Reiter 84-85). Political parties are not mentioned in the Constitution but developed soon after the formation of the American government. The control of the parties over elections today is in effect at both the national and state levels. Much of the advertising that takes place in a campaign is shaped by the parties, each of which uses the media in a number of ways to get a candidate's message out to the public. This reliance on the media has subjected campaigns more and more to the rules and mores of television advertising, and this is one of the elements involved in charges that television has contributed to the trivialization of the American political scene. Campaign battles are nothing new, and for all the charges about the growing use of negative campaigning in the elections of 1992 through 1996, there is nothing new about that sort of campaigning, either. What is new is that such campaigning is associated more and more with television, blamed for contributing to the degree of negativity.
Television campaigning was used in the 1950s, but the real drive toward increased use of television came with the presidential debates of 1960 between John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. Television helped Kennedy win the election, while it gave Richard Nixon a bad image he could not overcome. It has been reported that voters who heard the debate on the radio had a different impression and saw Nixon as the winner of the debate, while those watching television were attracted to the charismatic younger candidate. After that, television has been a key part of every campaign, and the nurturing of an image that comes over well on television has been a key strategy (Jamieson 158).
In addition to the use of television for debates, the parties make full use of television's power as an advertising medium to feature a candidate or an idea. The public may be influenced by these efforts, but at the same time the public understands that it ...