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The significance of mass media formats for social control and public order is illustrated with materials from a “sting” operation conducted by the Phoenix Police Department and county control agents against elected state officials in Arizona in 1991. Videotaped materials of lawmakers accepting “bribes” to support a bill legalizing gambling were distributed to the various news media for public presentation before a single trial. The “programming” culminated in 7 (8 percent) members of the legislature resigning, and then being replaced by nonelected officials, without benefit of any court proceedings, with only one legislator opting for a trial. The implications for social control are discussed.
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David L. Altheide (1993) studied this question.
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