S Robert Lichter
Biographic Data
| ID | 7195296 |
|---|---|
| NAME | S Robert Lichter |
| GIVEN NAMES | S Robert |
| FAMILY NAME | Lichter |
| SIGNATURE | LICHTER S R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Center for Media and Public Affairs |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 176 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 41 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Research note
In this paper we explore the creation of jokes told on late night talk shows targeted at major party nominees for president from 1992–2008. We hypothesize that the number of jokes told about candidates are related to variations in polling numbers, mainstream media coverage, and party identification of the candidates. Our results show a positive relationship between the number of jokes told at a candidate’s expense and the amount of negative news …
Late Night with Trump
Environmental Cancer—A Political Disease?
Media reports on environmental cancer are frequent and frightening. Public policy and public spending reflect widespread concern over the presence of carcinogens in our air and water and food. Yet how reliable is mass media information about environmental cancer? How accurate are the risk assessments that underlie our public policy decisions? In this provocative book, S. Robert Lichter and Stanley Rothman examine the controversies surrounding env…
Theories of Media Bias
Ideological or partisan media bias is widely debated despite disagreement about its meaning, measurement, and impact. The assumption that news should be objective is itself the object of considerable debate. Assertions of a conservative or establishment bias in the news often draw on critical theory, which argues that news preserves the hegemony of society’s ruling interests. Assertions of liberal bias draw on surveys of journalists’ attitudes an…
Scientific Assessments of Climate Change Information in News and Entertainment Media
An elite survey of members of the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union conducted in 2007 reveals that the vast majority of climate scientists positively assess both national print news reports and Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth as informative, with lower grades being assessed on climate change content that appeared on network and cable television news as well as in Michael Crichton’s novel State of Fear. Multiv…
The Structure of Scientific Opinion on Climate Change
Over the past several decades, environmental issues have become a steadily more significant part of political discourse in the United States and around the world. Since the 1990s, politicians, journalists, and the public have focused increasingly on global climate change, the possibility that human activities are creating significant increases in planetary temperatures. Throughout these debates, the comments of technical experts have played an im…
The Contemporary Presidency
Content analysis of network evening news coverage during the first year of the Barack Obama presidency revealed coverage that was far more positive in tone than comparable news reports from the first years of the Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush presidencies. Both domestic and international policy evaluations of the Obama presidency were more positive in tone than those of the last three presidents to take office during partisan tr…
Network Television’s Coverage of the 2008 Presidential Election
Content analysis of network evening news coverage of the 2008 presidential election revealed a slight increase in the amount of coverage and a decline in the coverage of policy matters compared to 4 years earlier. Barack Obama received the most positive coverage recorded for any major party nominee on network television since the Center for Media and Public Affairs started analyzing election news content in 1988. The tonal gap between the Democra…
CBC News Coverage of Canada's 2006 Liberal Party Leadership Candidates
Content-coded CBC evening newscasts are used in this article to examine reports on the eight candidates for Liberal Party leader in the weeks before the party's 2006 convention. In a sharp contrast to news reports on US presidential nominations, The National provided coverage balanced between the horse race and more substantive matters, including policy discussions and a candidate's personality and leadership qualities. But as with US nomination …
Politics and professional advancement
The 2004 New Hampshire Democratic Primary and Network News
Content-coded network newscasts are used to examine the relationship between news coverage and the daily New Hampshire poll standings of the four major Democratic presidential candidates in the weeks before the 2004 primary. The study finds powerful network news effects, particularly with respect to horse-race reports on which candidate was gaining or losing ground, for John Kerry, Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, and John Edwards. The influence of net…
The Mediated Congress
Content analysis of 6,480 front page stories in the New York Times and the Washington Post that deal with the federal government in 1981, 1993, and 2001 reveals a clear focus on the executive branch at the expense of the legislative branch. Capitol Hill is treated more negatively than the White House during these three years. The content analysis also reveals some evidence of partisan disparities in congressional coverage, particularly for the Ne…
Reporting on Two Presidencies
Personal coverage of President Bush during 2001 on network television and in six U.S. newspapers became far more positive after September 11, 2001, with the largest gains found in network television coverage. Coverage of the rest of the Bush administration, in contrast, became distinctly more negative after the terrorist attacks. The vast majority of the executive branch coverage both before and after the terrorist attacks in all media outlets fo…
