A Shift of Focus Through Televised Politics and Political Presence on Social Media
Purpose The topic of discussion will be the changes in America’s political realm caused by the changes in technology. Specifically, this paper will examine the effects of television impact of the election process and political processes and how the Internet, specially the emergence of social media, has aided the changes to the political system. It will examine the change of focus in American political campaigns facilitated by television and the Internet, which seems to have gone from political issues that are facing the country to the image and opinion of the president and presidential candidates. The next step will be to examine how these changes have affected …show more content…
The first guiding question is directed at television’s effect on political focus: how has the television age changed the focus of the presidential election process and the presidency itself? This question seeks to explore how the image-driven campaigns that arose with television have caused the elections and the political processes to evolve in both focus and function. The second question will be directed at the effect of the Internet and social media: how has the Internet and specifically social media furthered the influence of television and how has it affected the presidential process on it’s own? This question will seek to find how the Internet’s ability to provide up-to-the-minute information to both the government and the people has affected political processes such as presidential campaigns. It also seeks to explore the effects of social media and its ability to both provide a feedback platform and a platform to further humanize political figures. The third question will combine the first two answers and evaluate what they have to say about the big picture of American politics and what that says about the future of America’s political realm: have the effects of these technological advances compromised America’s identity as a democracy in any way? This question seeks to explore how the political changes facilitated by both television and the …show more content…
He examines Obama’s use of social media and the effects of such tactics on his campaign. He observes the attention and following Obama was able to gain on social media. In this sense, he seems to be painting a positive picture of social media’s role in the political realm. However, he seems to ignore the similar description of image management and presidential involvement in social media societies. He also furthers Postman’s claim that presidential debates and races have turned into boxing matches rather than discussions. Wheeler expands this illustration to include the addition of celebrities. With this addition, political campaigns take on the feeling of a football game with a team facing another team rather than a one on one boxing match. Celebrities provide support for specific candidates and form a team of public characters behind the president, which can be used by candidates to bring in more followers. However, Wheeler (2012) observes that such endorsements will only be beneficial in democratic society if they are policy based with celebrities furthering education on the issues of their candidate. However, he seems to believe that this is not the current case. He identifies this as something to strive for in order to use the current system for a
Purpose The topic of discussion will be the changes in America’s political realm caused by the changes in technology. Specifically, this paper will examine the effects of television impact of the election process and political processes and how the Internet, specially the emergence of social media, has aided the changes to the political system. It will examine the change of focus in American political campaigns facilitated by television and the Internet, which seems to have gone from political issues that are facing the country to the image and opinion of the president and presidential candidates. The next step will be to examine how these changes have affected …show more content…
The first guiding question is directed at television’s effect on political focus: how has the television age changed the focus of the presidential election process and the presidency itself? This question seeks to explore how the image-driven campaigns that arose with television have caused the elections and the political processes to evolve in both focus and function. The second question will be directed at the effect of the Internet and social media: how has the Internet and specifically social media furthered the influence of television and how has it affected the presidential process on it’s own? This question will seek to find how the Internet’s ability to provide up-to-the-minute information to both the government and the people has affected political processes such as presidential campaigns. It also seeks to explore the effects of social media and its ability to both provide a feedback platform and a platform to further humanize political figures. The third question will combine the first two answers and evaluate what they have to say about the big picture of American politics and what that says about the future of America’s political realm: have the effects of these technological advances compromised America’s identity as a democracy in any way? This question seeks to explore how the political changes facilitated by both television and the …show more content…
He examines Obama’s use of social media and the effects of such tactics on his campaign. He observes the attention and following Obama was able to gain on social media. In this sense, he seems to be painting a positive picture of social media’s role in the political realm. However, he seems to ignore the similar description of image management and presidential involvement in social media societies. He also furthers Postman’s claim that presidential debates and races have turned into boxing matches rather than discussions. Wheeler expands this illustration to include the addition of celebrities. With this addition, political campaigns take on the feeling of a football game with a team facing another team rather than a one on one boxing match. Celebrities provide support for specific candidates and form a team of public characters behind the president, which can be used by candidates to bring in more followers. However, Wheeler (2012) observes that such endorsements will only be beneficial in democratic society if they are policy based with celebrities furthering education on the issues of their candidate. However, he seems to believe that this is not the current case. He identifies this as something to strive for in order to use the current system for a