental actions, and assume a national-patriotic coverage frame that seeks to reestablish normality and restore order. The model can be useful in clarifying the media's role following terror event. While media run the risk of reinforcing the terror event by giving it the public stage its perpetrators seek, by acting as patriots and not as professionals, journalists subvert the message of the terrorists, so that instead of passing on a message of terror, dread, and alarm, the media give the attacked country and society a message of solidarity, partnership, and stubborn endurance against the terrorist threat. The model may also be useful for understanding media coverage of other crisis situations apart from massive terror attacks.

This contribution introduces, from a media education perspective, two concepts which may be useful for further theoretical reflection upon the rich empirical material provided in the other articles of this special issue. The first concept, 'cultures of media practice', refers to habitualized patterns of media practice collectively shared by members of a specific social group. The articles provide many examples of such cultures of media practices, including different 'experiential spaces' such as gender, ethnicity, social class and generation. The second concept, 'media- bildung', covers fundamental changes which people undergo in their attitude towards the subject-matter covered by the media and/or the media itself. In the contributions to this special issue such processes of 'media-bildung'can be identified along with processes of media learning in which people acquire new knowledge and/or develop new skills without transforming their orientations.