Since the beginning of political campaigns and elections in the United States, trends in civic engagement have always been an interesting subject to research. Throughout history civic engagement has waxed and waned depending on how big the election is, and the political issues that are present at the time. Most recently, civic engagement has erupted in the MTV generation, especially in the 2008 election. Modes of popular culture are used to target and attract the attention of young voters. The most influential pop culture media outlet in the 2008 election was by far MTV. This paper will look at how MTV was used by both parties to encourage voting in the 2008 election, how celebrities, who attract the attention of young voters, went on the campaign trail for the candidates they endorsed, and how, ultimately the Obama Campaign focused much of their attention on gaining the vote of the younger generation which eventually led to him winning the election.
According to APA Online, civic engagement is, “individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern. Civic engagement can take many forms, from individual voluntarism to organizational involvement to electoral participation”. Civic engagement is what political parties bank on in getting the vote for their candidate elected. In the 2008 election, the Democratic Party targeted audiences on the television network MTV in order to gain the vote of the viewers, who are mostly young people. As the MTV website admits, their channel primarily targets young adults and teenagers. Both the Democratic and Republican Parties were fully aware of this when they took on the 2008 campaign and were trying to get people to vote for their nominees, Barack Obama and John McCain. A campaign called Rock The Vote was put into place in order to encourage teens and young adults to engage their candidates, volunteer at political events, and learn more about the policies being presented by the candidates. According to Rock The Vote websites About Us section, “Rock the Vote’s mission is to engage and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country” (rockthevote.com). The statement continues to say:
We are creative, effective, and controlled by nobody’s agenda but our own – we tell it like it is and pride ourselves on being a trusted source for information on politics. We empower the 45 million young people in America who want to step up, claim their voice in the political process, and change the way politics is done.
Rock The Vote used its power to effect young people in order to get out and support their candidates, register to vote, and get out the word to their fellow youngsters to vote for themselves and become participants in the campaign process.
Along with encouraging young people to vote through Rock The Vote, MTV and political parties issued the help of celebrities in order to get this generation to take part in politics in order to initiate change. It is a known fact that young people look up to their favorite celebrities as idols, and the fact that many celebrities went on the campaign trail for their candidate and spoke at events really helped in getting young people to vote. Many celebrities visited college campuses around the country to give speeches on why students needed to register to vote, and why they needed to be active in the political process. After all, it is our futures that are at stake here. At Colorado State University a few weeks before the 2008 election, celebrities Eva Longoria, Kal Penn, and Adam Rodriguez spoke to several hundred community members about the need to get out and vote, and to encourage friends and family members to vote. As Longoria stated in her speech, “college students and young adults will be responsible for the future created by today's political climate” (rockymountaincollegian.com). This was the focus of many of the trio’s stump speeches throughout the country in hopes of gaining more support for their particular candidate, Barack Obama.
Another example of celebrities joining the campaign for their candidates is when the Beastie Boys made a stump speech last minute on the Colorado State University Plaza on Election Day just hours before the polls closed. Because Colorado was a swing state in this election, the Beastie Boys rappers Adam Horovitz and Adam Yauch said, “If you know anybody that is undecided, or their friends, or your auntie, or your Nana, please call them wherever they may be and get them out to vote,” Horovitz said. “This is a state where this does matter” (rockymountaincollegian.com). Clearly the influence of all of the celebrities that attended CSU, and many other colleges around the country, helped in getting younger people to vote. Because these celebrities took time out of their busy schedules in order to travel the country enticing their fans to vote, they truly made a difference in the separate campaigns that they had joined.
The 2008 election was the most anticipated in history. The country as a whole was ready for change in leadership and it would come in the form of either Democratic nominee Barack Obama, or Republican nominee John McCain. Each candidate and their campaigns had separate targets while on the campaign trail. Senator John McCain focused a lot of his effort on Veterans and Senior Citizens, and Senator Barack Obama focused much of his efforts on young people. Both candidates knew that they needed to put a lot of campaigning effort into states that were considered to be swing states, including Colorado.
