American politics focuses on specific issues during election periods. For example, the Republicans focus on traditional values or national security, while the Democrats focus more on social security and education. Therefore, if the media highlights specific issues during election periods, it is likely to benefit the political parties that own the issues (Baum & Gussin, 2005). It may be unintentional, but such focus is undeniably biased. The media has a huge impact on elections, as seen in the 1960 presidential debate between Senator J.F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon. Those who watched the debate thought that Kennedy had won while those who listened on radio thought that Nixon had won. However, those who listened on the radio were in the minority because at that time, 88% of American homes had a television set (Webley, 2010). Nixon looked pale, thin and sweaty from a recent hospitalization, while the young Kennedy appeared calm and confident (Webley, 2010). This definitely had a huge impact on the voters’ perception of each candidate. For the next 16 years, there was no presidential debate because the candidates knew how largely this debate could affect their chances of being elected. However, after this, the presidential debate became a must-have in every election year and it has continued to impact the election result depending on which candidate wins the debate.
Based on the Kennedy Nixon debate, a candidate should look at how they present themselves to an audience, how they look, how they sound, and obviously, how they connect with the audience. Armed with these characteristics and a promise to address the issues people are most passionate about, they are more likely to get a good response from voters. The Barack Obama campaign was the first campaign in history to utilize the power of social media. By November 2008, Obama had reached supporters in 15 social media sites. He had 50 million viewers in his Youtube Channel, around 2.5 million followers on twitter and 115,000 fans on facebook (Smith & Aaker, 2010). The power of social media catapulted Obama to victory by making his fans feel more connected to him as a person first, rather than just a presidential candidate.
References
Aaker, J., & Smith, A. (2010). The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways To Use Social Media to Drive Social Change. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons .
Baum, M., & Gussin, P. (2005, September 4). Issues Bias: How Issue Coverage and Media Bias Affect Voter Perceptions of Elections. Retrieved August 5, 2013, from Hks: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/mbaum/documents/IssueBias_APSA05.pdf
Webley, K. (2010, September 23). How the Nixon-Kennedy Debate Changed the World. Retrieved August 5, 2013, from Time: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2021078,00.html
