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TV & PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS.
Term Paper ID:19025
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Essay Subject:
Predicting winners, debates, commercials, pros & cons.... More...
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8 Pages / 1800 Words
13 sources, 23 Citations,
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Paper Abstract:
Predicting winners, debates, commercials, pros & cons.
Paper Introduction:
The Impact of Television on Presidential Elections
The aim of this paper is to look at the relationship between the mass media, specifically television, and presidential elections. This paper will focus on the function of television in presidential elections through three main areas: exit polls, presidential debates, and spots. The focus is on television for three reasons. First, television reaches more voters than any other medium. Second, television attracts the greatest part of presidential campaign budgets. Third, television provides the candidates a good opportunity to contact the people directly. A second main theme of this paper is the role of television in presidential elections in terms of representative democracy in the United States.
Researchers tend to hold one of three views about
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He observed that, shortly after 8 p.m. The Consequences of theNetworks' Early Call of the 198 Presidential Race." Journal of Politics46 (August 1984): 866-85.Diamond, Edwin, and Stephen Bates. And, once they recognized that the citizen did not so much vote for a candidate as make a psychological purchase of him, not surprising that they began to work together.11 The goals of spots are converting the voters and keeping thecommitted in line. The Personal President: Power Invested PromiseUnfulfilled. Unsurprisingly, the spot add is the most used and the most viewed of the available forms of advertising.14On the other hand, others argue that spots are not providing the votersgood information about the candidates. Feldman. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1985.Mcginniss, Joe. "Election Night Projections andWest Coast Turn Out." American Politics Quarterly 9 (4) (October 1981):479-91.Greenberg, S. Technicians use advanced techniques during the presidentialdebates to get the viewers' attention. 2 Abrams, 18. The Impact of Television on Presidential Elections The aim of this paper is to look at the relationship between the massmedia, specifically television, and presidential elections. 2Ibid., 874. 17Martin P. Floyd Abrams, a First Amendment lawyer, supports theconstitutional rights of the media and says their exercising of theirrights should not restricted, even if that influences the voters: Once it becomes a legal issue, even people who believe that projections are harmful, or that exit polls are sometimes misused, should unite and say that the law should not be used to stop people from exercising their constitutional rights even if we happen to disagree with the way that they are using them.4 These different viewpoints represent two sides, the public and themedia. Caprini ended his study with the followingconclusion: Voting for the Republican candidate was completely unaffected by the early call, with precall and postcall districts varying from their normal patterns in exactly the same amount and direction. Theodore Lowi supports thatposition: Since the brief commercials are built on impressions rather than logic, "instant replay" benefits the sender, not the receiver.15 Others describe these spots as selling candidates like any otherproduct. . For example, in the 1988 elections, George Bush had onespot in which he rode a yacht through Boston Harbor to show that MichaelDukakis is not an environmentalist and which appeared many times during thelast days of the campaign.23 The public got the impression that Dukakis isnot concerned about the environment. Researchers tend to hold one of three views about television'sinfluence on voters. First, television reaches more votersthan any other medium. For the 196 debates, Katz and Feldmanreviewed studies: As far as issues are concerned, the debates seem to have (a) made some issues more salient rather than others (the issues made salient, of course, may or may not have been the most important ones); (b) caused some people to learn where the candidates stand (including the stand of the opposition candidate); (c) effected very few changes of opinions on issues; and (d) focused more on presentation and personality than on issues.7This conclusion shows the importance of "psychological factors" in voting.As technology develops, researchers try to determine its impact on votingbehavior. Kraus suggests the following: Campaign Act of 1971 provides a tax check off to help finance campaigns in presidential general elections, and since the public want presidential debates those who receive funds should debate. "Press Practices, Polling Restrictions, Public Opinion andFirst Amendment Guarantees." Public Opinion Quarterly 49 (1) (Spring1985): 15-18.Caprini, Michael X. Strom and Epstein argue that the decline inwestern states' turnouts is not a result of the early projections by thenetworks but is the result of a complicated combination of factors, none ofwhich is related to information received on election day.3 This argumentdenies the influence of polls on the voting turnout in the first place, andit denies the impact of media on political behavior. 16Ibid., 65. Although some experts believe television in presidentialelections is healthy, others believe it is harmful to democracy, increasingthe gap between the government and the people. political advertising is now the major means by which candidates for presidency communicate their messages to voters . Floyd Abrams defendsexit polls as follows: Once it becomes legal issue, even people who believe that projections are harmful, . 