Media, Role in Campaigns

Effects of Political Campaign Media

In the 1920s, researchers came to believe that the media had a direct and profound influence on those who were exposed. This model of mediated communication, often referred to as the “hypodermic needle” or “magic bullet” principle, supposed that the media had an extremely powerful influence on the attitudes and beliefs of average citizens. It was assumed that whatever the media reported, the public would immediately accept and internalize.

The early 1940s produced a less dramatic view of media effects. In the limited effects model, theorists posited that people are actually very selective about media content to which they decide to grant their attention. Moreover, people are likely to seek information that reinforces their own social and political opinions, and tend to reject messages that contradict their own beliefs or attitudes.

A similar theory of social influence suggested that media messages are interceded by a person's interaction within a particular community. In other words, people's friends and families play a role in determining how people feel about the messages they encounter from the media. Theories such as selective exposure and social influence suggest that the media do not have as powerful and direct an effect as originally posited.

Contemporary studies about the influence of the media provide some important insights into how news about political campaigns works in society. One of the most popular contemporary theories about media effects is agenda setting; that the media affect people's political priorities.

When a news source draws attention to a social problem or political issue, citizens are more likely to regard those topics as important. Simply put, the media may not be able to tell people what to think, but they are able tell people what to think about. Similarly, priming is a media theory that suggests that when a political issue is given this increased attention, people will begin to evaluate authority figures such as government officials and political candidates on how well they are dealing with that political issue. The way a reporter or news organization decides to frame a story is also of significance. Theories regarding framing suggest that political news can be framed in a variety of ways, with a chosen frame having a significant influence on how people understand and interpret the news.

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