Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Over the last century, campaigning has changed enormously. No longer can a candidate rely on party loyalty or giving speeches off the back of a train on whistle stop tours. The advent of radio, television and the Internet forces today’s politician to make finite resources go as far as they can with evolving news media._x000d__x000d_This paper examines how campaigns utilized mass media theories to promote themselves, woo undecided voters and hurt their opponents throughout the 2008 presidential primaries and election. Mass media theories can explain how two different media outlets portray the same event differently (consumers rely on mass media to fill certain needs; mass media knows this and seeks to fill those needs), why campaigns are comfortable with insinuating borderline—and sometimes full blown—falsities (most viewers are not going to sift through other sources to test its veracity) and how media gatekeepers control what we talk about at the water cooler (mass media may lack the power to tell us what to think, but they can certainly tell us what to think about). _x000d_The paper focuses on Uses and Gratifications, Dependency, Cultivation and Consistency theories, as well as Agenda Setting, Status conferral and Selective Exposure.