The Way Things Really Are -- Does the Media have Undue Influence?

"Excessive media influence in elections undermines the very foundations of our democratic government." OR

"Whether it be intentional or accidental, news agencies tend to show partiality towards their favorite candidate. The information that people living in small cities and communities learn about politics may depend on the decisions of just half a dozen men and women a thousand miles away. Even in major cities where the media have access to several news agencies, the number of people who ultimately decide what to use is relatively small. They have the ability to shape the public's view of the world according to the stories they choose to release." AR

"The media has a hypnotizing affect on how we think. They should be a little more careful.. . . This isn't a game." SD

"The media has a thousand faces and they are all believable. . . The power of the media lies with the public's willingness to believe." WI

(QUESTION) "Who does elect our president? Did we formulate our own opinion or did we borrow opinions formulated by the media?" MO

(ANSWER)"In the end, it was really the media who elected Governor Clinton." PA

"I would have loved to have seen the results of the 1992 election without the media, reporters, and everyone talking on television about a certain candidate." IN

"Shimkus, who is running in the 20th District for U. S. Congress (IL) sent out a video tape on what he believes. We watched the video in our American Government class. Our class didn't see a video on Durbin who is running against Shimkus. So, automatically, the students started to choose Shimkus. The media should make sure it covers each candidate with (an) equal amount of time." IL

"We all carry a picture in our heads. Who puts it there, why, how and under what circumstances? Beyond our limited daily experiences, it is television, radio, newspapers, magazines and books (the media). The media brings to our conscious ness the events, people and(determines what) we call 'reality.' Though reality is what happens to three and a half billion people all over the world, 24 hours a day, we receive from that total experience only fragments that are deemed significant." SD

"In 1898, before photographs could be put into (a news)paper (and) artists were needed to draw events, an American steamer was fired upon by a Spanish ship. An artisit drew a ship being torn in two by the blast. The public's outrage pressured President McKinley to enter us into a war with the Spanish." MD

"The media has taken on more than just the task of reporting the news to the public; it has now assigned itself the task of deciding which stories constitute news and which do not." VA

"The media used its position to influence potential voters rather than educate them." OH

"The problem is that it is too easy for people to read an eloquent commentary on the issues of the day and have an opinion formed for them, rather than drawing their own from the facts of the campaign. People swing back and forth on their stances of candidates by who happens to have a column on the editor's page that day in their local newspaper. Opinion polls swing from high to low from what television analysts say in the closing five minutes of their newscasts. Radio fans find talk shows that favor candidates and find themselves favoring the candidate also. The individual minds of the electorate become so dulled by crossfire opinions that they will believe anything set before them." OR

"Today, because such a large percentage of Americans own a television, the media's influence in politics has been boosted." SD

"The media system is splitting into two parts. There is the Old Media and the New Media. The Old Media consists of the networks, news magazines and widely known newspapers. The New Media consists of CNN, C-SPAN, talk shows, satelite hookups and computer bulletin boards. The New Media is less elitist and more democratic. These aspects are good, but the New Media is less analytical, which is bad." VA

"People today rely too heavily on the media to help them crystalize their personal opinions. . . people would rather take on the feelings of the television station. The media is to blame for spreading this apathy." OR

"It seems that in this day and age, the way that the media sides in an election is the way the election will go. Whoever they throw their support behind, is the one who will win. The people have no say in it anymore. They will vote with the candidate who has the most media backing." MD

"During the hard economic times this past year, deep budget cuts at news organizations is felt to have lessened some of the media overkill. This sounds somewhat positive. Perhaps with less overkill, the public will finally get only useful coverage of the campaigns. However, this may cause a potential danger. With political coverage viewed as an unaffordable extravagance, wide leads in polls can form the basis of an excuse for not really covering campaigns. . . Campaigns are. . . the only time the public can fully explore the condition and future of the country." MA

"The media also can take too much time covering the candidates' events, such as with three hour television specials and everything that the candidate does. There are even news programs with the history of a certain candidate's life." SD

"The role of the media seems to have become one of selling candidates, as if they were products, not person running for President." KS

"The role the media plays is clear, but unfortunately, it is the role of a manipulative tyrant." OH

"Numerous random events occur daily. Journalists face the dilemma of determining what is newsworthy and what isn't. They must answer the big question, 'Should it be covered at all?' They must become gruff football coaches. They pick and choose the stories they cover, just as a coach picks his players. And like a coach, some stories are cut, determined not to be in the audience's interests. Whatever the media determines to be news, becomes news.' The audience's attention is focused on these issues, while everything else is thrown away and forgotten. . . a major problem arises (when). . . the political stories and candidates which the media publicizes aren't what interests the public." PA

"Newspaper reporters, radio talk show hosts, and television news anchors play a very substantial role in the presidential elections, but not as large as (in) past campaigns. The public is more cogitative and forgiving of a candidate's past errors." OR

"Since many voters are not able to hear what each candidate has to say first-hand, they seek other sources to provide them with the information they need. . . the sources which many rely on are not relaying all the information essential to make a fair judgment of a person running for a national office. In fact, the credentials of newspapers have been doubted so frequently, call-in radio and talk shows became popular in the 1992 elections. . . (the media) decides what is 'news worthy' and what is not . . . I think the media covers candidates based on the interests of a rough majority of its viewers, the candidates chance of winning, and the candidates' popularity." NE

"In 1975, shortly after he left the governor's office, Ronald Reagan had his choice of two offers to start doing news commentaries. One was to alternate with Eric Severed on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. The other was with Mutual Radio. Reagan chose radio explaining to his media advisor, Michael K. Deaver, that he thought the medium was a better way to reach people because it had more credibility with many Americans than the network news." IL

"Is the media too intrusive? Maybe they are just doing their jobs, but whichever way the voters look at it, the media is still overexposng too many unimportant facts and not enough of the important issues." KS

". . . because of all the jokes about Dan Quayle, voters pay more attention to whether or not he makes an error than to what he says about today's pertinent topics." WI

"(Regarding) Dan Quayle's misspelling of the word potato in a recent spelling bee: Granted it was funny, but was the public aware of why he was there or even where he was? The media used the potato event over several months to discredit and belittle the Vice President." OK