How the police view the press

Of a police academy A very significant percentage of 69 cadets of a police academy believed press coverage of police-related incidents to be hostile to the police. Of greater importance, however, are the reasons given by the cadets for the positions taken by the press. Only seven cadets argued that the press printed the truth and, by implication, acted in a professionally objective manner. The remaining 62 or almost 90% presumed a generally biased press influenced by partisan political interests, ideology, financial gain, and a desire to please the public. In effect they would reject any suggestion that the press reported a factual, more or less objective, account of events. These findings are relevant to the theories about the media and political socialization recently presented by Kraus and Davis in their book. They criticize traditional studies for delegating the media to a secondary and supportive role of the family in the process of political socialization. They argue that the mass media is a major if not dominant institution in the political socialization process in contemporary American society.