“Our national politics has become a competition for images or between images, rather than between ideals” one commentator said. The television was a great invention; people could now watch something that was happening miles away with just a click of the button. It has brought back direct contact between people but that isn’t always a positive thing. Since the beginning television has a negative influence on presidential elections because of their focus on image and capturing a wider audience.
The Kennedy vs. Nixon debate was the first televised presidential debate. The negative influence started here, with people looking at the image of a person rather than their views. According to an article written by Louis Menand, Kennedy appeared to be “crisp” looking while his component Nixon had on a light-color suit, wrong makeup and bad posture; he was considered to look “fuzzed”. People who watched the debates on T.V. were more likely to vote for Kennedy while radio listeners were more supportive of Nixon. One commentator stated that “An effective President must be every year more concerned with projecting images of himself”. This can be followed through thirty years later when Clinton was shown on MTV and an audience member asked about what kind of underwear he wore. In the “U.S. Presidency and Television” article, Roderick Hart said that by the question being asked and Clinton, himself, answering exposed several rules of the new “phenomenology of politics”. The Presidents are losing their civil image and becoming more like celebrities. Clinton appeared on MTV which is a network that airs music videos and reality TV shows not where they discuss political views. The questions itself is all about image, why should we care whether our president wears boxers or briefs. Shouldn’t we be more concerned about how he will govern us?
Television shows are all about trying to get the best ratings and coming up with ways to capture a wider audience, same thing goes with presidential debates on TV. Ted Koppel wrote in his journal “Off Camera: Private Thoughts Made Public” about how they dumb down the questions and the debates they show are not really debates. The debates on TV are more of an interview because they get asked a question and reply but they don’t argue with their competitors like a debate really is. Since the presidential candidates are allowed only a certain amount of time to answer commentators have dumb down the question. Since you only receive a limited time the candidates can’t go further in to how they are going to do it, you just accept their idea but don’t consider if it’s really possible. Also Ted Koppel appears on Nightline and he said they took the best three minutes of the debate to show how the great the debate was to people who missed it. They do all this just to capture a wider audience but according to “Nielson Tunes in Politics: Tracking the Presidential Election Years” the ratings haven’t increased. Since the 1980’s election the people who watch a presidential debate has decreased even though are population is growing.
I believe that how the media plays a story to capture their audience also influences people’s opinions which can lead to how the president decides. “The Impact of Television on American Politics” was passage from a book that examined the relationship between politics and the television. Walter Cronkite was a well-known and respected newsman on CBS. After President Lyndon Johnson stated that the Vietnam War could be won, Walter Cronkite didn’t believe it and went to investigate himself. He then broadcast a story on CBS showing that the war was not coming to an end but it was actually a stalemate. The Vietnam War was unpopular to begin with but the way Cronkite showed his investigation made people hate it even more. Johnson knew that more people would believe Cronkite than him and announced that he was ending the war in Vietnam. Media should not influence peoples beliefs or presidents because majority of the time they don’t truly tell all there is to tell, they only capture what will make viewers interested in.
Television has long had an influence on society affecting everything from what we eat, wear and buy. It’s influence in politics is far more negative than positive with the result being political views shaped by image and sound bites rather than issues.
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