9Ibid., 142. Another group ofresearchers believes that television has a great influence on voters overtime and that television's impact on voters is a continuous process fromone campaign to the next. Packaging the Presidency: A History andCriticism of Presidential Campaign Advertising. This paperwill focus on the function of television in presidential elections throughthree main areas: exit polls, presidential debates, and spots. Edward Greenberg noticedthis point: Most importantly, the mass media are themselves parts of gigantic corporate empires and, while a few among them may experience an occasional episode of "muckraking" these media are firmly, in the long run, entrenched in the camp of the powerful.22 Regulations are necessary to control some of the bad effects of themedia, particularly television. The growing role of television in the presidential elections and itseffects on the public gives rise to an important question: Is thisphenomenon healthy for democracy in the United States? Sidney Kraus, 173- 223. Carpini conducted a study about the impact of theearly prediction of a winner in the 198 presidential race by thetelevision networks. 8Sidney Kraus, Televised Pesidential Debates, and Public Policy(New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1988), 128. 5Sig Mickelson, From Whistle Stop to Sound Bite: Four Decades ofPolitics and Television (New York: Praeger, 1989), 164. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1962.Kraus, Sidney. Also, spots can encourage the voters to go out and voteon the basis of their commitments.12 These goals are related to the short-term influences of television on voting behavior because spots appear inthe last weeks of the campaign. Analyzing exit polls,presidential debates, and spots shows that television does affect thevoters and the voting turnout in the United States. 15Theodore J. Spots should be based on facts. According to one expert, "The promise[of] television . "The Debates in the Light of Research: A Survey of Surveys." In The Great Debates, ed. Endnotes 1Michael X. Second, television attracts the greatest part ofpresidential campaign budgets. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1986.----------------------- 1 The goals are also related to thelong-term influences of television on voting behavior because young voterstoday have been raised with television and they perceive the politicalprocess through the media. Voters find something intelevised debates that confirms their previously held support for acandidate or helps them to decide whom to support. Delli, "Scooping the Voters? The most persuasive reason to include televised debates inpresidential campaigns is that voters want them. People build their images about the candidates throughtheir stands on the issues. The negative effects ofpolitical television on democracy can be eliminated through regulations.Such regulations could permit political television without its dangers. 21Mickelson, 167. Exit polls could be regulated so that EastCoast poll results are not announced until the last poll on the West Coastcloses. Feldman, "The Debates in the Light ofResearch: A Survey of Surveys," in The Great Debates, ed. . Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1984.Katz, Elihu, and Jacob J. Washington D.C.: The Brookings Institute, 1988.Jamieson, Kathleen Hall. Television becamean important factor in the election process for several reasons: thedecline of political parties, which had been the most important factor;17developing technology, which provided new opportunities for politicaltelevision, like spots and debates; and, as a consequence of the decline ofpolitical parties, decreasing voter turnout in presidential elections since196 . So television debatesare now part of the political landscape. 23Mickelson, 162. Third, television provides the candidates agood opportunity to contact the people directly. For example, only 53.3 percent of the eligible citizens voted in1984, the lowest since 1948. This is the same period during which theamount of money spent on televised political advertising tripled (inconstant dollars).18 Experts disagree about how television should function in a democraticsociety. Edward. In a 1983 study of 2,53 voting-age Americans, ABCNews and the John F. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1988.Lowi, Theodore J. 1 Mickelson, 164. The Consequencesof the Networks' Early Call of the 198 Presidential Race," Journal ofPolitics 46 (August 1984): 866. The American Political System: A Radical Approach.Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1986.Hess, Stephen. The Democratic vote, however, declined 3.1 percent more in the postcall districts than in the precall districts.2This result suggests that the NBC prediction did have an impact on theelection. 173-223 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1962). The focusis on television for three reasons. 19Kraus, 154. Joe McGinniss, an expert on campaigns, noticed theimportance of the political ads: It is not surprising then, that politicians and advertising men should have discovered one another. . The evidence supports the idea that spots, more than anything else,could make a difference in the outcome of the presidential elections.Sidney Kraus makes this point in the book, Televised Presidential Debates: It came as a surprise to almost everyone in the broadcasting industry to find a major study of the 1972 presidential race (conducted by two political scientists) concluding that voters learned more about Richard Nixon and George McGovern from political spots than they did from the combined nightly newscasts of the networks."13Kathleen Jamieson agrees: . The most impressive effect of the presidential debates is its impacton voters compared to that of other televised political communication inpresidential campaigns. 11Joe McGinniss, The Selling of the President 1968 (New York:Trident Press, 1969), 27. Additionally, this result supports the impact of the media onpolitical behavior. 22S. Easternstandard time, NBC announced that, according to its analysis of exit polldata, Ronald Reagan was to be the next president of the United States.1That early call was controversial because the polls in many states werestill open at the time and, in some of the western states, would remainopen for several hours. 