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If He Speaks and the Media Doesn't Report It, Does the President Make A Sound?
Unformatted Document Text:  1 As Samuel Kernell demonstrates in his book Going Public (1997), modern presidents are increasingly speaking publicly. This trend has been demonstrated by other scholars as well, such as Hart (1987) and Ragsdale (1998). However, although the number of presidential speeches has been on the rise, the typical audience for these addresses consists of a relatively small number of people. In particular, despite a few nationally televised addresses each year, most speeches given by the president are before an audience of only several hundred or a few thousand people and reach no further than a meeting of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Association of Retired People, the Detroit Economic Club or some similar organization. The only hope for most presidential messages to reach the public at large is if the national media choose to report the president’s remarks. Fortunately for the president, he has become the star of the national media’s reporting on political news and he receives more coverage than any other American political actor. As Hart (1987) writes, “no matter how pedestrian his day may have been, no matter what other matters of great moment may have imposed themselves on the nation that day, an American president will be seen, heard, and read every twenty-four hours” (p. 111). Yet, although the president is a daily fixture of most political reporting, there is no guarantee that the media will convey a given presidential message to the American people. In fact, given the countless number of editorial decisions made by the press daily and the tendency of the national press to frame the issues of the day through their own template, the president’s chances that a particular message of his will be reported may be quite small. Therefore, even if the morning papers contain a story on the president’s activities from the previous day, that story may simply report that the president gave a speech. This possibility begs the question: if he speaks and the media doesn’t report it, does the president make a sound?

Authors: Barrett, Andrew.
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1
As Samuel Kernell demonstrates in his book Going Public (1997), modern presidents are
increasingly speaking publicly. This trend has been demonstrated by other scholars as well, such
as Hart (1987) and Ragsdale (1998). However, although the number of presidential speeches
has been on the rise, the typical audience for these addresses consists of a relatively small number
of people. In particular, despite a few nationally televised addresses each year, most speeches
given by the president are before an audience of only several hundred or a few thousand people
and reach no further than a meeting of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Association
of Retired People, the Detroit Economic Club or some similar organization.
The only hope for most presidential messages to reach the public at large is if the national
media choose to report the president’s remarks. Fortunately for the president, he has become the
star of the national media’s reporting on political news and he receives more coverage than any
other American political actor. As Hart (1987) writes, “no matter how pedestrian his day may
have been, no matter what other matters of great moment may have imposed themselves on the
nation that day, an American president will be seen, heard, and read every twenty-four hours” (p.
111). Yet, although the president is a daily fixture of most political reporting, there is no
guarantee that the media will convey a given presidential message to the American people. In
fact, given the countless number of editorial decisions made by the press daily and the tendency
of the national press to frame the issues of the day through their own template, the president’s
chances that a particular message of his will be reported may be quite small. Therefore, even if
the morning papers contain a story on the president’s activities from the previous day, that story
may simply report that the president gave a speech. This possibility begs the question: if he
speaks and the media doesn’t report it, does the president make a sound?


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