Of People and Politics; 15; Mass Media

in eighteen twenty eight andrew jackson circulated his campaign views than a washington newspaper with a total of forty thousand readers in nineteen sixty four a candidate for the presidency could be heard and seen by seventy one million people watching at the same time as they did in nineteen sixty in televisions great debates the changes from jackson's time to ours do not please everyone of crops and the uses of modern mass media and politics by madison avenue was disturbed many one man ran for the presidency said the idea of a gig and merchandise candidates for high office like a breakfast cereal is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process he lost i mean wow a national educational television network presents of people and politics forty one rounds about the way americans perpetuate the political system under which they live how mass media with richard dieter

mass media is the umbrella label that combination of modern technology and communications which involves one hundred and nineteen million americans it includes the press radio and television magazine has amassed media seem to force an aspiring candidate to reject a favorable image man who's six political offices encouraged to employ a public relations firms and aid agencies press conferences and pancake makeup pretty girls and saying commercials the modern requirements of the mass media and the ways they are used to change the character of the campaign and there are requirements for political office there was this change in the character of campaigning may presidential candidate adley stevenson state but the idea that you can merchandise candidates for high office like breakfast cereal is the ultimate indignity to the democratic process now in nineteen sixty four it is impossible for anyone to say as will rogers did in the nineteen thirties right now is just what i read in the paper is in fact most people

say that television is their most important source of campaign information what then is the influence upon politics of the press and on television has television in the words of one politician kept the press does the computer projection that television networks of whom we affect an election in the closing hours of the voting is there one party press and the use of mass media substitute for the campaign bus is the recent criticism of the press by some politicians justified their opinions on these questions we turn to two major figures in the mass media dr frank stanton president of the columbia broadcasting system and columnist james reston longtime chief of the washington bureau of the new york times mr reston recently named associate editor the times first discusses whether the american press is to

become better paid better educated and he understands his role in a different way i for example take the first chemical with the fishes i think that the founding fathers when they said the current issues shall pass no matter the bridges the freedom of the press they did so because they thought we were being watched and americans the new batch what went on and keeping them that that concern became that are corrupt if you believe this and i deeply believe that as time goes on and the government becomes as powerful as it is today negotiations

you can imagine the possibilities of corruption influence peddling and i think that service to keep those centers are an option is no hanky panky you said that this is but this is not a partisan thing to this is people are confused about this and the people a pattern that to me and say you know we don't get you that you know nixon air you supported john kennedy and then we can then you had a lot on him and what is that and so i think it's a clear candidate certain age men should back in their pews and japan and then on it's not that is no i'll grab you think the criticism is an actor was president eisenhower at the republican convention you had to cross to comment to make about

columnists turning to new nations commission home no judgment maybe the weakness of character weakness of sentiment that of course we are i myself believe that the criticism of person terms of her campaign known as uranium so the other two instances particular case of it was a new pm reported that the senator and advocated the formation of the reasons the us was not heard of the center because he didn't say that

and china and he's going to be the issue not be done the ambition to lead the rapidly and said because you the pentagon back at certain that's inertia person that they're and ten times states should have a feeling is the day he's had

to send to the edge innovations fifty two well you know the only candidate mr harrison potential and a good template the papers new that there is a difference as persian owners of newspapers and newspapers in a business they're expensive republicans gathering news spending the time that

emotion especially it they're reporters in polk in middle age like me who grew up in the days of her period i suppose the republican charge that we are does that mean that you think that the chief influence of newspapers today is indirect than the news reporters rather than director of the better terms in the papers trying to do and on this kind of what happens each day i would think it stands to reason that the man who does the gathering india has no influence at home as we know you read a million words a day literally fairly selective print a hundred thousand

fervent the subject says to the person we have to select that the human judgment kurt mr buckley and he meant to make a selection quite different on another show i don't expect the lonely and we tried to do it and within their own urine chalking pentagon permission that was served as a this month in august nineteen sixty one the newspaper had a sense of what was important that was important now you reacted nineteen sixty two and mr nixon said early on television but cut recipes archives he was talking about his defeat in the election

that you know i never believe in making judgments that an unknown socialize angry per shirt you asked the president to thirteen thousand points us that an early blues jack and you do that and very savage took the different the condition that if the men friends and sell more than that should the presidency than thirty years he's a defeated candidate for the presidency and governor and nothing except a lawyer outside los angeles in cambodia and