Increasing Candidate-Centered Televised Discourse
Content analysis of local television newscasts during Election 2000 showed marked differences between stations participating in two news improvement projects and those stations that did not participate in the “5/30” and “Best Practices” initiatives. Stations participating in those projects offered more news coverage overall and more candidate-centered coverage than did their in-market competitors. Stations enrolling in either of those programs al…
Source Material
Content analysis of ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news programs during the first years of the presidencies of Ronald Reagan (1981), Bill Clinton (1993), and George W. Bush (2001) revealed a heavy focus on the executive branch rather than the legislative and judicial branches. The negative tone of network news coverage was very similar across the three presidents and their administrations. Coverage of presidents in their first year in office consisten…
The Political Content of Late Night Comedy
During the 2000 national election season, there was unprecedented attention paid by the media, and by presidential campaigns, to the political content of late night comedy shows such as the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Late Show with David Letterman. Focusing on the more than thirteen thousand jokes about U.S. political figures from 1996 to 2000 on late night comedy talk shows, this study explores the choice of targets and subjects of polit…
The Manchester Union Leader's Influence in the 1996 New Hampshire Republican Primary
Content-coded network newscasts are used to examine the relationship between news and editorial coverage of candidates by New Hampshire's largest newspaper and the daily New Hampsbire poll standings of the leading 1996 Republican candidates in the weeks before the primary. The Manchester Union Leader's news and editorial coverage powerfully influenced the poll standings of Patrick Buchanan, the paper's preferred candidate. News coverage of the ho…
The Manchester Union Leader's Influence in the 1996 New Hampshire Republican Primary
Content‐coded network newscasts are used to examine the relationship between news and editorial coverage of candidates by New Hampshire's largest newspaper and the daily New Hampsbire poll standings of the leading 1996 Republican candidates in the weeks before the primary. The Manchester Union Leader's news and editorial coverage powerfully influenced the poll standings of Patrick Buchanan, the paper's preferred candidate. News coverage of the ho…
The 2000 New Hampshire Democratic Primary and Network News
Content-coded network newscasts were used to examine the relationship between news coverage and the daily New Hampshire poll standings of Al Gore and Bill Bradley, the two major Democratic presidential candidates, in the weeks before the primary. The study found powerful network news effects, particularly with respect to "horse race" reports on which candidate gained and fell back but also with respect to televised evaluations of more substantive…
A Plague on Both Parties
Last year's election night blunders by the networks highlight the extent to which the news media—and particularly television—have become major actors in presidential elections. This article employs a content analysis to examine how thorough, balanced, and substantive network news was in Campaign 2000 as compared with 1996, 1992, and 1988. Although the principal focus is on the broadcast networks, data on other news genres, as well as candidate di…
Biases about Man-made Cancer among Researchers
Can sociological variables significantly predict researchers' positions on a scientific issue? Carcinogenesis offers a good test case because it is not definitively established how important man-made substances are as contributors to human cancer. American cancer researchers divide on this issue, some broadly emphasizing the importance of man-made carcinogens, others consistently minimizing their importance relative to natural carcinogens. We fin…
Environmental Cancer
Government Goes Down the Tube
Government Goes Down the Tube
No Small-Town Poll
Content-coded network newscasts were used to determine the importance of news coverage to the poll standings of leading candidates in the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic Primary. It was found that “horse-race” coverage mattered much more than reporting on more substantive matters, such as a candidate's capacity to be president. This was particularly true for Bill Clinton, who suffered an “antibandwagon” effect from the predominantly negative covera…
Elite Ideology and Risk Perception in Nuclear Energy Policy
Changing U.S. attitudes toward new technologies are examined, as are explanations of such changes. We hypothesize that increased concern with the risks of new technologies by certain elite groups is partly a surrogate for underlying ideological criticisms of U.S. society. The question of risk is examined within the framework of the debate over nuclear energy. Studies of various leadership groups are used to demonstrate the ideological component o…
The Political Content of Late Night Comedy
During the 2000 national election season, there was unprecedented attention paid by the media, and by presidential campaigns, to the political content of late night comedy shows such as the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Late Show with David Letterman. Focusing on the more than thirteen thousand jokes about U.S. political figures from 1996 to 2000 on late night comedy talk shows, this study explores the choice of targets and subjects of polit…
