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... s short-lived. By the middle of the 1950 's television became the dominant mass medium. Technological advances continued throughout the twentieth century to extend broadcasting to include cable television, satellites, and internet access. These developments changed the face of news.
One of the first demonstrations of the power of television came in 1952 when in just one broadcast "it transformed Richard M. Nixon from a negative Vice-Presidential candidate, under attack, into a martyr and an asset to Dwight D. Eisenhower's Presidential campaign" (White, 282). Although television was limited to partisan politics in its early stages, White argues that its use was influential and its effects immediate. The power of television can also be seen in the Kennedy-Nixon presidential debates of 1960. In scheduling four televised presidential debates, Kennedy and Nixon pioneered what would become an essential element of future presidential campaigns.
After the fourth debate a survey was taken. According to White, the survey indicated that most of the people who listened to the debates on radio thought the two candidates came off almost equal. But it was a series of visual misfortunes that made the television audience respond in another survey by saying that Vice President Nixon came off poorly in the opinion of many. Among the misfortunes affecting Nixon were the color of his suit, failure to wear make-up, and a recent recovery from an illness. The light gray color of Nixon's suit failed to contrast with the light gray background of the set. According to White, Nixon's advisors told Nixon to wear a lighter suit because they were mistakenly informed about the darkness of the set.
Therefore, Nixon appeared as a fuzzy gray outline on black and white television sets. Unlike Kennedy, Nixon refused to wear make-up for the broadcast. This also hurt Nixon's appearance on television. Finally, Nixon had recently recovered from an illness and had then completed two exhausting weeks of campaigning. He had lost weight from the illness.
His shirt fit loosely. The coincidence of these misfortunes made Vice President Nixon appear thin and weak on camera. Americans who viewed the debates on television apparently were more concerned with the image they saw of the candidate and less concerned with the candidates views on particular issues. Vice President Nixon came off poorly during the television debates and lost the election. "It was the picture image that had done it - and in 1960 television had won the nation away from sound to images, and that was that" (White, 290). The American public relies on the media to report the news accurately and fairly.
We expect them to do more than create "images" of local and national candidates. We rely on them to present the facts in a balanced and fair way. "Indisputably, the media are more pervasive today than they were just thirty years ago. The expanded availability and usage of mass media are facts - perhaps phenomena - of American life" (Davis, 3). The citizens of a democratic republic need to be informed, not mislead. Imaginative use of the media can create public perceptions of candidates that do not represent their true character. "The press has been accused of determining the images of candidates. Empirical studies support the conventional wisdom that the mass media do affect voters' perceptions of candidates, particularly at earlier stages of a campaign" (Davis, 245).
In discussing new forms of journalism, Davis describes .".. advocacy journalism - the practice of using news stories to support issue positions advocated by the journalist" (Davis, 101). Critics of this form of journalism argue that journalists who practice advocacy journalism are abandoning objectivity. The public is not getting a fair and accurate news report but a biased view of the news to advance a favored position. Bernard Goldberg makes a similar argument in his book, Bias.
Goldberg accuses network newscasters of intentionally reporting misleading statistics on AIDS and homelessness in order to raise public interest in these two social problems (63 - 96). The controversy surrounding advocacy journalism is not easily solved. Any attempt to regulate the media would interfere with the freedom of the press guaranteed by the Constitution. However, the public is not always told when reporters and journalists are reporting and when they are advocating. Advocacy journalism is not limited to print media. On June 26, 2002 Katie Couric interviewed Ann Coulter on the Today Show.
Coulter was being interviewed to discuss her most recent book, Slander. While Coulter was answering a question, Couric interrupts to challenge a quote appearing in the book. Couric's challenge has nothing to do with the previous question or Coulter's answer. Couric becomes animated and combative. She raises her voice over Coulter's responses and at one point Couric says, "I'm the one conducting the interview. " Couric never offers a substantive challenge to anything appearing in the book, Slander. However, an unsuspecting audience would not know that.
The popularity and celebrity of Couric, the TV personality, overwhelms the remarks of Coulter, the author. Paraphrasing Davis, this demonstrates advocacy broadcasting. Michael Kelly, writing for the New York Post, provides an interesting point of view in his column, "The Myth of Media Fairness", appearing December 21, 2002. The essential point of the column is that journalists don't have any professional training or discipline. "Journalism is not a profession in the sense of medicine or law or science. Journalists do not go through years of brutal academic apprenticeship designed to inculcate adherence to an agreed-upon code of ethics (such as the Hippocratic oath) or an agreed-upon method of truth-determining (such as the method of scientific inquiry). " (Kelly, 17) Without a public recognized standard, journalists and broadcasters are free to report the news as they see it. This paper began with the claim that it is a reasonable expectation that the media will gather the facts and report the news fairly, accurately and responsibly.
It concludes with the assertion that although the media report the news it is not always fair and accurate. Yellow journalism, the Nixon-Kennedy debates, and advocacy journalism (broadcasting) demonstrate that the influence the media have on government and public opinion. In a democracy any attempt to regulate the influence of the media will conflict with the constitutional protection of the First Amendment. The antidote for an overly influential media is an educated public.
Works Cited Coulter, Ann. "Ann Coulter on Liberal Bias in the Media. " Interview with Katie Couric. Today. NBC. WNBC, New York. 26 June 1994. Davis, Richard. The Press and American Politics.
New York: Longman, 1992. Graber, Doris A. Media Power in Politics. Washington D. C. : Congressional Quarterly Inc. , 1990. Goldberg, Bernard.
Bias. Washington D. C. : Regnery Publishing Inc. , 2002 Kelly, Michael. "The Myth of Media Fairness. " New York Post 21 Dec. 2002: 17. Streitmatter, Rodger.
Mightier than the Sword. Colorado: Westview Press, 1997. White, Theodore H. The Making of the President 1960. New York: Antheneum Publishers, 1961.
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