How the Media View Organized Labor. For example, media images of crime, because of the public's limited exposure and salience of the topic, are assumed to affect opinions and the policy responses implemented. Because of these assumed effects, scholars have argued that it is important to analyze the content of media messages. These images are then compared to another approximation of reality, with crime it is usually official statistics, to decide whether the media are biased in their coverage. William Puette's examination of the media's portrayal of organized labor is consistent with this protocol.
Most media research examines the images portrayed about a topic in one or two sources.
Puette distinguishes his work by examining the presentation of labor in movies, television news, television dramas, newspapers, political cartoons, and comic strips. Each media is discussed as a chapter with Puette highlighting how labor is portrayed and whether the message is distorted. He bolsters this conclusion with two detailed case studies. Puette's provides a historical chronology of entertainment films in Chapter 1, discussing movies that deal with labor issues both directly and subvertly. Chapter 2 examines how labor is presented in television news programs.