The 2004 New Hampshire Democratic Primary and Network News
Content-coded network newscasts are used to examine the relationship between news coverage and the daily New Hampshire poll standings of the four major Democratic presidential candidates in the weeks before the 2004 primary. The study finds powerful network news effects, particularly with respect to horse-race reports on which candidate was gaining or losing ground, for John Kerry, Howard Dean, Wesley Clark, and John Edwards. The influence of net…
The Contemporary Presidency
Content analysis of network evening news coverage during the first year of the Barack Obama presidency revealed coverage that was far more positive in tone than comparable news reports from the first years of the Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush presidencies. Both domestic and international policy evaluations of the Obama presidency were more positive in tone than those of the last three presidents to take office during partisan tr…
A Plague on Both Parties
Last year's election night blunders by the networks highlight the extent to which the news media—and particularly television—have become major actors in presidential elections. This article employs a content analysis to examine how thorough, balanced, and substantive network news was in Campaign 2000 as compared with 1996, 1992, and 1988. Although the principal focus is on the broadcast networks, data on other news genres, as well as candidate di…
Government Goes Down the Tube
No Small-Town Poll
Content-coded network newscasts were used to determine the importance of news coverage to the poll standings of leading candidates in the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic Primary. It was found that “horse-race” coverage mattered much more than reporting on more substantive matters, such as a candidate's capacity to be president. This was particularly true for Bill Clinton, who suffered an “antibandwagon” effect from the predominantly negative covera…
Personality, Ideology and World View
For some time we have been engaged in a large scale study of various leadership strata in the United States. Our goal is to clarify similarities and differences in background, ideology and personality among members of such strata. We are also interested in the relationship between these variables and the manner in which members of different leadership groups perceive ‘reality’. This article reports preliminary findings on two groups – leading bus…
The Structure of Scientific Opinion on Climate Change
Over the past several decades, environmental issues have become a steadily more significant part of political discourse in the United States and around the world. Since the 1990s, politicians, journalists, and the public have focused increasingly on global climate change, the possibility that human activities are creating significant increases in planetary temperatures. Throughout these debates, the comments of technical experts have played an im…
Increasing Candidate-Centered Televised Discourse
Content analysis of local television newscasts during Election 2000 showed marked differences between stations participating in two news improvement projects and those stations that did not participate in the “5/30” and “Best Practices” initiatives. Stations participating in those projects offered more news coverage overall and more candidate-centered coverage than did their in-market competitors. Stations enrolling in either of those programs al…
Political Communication
A PROPER INSTITUTION: GUARANTEEING TELEVISED PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES by John B. Anderson (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1988—$18.95, with a paperback also available, ISBN 0-87078-253-3) OF CREATING AN INFORMED ELECTORATE by Kathleen Hall Jamieson and David S. Birdsell (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988—$19.95, ISBN 0-19-505539-X) THE PRIMETIME PRESIDENCY OF RONALD REAGAN: THE ERA OF THE TELEVISION PRESIDENCY by Robert E. Denton, Jr. (New Y…
Jewish Ethnicity and Radical Culture
looks and employed permissive or child-rearing techniques. By the late 1960s, these findings coalesced into a coherent psychopolitical explanation of student radicalism: New Leftists were psychologically by their socially and culturally privileged family backgrounds. Their protest represented a struggle between what Hampden-Turner (1971, p. 364) has called the developmental and humanist themes of the affluent intelligentsia and the repressive the…
Network Television’s Coverage of the 2008 Presidential Election
Content analysis of network evening news coverage of the 2008 presidential election revealed a slight increase in the amount of coverage and a decline in the coverage of policy matters compared to 4 years earlier. Barack Obama received the most positive coverage recorded for any major party nominee on network television since the Center for Media and Public Affairs started analyzing election news content in 1988. The tonal gap between the Democra…
The Mediated Congress
Content analysis of 6,480 front page stories in the New York Times and the Washington Post that deal with the federal government in 1981, 1993, and 2001 reveals a clear focus on the executive branch at the expense of the legislative branch. Capitol Hill is treated more negatively than the White House during these three years. The content analysis also reveals some evidence of partisan disparities in congressional coverage, particularly for the Ne…
Source Material
