THE NEWS MEDIA AS POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS

Political science has tended to neglect the study of the news media as political institutions, despite a long history of party-subsidized newspapers and despite a growing chorus of scholars who point to an increasing “mediatization” of politics. Still, investigators in sociology, communication, and political science have taken up the close study of news institutions. Three general approaches predominate. Political economy perspectives focus on patterns of media ownership and the behavior of news institutions in relatively liberal versus relatively repressive states; a second set of approaches looks at the social organization of newswork and relates news content to the daily patterns of interaction of reporters and their sources; a third style of research examines news as a form of culture that often unconsciously incorporates general belief systems, assumptions, and values into news writing.