Role of Families/Role of Polls & Pundits - November 28th

Answer one of the following questions:

Question #1: What role did the candidates’ wives and families play in this campaign and how does it compare to previous elections?  Do you think that family members are effective surrogates for presidential candidates?  Refer to the Burns reading to support your response as well as references to two media sources.     

Question #2: What role did consultants, pundits, special interests, and polls play in this election?  Refer to at least one of this week’s readings as well as your media sources to support your answer. 

Election Wrap-Up - November 14th

How would you assess the coverage of the election results?  What form of campaign communication do you think was most effective for the winning candidate?  What hurt/was the least effective for the loser?  Be sure to refer to at least one of the class readings from this semester as well as two media sources to support your response. 

Talk Shows - October 24th

Have talk shows been an effective way for the candidates and their surrogates to campaign during this election?  If you were a campaign strategist, would you suggest more or less use of talk shows are campaign platforms?  You should reference Jones Ch. 3 as well as your media sources in your response.    

Debates - October 17th

Describe at least three of the debate strategies we’ve seen so far this year (drawing on Trent et al Ch. 8).  How would you characterize the news media coverage of the debates? 

Comedy & Politics - October 10th

Compare coverage of this year’s campaign/candidates by the news media to how they are being presented on comedy programs.  Drawing on the Jones or Matviko readings, what impact do you think these satirical shows are having on this year’s election? 

Internet & Social Media - October 3rd

How are the campaigns and their supporters using the Internet and social media in this campaign and how does it differ from previous campaigns? According to news media coverage, what kind of impact are "new media" having on the 2012 campaign?  Be sure to draw on at least one of this week’s readings in addition to your media sources to support your answer.    

Campaign Ads - September 19th

Which kinds of ads do you think are more persuasive – positive or negative ads?  What types of advertisements are we seeing this year?  Are they more positive or negative in tone, and what kind of media attention are they attracting?  To support your answer, offer examples of at least three different types of ads (based on the categories outlined by Trent et al Ch. 5).  Be sure to identify who produced each ad (ex: Romney campaign, Super PAC supporting Obama, etc.).   

Media Coverage of Stump Campaigning - September 12th

Why does stump campaigning remain an important part of the political process? How are the media framing their coverage of each campaign’s cross-country travels? Refer to at least one of the class readings for this week to support your response to the first question and offer examples of media coverage from two outlets (your assigned outlet and a second outlet of your choice) of both the Romney/Ryan and Obama/Biden campaigns when answering the second question.

DNC and RNC

Although both the Democratic and Republican nominee for the presidency have already been decided well before the nominating convention, political parties continue to spend millions of dollars on conventions to influence voters to vote for their candidate. It is not necessarily through the direct viewing of the conventions that the political parties hope will influence voters, but through the top television news stations that broadcast the main messages and events of both the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention. In a study of the 1964 British parliamentary election, Jay G. Blumler and Denis McQuail discovered that “regular viewers of television news developed significantly different perceptions of the Liberal and Conservative parties,” (Trent et al, 129). This was a significant study that partially disproved the previously accepted theory of the two-step flow model, which suggested that the mass media did not play a measurable role during political campaigns to influence the decisions of voters (Trent et al, 125).

The Democratic National Convention and Republican National Convention are used as platforms to broadcast broad messages to the public in hopes of changing their views in favor of either the Democratic or Republican nominee. For example, just the title of an article on ABCnews.com shows us how the parties use the conventions to try to influence voters. The title of the article is “Dems Lampoon Romney and Defend Obama on First Night of Convention.”  Obviously, at the DNC, the Democratic Party did as much as they could to boost the perception of President Obama as well as creating a negative perception of Mitt Romney. In the article, the author discusses how “inside the convention center in Charlotte, N.C., Democrats celebrated Obama as their champion and portrayed Romney as an out of touch millionaire who would be bad for the economy and detrimental to women,” (“Dems Lampoon Romney” 1). The Democratic Party hopes that these broad messages will be spread across various media outlets and change the opinion of voters right before the election.

The Republican Party also used the RNC to try to spread their message to voters in hopes of influencing their opinions through mass media. In an article from ABC News, the opening paragraph begins with “In a precisely planned climax to the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney accepted his party's presidential nomination and promised "restore America" by creating jobs and fulfilling the hope that he claims President Obama failed to deliver on,” (“Mitt Romney Accepts Nomination” 1). This is a great example of how the Republicans used the RNC to get their message across through the media. Although most, if not all, of the members at the RNC were most likely already voting for Mitt Romney, the Republicans used that platform to spread Romney’s message to the mass media, and in turn, the voters of America.

