Campaigning
Posted by thenewconstitution on 1 January, 2007
Browsing the web with no apparent purpose is always a dangerous thing, as I have just discovered after following a long series of links that has brought be to this website: The Living Room Candidate (http://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us/index.php).
A wide selection of American presidential campaign adverts are shown, listed under several categories. I will leave you to explore the website yourselves (and, indeed, recommend that you do). The experience of seeing these and other adverts has reassured my view that there can be no benefit to democracy in having televised adverts in campaigns.
In America, the adverts tend not to promote the respective parties’ views, preferring to slur the opposing candidate. I can understand this in a two-party system where there is very little difference in policy from either party. The risk, though, is that hapless floating voters may see the attack ads, not read any campaign literature, and decide neither of the warring candidates deserves their vote.
Reaching apathetic members of the electorate who have chosen to watch an entertainment show rather than the news is crucial to the future of democracy.
Of course, a constructive presentation of policy is often seen in campaign adverts. Within very limited conditions, the presentation of party political information is beneficial. For example, the UK’s party election broadcasts are shown in accordance to the proportion of the vote a party gained at the last election. They are shown at the end of the news, which targets them towards the people who are most likely to care what they have to say. This is healthy. But a constant string of big-business-funded attack ads are hardly welcome!
A media blackout would be most unwelcome, so a balance must be struck between domination of the airwaves and a lack of media attention. The efforts of news organisations to promote equality are commendable, but policy is rarely shown on national news. Thus party election broadcasts are an important aspect of democracy, striking a sensible balance. In this regard, I think we’ve got it pretty much sorted!
All I will suggest, therefore, is that party election broadcast be shown not only at the end of the news, but after primetime entertainment programmes. Reaching apathetic members of the electorate who have chosen to watch an entertainment show rather than the news is crucial to the future of democracy. In this technology-based world, TV news alone will not reach far enough into the lives of the apathetic.
As such, I can only wonder how the Internet will feature in the next general election. Suffice to say that a huge amount of money will be spent on online campaigning. These are very interesting times we live in!
