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The Press and the Presidential Campaign
The 2016 election offers a prime opportunity to examine, in real time, the role the press plays in
the political process, and how dramatically that role has changed in the digital era. We'll look
back at some great pieces of 20th century political reporting and commentary, from Theodore
White to Hunter Thompson, and compare them to current coverage over the last several
months of the presidential campaign. How has the rise of polarized news altered the discourse?
What are net-native news organizations doing that’s different from legacy publications? What
does it mean when our social networks are our most trusted sources, and Twitter smackdowns
have more impact than debates and issues?
In this course you will write four pieces of commentary/analysis on the role of media in the
political process, exploring issues, questions and controversies as they arise in the campaign’s
final months, and mustering evidence to support your position. Three of the pieces will be short,
under 1,000 words. One will be longer, based on more extensive research and reporting. You
will have the option of using the longer piece as your capstone piece.
The background reading will be book excerpts and articles that will give you reference points for
evaluating and comparing contemporary media coverage. Students will take turns curating
highlights of each week’s political narrative to share for discussion—articles, columns, polls,
posts, hashtags, video clips, GIFs, Tweets, whatever.
Writing assignments:
Short Piece No. 1: Due Sept. 26
Second Draft: Due Oct. 3
Short Piece No. 2: Due Oct. 10
Second Draft: Due Oct. 17
Short Piece No. 3: Due Oct. 24
Second Draft: Due Oct. 31
Longer Piece No. 4: Due Nov. 14
Second Draft: Due Nov. 28
Specific topics for discussion each week and may be rearranged and readings changed based on
developments in the campaign and the outcome of the election.
Class No. 1 (Sept. 8):
Overview of class. Why the press has been, from Colonial times, essential to the political
process, and why it was not only protected by the Constitution but nurtured and encouraged in
the years immediately before and after the Revolution. Fast forward to the current media
landscape, its role in the nation’s political life, and issues to be considered over the semester.
Class No 2 (Sept. 15): The Media and Democracy: The Special Relationship
Excerpt from Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media
Jack Shafer, Reuters: The Timeless Appeal of Vice Media
We look back at how newspapers developed, hand in hand with political parties, until
advertising became the primary means of support, in the mid 19th century, making both
partisanship and free enterprise are part of the DNA of the American media. What happens now
that the advertising model is collapsing and net-native sources are proliferating? How do new
digital media entities resemble the nation’s earliest news media?
Class No. 3 (Sept. 22): The Way We Were: The Heyday of the Great Newspapers and the New
Reality
Excerpt from Gay Talese: The Kingdom and the Power
David Carr, New York Times: At Flagging Tribune, Tales of a Bankrupt Culture
We look at the collaboration of political and media aristocracies that reached its apex in the late
‘60s, when reporters and editors saw themselves as guardians and gatekeepers of the political
process. What happens when this traditional “understanding” is disrupted by outsiders and
amateurs?
Class No. 4 (Sept. 29): The Presidency and the Press Corps—Then and Now
Excerpt from Timothy Crouse, The Boys on the Bus
Sridhar Pappu, New York Times, Millennial Reporters Grab the Campaign Trail Spotlight
We pay a visit to the 1972 election, when a PR savvy (and media averse) President Richard Nixon
worked to muzzle the press corps and undermine and isolate members of the media who were
too independent. The anti-press movement has only accelerated, with mainstream begetting
“lamestream.” How’s the press doing in terms of holding candidates feet to the fire?
Class No. 5 (Oct. 6): Cronkite to CNN: TV News and Polarization
Louis Menand: The New Yorker, Seeing It Now: Walter Cronkite and the legend of CBS News
Frank Bruni, New York Times, Five Big Questions After a Vulgar Republican Debate
In the beginning, TV news built a fortress of neutrality, not necessarily in the public interest but
to accommodate advertisers and protect fledging networks from Congressional interference.
But now the money’s in cable, which is largely a shouting match of political messaging, with
comedy as the scorekeeper and corrective. Is there still an audience for CNN-style neutrality?
How are Fox and MSNBC doing? Do Trevor Noah and John Oliver matter?
Class No. 6 (Oct. 13): Misinformation and Lying: What’s a reporter (or consumer) to do?