13Kraus, 17. The Decline of American Political Parties 1952-1984. Proponents see television as part of political socialization, andthey believe that voters have profited from the presidential debates andpolitical ads. . Epstein and Gerald Strom, "Election Night Projectionsand West Coast Turn Out," American Politics Quarterly 9 (4) (October 1981): 479-489. However, one expert has writtenthat, even after the Bush-Dukakis debate, thus making four campaigns in arow to include debates, he would not predict continuation: "there are toomany points at which disagreement might scuttle the whole plan."5 StephenHess in his book, The Presidential Campaign, observes that: While some contend that televised debates of 196 and 1976 elected John Kennedy and Jimmy Carter, those elections were so close that any single factor - including debates - could have been said to have made the difference.6 Debates give people an opportunity to learn about those who will bepresident. Scholars agree on theeffects of television on presidential races; however, they disagree on theextent to which television has affected voting behavior and the voters.Television emphasized the decline of political parties in the last fourdecades. Spots should have moreregulations than the previous two areas because the candidates use spots toattack each other. These experts ask whether presidential campaigns should be run onmarketing principles or political tactics, whether the best candidate orthe most telegenic performer wins, whether money can buy enough media tobuy elections.16 The emergence of spots has been particularly upsetting tothose who believe that political campaigns should inform the voters, notmanipulate the opinions of the voters. 18Diamond, 1 8. The Spot. New York: TridentPress, 1969.Mickelson, Sig. Candidates may refuse to debate, but they would not receive public funds.19Others defend television from a legal perspective. This paper demonstrates that the mass media, particularly television,have a great effect on presidential elections. Lowi, The Personal President: Power Invested PromiseUnfulfilled (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1985), 64. Sidney Kraus,pp. should write and say that the law should not be used to stop people from exercising their constitutional rights.2 Opponents look at television as a harmful factor in the democraticprocess of electing a president. Kennedy School of Government noted that voters and non-voters agree that debates are more helpful in deciding whom to vote forthan either television news reports or the candidate's own television ads.8 So it is obvious that such debates will have some impact on the outcome ofthe elections. This is probably the most positive thing to come out of thetelevised debates. Some believe that television affects voters in theshort run, for example in an election campaign. Since that time, spot commercials have been a main part ofpresidential campaigns. . . Others stand between the two views or combineboth. has collapsed in an era dominated by packagedcampaigns and avoidance of issues."21 Others see the media as the maincause of the decline of political parties, which were supposed to beintermediary between the government and the people in a representativedemocracy, and they believe the decline of the parties will increase thegap between the government and the people. The spot is a very short ad designed to convey aspecific point or image without going into depth on issues or providingmuch detail. The Selling of the President 1968. 4Floyd Abrams, "Press Practices, Polling Restrictions, PublicOpinion, and First Amendment Guarantees," Public Opinion Quarterly 49(Spring 1985): 78. . BibiographyAbrams, Floyd. Proponents do, however, suggest particular improvements inpresidential debates. Wattenberg, The Decline of American Political Parties1952-1984 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1986), 1 8. 12Edwin Diamond and Stephen Bates, The Spot (Massachusetts: MITPress, 1984), 352. They could make a difference in theoutcome of the presidential election. 14Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Packaging the Presidency: A History andCriticism of Presidential Campaign Advertising (Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1984), 446. Other researchers look at the issue of exit polls from a legalperspective. 7Elihu Katz and Jacob J. Few researchers believe that exit polls have no effect on votingbehavior. . The majority of researchers believe that exit polls and earlyprojections of the presidential elections do influence voters, but theydisagree to what extent. A second main theme ofthis paper is the role of television in presidential elections in terms ofrepresentative democracy in the United States. Delli Caprini, "Scooping the Voters? In the last three decades, polls became an important instrument forthe media, especially television networks, to determine who wins and wholoses the election. 6Stephen Hess, The Presidential Campaign (Washington D.C.: TheBrookings Institute, 1988), 76. Some experts argue that rates of voting in the western states are notaffected by early projections. The Presidential Campaign. 3Laurily R. Participation in presidential debates should be required ofcandidates who want to receive campaign funds. Televised Pesidential Debates, and Public Policy. From Whistle Stop to Sound Bite: Four Decades of Politicsand Television. . New York: Praeger, 1989.Wattenberg, Martin P. Edward Greenberg, The American Political System: A RadicalApproach (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1986), 22. Presidential debates are controlled by the candidates inseveral ways: the decision about whether to participate, the approval ofareas of discussion, and the refusal to debate without panelists.9 The1988 debates were actually just joint appearances by Bush and Dukakisanswering reporters' questions in two-minute and one-minute segments.1 The year 1952 witnessed the emergence of the televised spotcommercial in politics. Also, they see the media as apart of the political elite in the United States. Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1984.Epstein, Laurily R., and Gerald Strom.
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