Framing:
Advertising sells, and no one knows this better than America. By showing people benefits of something, they are more likely to oblige with its message. At the heart of advertising is the tiny kernel of truth that will make people feel happy to support your product or service. Advertising is powerful and influence, which are not bad things, until it is used in place of an actual product or service.
This is the biggest issue with American politics today: the American people allow advertising and pr to buy elections, even war, and politicians for use these means to win. It works. And both are at fault. There are two sports cars next to each other, a blue one and a red one. Sports cars look great in red, you just LOVE red! So you pick that one. But what about the sports car itself? Is it going to run? Is having a sports car going to be the best option for your family's means of transportation? How much does it cost? What's the gas milage? Does it even have an engine underneath the hood? What if you knew you were only picking it because you love red, you believe in it, you grew up being taught that red is the best, and you HATE blue (blue is blasphemy! and you are a devoted Christian)? But the blue is the only one out of the two that actually works you are told. Would you still pick the red?
This is what politics has turned into while under the glamourous spotlights of advertising and pr. The text notes that journalism today (referring to elections) consist of, "the poll standings, delegate count, and size of crowd at public rallies far more frequently than coverage of the idealogical stances of the candidates and policy platforms they advocate." Advertising and pr are setting the stage for framing and journalists are recording it. Politicians have begun to use these tools to facilitate a popularity contest while ideology on the issues and actual proposals are overlooked.
Although, the only issues that are not overlooked (and are the focus of most debate) are controversial ones, like abortion and gay marriage. Instead of spending time talking about how they are going to solve America's issues, which would help everyone, candidates finger point at each other, and target audiences with sensitive issues that that they know patrons feel very strongly on about one side of the argument or the other. Advertising and pr illuminates these stances while turning everything else to its shadow.
That way, it becomes an us vs. them, when it should be America versus its current problems and their plan to attempt to fix those problems (which relates to the argument on page 16). Voters should be picking the best answers to those questions, but hot topics gain the most exposure because most people already know what they think about such topics and can, and will, respond to them. Until the limelight is refocused on intelligence and implementing plans to solve our country's problems and away from being in love with a sports car because it's red, progress will continue to stall. The red lovers will never agree with the blue, because they're blue, and vise versus. Nothing will ever be solved until they find a way to work together in a way that will benefit the both of them, even if that means being willing to give a little up on their own end.
No comments:
Post a Comment