By far, the most effective effort by either of the candidates was those of the Obama Campaign which used young voters as a focal point for their campaign. Barack Obama used the last few weeks leading up to the election to rally at college campuses around the country. In one day he rallied in Denver, Colorado, and immediately headed north for a rally at Colorado State University, which boasted about 50,000 students and community members. As people lined the sidewalks of campus, members of the Obama Campaign at CSU went through the lines and registered people to vote. There was a record turnout for this rally in which Obama focused on his agenda, and telling the crowd that if they wanted positive change in the white house then they needed to vote for him. In having rallies at college campuses, and insisting that the vote of the young person was what really counted in this election, Barack Obama insured his win for the White House.
By using popular culture in politics, political campaigns and candidates have a much stronger outlet to have their agenda known. Through the course of the 2008 election, both candidates, McCain and Obama, used MTV and Rock The Vote to get their messages out there. Each campaign used celebrity endorsements to help on the campaign trail in getting people to register to vote, and to actually go out and vote, and although each candidate had a different target audience for their campaigns, each nominee for President focused on that target audience in order to gain the vote. Barack Obama focused his efforts on the younger generation, which ultimately lead to him winning the Presidency.
Works Cited:
APA Online. (2009). Civic Engagement and Service Learning. Retrieved October 26, 2009 from http://www.apa.org/ed/slce/civicengagement.html.
Hart, Johnny. (2008). Stars speak at CSU, campaign for Obama. Rocky Mountain Collegian. Retrieved October 26, 2009 from http://media.www.collegian.com/media/storage/paper864/news/2008/10/03/News/Stars.Speak.At.Csu.Campaign.For.Obama-3469940.shtml
Myers, Eric. (2008). Beastie Boys stump last minute on the Plaza. Rocky Mountain Collegian. Retrieved October 26, 2009 from http://media.www.collegian.com/media/storage/paper864/news/2008/11/05/News/Beastie.Boys.Stump.Last.Minute.On.Plaza-3525626.shtml#4
Rock The Vote. (2009). About Us. Retrieved October 26, 2009 from http://www.rockthevote.com
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Political News
News comes in many different forms. From newspapers, to the internet, radio to television and even news magazines. Each type of news outlet comes with their own ways of interpreting the news, whether they lean to the left side of the political spectrum, or to the far right. Some also fall in the middle and at all different points on the spectrum. When it comes to the different ways in which a specific news outlet portrays a political news story there are four ways in which political journalism is viewed. These views include; news as “objective”, liberal bias, conservative bias, and economic or institutional bias. All news outlets use at least one of these four views of journalism. This paper will look at the national news corporation, MSNBC and how it portrays a fairly liberal bias when it comes to political journalism. I will provide three examples of how MSNBC is a liberally biased news source and how their stories represent the views of the outlet they are produced in.
When a news station is liberally biased, it means that the mainstream media is dominated by liberal political bias. Most journalists identify themselves as liberal or democratic. In reference to this definition, the MSNBC website just in one day contains many stories that emphasize how liberal the reporters are and the news station in general.
In an article posted on the MSNBC website, healthcare is discussed. The article titled, “Health Insurance industry report draws fire: White House, allies attack claim that health bill would add hefty new costs” discusses how the insurance companies are not being very easy to deal with in regards to the healthcare overhaul.
The industry put out a report Monday concluding that the Senate's health care legislation would drive up costs to consumers, delivering a dire message at a crucial point in the debate and potentially threatening President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.
This opinion is clearly not in favor of our democratic president because it goes against he President’s health care reform and implies that the president needs to reform his own heath care plan in order to win approval by the majority of the American people. MSNBC aims to give information on the critical things the Republican Party is saying about President Obama and his plans, and then gives solid evidence to refute these claims by the republicans. Directly after the previously stated quote, MSNBC shows their liberal bias by sharing what the White House democrats said in response:
The White House and congressional Democrats dismissed the late-in-coming message as a "hatchet job." But it put them and their allies on the defensive a day ahead of a pivotal vote in the Senate Finance Committee on sweeping legislation that aims to achieve Obama's goals of extending coverage to the uninsured and curtailing spiraling medical costs.
This quote clearly depicts the view of MSNBC in that it defends the president and his efforts to pass the health care plan that he has put forward.
The remainder of this article continues to support the president and his health care reform. Although it does give both sides of the issue, because this media outlet is liberally biased, it is understandable that an article on health care would be more in support of the democratic president, rather than defending the opposing side.
