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Negative Campaigning During Political Elections Like most good ideas Television coverage of elections started out innocent and innovative. But in the years since its creation television has slowly eroded the foundation of our unique election process. It has turned a sacred tradition and reduced it to a pathetic sideshow. Inspiring election speeches have been whittled away to sound bites. The dream of young Americans to rise up out of poverty, taking hold of the highest office in the land through perseverance has been shattered into a reality of corporations and million dollar fundraisers. Journalists being negative are not the problem either it's merely a symptom of the disease.
As a society we have grown pessimistic and critical of journalists anyway. Journalists are always going to biased and negative. The fact that they choose one story over another demonstrates bias. But again thats not the major issue.
Lighter and Noyes started off well. Citing good sources and providing strong supportive material. But like most Hollywood movies the ending was weak. There are so many other compelling directions they could have taken this story. It's just not believable to blame journalists for such a massive problem. In the 36 -year period between 1960 and 1996, voter turnout has declined by more than 25 percent nationally, the longest and largest such slide in the nation's history.
In 1996 -- despite an unprecedented level of campaign spending, more than half the eligible population did not vote, the lowest voter turnout since 1924. More than 90 million eligible Americans now avoid the ballot box. First time voters (those aged 18 - 19) who voted at a 42 percent rate in the 1972 election, voted at a 12 percent rate in 1994. If one counts both the nation's presidential and mid-term elections, the United States now has a lower rate of voter participation than every other advanced democracy in the world. Since 1960, the cost of All-American political campaigns has increased from $ 175 million to an estimated $ 4 billion in 1996.
The cost of presidential campaigns alone went from $ 30 million in 1960 to $ 700 million in 1996. Overall (inflation adjusted), the cost of campaigning increased 4 times during this period. In the somewhat narrower period of 1976 - 1994, the average cost of a competitive senatorial campaign rose from around $ 1, 000, 000 to $ 9, 000, 000. The amount spent on televised political advertising went from $ 474, 910 to $ 5, 681, 000. Overall campaign spending (adjusted for inflation) increased by 249 percent. The amount spent on televised advertising grew by 364 percent.
Television advertising is the principal cause of rising campaign costs, attack ads that run every on every major broadcast outlet in America during an election season is a principal cause of the ever lower voter turnout. It is equally clear that American politics will not be restored to a state resembling that of an earlier era. The cost of campaigns will not go down and the voter participation rates will not go up, until the United States regulates campaign advertising by either time or format. Politics like everything else in this country is run by money. There is too much money at stake for journalists to only observe the political process.
And there is too much power at stake for politicians to hope that their message is heard through grassroots campaigning. The media is compelled to spin any campaign to generate more viewers. To solve this problem we as a nation need to come together and tackle it head on. Eliminating the role of broadcasters and networks as much as possible. We need to recapture the roots of a Democratic process that is envied all over the world. Too many heroic Americans have fought and died in the effort to create a free nation.
The state of American politics is a tragedy and an insult to there memory. Bibliography: Patterson, Thomas E. Out of Order. Vintage Books, New York: 1994.
Sanger, David E. World Views, 30 Oct. 2000. web Accessed 10 / 30 / 00. NY Times.
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Research essay sample on Negative Campaigning During Political Elections
