Page 258 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

Med a and Electoral Campa gns |

FoLLow ThE monEy
Most importantly, media campaigns are expensive, with the combined costs
now reaching the trillion-dollar figure. As the costs of political advertising on
television and other media outlets continue to rise, only those who are already
wealthy or well funded can afford to run for political office. In 1997, President
Clinton made a speech asking broadcasters to offer free time to political candi-
dates, but with billions of dollars at stake media corporations lobbied heavily on
Capitol Hill to defeat the proposal.
Such huge sums of money in the political process have serious consequences
for democracy. Both Republicans and Democrats throw lavish parties at their
national conventions, paid for with money from wealthy contributors and large
corporations. When parties and candidates must continually raise money to
cover the costs of pricey media campaigns, they become dependent upon and
beholden to the corporate dollars that fund them. The Center for Public Integ-
rity and other public interest groups have worked hard on this issue, looking for
the most effective ways to achieve campaign finance reform.

ThE FuTurE anD nEw TEChnoLogy

Initiatives to make television more open to unscripted candidates with less
money are in the works, but much of the continuing debate about the electoral
process and democracy is taking place around new media technology. Many
have looked to the Internet as part of the solution to the problems of influences
and entrenched media practices. Online discussion and commentary is seen as
a place where average citizens can have a greater voice in politics, but that will
be restricted to a small group with access and resources who can use the familiar
language of politics. With the development of the Internet, the American demo-
cratic process continues to adapt to new media technologies.
see also Advertising and Persuasion; Anonymous Sources, Leaks, and Na-
tional Security; Bias and Objectivity; Blogosphere; Internet and Its Radical
Potential; Media and Citizenship; Media Literacy; Media Reform; Narrative
Power and Media Influence; Nationalism and the Media; News Satire; Politi-
cal Entertainment; Political Documentary; Public Opinion; Representations
of Race.

Further reading: Diamond, Edwin, and Stephen Bates. The Spot: The Rise of Political Ad-
vertising on Television. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992; Frank, Thomas. What’s the
Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. New York: Metro-
politan Books, Henry Holt and Company, 2004; Jamieson, Kathleen Hall. Dirty Politics:
Deception, Distraction, and Democracy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992; Lewis,
Charles, and the Center for Public Integrity. The Buying of the President 2004: Who’s
Really Bankrolling Bush and His Democratic Challengers, and What They Expect in Re-
turn. New York: HarperCollins, 2004; Lewis, Justin. Constructing Public Opinion: How
Political Elites Do What They Like and Why We Seem to Go Along with It. New York:
Routledge, 2001; Mayer, Jeremy D. Running on Race: Racial Politics in Presidential Cam-
paigns, 1960–2000. New York: Random House, 2002.

Robin Andersen