Posted on 02/24/2009 4:35:24 PM PST by Freedom56v2
The popular Poynter Institute weblog Romenesko highlighted a new study Tuesday insisting the TV networks favored the Republicans in presidential campaigns from 1992 to 2004, with this blurb:
"We don't think this is journalists conspiring to favor Republicans," says Indiana University's Maria Elizabeth Grabe, who wrote "Image Bite Politics" with Erik Bucy. "We think they're just so beat up and tired of being accused of a liberal bias that they unknowingly give Republicans the benefit in coverage."
The Indiana University professors came up with this bizarre result by studying the visuals of TV news, the "image bites." A glance at the press release shows the study's sample size was tiny:
They examined 62 hours of broadcast network news coverage -- a total of 178 newscasts -- between Labor Day and Election Day over four U.S. presidential elections between 1992 and 2004. Cable news outlets, including CNN and Fox News, were not included in their research. The professors are now looking at 2008 election coverage.
That's 62 hours of coverage over four election cycles, or less than 16 hours a cycle! Even within the last two months of an election cycle, the three networks would have 90 hours of evening newscasts (which would mean they're skipping more than 80 percent of the sample.) They also found a conservative bias -- by turning the volume down to zero!
Grabe and Bucy found the volume of news coverage focusing exclusively on each party -- one measure of media bias -- favored Republicans. Their research found there were more single-party stories about Republicans overall and in each election year except 1992. When they studied the time duration of these stories, no pattern of favoritism was evident.
But they did spot differences when they studied visual coverage, that is, with the volume turned down.
They claimed that Republicans were more likely to be cited last in a story, and less likely to be subject to a "lip flap" shot, when reporter shows video of a candidate while the reporter talks over it. But they can't determine that with the sound off.
Are these professors liberals with an agenda of countering the evidence of a liberal media bias? In this podcast, co-author Erik Bucy claims there was not a pronounced pro-Obama bias in the 2008 Democratic primaries, and if there was, it was simply because it was matching Obama's record of victories. (There's no notion that positive coverage can drive primary victories, and not the other way around?) He found it ironic Hillary would complain, even if it was effective:
Usually, this is an accusation leveled by the Republicans, of media bias, and of course, it's you know, the accusation is liberal media bias, but if you look for evidence of that, it's very difficult to find. So it tends to be more of a political strategy than an actual reality in a lot of news coverage.
Bucy added that Hillary benefited from the Saturday Night Live skit carrying the theme of a pro-Obama bias, even if "this is just a perception."
The other co-author, Maria Elizabeth Grabe, has an interesting 2006 research project listed online in her curriculum vitae: a paper titled ""Bill O'Reilly's 'No Spin Zone': Using 1930s Propaganda Techniques and Constructing Villains, Victims, and The Virtuous." It says it was well-received at an international conference in Dresden, Germany. The paper is here, and compares O'Reilly to Father Charles Coughlin, an anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi radio host of the 1930s.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center
these two are about as subtle as two streakers in a sold out football stadium ,in their plea for attention with this book.
Kool-Aid anyone?
It’s just the projecting thing again...
“In other news, Russian scientists first invented the telephone, the light bulb, and the airplane.”
yeah that’s right, it was just an evil capitalist conspiracy to hide the truth from the masses. . . .
They sure weren’t watching the same programs I did!
Maria Elizabeth Grabe
Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies,
Deptartment of Telecommunications.
Research Associate, Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Radio-TV Center, Room 323
(812) 856-2460
mgrabe ‘at’ indiana.edu
Joined IU in 1995 as a faculty member in the School of Journalism and moved to the Department of Telecommunications in 2006. Member of the Graduate Faculty with the endorsement to direct doctoral dissertations.
Education:
B.A. Communication/English from The University of Johannesburg
Honors degree Communication (with distinction) from The University of Johannesburg
M.A. Communication (with distinction) from University of Johannesburg
M.A. International Journalism from Baylor University
Ph.D. Mass Media and Communication from Temple University
Teaching interests:
Mass communication theory and research methods.
Research interests:
Experimental research in the information processing area: Tabloid news, differences between new and traditional media, and gender and social class of the audience
Content analysis of mostly news narratives: Crime and politics
We’ll be hearing about this from the DUmmies for the next 20 years. I think that was the plan all along, just to provide the Left another talking point....
“In other news, Russian scientists first invented the telephone, the light bulb, and the airplane.”
And they can prove it. Just look on the products, where it is clearly stated that they were invented by Comrade Regus Patoff.
Our top story tonight, all leftism of whatever kind, from limousine liberalism to the mass murders of Mao or Stalin, is of and from Satan—aka the father of lies.
These same IU lefties wrote a study of Bill O Reilly and his Nazis propaganda tactics !
I wonder what is the color of the sky in their world..
Even Democrats were noting how biased the media was
That's so much crap, because the MSM continually identifies Republicans as such whenever there's any item that would detract from them, but seldom if ever does the same regarding Democrats.
Also, the MSM often reports negative hearsay than is often totally false about Republicans, but almost never about Democrats. Sarah Palin is a significant case in point here.
Also, the MSM uses language that is loaded against Republicans, such as using 'scheme' instead of 'plan' that they would use for Democrats.
Also, the MSM doesn't give equal time for equivalent ethical or corruption issues - they always give such issues with Republicans more airplay than they do with Democrats.
Finally, the MSM doesn't report the Republican viewpoint nearly as often as the Democrat viewpoint, and when the MSM does, it usually uses language loaded against the Republican viewpoint versus neutral and often positive language for the Democrat viewpoint.
I could go on, but the above by itself trashes the lying assertions of these two partisan hacks.
I graduated from IU w/ a polysci degree. I never met a single slightly conservative prof there. Not surprised by the results or the spin they put on them.
“These same IU lefties wrote a study of Bill O Reilly and his Nazis propaganda tactics!”
<<Well, one of them is a Lefty by way of California: from Linked-In http://www.linkedin.com/in/erikbucy
Erik Bucy’s Education:
University of Maryland College Park
PhD (1998), Mass Communication, 1993 — 1997
University of Southern California
MA, Print Journalism, 1988 — 1989
University of California, Los Angeles
BA, English Literature, 1984 — 1986
El Camino College
AA, English Literature, 1981 — 1983
That must be why in the 4 elections (1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004), only once did the Republican nominee win more popular votes than the ‘Rat.
What a pile of Pelosi!
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