[lit-ideas] Re: Study: Media coverage has favored Obama campaign
- From: "John McCreery" <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2008 11:55:48 +0900
On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 11:41 AM, Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> This is of course, just a guess. I've never heard it suggested that
> newspapers have even tacit obligations to be 'fair,' so I hope David's
> research will turn up something useful.
>
Sociolinguist Deborah Tannen in a book titled The Argument Culture has, I
believe, suggested that the 24-hour news cycle is responsible for promoting
the idea that pairing two extreme views and giving them equal time
constitutes "balance." The original model is the courtroom, where attorneys
for the prosecution and defense take turns, each getting the same number of
rounds to present his or her case.
One difficulty with this approach is that it tends to exclude moderate
views, which because they do not lend themselves to exciting verbal combat,
do not increase TV ratings.
John
--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
http://www.wordworks.jp/
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