Friday, April 22, 2011

The influence of blogs

Blogs have become very influential on the tone and editorial direction of news reporting. In a blog you get to set the topic of the conversation which gives a person the power to focus on a certain event or idea. If enough people write about a certain topic than their opinions have a direct impact on how people view the subject.
Blogs inform the public about bias in media,  they play a watchdog role of the media. They raise money for causes or candidates, they form rallies, and push people to vote. Another benefit is that you get news much faster from a blog than mainstream media. You also get to the view the story from different angles.
You can see the power of blogs and other new media sources such as twitter and facebook in the Egyptian uprisings. The government saw these social media channels as a big threat which resulted in the internet being shutdown across the nation. There has been a great change in how knowledge is shared today. It is important to see that the voices of these new social media channels have power, they have to power to create change.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Evil Blimps!!!

Ad’s are more negative and attacking in their messages these days. Negative ads by nature capture more attention among viewers and it suppresses voting for the opposing candidate. It is even more effective if the message is built upon a pre-existing negative image of the candidate and is repeated in the media.
Here is an example of an vicious ad for the 2010 senate race. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina depicted Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) as an evil blimp that destroys the U.S. capitol and then floats in the sky threatening Californians.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJKlc77K5dg
Here is another ad where Rep. Joe Sestak used an image of Sen. Arlen Specter that made him look deathly and ill. The picture that the Sestak campaign used was one that was taken while Specter was receiving chemotherapy treatment. This is another age old trick that is used in campaign politics to make the opponent look weak and unable to serve properly, dating back to the Nixon-Kennedy debate. That debate changed the outcome of the election, those who watched the Nixon-Kennedy debate favored Kennedy because they put empasis on integrity rather than leadership skills. Evaluating integrity has non-verbal components to it and when Nixon looked pale and sickly, it was translated to him posessing insecurity. Opposing this was those who listened to the debate on the radio and favored Nixon instead. Conclusion: A candidate’s image matters in the media today.
(play close attention to the picture on the screen comparing Specter and Sestak)