We would like to make a few simple points about how the nation's news media have covered the issue of "political correctness" (PC) in the past few years. First, there is no reason to believe that this coverage would be firmly anchored in any "social reality." Second, the way news media have approached the issue both reflects and reinforces a longer-term shift in the ways in which journalists cover the university. Third, if coverage of PC has to date been misinformed, unproductive, and just plain wrong, it can-albeit with considerable effort-be changed.
Media Coverage of Social IssuesWe can find a useful parallel in how the media have covered PC by looking at communication research literature on how the media have covered crime (Fishman, 1978; see also Hall et al., 1978). These accounts tell us that it is possible to construct coherent "crime waves" unsupported by hard evidence of increases in crime. In late 1976, sociologist Mark Fishman (1978) recounts, the New York news media reported, over the course of several weeks, a wave of violent crime against the elderly in the city, a wave that subsequently attracted national news media attention. The only problem was that police records showed that the proportion of violent crimes in which the victim was elderly had not generally increased; in fact, homicides of elderly persons in New York in 1976 had dropped 19% from the previous year.Where had the "crime wave" come from? Journalistic coverage was appar ently initially prompted by several closely spaced murders of elderly persons. Fishman suggests, however, that establishment of crimes against the elderly as a trend or theme was facilitated by three factors: (a) a journalistic practice of making sense of the "glut of occurrences" and routinizing newswork by seek-
A review of existing research shows some evidence that persons dependent on television news for public affairs information are more likely to have negative attitudes toward government and to be less well informed about that government than persons dependent on newspapers Such a relationship between dependency and evaluations and knowledge of government was replicated here, though only where local government was concerned The meaning of the dependency concept is explored and empirical evidence is offered that dependency is distinct from simple exposure to the media
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.