Are the media to blame?

It is commonly accepted in our society that politicians are liars, cheats, or master manipulators. During election times, candidates receive so much negative attention or too often become the butt of society’s jokes that many people feel as if they are picking between the lesser of two evils, or between two idiots. The way candidates are portrayed by the media turn the entire political process into a game. Which candidate is ahead? What sort of trickery did the candidate use to take the lead? If a candidate is behind, what are they doing wrong? How is their character flawed? These types of questions are ultimately irrelevant when choosing political leaders, but yet they receive the most attention during political campaigns. In Out of Order, Thomas Patterson stated, “If Vietnam and Watergate marked a time when the press turned against the politicians, then now represents when the press has turned on them,” (21). If the press has turned on politicians, and turned campaigns into a game, then how can citizens trust anything said by politicians, make informed decisions, or prevent themselves from being alienated from the political process?

People seem to dislike politicians most when they cite a general dissatisfaction with politics, but few people consider journalists to be a source of the political problem. When politicians make campaign promises, journalists assume they are empty attempts at getting votes and often report them to be as such. Later when politicians actually do keep, or attempt to keep, their campaign promises, it barely makes the news. Furthermore, if any promises are not kept, for logistical reasons or disagreements with congress, politicians are simply painted as liars. So any promises that are made on the campaign trail are given little weight by the public mostly because the press downplays held promises and exaggerates broken ones election after election.

The game schema only allows the public to hear four stories: who’s leading, who’s trailing, who’s gaining ground, and who’s losing ground. Voters never seem to get the information they need to make informed decisions. Too much emphasis is placed on drama and character, and far too little emphasis is placed on policy issues. An adversarial press has spawned an adversarial public that has little to no faith in the political process or government.

I know that I have often been lured by the game process and my voting decisions have been influenced by superfluousness...and I am learning how to STUDY the media...imagine how the average person must feel?

Can the inadequacies of present day media be the fault of increased commercialism?