understood and as he's from papua and fifty i do having said that i had a ten minute dick nixon as a new complaint the us you see addiction as was that we should be a kind of transmission belt and then there's the spring tradition goes along every day and people can come around the mission that i had to add to that to carry that when the great man to the great public nations because you could say well maybe the press is going to be absolutely up that it's gonna let that transmission and then the jump would be thrown on the

transmission or a politician's picture we would be enough to contaminate the american known for generations we decontaminated that was james reston associate editor of the new york times but now turning to television its importance is underscored by and that many studies in nineteen sixty three for instance a worker quizzed americans about where they receive their information fifty five percent said from television fifty three percent said the newspapers twenty nine percent said from radio course the total exceeded one hundred percent because some people may more than one medium dr frank stanton the president of the columbia broadcasting system believes that the movement of information is a total system that includes television and the press he discusses this and the power of radio and television a lawyer to defend obama's as a

systems approach you take the air system from the time that it was initiated until it finished its job and i think the movement of information was that kind of a thing it's a system of his and they a single way of doing that it's a combination of sorts that the electronics and television critic at the head of the worst because of the genius in because of its of its impact and because of its high circulation i was in conjunction with a number of questions that extent you think the new media the electronic media can substitute for the bandstand and campaigns i didn't really know that i'm not going to think you can set a new living room as a candidate news television and radio to be the only carrier to people but i think it can be used in combination with barnstorming i believe that the enthusiasm not that a candidate gets in front of god and cadillac square in detroit can't be created in a family there

was in the studio so that i think that you need to go out to the people to make the political cap and then had television pick that up and spread that owners of the fifty states and the prospects for use a candidate in the sixty four campaign i'm not sure that anything as saying up to date about the plans for this campaign indicates that it's going to be a lot different than an earlier campaigns have taken the menu so they kind of minutes past nine which i learned the piano i either it gets mailed a picture of the man than that actual moment isn't the nine minutes but the fact that it would be used by politicians and i suppose but i don't really believe that that we've got the evidence on elections and we had on television my first run and i remember with it and this is nineteen forty forty eight fifty two fifty six sixty and this is

i think most of television campaign for president i don't like the other hand i don't remember those time measurements show well you say not find measurements what about the right measurements that are so low there's no question the television this is useful and exposing the candidate and his ideas to people but rather it's better to do it in a half hour another is better than fifteen minutes or five minutes and then i don't believe in a man's done even a crime study on that what the broadcasters responsive during a lot of this question should we just accept those with time mother to minute five minutes or so the constitution is there another bear to the use of television by the politicians the high

cost of television talk shows was about that now and again we give we give the billions of dollars whether they cannot cbs mm hmm you guys are the next and then senator kennedy that that went badly and i'm sure nbc and abc in its opposite didn't get accepted i'm running for the other interesting intersection favorite gaelic intonations at about a lot of pesto in most campaigns nyad but in most campaigns are there political activists were two leading candidates it seems to me that the best thing that character can do in a campaign is to give those men those candidates exposure to the public so that the public and pensions of solution was that now until twenty fifteen if we give

time to canada today we gotta give equal time to candidates the ecb is money is now on in the nineteen sixty presidential campaign mm hmm no drama about an unspecified country that we had given time to then candidate that doesn't work together we would then about a badge to get an arrest there's the candidates unless we got really from section three fifteen which we began in nineteen sixty eight we had the suspension of three fifty minutes they can have a debate that's where you had visits to the candidates and so you could see them in their balance without banners and so you can't do that without the lift their candidates and the medicare data about respect and a lot of disrespect whether to some of these and candidates love a lot of these candidates of the public has nothing about so we get forty hours of

opening sen mcconnell thank you think that radio and television can influence voters that the country and i mean in a national election then they project comfort is that common component most is that close early winners of a national election today and he can't support the bandwagon effect they can't and it can't find any bases an underdog effect which is the refers to the bandwagon air russia and the us