Another reason why I believe that both the Democrats and Republicans spend millions of dollars on the DNC and RNC respectively, because they want to rile up their base and get people fired up about supporting their campaign. Over the past couple decades, politics has become much more partisan than in the past. The main strategy for the parties in the past was to communicate broad messages and policies to appeal to as many people as possible. Today, the parties communicate much more extreme policies and principals. Instead of trying to appeal to as many people as possible, the parties try to appeal to their base as much as possible, which has changed the way politicians communicate to the masses through the media. As the years go by, the RNC and DNC will continue to become huge shows and millions more will be poured into them, just in the hopes of changing public opinion through the media.

           

Refrences

Goldman, Richard.  “Dems Lampoon Romney and Defend Obama on First Night of Convention.” ABC News. Web. 4 Sept. 2012. <http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/democrats-lampoon-romney-defend-obama-night-convention/story?id=17153287#.UEdWZELgefQ.>

Goldman, Richard. “Mitt Romney Accepts Nomination and Promises to 'Restore America'.” ABC News. Web. 30 Aug. 2012. <http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/mitt-romney-accepts-nomination-promises-restore america/story?id=17117919&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter - .UEdXRULgefQ>

Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.

Campaign 2012 Media Coverage: Conventions - September 5th

Matthew Struzzi

Blog 1

            Political parties continue to spend millions of dollars on nominating conventions when the candidates have already been decided, because the nominating conventions nowadays serve as a symbolic event with a lot of power to help the candidates win votes from the public.  In “Political Campaign Communication,” the authors state:

Because of the influence generated by television coverage, presidential primaries, and campaign specialists, the overall function of the national nominating convention to the campaign has been changed.  In its place is a new function.  The primary significance of the modern nominating convention is symbolic – and as such, it serves four important communication functions – reaffirming and legitimizing the electoral process, legitimizing the party nominees, showing party unity, and introducing the candidate’s campaigns themes and issues (Trent et al, 56-62).

            Further, the nominating conventions are broadcasted on all types of mediums, most importantly the television.  As stated in “Political Campaign Communication” “Television gave the public a feeling of involvement in the conventions, and, as many delegates and reporters covering the convention soon discovered, the television viewer could see more and know more of what was going on than could the persons who were on the floor of the convention hall” (Trent et al, 51).  Therefore, it is more than reasonable that political parties spend a lot of money on the nominating conventions.  Political parties want their candidates to get a lot of attention and make as likable of an image as possible to as many people as possible.  Also, “It was discovered that television coverage of the conventions boosted voter interest and attention to the campaign, especially among those who were not strong political partisans” (Trent et al, 52).  This means that these conventions not only make the people who are already interested in politics and the campaign more interested with them but also makes people who might not be so interested with politics and the campaign more interested with them, which is a really great thing, especially because it is something that is done so easily.

            The fact that the nominating conventions have so much power as just mentioned, influences and legitimizes the reasons that spending a large amount of money on an event that could possible go as far as make or break a candidate’s campaign is a great idea and a smart strategy, especially since it is one of the last parts of the process before the election that people will most likely remember the most.

            This means that candidates are not only going to spend a lot of money on the nominating conventions but also a lot of time and effort on it too, promoting their answers to important issues.  For instance, in the New York Times article “Romney Adopts Harder Message for Last Stretch” the author states, “Mitt Romney is heading into his nominating convention with his advisors convinced he needs a more combative footing against President Obama in order to appeal to white, working-class voters and to persuade them that he is the best answer to their economic frustrations” (Zeleny and Rutenberg, 1).  The article also says that “Romney will be using other conservative speakers to amplify the conservative arguments against the president, will be using important cultural themes” to appeal to voters, and “Showing people that he will look out for their interests” at the convention (Zeleny and Rutenberg, 1).  Therefore, Romney’s RNC focused on helping the public and doing things Obama did not do and this was shown and proved by the media (mainly and probably most effectively by television) coverage of the RNC.  Obama is using the DNC to attack Romney and Romney’s character and what Romney stands for on important issues such as abortion and gay rights, and the media will also cover this very closely which will also help Obama’s campaign (Calmes, 1).

            In conclusion, all of these reasons show why not only that candidates do but should spend money on the nominating conventions, because it reaches out to many people due to all of the media coverage and is one of the last big things that a candidate can do to move ahead or stay ahead in a campaign.

Works Cited

Calmes, Jackie. "Obama Team Sharpens Attacks on Rival's Character." New York Times. N.p., 30 Aug. 2012. Web. 3 Sept. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/us/politics/obama-moves-to-speak-on-romneys-character.html>.

Trent, Judith S., and Robert V. Friedenberg. Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practices. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011. Print.

Zeleny, Jeff, and Jim Rutenberg. "Romney Adopts Harder Message for Last Stretch." New York Times. N.p., 25 Aug. 2012. Web. 3 Sept. 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/us/politics/mitt-romneys-campaign-adopts-a-harder-message.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all.

Conventions - September 5th

Why do the political parties continue to spend millions of dollars on nominating conventions when the candidate has already been decided? Your response should draw on the Trent et al readings for this week and offer examples from media coverage of both the RNC and DNC.