The Role of Media in Choosing Our Candidates for National Office: Student Projects

Personal Surveys

"In a poll conducted by me, there were twenty different people asked a series of questions...the overall opinion was that the media needed to cover the candidates' professional lives and (report) less about their personal lives. The people want to know what the candidates are going to do for them and for their state and country. They want to be informed about their standing on issues and what they can or are going to do." OH

"I have asked several people who have been voting in the past years about former candidates, and most people don't remember much about several of them. A few people don't even remember hearing the name of some of them." PA

"In an effort to determine how much influence the media had on the public during the recent Presidential election, I surveyed 40 registered voters to get their response to various questions posed about the media's influence on their individual votes. . .

Of these 40 people. . . all of whom claimed to either read a newspaper or watch a national news program daily, only six said the media 'directly affected' their choice of candidate.

The other. . . individuals responded that the media had no definite impact on their respective votes. . . 27 of the respondents stated that they believed that 'the way the media is allowed to present political stories should be reformed,' while 13 felt that there was no need for such reforms. . . A common request was that the media report confirmed facts only. . .

Many of the people. . . had no real place in the election. . . Perhaps the best comment that supported not having mandatory reform in the media was, 'We must maintain a free press in this country. A voter must take the responsibility of educating ones self so that the vote will reflect a sound judgment. One must read, listen, watch, and vote." AR

"I took a survey of adults over thirty years of age. The question was, 'Do you think the media favored one of the presidential candidates over the others?' Seventy-five percent of the adults agreed that the media favored Bill Clinton over President Bush and Ross Perot." MN

"In a questionnaire answered by many working adults, four out of ten felt the job done by the media in informing the public about their choice of political candidates was done poorly. The remaining six felt it was adequate. Five out of ten felt the informing of the public about differences in the candidates' stands on public policy issues was also poorly done. The remaining four felt it was adequate. Many of the people that answered the questionnaire felt that the biggest problem with the way that the media covers elections is they spend too much time with the candidates' personal lives and past mistakes (rather) than sticking to the issues.'" NE

"In an October 1992 survey of 15 residents of Towson, Maryland,. . .only one person of the 15 surveyed had actually heard or seen one of the candidates in an unfiltered situation." MD

"I discovered that most of the voters to whom I talked knew of only three or four of the six presidential candidates on the Ohio ballot before they stepped into the voting booth." OH

"Having asked several local persons (who are regular news-watchers and had followed the national elections), Who ran against Frank McCloskey?, most had to give quite a bit of thought before they remembered the name Murdock. Yet not one had trouble remembering McCloskey's name. Making this survey more interesting is that the election was only 2-1/2 months ago. Getting a congressperson's name before the constituents is a big boost in that it provides the candidate with the ability of overcoming one obstacle--the fight for name recognition which is positively associated with political success." IN

"When ten adults over the age of thirty were surveyed, (none) could name all seven (presidential) candidates, and only ten percent could name more than three." OH

"After interviewing a number of adults from different occupations and economic levels, it is evident that people perceive the media's role in the national campaigns in varied ways.

For example, when asked what role he feels the media has in the elections, Kurt Wanfried, managing editor for the Carlisle newspaper The Sentinel said, '...the newspaper provides an arena; a playing field for the elections to take place in.'

When asked the same question, John Broujos, former State Representative for the 199th Legislative District replied, 'The role (of the media) is to communicate to the. . . public your position on various issues and your qualifications.'

Whatever particular part the media is thought to play in these campaigns, all people asked were in agreement that the media is an essential part of the national campaigns because of the political level that they are on. This means that at such high levels, it would be nearly impossible to educate voters without it.

Albert Masland, State Representative for the 199th Legislative District commented on this subject. He said, 'On the national level it is much harder to reach people than on the state level. You can't go door-to-door meeting people in a grass-roots type of campaign.'. . .

Another aspect of the interview was the improvement of the media in specific problem areas. For instance, Al Masland states that he would like to see, '. . . a little more free media coverage; the opportunity to say how you feel with no fear of splicing...'

From Joe Serwach's perspective, political writer for The Patriot and Evening News, we see the many improvements that have already been achieved since the last elections such as, '. . . critiques on television advertisements and better debate coverage. . . '

Lastly, Julie Williams, communications director for Congressman Goodling states, 'Although it would be impossible to do, coverage would improve if reporters had more time to prepare. . .'

