The relationship between Presidential Election and Media
By: Vicente Lopez
Tags: Voters, Presidential Election, Media Criticism

Presidential Elections are covered meticulously with many different news stories covering all the information on candidates and everything that they do. All of this information is what allows voters to make an informed decision on what each candidate offers and will ultimately decide who they will vote for. With that being said it is important for there to be a healthy relationship between the presidential elections and the different forms of media that cover them. Unfortunately there are many different factors that negatively affect this relationship and can cause voters to not have equal and accurate information when it comes to voting for the next president of the United States.

News Coverage

News coverage of the presidential election is what informs the public on the different information that will help them make their decision when the time comes to vote and as such should allow people to be informed. There are many different issues in news coverage of the presidential election that can leave many voters uninformed. As an example, Regina Lawrence from the University of Oregon states “Research has shown that some candidates can be literally left invisible because they can’t win enough interest from the media”. Regina Lawrence is the executive director of the School of Journalism and Communication and has been recognized as an expert in political communication.

Another issue that arises from media coverage of the presidential election is the fact there are many news outlets that will report news with political bias in order to attract voters with similar political bias. This practice means that voters that only receive their information from that news outlet will receive selective exposure of what that news outlet reports. While it may seem that an easy fix to this problem would be to receive news from multiple news outlets, a new issue arises when taken into fact that many voters will tend to consume news that doesn’t challenge their personal bias leading to the same issue occurring but being caused by their personal biases. In an interview with Dr. Elizabeth Skews, she talked about the importance of getting information from multiple news sources.

Dr. Elizabeth Skewes is the Department Chair of Journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder

These news outlets that report with political biases will continue to write with political biases as it allows them to appeal to their viewers and may attract traffic from others that share the same political bias. As a way to attract traffic, news outlets will assign certain scripts to candidates that appeal to their viewers that can grab their attention. An example of this can be seen in the 2016 election when Hillary Clinton was labeled as a corrupt politician and Donald Trump as a racist misogynist outsider. While it may be impossible to avoid bias in news, it is important that voters receive the necessary news to form a well informed decision on who should be the next president of the United States as that decision will have many effects on the coming years of the elected presidents time in the white house.

Social Media

Social media is a major part of many peoples lives as it not only allows them to stay connected with friends and family, but also have access to countless forms of media and as such has become a resource from which people receive their news on the presidential election. Social media allows for anyone to share their personal thoughts on any topic or share any post that they may encounter that day. A problem arises when misinformation is shared from one person to another allowing it to spread to hundreds if not thousands of people. Research from MIT Sloan states “falsehoods are 70% more likely to be retweeted on Twitter than the truth, and reach their first 1,500 people six times faster”. This spread of misinformation can negatively affect voters’ perception of candidates. Another fact that we have to remember is that using social media as a primary way to receive news can also lead to selective exposure. The research story by the University of Oregon, states how stories and news that is shown to us have been filtered by algorithms that take into account what you like, dislike, comment, and click on in order to choose what it decides to show you. This means that without knowing it, a person receiving news from social media still has their personal bias creating a selective exposure to the news that they receive.

Both Donald Trump and Barack Obama knew that social media is a powerful tool that can help them directly communicate with voters, bypassing media altogether. This is also mentioned in the research by the University of Oregon when they state “With social media, voters may believe they have an intimate relationship with a candidate they will probably never meet in person”. This relationship that is talked about means will only help strengthen their perception by voters that already had a positive perception of said candidate. This can both be good and bad for voters trying to stay informed as they will now have that direct access to the candidates words, but the belief of that relationship can lead to them accepting everything they say without thinking of the other side of the argument and why some may choose to oppose it. Additionally voters may not have all the necessary information of what the candidates propositions stated on social media may or may not affect and should try and do their own research or news stories that can explore all the connections that can be made.

Publics Relation

Voters have to remember that the decision of who becomes president is an important decision that can have lasting effects long after the elected president leaves office, meaning that it is important to be aware that we need to consume news that can accurately give the necessary information. One thing to remember is that there are two sides to a story and that both sides are necessary in order to make a good opinion. This means consuming news from news outlets or sources that may oppose personal biases in order to get the information that other news outlets may not report.

While it may seem impossible to fix the relationship between media and presidential elections, it is still something that is very important to do as it is the main way that people get the necessary information in order to make an educated decision that will have lasting effects.

Other Sources for Information

-Full interview with Dr. Elizabeth Skewes(https://youtu.be/QngSp171bLA)

-Media coverage of the 2012 election was fair and balanced after all

-The role of the Media in US Presidential Elections-Mike Fletcher