Elections in the Internet Age

Overview

• Television Dominated Politics• Internet Effects

– Usage– Coverage– Impact

• Media Content

Television

• Early assessments of impact of televsion derived from more general assessments of media and socialization

• That is, assumption was television would have similar, and perhaps stronger, influence than other media

Television

• Recap various media roles:– Kingmaker

•Determining which candidates are “viable” or “contenders” and why

•Determing what constitutes a good showing in elections (particularly in primaries)– Setting expectations

– Setting “performance” goals

Television

• Historically, this “thinning of the herd” function began close to the start of the primary season (within a year)

• In 2008 and likely beyond, jockeying for coverage and favorable treatment from the media began almost 2 years out and that’s likely to extend even further in the future

Television

• How is the “kingmaking” (or “queenmaking”) accomplished?– type of coverage (favorable or negative)– type of image projected/portrayed– choice of issues to cover and how covered– public opinion polling

• focusing on the “horse race” elements may become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy for kingmaking

Television

• Nature of the medium has altered the qualifications for most political offices

• Modern candidates need to be telegenic

Television

• To counteract or at least attempt to blunt the role of the media, candidates themselves need to invest heavily in creating their own image, highlighting their own issues, and providing own coverage

• Advertising expenses have escalated as power of television has grown

Television

• In 1968, Nixon and Humphrey raised and spent about $100 million

• In 1972, Nixon alone raised and spent about $90 million

Year Total Spent(in millions)

1976 $66.9

1980 $92.3

1984 $103.6

1988 $210.7

1992 $192.2

1996 $239.9

2000 $343.1

2004 $717.9

2008 $1,324.7

Televsion

• Ability to raise money plays a significant role, then, in successful candidacies at both presidential and other levels for office

• Note, this is not to say a definitive role (having more money does not guarantee victory) but it is a major factor

Television

• Importance of televsion coverage has also altered the landscape for the kinds of appearance and venues incorporated into the campaign

• Increased use of “non-news” type of shows– exploit opportunities in entertainment

programming

Internet

• The increased reliance on the internet is an extension of this development

• The web allows candidates to control the image they want to project to the public– McCain/Palin website

– Obama/Biden

• These sites also encourage voter participation (via registration, voting, donation, information)

Internet

• On the downside, web sites, blogs, etc. are much more difficult to control such that all sorts of other actors can try to shape a candidate’s image as well:– The Skeleton’s Closet– Obamacrimes.com

Internet

• The internet is more “candidate” centered than party centered (although parties also maintain web presence)

• Impact on governing yet to be determined, but possible effects could be:– weakening of party within government– escalating costs of campaigning as voter

mobilization falls on candidate rather than party

Media Content

• What kind of coverage dominated the 2008 election?– how much focused on the issues separating the

two candidates?– how much focused on the “horse race”?– how much focused on the gaffes?

Media Content

• In determining content, though, bear in mind factors that shape the decisions:– commerical pressures– deadline pressures– “outside” factors (other news events crowding

out election coverage)

Media Content

• Given those constraints, studies reveal some perhaps counterintuitive results:– relative uniformity of coverage

• regardless of media type and political orientation, the overall coverage is stable across the board

• impact of professional socialization in journalism seems to be the factor responsible for this uniformity

• coverage dictated by incentives of news organizations

Media Content

• Types of Candidate Coverage – Stories tend to focus on candidate character

• personality• style• image

– Stories tend to focus on professional qualifications to perform jobs in office• political background• political philosophy

Media Content

• Although the latter may arguably be more important information, coverage tends to focus on the former

Media Content

• While coverage of issues/events may be necessary, the level of coverage is a function of “newsworthiness” rather than importance

• What makes some events newsworthy?• What can candidates do to take advantage

of that?

Media Content

• Three major features in coverage:1. Horse Race

• momentum, polls, campaign largely framed in terms of ability to impact the race

2. Social/Political problems• identifying problems and proposed solutions

offered by the candidates

3. Issues• connected to Point 2 above, but broader (e.g.,

character, ideology, qualifications).

Media Content

• Is media coverage adequate to the needs of democracy?

• Can the internet and web based sources of information compensate for the perceived shortcomings of the mainstream media in terms of election coverage?