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 television's influence on voters. Some believe that television affects voters in the short run, for example in an election campaign. Another group of researchers believes that television has a great influence on voters over time and that television's impact on voters is a continuous process from one campaign to the next. Others stand between the two views or combine both.

In the last three decades, polls became an important instrument for the media, especially television networks, to determine who wins and who loses the election. Carpini conducted a study about the impact of the early prediction of a winner in the 1980 presidential race by the television networks.

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ng reporters' questions in two-minute and one-minute segments.10 The year 1952 witnessed the emergence of the televised spot commercial in politics. The spot is a very short ad designed to convey a specific point or image without going into depth on issues or providing much detail. Since that time, spot commercials have been a main part of presidential campaigns. Joe McGinniss, an expert on campaigns, noticed the importance of the political ads: It is not surprising then, that politicians and advertising men should have discovered one another. 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 the committed in line. Also, spots can encourage the voters to go out and vote on the basis of their commitments.12 These goals are related to the short-term influences of television on voting behavior because spots appear in the last weeks of the campaign. They could make a difference in the outcome of the presidential election. The goals are also related to the long-term influences of television on voting behavior because young voters today have bee
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Abrams Amendment, United Television, Joe McGinniss, Katz Feldman, United Researchers, Floyd Abrams, Theodore Lowi, Presidential Elections, United Scholars, Voting Republican, presidential elections, presidential debates, exit polls, university press, television presidential, television presidential elections, political parties, presidential campaign, voting behavior, televised debates, public opinion, decline political parties, 1980 presidential race, york trident press, trident press 1969,
Approximate Word count = 2590
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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