The President Barack Obama - Report Example

Obama College: Obama The media serves as the main channel of passage of information to people across the world. In the United States, a study by the Pew Research Centre Project for Excellence in Journalism reveals that 72% of the Americans rely on local newspapers to keep them abreast on the happennings around the world ranging from breaking news to weather forecasts political rivals similarly make use of the newspapers among other forms of media communication to pass their messages to the public. In the US, the media has been used as the main channel of communication which political contestants have used to critisize each other’s policies. This study, therefore, analyses the effect of the media coverage on the United tates incumbent president. Obama has received negative media campaign in his bid for the presidency. This is shown by a report published that indicated that, during the 2012 campaign, of all the candidates, only one did not recieve a single week of positive media coverage. This candidate is the incumbent president Barack Obama. His negative coverage is attributed to several factors one of which is the criticism levelled against him by each of the republican contestants seeking for his position. Mitt Romney for instance in his criticism calls him a crony capitalist and accusses him of not understanding the passion of freedom. With very few days remaining to the republican party nominations, he did not mention any of his opponents in the party nominations. He was backed by his endorser , john McCain, who attacked his naming of three members to the National Labour Relations Board for appointing them without the approval of the congress. Romney went ahead to air that the process of appointment was un-American and termed it as apolitical payback. . These utterances in the presence of the media has portrayed the president negatively to the public. The study, basing on newspaper, television, radio and internet news outlets indicates that the media has subjected the incumbent more as a candidate than the president. It indicates that, since November, a larger proportion of Obama’s coverage approximately 63% was centred around political strategy and momentum. Foreign and domestic issues on the contrary recieved only 21%. A study by The Daily Beast reveals that from January to April, comparatively, Romney’s coverage by the media was twice focussed on the positive than Obama’s. In January, the proportions of the negative coverage outweighed the positives coverage in the range of 28 and 37 percentage points. In February, there was a moderation, however, with the disparity ranging only between 11 and 15 percentage points. In the last week of February, the differential saw even a further drop which essentially gave the president a mixed narrative. This was attributed to the shift in focus to the final match-up between Obama and Romney that saw the incumbent receive some positive coverage. The tone of coverage, however, shifted back to 15 percentage in the last weeks of March which spread out to the first weeks of April 2-8 which marked his worst week since January. Some books have even branded him a non-reformer and have gone ahead to state that he is the least experienced politician. One of the drivers to this negative campaign was the continual increase in gas prices. This led to the questioning of the credibility of his administration on the energy policy. Fox news, which covered the fuel prices most frequently in most instances blamed the president on the increase in prices. This claim was in line with the republicans, though it lacked the facts to support it. All but a few of the news outlets ranging from broadcast coverage, cable coverage and the print media that covered the fuel economy standards linked it to the obama administration. This was further accelerated by the hosting of the media houses of the politicians to address fuel crisis other than inviting the energy experts. Obama, on the other hand, through his weekly radio and internet address, striked back at his republican criticism of his ideas on the energy policy and speaks of his endeavour in developing alternative energy sources as well as increase in fuel efficiency. He accused the republicans of undiplomatic approaches to solving the energy crisis and urged them to collaborate towards finding a long term solution to the problem. In response, Jack Dalrymple, the North Darkota Governer, in turn, accused the Obama administration of not supporting innovations and other processes aimed at increasing energy production. Another factor in which he was covered negatively was in his initiative of the foreign policy which included renewal of the troop surge in Afghanistan, negotiations on a new nuclear arm reduction treaty with Russia, joining the NATO operation in Libya, withdrawal of troops from Iraq, commencement of trade negotiations with China and the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Obama is viewed to have changed from his previous being before he got to power in 2008 and portrayed to have adopted the conventional and hawkish foreign policy. On the foreign policies that he has ventured into, he has been applaused for some such as withdrawal of troops and the killing of Bin-Laden. This will serve as his core campaign tools in his presidential race as per the political writers. He, however, has received heavy criticism on his purpotted inconsistent approach to international counterterrorism operations. The Washington post describes Obama’s ideas on foreign policy as his failures. The critics, in as much as they appreciate his handling of the situations he found at hand such as the state of affairs in Afghanistan, they, however, are questioning his performance record in the initiative he invented on the foreign policy. One of his ideas that can be said to have faltered and which could easily catch the attention of the Republicans is the Isreali-Palestinian peace process. In this mission, his prime target was to create a Palestinian state within the first two years. This required stopping the Isrealites development projects on settlements, which the united states was suppossed to do. This, however, sparked a standoff between President Obama and the Isreali Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the bone of contention being that the president himself was fixed on it. His other project was control of global nuclear arms which seemed so impressive that itwon him the Nobel Peace price even before he implemented it. This, however, has made minimal progress despite an elaborate summit hosted by the president in 2010. All these plans and undertakingsusually take place and reach the public through the media. Opponents use the same information, and a depth analysis of the same to de-campaign the him. The news coverage of pertinent issues sorrounding the economy and the challenges that were facing his healthcare legislation have also contributed to his negative coverage.. However, despite the negative publicity, recent polls carried out by various polling bodies indicated a lead by the incumbent over Mitt Romney in a two-way race, though the disparity is minimal. For instance, the polls carried out by the Rasmussen tracking between 24thand 26th of April indicate president Obama having 47% whereas Mitt Romney having 46%. Another study carried out by the Gallup tracking between 21st and 26th of April indicated Obama leading at 50% while Romney at 43%. Another most popular tool of interaction is the social websites of which twitter forms part. A critical evaluation of over 20 million tweets as apartains the race for president indicated that discussions on twitter vary quite distinctively from those in the blogosphere. A distinguishing feature about twitter is that it is more opinionated and not neutral as compared to blogs. A recent study indicated that conversations about candidates on twitter is more active. This, however, goes with age as majority af adults reported to be frequent bloggers at 14% than twitters at 13%. Also, interms of gender, twitter use is slightly higher in males than females. In contrast to other media publications, the candidate who was more popular on twitter was Ron Paul. He was also more popular on blog despite trailing in the polls. On the side of President Obama, his negative evaluations on twitter excededhis positive evaluation in the ratio of 3:1. However, overrally, other candidates received more negative treatment than the president. It is also indicated that blogs, as well as other internet sites such as youtube is making it hard for the contestants to manage the coverage of their campaigns. This has helped in alleviating negative publicity of opponents by candidates since all that is required from the audience’s cell is an internet connection and the material finds its way to the internet of youtube. In conclusion, bearing in mind the percentage of people who rely on newspapers, president Obama has received more negative publicity from the news which has exceeded that of the social media and this has significantly reduced his popularity. References Adam, S. (2012). PEW: Liberal Media Not So Hot On Obama 2012. Political Mojo, 04. 33-34. Freddoso, D. (2008). The case against Barack Obama: the unlikely rise and unexamined agenda of the media favourite candidate. Washington, DC: Regnery publishing inc. Farnsworth, J. S. & Litcher, R.S. (2010). Media Coverage of US Presidential elections,The Nightly News Nightmare. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Gallup, M.A & Newport, F. (2011). Public Opinion 2010. The Gallup Poll. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Mayer, G. W & Bernstein, J. (2011). The Making of the Presidential Candidate 2012. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. Wayne, J. S. (2011). The Road to White House 2012. Ohio, OH: Cengage Learning. 400-401. Schmidt, W. S., Shelley, C. M. & Bardes, A. B. (2012). American Government and Politics Today: Cengage Advantage Books. Ohio, OH: Cengage Learning. Read More