Zoubaidatou Ouedraogo

Professor Jacobson

October 16, 2023

FIQWS 10108

                                                      Media in Political Advertising

    Can we rely on the sources we get from the media? How would we know if it’s true or not? Technology has been developed in so many ways, where we can access getting the news and its common for people to put trust on these sources. Media helps us not only communicate with political news but also helps us with other sources that are not mostly talked about. We would think that we can trust these sources, but how would we know if we don’t see what is going on? “Did the news media, led by Walter Cronkite, lose the war in Vietnam”, “How the ‘Daisy’ Ad Changed Everything About Political Advertising”, emphasize the influence of media and human’s perceptions of politics and society.  “The Dynamic Interplay of Hope vs Fear Appeals in a Referendum Context”, and “social media? It’s serious! Understanding the dark side of social media”, digs more deeper on the darker aspects of social media and how it’s shaping how we put our trust in these sources.

           In “How the ‘Daisy’ Ad Changed Everything about Political Advertising”, written by Robert Mann, Zocalo Public Square, this article is about an ad with a young girl counting daisies before a nuclear explosion. This ad is supposed to convey a message to the people about the need for protection in case there would be attacks. It was said in the video we should hide under tables. Is that something that would protect us? The Daisy ad was used for a presidential campaign, the daisy ad was evoking fear by illustrating what can happen and the consequences if we don’t follow what was said in the video. It was used for people who denied and needed the candidate to improve the message. “The message was clear if only implicit: Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was a genocidal maniac who threatened the world’s future” (Robert Mann). This quote leads to a negative about Barry Goldwater because it compares him to a “genocidal manic” (Robert Mann) which is he can’t be trusted. Also emphasizes that his politics would be harmful to the world’s future. “Daisy became the iconic spot of its era not because it was the first Johnson ran in 1964; we remember it primarily because of its brilliant, innovative approach to negative advertising” (Robert Mann). This quote emphasizes how the daisy was high notice because it was clever to trick people into voting for him and it was negative due to people being in fear of the advertisement. Media in political advertising convey their messages to the people who watch the news on television. Their able to use it for campaign ads and manipulate public perceptive, influence voters to vote for Johnson while being in fear their lives.

The “Dynamic Interplay of Hope vs fear appeals in a Referendum Context”, by Iain Black, this article is about using hope and fear in political campaigns. It uses media to communicate how it can influence other voters to make their decisions. For instance, “interaction between hope and fear appeals used by competing organizations to develop a prescription on how political parties might use hope/fear appeals and what emotional effects these might induce in the target audience” (Iain Black). They use these different techniques and try to trick people into fear. Both articles relate to each other because they both use emotion in political advertising. They want to put fear in people’s hearts and want to give hope, so the voters are choosing them. Both concepts want to influence decision-making for the presidential campaign. However, the difference is the “Daisy” ad was a television commercial that show people what can happen if they don’t choose this certain person, “Hope and fear” reflects today’s society’s communication. “Poels and Dewitte (Citation2008) differentiate between promotion hope – to achieve a positive outcome – and prevention hope – to avoid a negative consequence (and so hope is predicated on fear and loss)”. 

           In “Did the news media, led by Walter Cronkite, lose the war in Vietnam”, Joel Achenbach, in this article emphasizes how people didn’t know what was going on during the Vietnam War, so they rely on this source because this person is Vietnam, so people would trust this source. Walter Cronkite, ask the media, about the outcome of the war. This made people question if they could trust this person and where their getting the information from. “Who won and who lost in the great Tet Offensive against the cities? I’m not sure,” he says early in the report…” (Achenbach). Cronkite had the audience in shock due to the question he asked. People started to get frightened because they didn’t know if they should trust this person anymore. It raised questions, as if they can really depend on these sources. “It’s his opinion” (Achenbach). Media can lead to a lot of misconceptions since we wouldn’t know if the sources, we get are reliable. 

In “Social media? It’s serious! Understanding the dark side of social media” by Christian V. Baccarella. This article highlights the negative aspects and consequences we are getting involved with social media. Baccerella emphasis how social media can impact individuals’ mental health and give misinformation. “Furthermore, a 2017 survey found that Britons aged 14–24 believe that social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter, exacerbated self-consciousness and “fear of missing out” (Baccerlla). This quote highlights how many people fear missing out on any information from the media. People often rely on what mostly comes from the media so their able to keep up to date and stay connected, but it also affects people health and gives people anxiety from information. “Conversely, investigations by news agencies revealed that more than 100 websites that posted fake news about the 2016 U.S. presidential election were run by teenagers in the small town of Veles, Macedonia (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017)” (Baccerlla). There is fake news that would go around, humans would be influenced by what is being posted from it. Both articles are related because they talk about the media shaping society and the outcomes that come from it. They both involve media influence on public opinions. Walter Cronkite was able to get everyone’s attention and they believed what he was saying, but when he gave his opinion, it backfired and became false information, and it impacted the online behavior of individuals. ” YS attempted to undermine their opponent’s case by creating status quo fear. They used the past, the present, and existing negative emotions to create a threat perceived as relevant/irrelevant, significant, and possible” (Baccerlla). The source may look credible, but they only use this information to put fear and hope in people. 

In conclusion, media in political advertising is an influential tool that shapes opinions, influences voters’ emotions, and plays a big role in political campaigns. Political campaigns use people’s emotions so they’re able to manipulate voters so they’re able to vote for them. They use emotions so that people can trust them. However, it makes it harder for people to see if they can really rely on where they get their information from. Political advertising instills hope for better future and help with what comes with, but it also may instill fear in people heart depending on how the information is being spread. Media is what also shapes today’s society where there are communications that is diverse. Today, we need to be careful about where we get information from. We went from print to technology to online, humans need to be very careful about where they get their information from because we don’t know if it’s reliable or not. Politics advertising is used to put hope for a better future and trust in the person who is going to take care of the future. However, they put fear in people because of current situations that would happen like war. They would make advertisements to show that this can happen if you don’t vote for a certain person.