Another article on the MSNBC website is about the recent Gay Rights march on the White House. This article, titled, “Frank: D.C. Gay Rights march misses mark: Congressman urges gay rights advocates to follow NRA playbook and lobby”. In this article the first openly gay member of Congress, Barney Frank, discusses the march and how instead of marching, gay rights activists should lobby their elected officials instead. To the Associated Press, Frank said that he considered such demonstrations to be “an emotional release that does little to pressure congress”. Even though Frank does not agree that this act of protest is an effective form to persuade congress, the article is clearly liberally biased because it is discussing gay rights which are strong liberal issues. If this news source had a conservative bias, then gay rights would either not be discussed, or discussed in a negative way. Barney Frank is not bashing gay rights activists with his comments, he is simply saying that there are better ways to go about getting the word out, and there are certainly better ways of being heard by lobbyists and politicians.
The third and final article from MSNBC that we will look at is about President Obama and his economic agenda. This article, titled “Obama Agenda: Economy” discusses how republican officials have been criticizing Obama saying that his economic plan for getting the country out of this recession is not working, and that the President needs to give more tax cuts. The main arguments of the article, though, are once again in favor of the democratic president and his decisions. The article discusses a letter that White House economic advisor Larry Summers wrote to the House Republican Leader, John Boehner. In this letter Summers’ is responding to complaints to the President by Boehner and other House Republicans on the state of the economy. These Republican’s complained that, “the administration was having no impact on unemployment and recommended a series of tax breaks to invigorate the economy”. In response, Summers said that,
The $787 billion stimulus package that Congress passed at Obama's urging contained a mix of spending and tax relief that helped avert a worse economic downturn. He said that while unemployment now stands at 9.8 percent, the pace of job losses is decreasing from an average of 691,000 jobs per month in the first quarter of this year to a 256,000 monthly average in the third quarter.
Clearly Summers is in defense of his democratic party and is backing the President in his response to the top House Republican’s complaints.
This article later says that Summers blamed the past republican presidents for the current economic crisis. “The second half of Summers's letter was devoted to arguing that Republican presidents are to blame for deepening the nation's deficits with "fiscal irresponsibility.” This statement, without a doubt, shows a liberal bias when it comes to the economic situation, and backs the President up when arguing against critical republicans.
Though we only looked at one news source to get a sense of how the news media uses journalistic views to portray politics, it is clear that just through this one form of news how an outlet will slant their information towards a specific political agenda. If you look at other news sources you can see the same trends in regards to how they portray politics. It is known that Fox News has a conservative bias, and some news outlets such as Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood use an economic or institutional bias with their information. MSNBC is obviously leans more to the left side of the political spectrum with its news, and this can be seen in many different articles that it posts on their website. Discussion of gay rights, health care, and the state of the economy are just grazing the surface of topics MSNBC covers with their liberal bias.
Some may say news outlets using any of the journalistic views previously mentioned is a bad thing. However, whether you are a democrat or republican, you are moderate or like hearing outrageous news, the news source you choose to receive your political information from depends on what party or lack of party you associate with. If you do not agree with a certain issue that a news source is defending, you will choose a news source that sees politics the way you do. There is nothing wrong with news outlets having biases; it just makes American’s more selective when deciding what source to get their information from.
Works Cited:
MSNBC. (2009). Frank: D.C. Gay Rights march misses mark: Congressman urges gay rights advocates to follow NRA playbook and lobby. Retrieved October 11, 2009 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33252696/ns/politics-capitol_hill.
MSNBC. (2009). Health Insurance industry report draws fire: White House, allies attack claim that health bill would add hefty new costs. Retrieved October 11, 2009 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33279989/ns/politics-health_care_reform.
MSNBC. (2009). Obama Agenda: Economy. Retrieved October 11, 2009 from http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/10/13/2096905.aspx.
When a news station is liberally biased, it means that the mainstream media is dominated by liberal political bias. Most journalists identify themselves as liberal or democratic. In reference to this definition, the MSNBC website just in one day contains many stories that emphasize how liberal the reporters are and the news station in general.
In an article posted on the MSNBC website, healthcare is discussed. The article titled, “Health Insurance industry report draws fire: White House, allies attack claim that health bill would add hefty new costs” discusses how the insurance companies are not being very easy to deal with in regards to the healthcare overhaul.
The industry put out a report Monday concluding that the Senate's health care legislation would drive up costs to consumers, delivering a dire message at a crucial point in the debate and potentially threatening President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.
