188 The media and politics
The media and elections
The role of the media, particularly television, in elections is enormously en-
hanced by the nature of the American political system. The presidential elec-
tion focuses attention on the single most important election in the world, so
that it can become a drama, involving very high stakes. The weakness of the
political parties means that the voting behaviour of the electorate is much
more independent than in most countries of the world. Above all, the fact that
the voters are so closely involved in the choice of party candidates through
primary elections makes personality, or the voters’ perception of personality,
a vitally important factor in the process. To win, a candidate has to project
an image that will inspire confidence that he or she is suitable for the office,
whether it be for city councilman or president of the United States. What
better medium than television for this purpose? Television focuses on the
personality of the candidate in a way that no other medium can: the gesture,
body language, the facial expression. Thus television has concentrated more
on personalities than on policies; the latter can better be dealt with in the
print media, particularly the ‘quality press’, although this reaches a much
smaller number of people.
Although President Eisenhower made use of television in the election of
1956, the first occasion on which television made a considerable impact on a
presidential election was that of 1960, the contest between John F. Kennedy
and Richard Nixon. Kennedy was virtually unknown nationally and not popu-
lar with the Democratic Party leaders; his Catholicism was thought to be a
disadvantage and his stance on civil rights policy not popular in the South.
But Kennedy’s personality came through to the ordinary voter on television
in a way that would not have been possible otherwise. The campaign was
notable also for the staging of the first television debate between rival can-
didates, in which famously Nixon’s ‘five o’clock shadow’ compared unfavour-
ably with the rugged, handsome appearance of Kennedy. Kennedy won the
election by a hair’s breadth, and it is difficult not to attribute his victory in
large part to the influence of television.
After 1960 no further television debates were held until 1976, in the
contest between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, but since then they have
become a regular feature of election campaigns, not only at the presidential
level, but at congressional and state levels as well. The fairness of the way
in which these debates have been staged is in some doubt. In 1996 the Re-
publican candidate for the presidency, Robert Dole, was able to exclude Ross
Perot, the candidate of the Reform Party, from the debates; in the election of
2000 two ‘third-party’ candidates, Ralph Nader and Patrick Buchanan, were
excluded. In both cases it was the fear of the major party candidates of the
effect that the minor party candidates might have on the vote if they were
allowed to enter the debates that resulted in their exclusion.
It is difficult to generalise about the effect of television on the outcome
of elections. Undoubtedly television has an influence, but the exact effect