Content analysis of ABC, CBS, and NBC evening news programs during the first years of the presidencies of Ronald Reagan (1981), Bill Clinton (1993), and George W. Bush (2001) revealed a heavy focus on the executive branch rather than the legislative and judicial branches. The negative tone of network news coverage was very similar across the three presidents and their administrations. Coverage of presidents in their first year in office consisten…
Does Hollywood Hate Business or Money
Challenging earlier findings that television entertainment depicts business negatively, Thomas and Le Shay (1992) recently argued that television stigmatizes wealth rather than business. In this article we test that argument through a content analysis of television characters in all occupations across 30 seasons. The findings reaffirm that television stigmatizes the occupation of business, independently of economic factors. These results pose a c…
Is Opposition to Nuclear Energy an Ideological Critique
In the June 1987 issue of this Review, Stanley Rothman and S. Robert Lichter offered evidence to support their argument that “the new environmental movement in the United States is partly a symbolic issue,” that elites in the news media and in public interest groups misrepresent the dangers of nuclear energy as a surrogate for more direct criticism of liberal capitalism in the United States. In this controversy, Charles J. Helm expresses skeptict…
Young Rebels
Only a decade ago, the international student movement was hailed by many intellectuals as a force which would revitalize Euro-American democracies. This liberated generation was credited with inaugurating a value revolution which would transform the political culture of postindustrial society, and create a more enlightened and humane social order.1 Within a very few years, however, apathy and careerism have returned to the campuses, as the ideali…
"Power, Politics, and Personality in "Post-Industrial Society
Scientific Assessments of Climate Change Information in News and Entertainment Media
An elite survey of members of the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union conducted in 2007 reveals that the vast majority of climate scientists positively assess both national print news reports and Al Gore’s film An Inconvenient Truth as informative, with lower grades being assessed on climate change content that appeared on network and cable television news as well as in Michael Crichton’s novel State of Fear. Multiv…
The Manchester Union Leader's Influence in the 1996 New Hampshire Republican Primary
Content‐coded network newscasts are used to examine the relationship between news and editorial coverage of candidates by New Hampshire's largest newspaper and the daily New Hampsbire poll standings of the leading 1996 Republican candidates in the weeks before the primary. The Manchester Union Leader's news and editorial coverage powerfully influenced the poll standings of Patrick Buchanan, the paper's preferred candidate. News coverage of the ho…
Government Goes Down the Tube
The radical personality
Alienation and authoritarianism in advanced capitalism
Biases about Man-made Cancer among Researchers
Can sociological variables significantly predict researchers' positions on a scientific issue? Carcinogenesis offers a good test case because it is not definitively established how important man-made substances are as contributors to human cancer. American cancer researchers divide on this issue, some broadly emphasizing the importance of man-made carcinogens, others consistently minimizing their importance relative to natural carcinogens. We fin…
"Power, Politics, and Personality in "Post-Industrial Society
Young Rebels
Only a decade ago, the international student movement was hailed by many intellectuals as a force which would revitalize Euro-American democracies. This liberated generation was credited with inaugurating a value revolution which would transform the political culture of postindustrial society, and create a more enlightened and humane social order.1 Within a very few years, however, apathy and careerism have returned to the campuses, as the ideali…
Jews on the Left
Jewish Ethnicity and Radical Culture
looks and employed permissive or child-rearing techniques. By the late 1960s, these findings coalesced into a coherent psychopolitical explanation of student radicalism: New Leftists were psychologically by their socially and culturally privileged family backgrounds. Their protest represented a struggle between what Hampden-Turner (1971, p. 364) has called the developmental and humanist themes of the affluent intelligentsia and the repressive the…
The radical personality
Alienation and authoritarianism in advanced capitalism
Roots of Radicalism
Journal Article Roots of Radicalism: Jews, Chiistians, and the New Left. By Stanley Rothman and S. Robert Lichter. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. xiv + 466 pp. Illustrations, chart, tables, appendixes, notes, and index. $27.95.) Get access Paul Lyons Paul Lyons Stockton State College Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 70, Issue 2, September 1983, Pages 470–471, h…
Hollywood and America
Conservatives and liberals harmonize on few issues, but they are. at least, equally vehement in criticizing television entertainment. On the liberal side, women and minority groups claim that television's unflattering portrayals of them perpetuate negative stereotypes. Conservatives object to the loose morality which they view as undermining the traditional American values of family, hard work, and patriotism. And myriad groups, from the PTA to t…
Jews, Radicals and Conservatives
Roots of Radicalism
Roots of Radicalism
Personality, Ideology and World View
