Political Ads

FAVORITE POLITICAL ADS OF 2012:

What I liked and what worked in the ads?

One of the political ads I liked in 2012 is found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1mI_jO8sos&feature=related
This ad was funny to me and I thought it was a somewhat humorous take on the Democrat symbol of the donkey and the Republican symbol of the elephant. I think it portrayed the Republicans stance on many issues quite well and it showed a united party against the democrats. The ad does a good job of portraying its message. The ad is similar to the Barbra Boxer ad. The ad portrays Barbra Boxer as an elitist and attacks the democratic ideals just as the republican ad did and attacked the republican ideas of democratic ideals of handouts and people who want something for nothing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9WB_PXjTBo

Another political ad I liked in 2012 is found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-VZLvVF1FQ This ad was for Barack Obama, without actually using Barack Obama and it focused on his positive impacts. He uses many different demographcis to portray Obama as a good guy who is fighting for their needs. It defines politics and attempts to utilize people at the individual level as talking to each other and getting things done in that way and his message is that it starts with US, meaning we all need to vote for him because he is getting the job done in Washington. I thought his message was done in a tactful way and doesn’t use negative images of anyone else…it only focuses on him and his impact so far and why we need to keep in office. This message is like Michele Bachmann’s ad found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixs27-xUSRA&feature=pyv. She uses social media and her internet sight, Michelebachmann.com to appeal to peoples common sense to elect a common sense woman into the white house. I think these ads are better than attacking the other candidates which appears petty and like you are out of control and doing whatever you can to win.

I don’t like it when celebrities get involved with politics. I feel like they use their platform to expose their opinion, when they shouldn’t. Most celebrities are uninformed and do not completely research the issues. An exception is Michael J. Fox’s ad: tp://abcnews.go.com/Politics/slideshow/intriguing-political-ads-2010-10887147. He is obviously well informed of the issue (having lived through it) and I think his ad does a great job of supporting an issue he believes in. Generally, speaking I do not like it when celebrities get involved in politics and use their public platform (such as red carpet events) to give their opinion.

Different News Outlets Opinions:
This issue:
Herman Cain and his stance on the abortion issue.

How can one issue be covered so differently on different networks?

What Fox News had to say?
Fox News focuses on Cain’s attempts to undermine Planned Parenthood. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/10/30/planned-parenthood-rejects-cain-claim-abortion-clinics-are-aimed-at-black/

What does NPR have to say?
NPR focuses on Cain’s contradictions regarding when abortion is appropriate and claims that he now opposes all abortions, when before he claimed abortion was acceptable in cases of rape or if the mother was in danger. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141842125

What does the New York Times say?
The New York Times took the same approach as NPR and focused on Cain’s retractions of statements regarding his stance on abortion. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/29/us/politics/for-cain-reverse-becomes-a-prominent-gear.html?_r=1&scp=8&sq=abortion&st=cse

The different opinions regarding the information are important because they show the type of coverage politicians receive according to the agenda of the news source. News in this manner does not appear to be balanced, since you can read three different stories about the same subject and receive three different opinions. This shows the impact on the opinions of voters if they receive their news information from only one source. A good point of contention that arises from the differing news sources means a dialogue among voters will start and will cause people to think about other sides of the issue. Whether, these people accept differing opinions remains to be seen, but it is important to note these conversations are going on. The differing news stories have different impacts on helping or hurting the candidates…unfortunately it depends on the media’s take of the story and how they decide to portray the story to the public. The differing opinions on the news stories impact public opinion because if they only show one side of the story, the people do not get the truth which results in opinions based on false facts, which means voters are basing on falsities and not on the truth. As we have seen from this example the news media attempts to sway voter opinion by reporting on the portion of the story in line with their agenda. It is important to remember the media is trying to attract voters and not necessarily in giving the truth thereby proving the impact of not telling the truth to the public.