Through Russia’s alleged involvement in the recent United States presidential elections as well as through Donald Trump’s attacks on “fake news” and on popular mass media outlets in today’s culture, the topic of mass media and how individual voters receive their news has become a major topic of conversation since the 2016 presidential election and campaigns. Mass media has always played a role in politics because media and reporters are traditionally viewed as the bridge of communication between what happens in governmental offices and the average citizen living anywhere in the United States (or, when considering the reach of mass media in modern culture: the world). In today’s modern world, mass media stretches from traditional radio to cable television to the internet and Twitter. These mediums allow most people to access mass media instantaneously. However, since political news and mass media are accessible now more than ever, this also means that these same people are able to access a wider variety of content and information, some of which comes from illegitimate sources. This paper will explore the history of mass media, its role in the Nixon/Kennedy and Obama/Romney campaigns, how social media differs from mass media, and how the evolution of cable television led to a dissemination of content that has resulted in a disparity of how individual voters receive and perceive individual news stories.
The Nixon/Kennedy campaigns of 1960 forever altered the way individual voters would
Experience political campaigns. 1960 was such a huge year for political hopefuls because it was the first time in American history that a presidential debate was broadcast on television. For the first time, the American masses were able to see and interpret presidential candidates in the debate setting. Kennedy ultimately won the election over Nixon. However, Kennedy’s win could be attributed in large part to his strong appearance and calm demeanor in the nation’s first televised presidential debates. Kennedy was calm and natural on camera. He was objectively better looking that Nixon, as well. Nixon’s personality did not fit the televised format; the candidate appeared to viewers and nervous and with poor posture (Lule, 2016). The 1960 presidential debates were the first modern debates and forever changed the way individual voters interact with politics.
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The Obama/Romney campaigns of 2012 were arguably equivalent to the 1960 campaigns in terms of their use of groundbreaking media and its influence on the voting public. However, the Obama/Romney campaigns were dominated by the importance of social media in contrast to traditional mass media and cable television. First it is important to differentiate social media from mass media. Social media differs from mass media in that social media is media that allows readers and platform users (such as Twitter or Facebook users) to actively participate in, create, and share news stories, while mass media typically refers to news stories from major networks and network reporters. The 2012 election saw Barack Obama in a close race with his Republican opponent Mitt Romney. However, one thing that may have affected Obama’s win in the end is the former President’s heightened attention to social media when compared that of Romney’s. For example, Obama’s Facebook page had 27.1 million likes, he posted to Twitter 404 times, and 50% of his posts were concerned with domestic policy (AdAge, 2012). At the same time, Romney’s Facebook page only had 4.1 million likes, he only posted to Twitter 16 times, and only 40% of his posts addressed domestic policy (AdAge, 2012). It is possible that Obama’s higher focus on social media and using it as a means to deliver his policy message to the voting public helped win him the election. However, social media is not the only way media influences the way people experience politics.
“In 1975, the three major networks accounted for 93 percent of all television viewing. By 2004, however, this share had dropped to 28.4 percent of total viewing, thanks to the spread of cable television” (Lule, 2016). In this way, cable television is largely responsible for the dissemination of political ideology. When it began, cable television was broadcast on only a few channels that featured common and recognizable personalities and reporters. There was a sense of homogeny in the political messages that were broadcast to cable subscribers across all of these few channels. However, as the above statistics show, over time cable viewers began receiving more and more information from a more diverse array of channels. Lule notes in Understanding Media and Culture that as cable grew, it began giving cable subscribers the option and opportunity to choose among channels that specialized in golf, weather, or news pointed towards a specific ideology. Today, we can even see differences in the information reported on major mass media networks, as it applies to political messages, such as the disparity between the news reported on Fox News and the news reported on CNN. For example, in light of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 United States presidential election, a headline on CNN reads: “Mueller’s charges complicate the Hill’s Russia inquiries.” The article, which appears on the left-leaning website’s “Politics” page, begins by quickly stating that Muelller’s recent charges in the case, including charges against former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, “provided a jolt to congressional Russia investigators who now know special counsel Robert Mueller is moving quickly” (Herb, 2017). Conversely, Fox News reported on the same story with the headline: “Manafort indictment reaction: A ‘huge yawn’ and ‘much ado about nothing.’” Fox News is known to be a right-leaning website and reporter Samuel Chamberlain begins the article by stating: “Legal experts greeted the indictment of … Manafort … saying that it was far too early to predict the final outcome” of Mueller’s investigation (Chamberlain, 2017). It is clear that CNN and Fox News are both publishing articles that appeal to their respective audiences. CNN is appealing to the hope and excitement of its democratic audience that Mueller’s “jolt” to the Russia investigation will bring more charges to members of the Trump administration, while Fox News’ “far too early” reporting appeals to its conservative audience, an audience that widely supports Donald Trump and yearns to be skeptical of Mueller’s investigation. Further, these reports showcase the political messages individual voters receive from their chosen news source. This is to say that a voter could consistently visit Fox News and read on the same topics as a voter who visits CNN and each voter would likely receive a very different perspective on the given topic. In this case, a voter who regularly visits Fox News might become doubtful of Mueller’s investigation while a voter who regularly visits CNN might believe Mueller’s investigation will succeed in its focus on connecting Trump administration members to Russia. This is a direct symptom of the ways in which mass media can impact how individual voters experience politics and political campaigns.
Today, voters have greater access to media and even to individual politicians. It is this widespread access that allows for the potential of greater media influence on individual voters. The media has influenced voters in a significant way since the 1960 presidential election between Kennedy and Nixon, an election that saw the first televised debates. Today, voters are influenced by traditional mass media as well as social media while they watch, Google, or Tweet their way to garnering their own respective political opinions.
- AdAge. (2012, August 21). Infographic: How Obama, Romney (and Friends) Are Using Social Media. Retrieved from http://adage.com
- Chamberlain, S. (2017, November 01). Manafort indictment reaction: A ‘huge yawn’ and ‘much ado about nothing’. Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/
- Herb, J., & Raju, M. (2017, November 01). Mueller moves complicate Hill Russia inquiries. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/
- Lule, J. (2016). Understanding media and culture: An introduction to mass communication. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing.