Jill Lepore, the New Yorker The Lie Factory
Jack Shafer, Politico, The Limits of Fact-Checking
It’s easier to disseminate both information and misinformation than ever before. We take a
look at the history of the political misinformation business and the current limits of fact
checking. Why don’t voters seem care about lying?
Class No. 7 (Oct. 20): Social Media: Twitter as a Trusted Source
Nicholas Carr, Politico, How Social Media Is Ruining Politics
Eli Parisar’s TED talk, Beware Online Filter Bubbles
We take a look at social media have transformed political movements, candidates, and
campaigns, and, in a larger sense, how we get information and form identity. As distributors of
news and information, online algorithms tend to limit what you see in your feed to things you
already agree with. Has the Twitterverse enlarged the political discussion or reduced and
trivialized it? What happens when Tweets, gaffes and GIFs get more attention than debates and
facts?
Class No. 8 (Oct. 27): Money Talks, We Listen
Excerpt from Theodore White, The Making of the President, 1960
Timothy Noah, the New Republic, Crankocracy in America
Tarini Parti, BuzzFeed, Major GOP Donors Are Turning Their Hopes Toward A Contested
Convention
We look back at the classic account of the race between Nixon and Kennedy, just when
television was entering the political picture, as a point of reference to examine how campaigns
have changed in the current era of perpetual fundraising and “outside money.” Now that
companies are people, how have superPACs transformed races and defined the issues?
Class No. 9 (Nov. 3): Polls, Big Data and the Morning After
Jill Lepore, New Yorker, Politics and the New Machine
John Cassidy, the New Yorker, Opinion Polls Matter—Even When They’re Wrong
Zeynep Tufekci; Big Data, Surveillance, and Computational Politics
How did the number crunchers do in predicting the winner? We look the likes of Vox and
Fivethirtyeight and the Upshot to see how they did at gauging the mood of the electorate, and
more broadly at how big data, which enables campaigns and companies to target individuals, is
transforming political persuasion and undermining the whole notion of the public vs private
sphere.
Class No. 10 (Nov. 10) 24/7 News and Horserace Journalism
Jay Rosen: Behold How Badly Political Journalists Have Lost the Freakin’ Plot
Felix Salmon: Scoops: When Journalists Masturbate
Amy Sullivan, the New Republic: Who Reported It First? Who Cares?
Is horserace journalism, hyper-attention to the process stuff, distracting from the issues? What
happens when political journalists are writing for each other and for hardcore political junkies?
When breaking news is valued more than reporting and explaining news?
Class No. 11 (Nov. 17): The Triumph of Amateurs and the Appeal of Attitude
Brent Cunningham: CJR, Rethinking Objectivity
Jay Rosen, Objectivity as a Form of Persuasion
Excerpt from The Best of I.F. Stone
Greg Linch: Quantifying Impact: A Better Metric for Measure Journalism
I.F Stone explains how reporters become captive to official sources. We look at the forces that
shape and limit journalistic independence and integrity. Does anyone still believed in objectivity,
which Jay Rosen calls “the view from nowhere,” and others disparagingly call “he said, she said”
journalism. Are there new forms of persuasion? What is fairness now?
Class No. 12 (Dec. 1) Are the Parties Over?
We look at the state of our political parties, post election, how the personalized media has
undermined party affiliation, and the avalanche of media coverage of the GOP’s identity crisis
during this election cycle. Reading TBD based on the election outcome….
Class No. 13 (Dec. 8): How Far Out Is Too Far Out
Hunter S. Thompson, excerpt from Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail
Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, "How America Made Donald Trump Unstoppable"
Charles S. Pierce, Esquire, The Debate of Dicks
Rush Limbaugh transcripts
We look at some unusually outspoken and excessive political columnists.
From the left, that would include Hunter Thompson, Matt Taibbi, and Charles S. Pierce, who
referred to a GOP debate as an “ass-biting competition between a big bag of feathers, a
Tailgunner, a vulgar talking yam, and John Kasich, who hasn't yet noticed that he's the principal
barker on a carnival midway.”
And on the other side, there’s another kind of excess: Rush Limbaugh said of the same debate,
which included a question about what to do about the Flint water problem, “For 50 years,
everything that's going wrong wherever you go in the country, the people that have been running it
are left-wing Democrat Party.”
Class No. 14 (??): Wrap-up