The Media's Role In Wag The Dog

On the 3rd of November in 1948, presidential candidate Harry S. Truman famously waved a copy of the Chicago Tribune reading, “Dewey Defeats Truman”. Also, a photo was taken on the platform of the St. Louis Union Station which housed the Ferdinand Magellan, the first ‘presidential train car’ used by Truman to host the initial whistle-stop campaign (Goldzwig). However, the United States has come a long way since the days of fliers, megaphones, and campaigns by railroads; instead, the media and other such mediums are pivotal in the election process today. According to the United States Constitution, “No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States … shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident …show more content…
The media, a major weapon in the election, is used to manipulate the public’s opinion to favor the candidate and receive majority of the votes. A great example of this is found in the 1997 political comedy Wag the Dog. Referring to the media’s sway over public opinion, the powerful quote at the beginning of the movie sums this statement up well: “Why does a dog wag its tail? Because a dog is smarter than its tail. If the tail were smarter, the tail would wag the dog” (“Wag the Dog”, 1997). The presidential debates, in its live streaming form, are one of the rarer chances we as the public are able to participate in without including any media bias. This form of on-the-spot questioning allows the voters to view how the candidate reacts to different questions and issues in real-time and are only allowed a certain amount of time to speak. Taking these factors into consideration, this proves to be one of the most important roles in the ultimate election process because voters have a more personal intake on their chosen