Television has had a negative effect on presidential elections since it became an important factor in televised debates. Before television played a crucial role in the elections, candidates were not judged as much by looks but more by their political views and ideals. When in the 1960's televised debates made it easier for more Americans to get information on the candidates, it has also made the elections a image contest. Elections used to be about who had the more popular political views and ideals. Now that television is playing a crucial role in elections candidates not only have to sound good but look good too.
In “The Rhetoric of Democracy” by Daniel J. Boorstin, explores the hidden history, of advertising, often overlooked in the American experience. Illustrating how advertising has been part of the mainstream of American civilization, but often over looked by many of the most respectable surveys of American history. Boorstin explains how the use of propaganda has been part of advertising since the settling of the American colonies. Boorstin’s “The Rhetoric of Democracy” goes through how advertising techniques have changed from the early days of promoting the American colonies through the technology of advertising used in today’s world. He defines propaganda as "hopeful overstatements, half truths, and downright lies, but he called it advertising.” Through advertisements, Americans are set up for disappointment.
Their efforts are primarily unproductive. While they do try to get more of the suppliers off of the streets, it simply raises the price of the product. Hence, more suppliers are encouraged to enter the market because they believe the rewards outweigh the risks. Chapter two of Super Freakonomics begins with yet another comical title that reads, “Why Should Suicide Bombers Buy Life Insurance?” This chapter draws in the readers with compelling aspects why terrorism is so cheap and easy, and of both birth and death. I will begin with the talk of terrorism.
Throughout the history of advertising, marketing strategies have been weed out and changed over time in order to lure in customers and allow them no other way out but to buy their product. Companies take advantage of the cultural contexts of the times and further them into being accepted. Through advertising, companies begin by manipulating people into believing their false claims about their products. The advertising methods for Clorox, a company that produces cleaning products, has drastically changed throughout the years by showing what the “norm” is in society, how and who they advertise to, the ingredients that make up their products, and although they still make false claims, the ones they make now are entirely different and revolve around
They uses whatever media they could and looked for places to advertise that targeted the younger population. In some cases they even turned to the public schools to help them change and influence the youth. This aggressive advertising of the thirties overwhelmed the average consumer and even gained attention in the political arena eventually causing legislation to be passed to control and throttle down the add guys. In 1933 the Tugwell bill was passed, this bill regulated false claims made by advertisers. Then in 1938 the pure food and drugs act was finally passed, requiring that the producers had to clearly label the contents of their products and disallowing a lot of harmful fillers in the product.
The Vietnam War The Vietnam War was considered by the U.S. a part of their containment policy and to be a way to prevent the communist takeover of South Vietnam. U.S. involvement grew over the years due to the military draft. Many people opposed the war during the peace movement and some even took to the streets in protests of their opinions. There were basically two viewpoints that began to evolve during this time. One group of people felt that there were good ideas for getting involved in the conflict, however they thought it would be a useless battle with too much burden on the economy.
Examination of Consumerism In this day and age there is advertising everywhere, from billboards on the highway to commercials on television. Advertising is what makes consumers buy what they want to buy even though they might not really need it. This advertising feeds consumerism which is the base of our economy and our every day lives. Consumerism is a lot of times believed to make us buy what we want instead of what we really need. James Twitchell, a professor of English and advertising at the University of Florida, believes that “the idea that consumerism creates artificial desires rests on a wistful ignorance of history and human nature, on the hazy, romantic feelings that there existed some halcyon era of noble savages with purely
Within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States and Europe, several factions sought to terrorize those joining the war prerogative. A vivid example to bring home the point is the Germany incident. Here, the small Bader-Meinhof Gang members had anti-Vietnam feelings. On the other hand, many of the activities orchestrated by such groups were classified as pure social or political nuisance instead of being branded as terrorist groups. To bring home the point regarding terrorism, Ted Robert Gurr described within his book “Some Characteristics of Political Terrorism”.
One of the most controversial conflicts in our Nations history is definitely the Vietnam War. Today there is a lot of skepticism with America’s involvement in the War and I believe the biggest thing that gave people so much skepticism is the media’s portrayal of the War. The mainstream news stations of the time seemed to care more about entertainment, trying to get the most interesting story in order to keep their ratings high and keep people on the edge of their seat. The Documentary we watched in class gave a good look at how the media was more into story telling and less into giving people the facts that they deserve. I think that the film did a really good job at exposing the media for it’s horrible performance during the Vietnam War.
As people were not able to have a “connection” towards the candidates, they felt outcaste to what was really happening. “One of the great contributions expected of television lay in its presumed capacity to inform and stimulate the political interest of the American electorate. (Source A)” It also decides on whether or not the network company decides to broadcast certain interviews the way they were interviewed. All the potential is there for television to help inform the American public with the promised contributions to the country. The news source needs to help make the broadcasted presidential debate more about the issues and less about the image.