Four Theories of the Press (1956) sorted the world's press into authoritarian, libertarian, social responsibility, and Soviet communist theories. This article covers what each beli
The media plays a central role in modern society and is closely connected to our daily lives. For this reason, the media must uphold high ethical standards when communicating infor
The Spiral of Silence is the process by which people sense the climate of opinion, speak up for views that seem to be in the majority, and stay quiet about views that seem to be in
Muckrakers were reform-minded journalists and writers of America's Progressive Era who doggedly investigated and exposed political corruption, monopoly abuses, and harsh working co
Scroll through a news portal in the morning and you may find articles under different newspaper names with nearly identical headlines and opening sentences. When even the numbers a
The Magic Bullet Theory is the view that media messages hit audiences directly, like bullets, and produce the same effect in everyone. We look at the age of propaganda that produce
Every morning, when we turn on our smartphones, we encounter a flood of news articles, real-time search rankings, and social media trending tabs. On some days, a particular politic
People today live in an age of information overload, with information pouring indiscriminately through the media. This has brought the importance of media literacy to the forefront
How do you write a press release or news article that busy readers will actually take in? This article covers the basics of article writing, the inverted pyramid, pyramid, and diam
Why does a friend’s recommendation often sway us more than an ad? This article explains Lazarsfeld’s two-step flow theory—how media messages reach opinion leaders first and then sp
Breaking news is one of the important functions of the news media, rapidly conveying events as they unfold in modern society. It immediately captures the public's attention and pla
Media priming is the phenomenon in which issues the media highlights become the standards we use to judge people and policies later. From Iyengar and Kinder’s 1987 experiments and