last updated
10/22/2012
How Campaigns Seek to Control Candidate
Images
I.
Controlling News Coverage of the Campaign. Campaigns seek to
...
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Control Media Access to the Candidate (and his team
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Influence the Media Agenda (and the public agenda) - Campaings can
shift emphasis because only a few issues can receive attention at
one time.
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Create
Credible Pseudo-events (see II, p. 320)
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Use
ads to contextualize news (Can candidates or opponents set the
media's theme for a story? - schemata)
-
Blur
the distinction between news and commercials (use news style
visuals, clips of actual news stories, reality show style ads, etc.)
II.
Recognize and Adapt to "Media Concepts of Campaigning"
-
The
Campaign itself - metaphors
-
as
battle ("Bringing in the heavy artillery") No common ground
-
as
game ("Hail Mary, "4th down") It's all tactics.
-
as
horse race (who's in the lead, "by a nose")
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The
Candidate -- IMAGE = policy positions, competency, and
character (a composite perception of the voter)
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Typing candidates by expectations (front-runners, third-party,
minor candidate, contenders) impacts popularity and support -
Comparisons to previous 'similar?" candidates - stereotyping
(recent examples: comparisions of conservative women candidates
to Sarah Palin,
-
Attacks
III.
Adwatching
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Little
fact checking now occurs by news agencies (CBS and NBC do some, others only occasionally;
however, internet fact checking organizations have grown.)
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Corrections may reinforce the ad (and its falesehoods)
-
The U
of Penn. Annenburg Public Policy Center (Jamieson's home) does
operate a fact checking web site,
FactCheck.org
Discussion Questions:
-
What
sorts of campaign ads and techniques do you like? What ones might
influence your vote?
-
What
sorts of campaign ads and techniques do you dislike? What ones might
influence your vote?
-
If you
could write rules of campaign ads to improve campaigns, what rules
would you propose?
-
How
would you alter presidential or other candidate debates'
rules, format, etc.?
-
What
constitutes "fact checking" and "accurate" objective news and
"honest" advertising?
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