This opinion is clearly not in favor of our democratic president because it goes against he President’s health care reform and implies that the president needs to reform his own heath care plan in order to win approval by the majority of the American people. MSNBC aims to give information on the critical things the Republican Party is saying about President Obama and his plans, and then gives solid evidence to refute these claims by the republicans. Directly after the previously stated quote, MSNBC shows their liberal bias by sharing what the White House democrats said in response:
The White House and congressional Democrats dismissed the late-in-coming message as a "hatchet job." But it put them and their allies on the defensive a day ahead of a pivotal vote in the Senate Finance Committee on sweeping legislation that aims to achieve Obama's goals of extending coverage to the uninsured and curtailing spiraling medical costs.
This quote clearly depicts the view of MSNBC in that it defends the president and his efforts to pass the health care plan that he has put forward.
The remainder of this article continues to support the president and his health care reform. Although it does give both sides of the issue, because this media outlet is liberally biased, it is understandable that an article on health care would be more in support of the democratic president, rather than defending the opposing side.
Another article on the MSNBC website is about the recent Gay Rights march on the White House. This article, titled, “Frank: D.C. Gay Rights march misses mark: Congressman urges gay rights advocates to follow NRA playbook and lobby”. In this article the first openly gay member of Congress, Barney Frank, discusses the march and how instead of marching, gay rights activists should lobby their elected officials instead. To the Associated Press, Frank said that he considered such demonstrations to be “an emotional release that does little to pressure congress”. Even though Frank does not agree that this act of protest is an effective form to persuade congress, the article is clearly liberally biased because it is discussing gay rights which are strong liberal issues. If this news source had a conservative bias, then gay rights would either not be discussed, or discussed in a negative way. Barney Frank is not bashing gay rights activists with his comments, he is simply saying that there are better ways to go about getting the word out, and there are certainly better ways of being heard by lobbyists and politicians.
The third and final article from MSNBC that we will look at is about President Obama and his economic agenda. This article, titled “Obama Agenda: Economy” discusses how republican officials have been criticizing Obama saying that his economic plan for getting the country out of this recession is not working, and that the President needs to give more tax cuts. The main arguments of the article, though, are once again in favor of the democratic president and his decisions. The article discusses a letter that White House economic advisor Larry Summers wrote to the House Republican Leader, John Boehner. In this letter Summers’ is responding to complaints to the President by Boehner and other House Republicans on the state of the economy. These Republican’s complained that, “the administration was having no impact on unemployment and recommended a series of tax breaks to invigorate the economy”. In response, Summers said that,
The $787 billion stimulus package that Congress passed at Obama's urging contained a mix of spending and tax relief that helped avert a worse economic downturn. He said that while unemployment now stands at 9.8 percent, the pace of job losses is decreasing from an average of 691,000 jobs per month in the first quarter of this year to a 256,000 monthly average in the third quarter.
Clearly Summers is in defense of his democratic party and is backing the President in his response to the top House Republican’s complaints.
This article later says that Summers blamed the past republican presidents for the current economic crisis. “The second half of Summers's letter was devoted to arguing that Republican presidents are to blame for deepening the nation's deficits with "fiscal irresponsibility.” This statement, without a doubt, shows a liberal bias when it comes to the economic situation, and backs the President up when arguing against critical republicans.
Though we only looked at one news source to get a sense of how the news media uses journalistic views to portray politics, it is clear that just through this one form of news how an outlet will slant their information towards a specific political agenda. If you look at other news sources you can see the same trends in regards to how they portray politics. It is known that Fox News has a conservative bias, and some news outlets such as Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood use an economic or institutional bias with their information. MSNBC is obviously leans more to the left side of the political spectrum with its news, and this can be seen in many different articles that it posts on their website. Discussion of gay rights, health care, and the state of the economy are just grazing the surface of topics MSNBC covers with their liberal bias.
Some may say news outlets using any of the journalistic views previously mentioned is a bad thing. However, whether you are a democrat or republican, you are moderate or like hearing outrageous news, the news source you choose to receive your political information from depends on what party or lack of party you associate with. If you do not agree with a certain issue that a news source is defending, you will choose a news source that sees politics the way you do. There is nothing wrong with news outlets having biases; it just makes American’s more selective when deciding what source to get their information from.
Works Cited:
MSNBC. (2009). Frank: D.C. Gay Rights march misses mark: Congressman urges gay rights advocates to follow NRA playbook and lobby. Retrieved October 11, 2009 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33252696/ns/politics-capitol_hill.