I feel that if each candidate had a small column in the newspaper that they could fill with their own unchanged press releases, then their opinions would reach the public in a way that the public could rely on. This would allow them to compare the candidates' views on current issues and help them choose the one that will best represent their interests in Washington. These are just a few of the many suggestions that were mentioned for improving the media coverage on the national elections." PA

"I conducted interviews of persons from my town. . . Marty Messar relies first on personal knowledge he has gathered about the candidates and second on word of mouth. The media plays no role in his choice. Barbara Petersen depends solely on word of mouth and doesn't use the media for local elections. Randy Petersen finds 50 percent of the information he needs from the media and the other half through personal observations compared to a 90 percent use of the media on a state and federal level. In a smaller town the importance of the media isn't as great as it is on a bigger scale because the candidates and the voters are on a more personal basis." WI

"Recently, I polled eight liberals and conservatives. When asked if the media manipulates its viewers, each one answered positively. This suggests that no matter what side you take, many believe that the media plays an influential role, and does so intentionally." CA

"After questioning various adults about the candidates for their state senator or representative, it was obvious that many people know little about the incumbents, and many know even less about their opponents." MD

"According to a man named McClure, 'Politics are displayed in a negative, mean-spirited, inaccurate, and democratically debilitating portrayal'. . .'The media shows the bad side of candidates,' according to Angel Garcia, a college freshman. 'They interfere with the personal live of the candidates and that affects our views on who to vote for.' He also adds that 'Many people argue that the media gets too personal and maybe tell us something that we don't want to hear, like what they did to Clinton.'" NY

"When a group of ten middle-aged voters were asked in a neighborhood door-to-door survey. . . how they obtained their information concerning candidates, they replied overwhelmingly that the major networks on television were their sources. Also, when asked what issues they found to be most publicized, they responded, saying that the economy and the whole issue of character seemed to dominate the air-time. . .

When the same group of voters were asked what they most wanted to hear about each candidate, most of them responded by saying that they wanted to hear what each candidate had to say about the major issues. . . They did not want to hear about the past lives of candidates.

Also, the public felt that some portion of the media were not doing their jobs in simply reporting the news. They felt that the media, at times, seemed a little biased and opinionated. . . Out of a group of 10 adults over the age of 30 who have voted within the last 7 years for their congressman, only 2 were able to specifically name outstanding program issues and opinions that their candidate was in favor of. The other 8 were either unable to recall the issues that led them to vote for their choice or candidly admitted voting without having substantial knowledge of their candidate. They were able (to) recognize some of the names of the candidates, but even at that, the incumbents, like Barbara Mikulski and Helen Delich Bentley, were more noticeably recognized.

Granted, the incumbents naturally receive more publicity, but some of the group members could not even remember the opposing candidate who had lost in the senatorial election to Senator Mikulski." MD

"The greatest criticism that I have found in discussing the question at hand with the local precinct chairman of Precinct 403, that the media--especially in television--view the campaigns as mind games rather than serious matters that are affecting our country." OK

"After interviewing a random group of people this writer came to the conclusion that the general public would rather not think and make decisions for themselves, but to have decisions made for them. After asking a random group of people the question: 'What role does the media play in the electing of public officials?' this is the feedback I received. Brandon Skinner said, 'It is good.' Bobby Sikes responded by saying, 'It beats me.' Michael Skinner's answer to that question was, 'I don't know." These statements only back up this writer's previous idea that people in general prefer to be dependent. If a change in the media is what is really wanted then the average intellectual interest in political events has to increase drastically." AL

"The candidates chosen for us individually to recognize and ask other people to recognize ranged from one man I asked, knowing only one candidate, to a couple who knew all ten who had run for U.S. Senate and U.S. House District 10 in Texas since 1985. Statistically, two people knew all ten, three people knew seven, three knew six, one knew four, and the last person knew only one candidate even though three of these people currently hold...offices in Washington representing the people I asked...

Personally, I knew six of the candidates and I am a high school senior. To explain more about the information gathered, I took note of how many articles were found for each of the current candidates for Presidency--Clinton, Bush, and Perot.

I would like to focus on this information. Included were articles from our local newspaper as well as cartoons on incumbent, George Bush, Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton, and Texas businessman, H. Ross Perot. Included also are some short news clips regarding all three candidates. The collection of this data began in early October and ended during the 1st week of November, 1992.

For Bush, there were seventy articles and ten cartoons; Perot was covered in forty-seven articles and ten cartoons; and Clinton was covered in thirty-five articles and eight cartoons. All of these items came from the Austin American Statesman. Our paper, through the reading and analyzation of cartoons/articles, seemed to be a Democratic supporter. They presented Clinton favorably in most of the information. (Cartoons also were slanted heavily against Bush and Perot.) Since I personally favored Clinton, I was happy to see this presented, but it did favor my bias and not those of some of my classmates." TX

"In a survey that I conducted of 10 adults over the age of 30, I was astounded to find that many of them didn't know who the candidates were for their own state's office of Senator and Congressional District 10. No one knew the challenger for both Senators, and only 4 people knew at least one of the candidates for the representatives for District 10." TX