IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v546y1996i1p97-108.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bad News, Bad Governance

Author

Listed:
  • THOMAS E. PATTERSON

Abstract

There has been a quiet revolution in news reporting during the past few decades. The traditional descriptive style of reporting has given way to an interpretive style that empowers journalists by giving them more control over content. One consequence is a form of news coverage that focuses on the negative aspects of politics. This development contributes to the public's dissatisfaction with its political leaders and institutions and makes it more difficult for officials to govern effectively. The news media's version of reality is exceedingly narrow and cannot be justified by either the journalists' knowledge of political relationships or their position in the political system. The problem would be lessened by a model of reporting that subordinates the voice of the journalist and aims for a more balanced portrayal of the workings of the political system.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas E. Patterson, 1996. "Bad News, Bad Governance," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 546(1), pages 97-108, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:546:y:1996:i:1:p:97-108
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716296546001009
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716296546001009
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716296546001009?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:546:y:1996:i:1:p:97-108. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.