The media and politics will continue to have very close ties (Errington, 2007). As aspiring candidates you need to gain a wide exposure of the media in order to win in elections in the modern political system. In most situations reporters have limited options other than giving leaders of the government of the time slightly more coverage or excess coverage at the worst. This kind of discrimination should not be extended up to the years of election. The media staffs have a sole responsibility to make preparations that will see them through the manipulation that most likely they are expecting to face in the circumstances when the quest of a politician for particular office blocks the desire of the media in looking for truth(Rozell,2003).
Rallies are systematically designed to reveal the spontaneous excitement of supporters to a particular candidate. There’s no mistake in that. But you should understand that the homemade signs seen waving in air are brought about as a result of campaigning teams .sometimes, crowds are only a gathering of the campaigners in an attempt of ensuring that the media cameras have enough people to capture. Nobody can let the media to show that he has a small following, since that shows lack of political might. Gender and race are often considered to determine who appears next to the aspiring candidate (Street, 2011).
A sure means of an asping candidate to obtain coverage in the media is that of calling a news conference that can be branded “major announcement”. The announcement may be an issue that a candidate has expressed more than ten times in the recent past. Attending the conferences helps to meet the candidates for further debate.
In circumstances that a candidate has access to adequate financial resources, it is advisable to employ some of the resources in advertisements and television. The objective of such ads is basically to market a political candidate and this may involve hiding the exact truth about a candidate’s campaign or the candidate himself/herself.
This form of campaigns compromises the control of the media on their output leading to a situation where misleading information may be disseminated to the electorate.
Calls can be made during talk shows in radio broadcast as an opportunity to reach the electorate. A good manager of campaigns does everything within his potential to ensure that he gets an opportunity to share ideologies on air. It is common knowledge for politicians that radio coverage provides a good opportunity to share with the electorate and win their support.
Aspiring politicians, who are good schemers, embrace the social media as an effective campaign tool which connects them to the youths. Social media provides a platform where a candidate can share on his manifesto with the electorate and get an opportunity to respond to their concerns to win their support. The social media is actually coverage across the internet that includes, twitter, facebook, you tube, netlog, linked and other several web pages.
Candidates interested in national politics such as in the case of those seeking for presidency use newspapers to communicate their policies to the electorate. The candidate has an opportunity to share ideas and win the support of voters. Also the pictures of candidate can be available and further create familiarity.
Modern media that includes cable TV, internet and the radio disseminates information very fast. This is important in providing access to opinions ideas that shape the modern political landscape. Another benefit is that the modern media is very user friendly; meaning that people can be entertained or informed while at their comfort in their homes. A candidate is able to follow what competitors are doing through using the internet and this helps to strategize in advance on how to handle the completion. However the social media can be detrimental at times. This is because it can act as a platform where a fake propaganda can quickly “go viral” (Street, 2011).
Millions of citizens can reach the political propaganda across several media such as twitter, facebook, netlog among others. Persons who lack the ability and skills necessary to evaluate media messages can get misinformed. Another major problem of the social media rests on the fact that fraud can easily take course in the social media, for instance some people can hack and steal the identity of others. Social media creates ” digital divide,” (street2011),where those that live in urban centers or are rich have a good access to the internet while the ruralites and poorer citizens who cannot afford such expensive internet cables miss the chance to get the news through the social media.
Newspapers and other forms of print at times are less reliable in revealing the truth. Some newspapers can manipulate facts and present rumors to the public. In the modern society many people can now read newspapers and therefore in case of any misinformation, almost everybody can find access to it. Political propaganda and defamation of politicians from their competitors is very common in the newspapers nowadays. Aspiring candidates should follow closely the headlines and make quick responses in case of misrepresentation on their part. This is however a bit difficult because unlike the social media, print media is less flexible and therefore it takes 24hours to again present different information on the next newspaper.
Before announcing political aspirations, a candidate to be, must first of all engage with the media in order to include it in the campaign process. The media influences greatly on elections through the generation of attention. Competition for the undecided voters, the media normally may resort to polarization and demonization that can be very detrimental to candidates. Giving the media attention can be very advantageous to aspirants. This is because the more a candidate appears in the media in a positive presentation; the less likely he is to lose an election. In the modern media, negative campaigning is very rampant and includes situations where there is comparative advertising.
For instance in 1984, Gary Hart convinced media of his viability as candidate and received wide coverage that helped him to win Hampshire primary (Iyenga, 2007). Before jumping into the political landscape, one must win the media’s positive perception. The media have a priority in making profits and a candidate has a priority to win elections. Therefore as a candidate, working towards convincing the media as the most viable candidate is a good strategy to towards receiving more coverage and consequently winning elections.
References
Errington, W., & Miragliotta, N. (2007). Media & politics: An introduction. South Melbourne, Vic: Oxford University Press.
Iyengar, S., & Iyengar, S. (2007). Media politics: DVD. New York [u.a.: Norton.
Rozell, M. J. (2003). Media power, media politics. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.
Street, J. (2011). Mass media, politics and democracy. Hound mills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
