Can the media really influence the outcome of an election? Many believe that biased media coverage contributes to "rigged" elections and that the media has a huge influence during the time elections start. The amount of coverage each candidate gets can have the biggest impact on how many votes they receive. If candidates don't win enough interest from the media, they won't do as well when it's time to vote because they won't have any name recognition. An example of someone who is extremely well known and received a lot of media coverage during the past two elections is President Donald Trump. The media publishes stories that will get the most attention and drive the most traffic. Stories like this usually involved Trump and this boosted his popularity a lot. The media can and usually does influence the outcome of an election. When candidates put themselves out there and utilize media platforms, their chances of being recognized are much higher when elections come around.
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Great post! I do not think that media is used to rig an election. While I do understand that media may explain that social media has this handle on results, I simply think this is a spin to put distrust in the election results. With that being said, social media is a major part of winning election today. Having a large presence on social media will allow candidates to reach more voters, and they can use these outlets as an outreach for their constituents. We see this with AOC, as she frequently uses Twitter and Instagram Live to share what is going on and take questions. As this has proved successful for her and President Trump, we have seen a large presence of every public officer holder (especially on Twitter). While some are not as popular as other's, it is important to watch the trends of social media and see how people in public office use them to get (re-)elected.
ReplyDeleteYour comment is straight on when you say that "If candidates don't win enough interest from the media, they won't do as well when it's time to vote because they won't have any name recognition." Today if a candidate does not have enough attention both from the news and social media...well their campaign will probably fail. For example Ben Carson ran for presidency in the 2016 elections. In my opinion he did not receive barely any recognition on social media or news outlet. However, Hillary and Trump received the most attention which led to fueling their campaign. Lastly, I personally believe money and past status is also in question but in this case... their was barely any media attention on Carson which was one of the major reason for his campaign downfall.
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