Scott Althaus' Presentation on News Policy (2/13/04)

As part of our ongoing series on Communications, Culture, and Policy, funded by the Ford Foundation, our February 13 presentation was titled, "Can the American News Media Supply Critical Coverage During Wartime if the Public Doesn't Demand It?" The distinguished speaker was Scott Althaus, Associate Professor of Speech Communication and Associate Professor of Political Science at UIUC.

ABSTRACT: Do national security crises cause the American public to become more interested in international affairs than usual? If so, how do patterns of news consumption during the recent 2001 Afghanistan campaign and 2003 Iraq war compare to those during the 1990-1 Persian Gulf crisis? And if the American public doesn't demand critical news coverage about wars, can the American media system still maintain its independence from governmental spin efforts to provide critical reporting? Professor Althaus details findings on these questions and more from his research on the behavior of news audiences and journalists in times of war.

BACKGROUND READING: (1) Althaus, Scott (2003). When News Norms Collide, Follow the Lead: New Evidence for Press Independence. Political Communication 20(4), 381-414.

Scott Althaus is Associate Professor of Speech Communication and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His research interests center on the communication processes that equip ordinary citizens to exercise popular sovereignty in democratic societies, as well as on the communication processes by which the opinions of these citizens are conveyed to government officials. His research has appeared in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, Communication Research, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, and the Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, and Political Communication. His book on the political uses of opinion surveys in democratic societies, Collective Preferences in Democratic Politics: Opinion Surveys and the Will of the People, was published in 2003 by Cambridge University Press.