Zoubaidatou Ouedraogo

Professor Jacobson

September 25, 2023

FIQWS 10108

 

Media in Political Adverting

Can we really trust the sources we get from media? How would we know if it’s true or not? Technology has been developed in so many ways, where people would often trust to get their sources from it. Media helps us not only communicate with political news, but it also helps us with getting other sources that is not mostly talked about. We would think that we can trust these sources, 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”, “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”, in these sources play an important part because media influence how we view politics and society as if we can trust the 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 daisy before a nuclear explosion. It also tells us how we should protect ourselves from when an attack is going to happen. It was said in the video we should hide under tables. Is that what something that would protect us?  The Daisy ad was used for a presidential campaign, the daisy made people be afraid because that’s what can happen if we didn’t follow what to do. It was used for people who denied and need the candidate to improve of 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 was led to a negative about Barry Goldwater because it was comparing him to “genocidal manic” (Robert mann) which is he can’t be trusted. Also emphasizes that his politics would be harmful to the world. “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 with advertisement. Media in political advertising conveys their messages to the people who watches news on television. Their able to use it for campaign ads and can try to convince people into thinking that this advertisement will help society.

In 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 they can influence other voters to making their decision. For instance, “interaction between hope and fear appeals used by competing organizations in order 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 adverting. They want to put fear in people 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 television commercial which show people what can happen if they don’t choose this certain person, “hope and fear” reflects on today 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”, by Joel Achenbach, in this article emphasizes if whether they won the war. Media influenced public opinion about supporting the war. This made people question if they can really trust this person/ information. “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 people in shocked due to the question he asked. People started to get frightened because they don’t know if they should really trust this person anymore. “It’s his opinion” (Achenbach). Media can lead to lot of misconceptions since we wouldn’t know if the sources, we get is reliable.

In “social media? Its serious! Understanding the dark side of social media” by Christian V. Baccarella…  this article highlights the negative aspects and consequences when we get involved with social media. It explains how it impacts people mental health and gives 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 on 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. “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 influence 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 opinion. Walter Cronkite was able to get everyone attention and they believe what he was saying, but when he gave his opinion, it backfired and became false information, and it impacted online behavior on 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 using this information to put fear and hope in people.

In conclusion, media in political adverting is an influential tool that shapes opinions, influences voters’ emotions, and play a big role in political campaigns. Political campaigns use people emotions so their able to manipulate voters so their able to vote for them. They use emotions so the people can trust them. Media is what also shapes today society where there are communications that is diverse. As today society we need to be careful on where we get information from. We went from print to technology to online, humans need to be very careful on where they get their information from because we don’t know if its reliable or not. Politics adverting 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 advertisement to show that this can happen if you don’t vote for this certain person.