It is hard to imagine a modern election process without the media. It is an essential source of communication and information that is necessary for the proper functioning of the political system. This special role of media increases as soon as the new elections are about to begin. In this case, media starts to play three major roles in the whole election process: as the source of information, a tool for election campaigns, and the tool of civil control.
In any case, media has a big influence on any country’s politics. Mostly it is done through the control over the information release process. However, there are other ways, that the media can influence the elections.
1. Fake news
Pushing fake news through the media had always been one of the ways to compromise information sources and manipulate people’s opinions. During the election, media is the only source of any kind of news; therefore, they hold enormous power. With the rise of the Internet and hundreds of thousands of various online resources, it became even easier for politics to manipulate people’s minds through fake information. People use the best political website templates to make the source of their fake information as believable as possible. These days making a statement viral is easier than ever and, unfortunately, not all people will get through all the trouble of finding out whether this particular piece of news is even real.
2. Staged Political Debates
It is a great way to present a new candidate for the audience and show his or her support groups. However, no matter how believable the whole process might look on the screen, there is a big chance that it is all staged. Usually, politics pay people to pretend to be their audience. If you do a research on a candidate before watching the debates, you will notice small signs of it being staged. For example, if a candidate is barely supported by the youth, his “on-screen support group” will mainly consist of teenagers, and so on.
3. Night show appearances
Lately, politicians got a new way of promoting themselves through the media without making it look…well…political. We are talking about their appearances on late night shows that play a huge role in the entertainment industry these days. Such a move allows candidates to show themselves as ‘ordinary humans’ and probably even win more sympathy from potential voters.
4. Social media
Social media has been a real gold mine for politicians lately. If years ago they were dependent on reporters and their editing, now any politician can present his or her views online right away. Of course, these statements are usually run through by their PR teams, however, the turn-around time of the statement’s release is much faster now.
5. Using visuals
Sometimes, visual information gets better perception by the voters and politicians use that to their advantage. More than just that, visual recording can also be a piece of proving evidence to someone’s words. For example, when Donald Trump claimed to not be making fun of some reporter with disabilities, videos and pictures of that moment clearly prove the opposite.
Final thoughts
There is no doubt that modern media channels are incredibly easy to use and that affect every election we might have in the future. These are just five most popular ways of media influencing the election’s outcome. However, people should always have critical thinking and aim for the facts. This way, their opinion will not be manipulated, and their vision of the political situation will be as objective as possible.
