Page 102 - Information and American Democracy Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

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The Mass Audience 10:39
8 percent using cable or other targeted television, and 26 percent using
local newspapers. 148
The most important development in the use of mass media by in-
terest groups was the surge in independent campaign advertising in the
early 1990s. Groups across the political spectrum embraced this form of
broadcast communication, including business and labor organizations,
environmental groups, education groups, and others. Data compiled by
the Federal Election Commission do not include figures on independent
expenditures because they are unregulated, but estimates are available.
Erika Falk at the University of Pennsylvania found about eighty interest
groups in the 2000 election cycle airing a total of about 400 issue ads
at a cost of at least $250 million. Of these, seven groups spent at least
$10 million each (Business Roundtable, Federation for American Immi-
gration Reform, National Rifle Association, AFL-CIO, U.S. Term Limits,
Citizens for Better Medicare, and the Coalition to Protect America’s
Health), and another two dozen at least $1 million. 149 Their encroach-
ment into campaigning notwithstanding, the interest groups remained
information specialists, operating for the most part as they had through-
out the second information regime. The broadcast revolution layered on
top of the interest group system a new set of informational and organi-
zational dynamics.
Adistinctionistraditionallydrawnbetweentwophasesofmassmedia,
one of channel scarcity and one of channel abundance. This division
is important to the outcome of the third information revolution and
the features of the regime that briefly followed. The channel scarcity
phase of mass media begins with film and radio and continues through
television until roughly the late 1980s. This was the age of conventional
broadcast television, with its long oligopoly of the three major broadcast
networks.Itshallmarkwasthemassaudienceconsumingacomparatively
homogeneous diet of news and political communication.
The phase of channel abundance resulted from the multiplication
and diversification of mass media outlets and content. This phase is
characterized by the availability of dozens or even hundreds of channels

148
Ken Kollman, Outside Lobbying: Public Opinion and Interest Group Strategies
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).
149
Erika Falk, “Issue Advocacy Advertising through the Presidential Primary
1999–2000 Election Cycle,” Issue Ads @ APPC, the Annenberg Public Policy
Center of the University of Pennsylvania, Sept. 20, 2000, http://www.appcpenn.
org/issueads/2000issuead.htm.

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