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.