there is many a hard statistical evidence <unk> other so that i can either confirm or deny and as a result there has resented not being able to be uncomfortable and that position we knew that there was a new study this november selection to try to get some facts on that particular about whether to do a lot of research in terms of finding out that exporter people had to early results from the east end of the vote and to the extent that the techniques of interviewing and violent people at the election period that i think going through the six months after the election law to come up with some pretty hard information on the sense of as i know the first definitive study that's ever been done there's regular commenters to their aging about this particular subject now the number of men in congress and out who feel strongly that as saying that the separate the new year

so the sense of a lot of you are from a political plan to do that but there is i think a certain amount of a political capital is being made by this uproar but i mean but the question because of that guest that comes about because you've got the architecture that is across the country over the sadness and be learning from prison time not been at the women's media mr jack i think the only safe thing and a free open society because it really opened it except as it affects the security of state i don't think that that interaction texas security and that side of it none of those paths of the news notably when it was announced that idea as soon and that server and repairing us as we find out that that we do know the fact that we do cause that not believe that the

media to do this reporting caused the votes to be changed if those inspectors to go a lot of that going on but i don't think the approaches to the padlock on average i think the thing that those to get the states together to try to work out a particular action was you can't vote nationally is understandably goes all right senator javits is introduced a bill as you probably know that would have eleven thousand conquest the country identified by the taliban and i don't think there's any danger in repairing his is not well now let me ask an iffy question if you the research cbs is conducting our underwriting now does indicate that there is an effect a political or social effect of this early reporting of the new deal that there were two things that the researcher that nobody gets a crack at a research means what we think it means what the researchers report and actually

do something not that i think that i would do that and talk to some of the companies and says it's a pattern that you think of the fact that this is a show of the fact is that this is and i like that and an indication that something about a pitcher's that those at a reason to be concerned that in atlanta brewers didn't understand in the field as quickly as possible not because i'd be reflecting on the researchers who did the first job but because i don't i have some other people take a difficult perhaps insane company information what would be the broadcasters responsibility of such information i say if such information were presented were confirmed by further research and if the congress on the individual states were not able to agree on what to do when the broadcasters responsibility be too limiting information other entity with which it presented the information it gets on election night didn't answer i'd rather see what the results of the study were closed for good and i think that i would be influenced

her to give serious consideration to imposing sound immigration across the burden and i have a difficult time retreating from the position i stated earlier which is i think the answer is when you have information estimate is interplanetary god and decide that this is not though that's not something that this is active imagine that that was dr frank stanton the president of the columbia broadcasting system in nineteen forty eight television revealed its potential when ten million viewers watched its coverage of the presidential conventions this year even conventional arrangements underscore the effect of television for the use of less cluttered main platforms unobtrusive prompting devices and kevin scheduling the program to assure the maximum primetime audience of course the classic use of television was by richard

nixon and his now famous tv performance called the checkers speech it has been described as one of the most effective speeches in political history john and abuse eisenhower speechwriter and confidant of hours even minutes before the telecast <unk> nixon's did an excellent chance of making history as the very first candidate on the national ticket and to be stricken from the list in that campaign as an insufferable embarrassment to his own party hughes went on some newly definite was the stronger of the party leaders that is not enough to note that i mean remarkably serve the man it indeed saved him then of course ironically television in the nineteen sixty debate may well have been the chief instruments or defeat a presidential candidate nixon now there are certain conclusions that the various political scientist can go with respect to the influence of the mass media on the electorate what their influence is

largely indirect through opinion leaders to the principal a function of the mass media is a reinforcement not conversion for the mass media confer legitimacy upon individuals that is they give public officials a status and roll which are accepted by the electorate and ford they serve to some extent to determine which issues will be in the center of public discussion the dilemma for the politician who must decide how to use the mass media in any or all of their phones as been stated by stimson book in his book to be a politician but the boat rides a candidate cannot even expire because no one knows what works in the campaign money is spent beyond the point of diminishing returns to get similar efforts of the opposition or advertising and propaganda devices it billboards radio tv soundtracks newspaper ads letter writing what telephone committee programs and bills and bust

shots and he concludes no he doesn't have any approach every property must be fired because among the multitude of blacks one maybe abort and as for the voter himself he sometimes react negatively to early efforts to influence it for example in nineteen fifty two a presidential candidate adley stevenson preempted prime evening television time for a major political speech and for his pains he received one while that read i like ike and i love lucy got that next week of people in politics the polls it's b and it's been the point this

is because beaks but the police been nice but it's been verses and at the national educational television network the fb