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By Danny Schechter
MediaChannel.org
NEW YORK, September 25, 2003 -- Network television thrives on wars and elections. With the last war over for now, politics is becoming THE BIG STORY once again as the 2004 presidential election draws near. Special election programming is being planned, graphics are being commissioned, and reporting teams are being embedded within campaigns. And just as war coverage was enhanced with news gizmos and state of the art technology, election journalism is being retrofitted with NGT -- the next groovy thing.
ABC is first out of the box by announcing, "leave the driving to us." In years past, journalists who covered campaigns were known as "the boys on the bus." Now networks are getting into the bus business.
Variety reports that "Everyone on the Bus" will be the motto of ABC News during the coming presidential election as network executives recently introduced their plans for covering the campaign. The network introduced several new wrinkles in its 2004 coverage at a news conference: three high-tech-laden buses, described by executives as "mobile bureaus and mobile studios" that are designed to give reporters more flexibility in filing stories on the road; partnerships with two media outlets that reach school-age children; and expanded Internet coverage.
The problem is that once again more attention is being paid to technology and cosmetics than to content and analysis. Celebrities get more attention than all other candidates when they run -- as the Schwarzenegger Soap Opera in California shows. And some celebrity politicians get oodles of visibility even when they don't run.
The Washington Post reported this week that despite specific denials that she is NOT running, a pledge repeated on more than 138 separate occasions, Hillary Clinton's non-candidacy has rated more speculation and buzz than the positions of most of the real Democratic candidates.
This is not a good omen.
Political coverage is supposed to be about educating the voting public and interesting non-voters in taking part in democracy. Journalists are supposed to be outside the process functioning as the fourth estate -- and not as political insiders, virtual members of the political elite themselves.
That's the theory.
In practice, media coverage focuses on horse races not political differences. Personalities trump political vision. Networks are complicit in the campaign finance scandal because most politicians spend most of their time raising money to buy airtime. According to media buyers in California, more than $100 million will be spent for on-air advertising during the concentrated campaign that ends with the Oct. 7 election. Campaign advertising in the upcoming presidential elections will break all previous records - much to the delight of media executives across the board. Hence, there is often more advertising than reporting, more punditry than in-depth journalism.
What's worse is that the style of coverage increasingly uses show biz techniques. That's why TIME Magazine coined the phrase "electotainment" to describe the spectacle we see. Wrote Eric Effron: "There's nothing new about comedians milking the news. What was new was the news milking the comedians."
The paradox -- as the coverage gets slicker, fewer people watch. Voting turnouts shrink. Could it be that the media is tuning out and turning off "the people" -- and actually undermining our democracy in the guise of serving it?
More and more younger people rely on late night entertainment shows and comedy news programs for all their information.
Politicians may be boring but the coverage doesn't have to be. Yet that's what we have -- endless panels of mostly white men in suits, sitting around tables prognosticating and showing off how much they know. Most of it is uninspired blather -- and usually wrong.
Another problem is that amnesia tends to break out in the newsrooms when it comes to applying any of the lessons learned in past election cycles. Every year, journalism schools and reviews do post mortems documenting how thin and inadequate the coverage was, and how it can be improved next time.
Their findings are duly noted.
And ignored.
It is much easier to conform to old routines and rituals than innovate. They could add more diverse perspectives but they don't. It is so much easier to rely on polls and the same old middle-of-the-road mentality.
Look back to 2000. MediaChannel and its Media Tenor affiliate wrote a book about what happened before, during and after the presidential elections. It's called "Mediocracy 2000," and reveals how our political system is tethered to our media system. It showed how the media coverage was partially responsible for the scandal in Florida and other parts of the country. Well-known problems in the voting system were never reported until after the election. Faulty media projections were made before the polls closed. The undermining of the recounts was poorly covered when it was covered at all. There was a rush to "move on" before all the facts were known.
Closer scrutiny revealed how media and politicians are co-dependent and responsible for the decline in trust in our political system.
There was less coverage in 2000 than in l996. Much of it was pushed off network prime time onto cable channels with smaller audiences. Polls were constantly cited with little discussion of their value. The role of the media itself in influencing public opinion was ignored.
This list can go on but its meaning is clear.
We need more than news busses on the campaign trail. We need a more vigilant media and media companies willing to allocate time and intellectual capital to improving coverage.
-- News Dissector Danny Schechter, writes a daily weblog for Mediachannel.org. His latest book is "Embedded: Weapons of Mass Deception: How the media failed to cover the war on Iraq."
© MediaChannel.org, 2003. All rights reserved.
EDITOR'S NOTE: MediaChannel is pleased to report that our friends at Media Tenor will once again be monitoring media coverage with us. With over l50 media monitors, they do a reliable job and provide a unique service in seeing how media exposure affects the polls and what we know about the people who want to govern us. Media Tenor is based in Germany. We have gone overseas to find people who have no political loyalties here to offer data and analysis that our own media system seems incapable of offering. Join Media Channel for political coverage that does not claim for promotional effect to be "fair and balanced." Just accurate and informative.
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