MSNBC. (2009). Health Insurance industry report draws fire: White House, allies attack claim that health bill would add hefty new costs. Retrieved October 11, 2009 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33279989/ns/politics-health_care_reform.
MSNBC. (2009). Obama Agenda: Economy. Retrieved October 11, 2009 from http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/10/13/2096905.aspx.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The U.S. Presidency
According to Thomas A. Hollihan in Uncivil Wars: Political Campaigns in a Media Age,
A strong presidential candidate can even influence the outcomes of their elections, as others seek to attach themselves to the president’s ‘coattails’. In some cases a political era even becomes known by the impact of a particular president’s style, public personality, and public discourse (22).
Like Hollihan said, there are many things that American’s look for in a prime candidate for presidency, and these traits are usually what define a president’s term or terms in office.
Each president is memorable for their own reasons. George Washington is remembered for the myth that he cut down his fathers cherry tree, Abraham Lincoln is remembered for ending the Civil War while he was in office, John F. Kennedy and his administration, during and after his time in office, were known as Camelot. George H. W. Bush is known for being in office when 9/11 occurred, and as a result starting two wars, one of which he did not have enough evidence to start. Finally, Barack Obama, who was recently elected, was known as the “Yes We Can” man during his campaign, and he will be remembered in history as the first African American president that the
Although each president discussed above, and the other 39 that the country has seen in office, have distinct personalities and memorable terms in office, the office of the president is known as a very special position for someone to hold. The president is a person, whom many citizens do not know personally, who we elect to lead our country and expect to make the right decisions. Hollihan states:
The president is not only the ‘commander in chief’ of the world’s most powerful nation, but he (and someday she) also represents how we conceive of ourselves as a nation. Our president’s are the embodiment of our national identity, in no small part because they have an opportunity to shape and sometimes reshape that identity (23).
The goal of the voting citizens of the United States when it comes to election season is to determine who they think will best do the job of steering our country in the right direction if it is off track, or keeping it going in the right direction if it is doing well. When the majority of the nation determines who they think best fits the job of the presidency, that person then has been elected, and in a few months time will be the occupant of that strange shaped office at
The question that arises for some is what happens when the person we elect to the presidency does not end up living up to our expectations as a nation? Who takes the blame for that? After all, the majority of the voters in our country are running blind when they determine who they like for the presidency in any given election. Very few people know these presidential candidates personally, so when a voter decides that they like a candidate, it is based on an image that the candidate and his or her campaign advisor's have created and maintained. These images are created in order to get the vote, and do not necessarily represent the true persona of the candidate.
When voters elect a president who ends up being a disappointment, there is the decision to have that person impeached. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary online, impeachment is, “the presentation of formal charges against a public official by the lower house, trial to be before the upper house” (dictionary.com). Though rare, impeachment has occurred, and in one case has lead to the resignation of a president. President Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 and after he violated the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson was the only impeached president to be removed from office as a result of the impeachment. The only other president to be impeached was President Bill Clinton.
Even though some presidents have failed to meet the expectations of the citizens of the
In times of crisis or calamity, this presidential role becomes even more significant. For example, in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the American people, and indeed people around the world, waited in anticipation for a statement from President Bush that would lend some meaning to the events and suggest a course of action (24).
What the country, and the world needed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks was some reassurance that the culprits would pay for what they did. President Bush’s reaction a few months later was to enter Afghanistan with strong military forces and hunt down all members of the Taliban regime so that American’s could have justice against the terrorists that killed thousands of people in New York City, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. The goal was to find Osama Bin Laden who was the mastermind behind the attacks. Seven years later we are still looking for Bin Laden, and the military will most likely continue looking for him for a long time to come.
The office of the presidency is a huge job to take on. Being the president of anything requires many different skills and attributes, but being the President of the
When most ordinary American’s speak, they speak in behalf of themselves or, at most in behalf of their friends, families, and work associates. President’s, in contrast, represent the viewpoints of the abstract entities—their party, the administration, government itself, the Western alliance (24).
The job of being the President of the
Works Cited:
Hollihan, Thomas A. (2009). Uncivil Wars Political Campaigns in a Media Age. Second Edition.
Merriam-Webster English Dictionary
2007 Definition of Impeachment. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/impeachment. Retrieved September 30, 2009.
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