For some time we have been engaged in a large scale study of various leadership strata in the United States. Our goal is to clarify similarities and differences in background, ideology and personality among members of such strata. We are also interested in the relationship between these variables and the manner in which members of different leadership groups perceive ‘reality’. This article reports preliminary findings on two groups – leading bus…
Elite Ideology and Risk Perception in Nuclear Energy Policy
Changing U.S. attitudes toward new technologies are examined, as are explanations of such changes. We hypothesize that increased concern with the risks of new technologies by certain elite groups is partly a surrogate for underlying ideological criticisms of U.S. society. The question of risk is examined within the framework of the debate over nuclear energy. Studies of various leadership groups are used to demonstrate the ideological component o…
Is Opposition to Nuclear Energy an Ideological Critique
In the June 1987 issue of this Review, Stanley Rothman and S. Robert Lichter offered evidence to support their argument that “the new environmental movement in the United States is partly a symbolic issue,” that elites in the news media and in public interest groups misrepresent the dangers of nuclear energy as a surrogate for more direct criticism of liberal capitalism in the United States. In this controversy, Charles J. Helm expresses skeptict…
Political Communication
A PROPER INSTITUTION: GUARANTEEING TELEVISED PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES by John B. Anderson (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1988—$18.95, with a paperback also available, ISBN 0-87078-253-3) OF CREATING AN INFORMED ELECTORATE by Kathleen Hall Jamieson and David S. Birdsell (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988—$19.95, ISBN 0-19-505539-X) THE PRIMETIME PRESIDENCY OF RONALD REAGAN: THE ERA OF THE TELEVISION PRESIDENCY by Robert E. Denton, Jr. (New Y…
Does Hollywood Hate Business or Money
Challenging earlier findings that television entertainment depicts business negatively, Thomas and Le Shay (1992) recently argued that television stigmatizes wealth rather than business. In this article we test that argument through a content analysis of television characters in all occupations across 30 seasons. The findings reaffirm that television stigmatizes the occupation of business, independently of economic factors. These results pose a c…
No Small-Town Poll
Content-coded network newscasts were used to determine the importance of news coverage to the poll standings of leading candidates in the 1992 New Hampshire Democratic Primary. It was found that “horse-race” coverage mattered much more than reporting on more substantive matters, such as a candidate's capacity to be president. This was particularly true for Bill Clinton, who suffered an “antibandwagon” effect from the predominantly negative covera…
Government Goes Down the Tube
Government Goes Down the Tube
A Plague on Both Parties
Last year's election night blunders by the networks highlight the extent to which the news media—and particularly television—have become major actors in presidential elections. This article employs a content analysis to examine how thorough, balanced, and substantive network news was in Campaign 2000 as compared with 1996, 1992, and 1988. Although the principal focus is on the broadcast networks, data on other news genres, as well as candidate di…
Biases about Man-made Cancer among Researchers
Can sociological variables significantly predict researchers' positions on a scientific issue? Carcinogenesis offers a good test case because it is not definitively established how important man-made substances are as contributors to human cancer. American cancer researchers divide on this issue, some broadly emphasizing the importance of man-made carcinogens, others consistently minimizing their importance relative to natural carcinogens. We fin…
Environmental Cancer
The Political Content of Late Night Comedy
During the 2000 national election season, there was unprecedented attention paid by the media, and by presidential campaigns, to the political content of late night comedy shows such as the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Late Show with David Letterman. Focusing on the more than thirteen thousand jokes about U.S. political figures from 1996 to 2000 on late night comedy talk shows, this study explores the choice of targets and subjects of polit…
The Manchester Union Leader's Influence in the 1996 New Hampshire Republican Primary
Content-coded network newscasts are used to examine the relationship between news and editorial coverage of candidates by New Hampshire's largest newspaper and the daily New Hampsbire poll standings of the leading 1996 Republican candidates in the weeks before the primary. The Manchester Union Leader's news and editorial coverage powerfully influenced the poll standings of Patrick Buchanan, the paper's preferred candidate. News coverage of the ho…
The Manchester Union Leader's Influence in the 1996 New Hampshire Republican Primary
Content‐coded network newscasts are used to examine the relationship between news and editorial coverage of candidates by New Hampshire's largest newspaper and the daily New Hampsbire poll standings of the leading 1996 Republican candidates in the weeks before the primary. The Manchester Union Leader's news and editorial coverage powerfully influenced the poll standings of Patrick Buchanan, the paper's preferred candidate. News coverage of the ho…
Political science (38 works) · Law (29 works) · Politics (29 works) · Sociology (27 works) · Law (24 works) · Media Studies and Communication (20 works) · Media studies (13 works) · Advertising (12 works) · Social Media and Politics (12 works) · Psychology (11 works)