A Little History of Media

"In the early days, most of the political news was spread by word of mouth or small, opinionated, local newspapers. Thomas Paine presented ideas to the public in his pamphlet Common Sense during Revolutionary times. Mass media did not exist and therefore votes were cast on the basis of knowledge of the qualifications of the candidates and by opinionated conversation." OK

"More than 200 years ago in 1789, George Washington was elected the first President of our country. But before this historic election, there was debate among the delegates on a means to select the President. Many delegates argued that the people would likely be uninformed. Charles Pickney, a delegate of South Carolina, said that providing an election for the people would be like 'offering a choice of colors to the blind.'" OR

"In the 1800s, Presidential candidates were chosen by the leaders of their political parties. In those days, the political parties, newspapers, and magazines discussed the issues and the candidates' plans for the workings of the government. But in the early 1900's, primaries began, and these same political parties began to lose their power to the media." MD

"No two Presidential candidates have been more different than the men who opposed each other in 1828. Andrew Jackson, the candidate of the new Democratic party, was a tough, tough frontiersman and military hero. John Quincy Adams, the candidate of the National Republicans, was a Harvard-educated Boston lawyer and diplomat. As a politician, Jackson was armed with personal charisma and widespread popularity as the great hero of the battle of New Orleans. But his most powerful weapon was an aggressive, publicity-wise political machine. Jackson's campaign set a new pattern in American politics, and many historians consider it the first modern Presidential campaign Jackson bombarded the newspapers with images showing him as a friend of the common man, and Adams as a friend of the rich. Jackson supporters organized rallies, barbecues, parades, and demonstrations. After Jackson's win it became difficult for any politician to win the presidency without presenting himself as a friend of the common man and without a party affiliation. KS

"If the media of the late 18th Century was anything however, it was biased. Almost all forms of the primitive, yet fledgling, mass media were controlled and owned by politicos with their own private agendas, of which the truth usually had little part. Those early newspapers were primarily interested in swaying readers towards the paper's, and ultimately the editor's, political philosophy or party. They featured extremely prejudicial articles whose sole intent was the degradation of any opposing party or opinion. But due to the rather severe viewpoints these newspapers held, not to mention the rather huge expense involved in the production of an issue, most had very limited influence. Very few even had more than one thousand readers.

However, in the 1830's, a publisher by the name of Benjamin Day revolutionized the role of the press in society at that time. He began to publish an objective newspaper that printed articles on a wide range of subjects - crime, accidents, gossip, etc. - that would appeal to all readers. Day's paper covered many different viepoints, especially concerning politics and government. Soon many other newspapers with the same publication formula began to dominate the newstands. The day of the blatantly biased newspapers was gone." MD

". . . what would have happened if the media of today had covered the Presidential election of 1860? Thirty seventh-graders at John F. Kennedy School in Somerville, Massachusetts did exactly that. In researching the four candidates of the 1860 election, the students were amazed to find out, that at the time of the 1860 election, Lincoln had no intention of abolishing slavery in the South. Michael Pabian, the students' teacher said that, 'They (the students) thought that seeing and hearing Lincoln actually say, looking out into the camera, that he was not going to take their slaves away from them, would have made a big difference to the majority of Southerners.'" KS

"The earliest media event can be traced back to 1896. Mark Hanna, campaigning for McKinley, did most of the work from his candidate's home in Canton, Ohio. He even included marching bands, parades, and pilgrimages by local supporters. Hanna kept in mind that his constituents consisted of urban workers who grew up on farms and suffered from the first major indistrual-era depression. He fittingly named the campaign, McKinley and a Full Dinner Pail." PA

"If you reflect back to the Spanish-American War of 1898 you would see that the media are one of the major reasons it got started. They called it yellow-journalism. This was when the media (meaning newspapers) would print ideas that would make the Americans react to the Spaniards. The problem was that not all of the information they printed was the truth. . . At this point in time the Spanish-American War, and how the candidates were chosen in that era of time, is irrelevant to the American people of today. Although the media has chosen not to change, citizens of the United States of America have." SD

"William Howard Taft, 27th President of the United States, serves as a good example of how times have changed. Taft was a modest man who felt that he was not qualified for high office. Says the World Book Encyclopedia, 'He had no gift of showmanship, and none of the sense of drama and color that wins the hearts of many persons.' In addition to this he was a very large man, certainly not the type who would impress you while jogging on the White House lawn. Would this man have won a modern-day election? Would he have won a modern-day primary? Probably not, for he had a ponderous image. In 1909 though, Mr. Taft's physique and apparent lack of vigor were not at issue. The voters based their decisions after having gained an appreciation of the candidates' positions from newspapers and journals." NY

"In 1934, socialist writer Upton Sinclair ran for governor of California on the Democratic ticket. Initially dismissed as an idealistic fringe candidate, Sinclair astounded everyone when he won the primary election with a thumping majority, receiving more votes than all of his opponents combined. Republican businessmen, realizing they could no longer afford to dismiss Sinclair and his visionary ideas, collected the previously unheard of sum of $10 million to mount an advertising campaign against him. All across the state they rented 2,000 billboards, plastered with alarming quotations that they put his name to as if it were his quote. Many went against him. Sinclair, whose candidacy had at first seemed so strong, was easily defeated in the election by a candidate whose own supporters described him as 'lackluster.' It was by no means the first or the last time that a political candidate would be defeated by the combined power of advertising and corporate money." SD

"All of this opponent-bashing and name-calling that we see in a campaign on television and in the newspaper today started in the 1934 California governor's race when Upton Beall Sinclair won the Democratic primary by a very large margin. The other candidates decided that if they wanted to win this election then they were going to have to think of something quick and good. The Republicans hired two political consultants who put together, with an artist, many cartoons quoting Sinclair out of text from his many books and (made him) look like something he wasn't. After this, almost every newspaper in California went after Sinclair. Then, there was the first use of motion pictures in a political campaign. Louis B. Mayer, head of MGM, got a large portion of the studio bosses in Hollywood together and they made short films and sent them to theatres (free of charge) all over the state to be played with the movies. These short films had a huge affect on the voters. This and other contributing factors helped Frank Merriam beat the once popular Upton Sinclair in the 1934 campaign and changed politics forever." KY

"Advertising executives, rather than politicians, directed Eisenhower's presidential campaign." MI

"In the late fall of 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard M. Nixon released a commercial.. . . It centered on getting the people who watched it to jump on the bandwagon and vote for the best leader. . . Since that fateful day, commercials that fill up our television screens and signs that clutter our yards have been more important than the issues that swell in our brain." MO

"Primaries grew from 17 in 1968 to 37 by 1980. Primaries became the vehicle to the White House, and the media assumed the mission of informing the public about the candidates." MD

". . . but nothing could compare to seeing and hearing the candidates whom you would be voting for. Thus, media coverage of elections went from simply being a way to inform the public of an election and who would be runing for a specific office, to being as it is today; a major factor in who will be elected." OH