News media in the United States

Journalism in the United States began humbly and became a political force in the campaign for American independence.

The press became a key support element to the country's political parties, but also for organized religious institutions.

News and public affairs programs include PBS NewsHour, Frontline, and Washington Week.

In September 2012, PBS rated 88% above CNN in public affairs programming,[1] placing it competitively with cable news outlets[2] but far behind private broadcasters ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Georgetown University professor Gary Wasserman describes this as "putting together an agenda of national priorities — what should be taken seriously, what lightly, what not at all".

For example, if neighborhoods are affected by high crime rates, or unemployment, journalists may not spend sufficient time reporting on potential solutions, or on systemic causes such as corruption and social exclusion, or on other related issues.

They may not be entirely successful, but the agenda-setting potential of the media is considerably limited by the competition for viewers' interest, readers and listeners.

In other cases, it is difficult to see how the media can be prevented[clarification needed] from setting the foreign policy agenda.

Coverage of the political campaigns have been less reflective on the issues that matter to voters, and instead have primarily focused on campaign tactics and strategy, according to a report conducted jointly by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, part of the Pew Research Center, and the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Harvard University, which examined 1,742 stories that appeared from January through May 2007 in 48 news outlets.

[13] Research by Jameson has found the presence of tactically framed stories can make voters more cynical and less likely to remember substantive information.