Television's Effect On Voter Decline

Three are essentially two opposing views in the debate on how television had affected voter turnout in the United States. One argument holds that television has become a source of a decline in social capital û that capital created by the social interaction of individuals with one another and in groups; Robert D. Putnam (1995) has advanced this viewpoint, noting that what television has done is to distance individuals from one another, leading to a decline in all forms of social and civic engagement and ultimately disengaging individuals from the political processes by means of which elections are framed, candidates chosen, issues articulated, and campaigns conducted with the ultimate result of electing officials who will govern the nation.

The alternative view in this debate, articulated by Pippa Norris (1996), is that television alone has not been responsible for voter turnout decreases. Other factors, including political scandals, growing voter cynicism and apathy, and issues related to registration and the perceived salience of electoral politics, are seen as combining to reduce general interest in voting. This view, noted Norris (1996), does not exclude the effects of television from this process, but rather suggests that it cannot be held fully accountable for what has become a major trend in American political and civic life.

The purpose of this study is to examine the literature to assess the viab

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rately, objectively, and fairly. Indeed, Fallows (1996) suggests that the media was undermining American democracy by portraying politics as a game and thus failing to make citizens aware of how the reality of politics would affect them. Similar points were made by Neal Postman (1992) who argued that technologies had become more dominant in shaping American culture than was generally recognized. Postman (1992) saw technologies, including television, as shaping culture and distancing individuals from meaningful engagement I social, public, and civic life. He further saw television and other mass media as filtering information and reshaping voter behavior quite dramatically. Like Postman (1992), Elizabeth Eisenstein (1968) saw technological determinism as playing a major role in shaping human behavior and attitudes. Writing specifically about the impact of printing on Western society and thought, Eisenstein (1968) states that major transformations in the way that information is exchanged or disseminated have an inescapable impact on how information is received, analyzed, and acted upon by individuals. One might argue that what Postman (1992) and Eisenstein (1968) are claiming in their disparate analyses is that the
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