Media as a Watchdog

In this story, ABC talks about the Anthony Weiner scandal. Anthony Weiner was a Democratic congressman, who was married. A young female posted a comment on his facebook page and stated how she found him “hot” because of a political stance he took. Weiner began to engage in conversation with this 26 year old, who was a single mother. Weiner then began taking his online relationship further with this young female by exchanging x-rated photos of himself with the woman. Weiner then posted a picture on his twitter account and told everyone that his twitter account was hacked. After the media got involved Weiner later admits that the picture was of him and was sent as a joke. After the media got involved the truth came out that Weiner has been engaging in this type of activity for years now and with several woman. Weiner goes on and admits his guilt to the media. He apologizes to everyone who he has hurt. This article posted by ABC is an example of ABC acting as a watchdog. This is an example of ABC being a watchdog because they are alerting the public of Weiner’s wrongdoings. ABC wasn’t out looking for a scandal but they were checking the accuracy of this politicians statements about his twitter posts. Once the truth came out, they alerted the public.

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Pack Journalism in the Republican Debate

This story, published in The Washington Post, discusses the Fox News/Google sponsored Republican Presidential Debate, held on September 22.  Currently, the contenders for the Republican ticket consist of Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Rick Perry.  As the election goes on, the field will slowly diminish to an eventual presidential candidate, but this particular article seems to be trying to hasten the process.  Although these presidential debates are pseudo-events, and have little affect this early on the final outcome, the way the media covers the debate is interesting.  If you were to read this article, with no knowledge of the election, you might come to believe that this is only a two person race between Mitt Romney, and Rick Perry.  There is literally no mention at all of the other candidates in the presidential race in this article.  Chapter four in our textbook suggests that the media is involved in pack journalism, which is when reporters cover the campaign and offer homogeneity in their news stories of the candidates and campaigns.  This article reinforces this theory because of the way the media covered this as a story after the debate.  Most of the attention of the post debate news was focused on the fiery discourse between Romney and Perry about Social Security, health care, and other issues.  It also reinforces the theory of campaign coverage as a competition, and the media being the decider of who won and who lost.

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Kingmaking in Ohio

In Perspectives on Political Communication, Bell, Conners, and Sheckels describe kingmaking as “identifying the serious contenders in an election” (60).  This story from The Toledo Blade about whom Ohio voters favor in a couple of elections provides a good example of this concept.  It indicates that Mitt Romney and Rick Perry run first and second in a recent poll of Ohio Republican voters, while not even mentioning any other Republican candidates by name.  Meanwhile, it also establishes State Treasurer Josh Mandel as the frontrunner to be the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat from Ohio that is up for election in 2012.  In the process, the story’s coverage of the poll, including the way in which it frames the poll’s results, identifies Romney and Perry as the only serious contenders not only for the Republican nomination for president in general, but for the Ohio primary winner during this coming spring’s primary season.  Indeed, at one point, it even literally says, “At this point, it appears to be a two-person race.” It also identifies Mandel as the main contender to be the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat and run against Democrat Sherrod Brown, while only noting Mandel and state senator Kevin Coughlin as serious contenders.

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COMM 4020 Political Communication blog

This is the blog site for COMM 4020 (Political Communication).

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