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1、1. What do you think is the most important political event in the U.S.? 2. How often is the presidential election held in the States? 3. What does selling in the title tell you? Back in the 1960s, when the role of advertising and PR in politics first became apparent, Life magazine quoted one campaig
2、n strategist as saying, I can elect any person to office if he has $60,000, an IQ of at least 120, and can keep his mouth shut. Since the 1896 campaign, the election of a President has been determined largely by the ability of information specialists to generate favorable publicity. In recent years
3、that publicity has been supplanted by heavy spot buying on electronic media. So many factors are involved in choosing a President that it is hard to say with any real empirical confidence how important any single medium is. The most talked-about medium in American politics is television. Highly publ
4、icized debates between candidates in 1960, 1976, and 1980 appear to have affected the outcomes. Richard Nixon (the early favorite) would probably not have lost to Kennedy were it not for his poor showing on TV. Similarly the 1976 debates probably clinched Jimmy Carters narrow victory over Gerald For
5、d, and Ronald Reagan appeared to be the victor in the 1980 debates. Yet there were other elections where, according to political analyst Edward Chester, no amount of TV exposure could have changed the outcome: Goldwater versus Johnson in 1964 and Nixon versus McGovern in 1972. Television commercials
6、 seem to work best in close elections or in those where there is a large undecided vote. According to the Associated Press, Fords TV spots during the 1976 campaign probably swung over 100,000 undecided voters a day during the last few months of the campaign. What effect does television have on the c
7、andidates themselves? It dictates priorities that are different from those of an earlier day. The physical appearance of the candidate is increasingly important. Does he or she look fit, well-rested, secure? Losing candidates like Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey, and Richard Nixon all seemed to loo
8、k bad on TV. Nixon overcame this problem in 1972 with ads that featured longer shots of him being presidential flying off to China. Close-ups were avoided. Both John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter seemed more at home with the medium, perhaps because both were youthful, informal, and physically active o
9、utdoor types. Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson seemed to have a paternal, fatherly image on the small screen. All of the recent Presidents have learned how to use the medium to their advantage, to stage events so as to receive maximum favorable coverage. This has added to the already awesome pow
10、er of the incumbency. Television has changed the importance of issues. It can be argued that since the 1960 presidential debates we have elected people, not platforms. This is a major departure from earlier years. Franklin Roosevelts radio charisma cannot be denied, but he was swept to power by one
11、issue the Great Depression. All the print information we now receive is simpler and more condensed than ever before. Issues and print go together. Television is images, not issues. We develop a more personal, emotional feeling about the candidates. Jimmy Carters spectacular rise to power was a testa
12、ment to this new image orientation. No one really knew what he was going to do when he took office, since his entire campaign had been geared toward developing a relationship of trust with the electorate. Trust me, he said. Ill never lie to you. A more recent example was the election of Reagan in 19
13、80. For some this represented the ultimate television victory. After all, what other country can claim that it has actually elected an actor President? It can be argued that Americans were tired of Carter and that Reagan simply offered an alternative. Yet throughout the campaign he offered us a medi
14、a vision of a shining city on a hill. And what about his constant references to John Wayne, one of the last great Americans? My father, a long-time politician in southern California, has a favorite saying The worst thing a candidate can do is get bogged down in the issues. This trend has alarmed cou
15、ntless media critics. Politicians, newscasters, and others have stood in line to denounce it. They assert that the important thing is what candidates stand for, not the candidates themselves. Almost everyone seems to agree that television has been detrimental to American politics; it has clouded the
16、 issues and confused the electorate. Media researchers Thomas E. Patterson and Robert D. McClure say the power of TV has been overrated and that (1) Viewers of the nightly network newscasters learn almost nothing of importance about a presidential election, and (2) People are not taken in by adverti
17、sing hyperbole and imagery, exposure to televised ads has no effect on voters images of the candidates. I disagree on both accounts. If the Watergate mess proved anything, it was that we need a President we are comfortable with, one we feel we know and can trust. Print afforded us no opportunity to
18、get a feel for the person. We could study the issues, read the speeches, yes but how would we know the candidates as we might a neighbor or casual acquaintance? Television (and television advertising) provides an audiovisual record of the candidate under all sorts of circumstances. It is with that k
19、nowledge that we can choose someone of integrity, at least someone with honorable intentions. Of course, TV cannot guarantee honest candidates, but we rejected Richard Nixon in 1960 and we might have again had he not so successfully avoided any informal coverage. Once he was President it was the int
20、imate nature of the medium that helped bring him down. Even his well-rehearsed Watergate denials wouldnt work. He would sit there, surrounded by flags and piles of transcripts, and swear he was innocent. Yet the profuse sweat on his brow and the look in his eyes seemed to confirm his guilt. Issues c
21、ome and go, but we elect people to the presidency. In this fast-moving information environment, todays burning issue is tomorrows historical footnote. Its far more important to develop a sense of what kind of person we are electing to the nations highest office. Television affords us that opportunity in a way no other medium can.