A Comparison of and Contrasting of role of two politicians in the media eye - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages He further notes that the independence of media from political meddling and the essence of media as the way they play their political roles, the manner in which media is subjected to pressures from the commercial systems that fund the media entities as well as the decisiveness of the government in supplying information all have a great deal to do with the maturity of democracy and the propagation of public opinion driven societies.
The functionalities of media have made it a vulnerable tool subjected to use and albeit abuse by those in power bent on swaying public opinion and influencing popular opinion on individuals and issues among other things. In these perceptions premise, the paper presents a comparative exploration of the role of two politicians in the media eye. The paper will also take a significant thrust in examining the coverage of two politicians and exploring their images as portrayed in various mainstream media. The thrust of the paper will also entail the ways in which the media and or the politicians attempt to manipulate the images of them as generated by the media.
For the objectives of the exercise, two political figures who are the 2008 USA Presidential election candidates Republic John McCain and Democrat Barrack Obama will be used. The 2008 US presidential campaign trail is historic from various dimensions. The campaigned has pitted sitting Senators yet the most remarkable aspects of the campaign are based on the fact that after the election US will have either the first Black American president or a woman as vice president. The election campaign has drawn most media coverage surpassing previous presidential election drives....
ting Senators yet the most remarkable aspects of the campaign are based on the fact that after the election US will have either the first Black American president or a woman as vice president. The election campaign has drawn most media coverage surpassing previous presidential election drives.

The paper will make an observation of extracts and nuances form mainstream and global media channels like Cable News Net Work (CNN) and the British Broadcasting Network (BBC) and various online news interfaces to examine the images of the two politicians that have been carved and explore the ways in which media and the political figures have to attempted to manipulate the images created of them.

CNN is one of the leading global news channels and has had a significant bearing on the image creation and dissemination of the US presidential candidates. It is worth mentioning from the onset that CNN were the 8th largest sponsors to the sitting President George W. Bush in his 2004 Campaign. Nonetheless it may be presented that mainstream media have tended to playing to a perceived public sentiment that the Bush administration has failed the electorate on various issues and hence the unpopularity of the Republican election ticket regardless of who the actual individuals and their polices are.

Many media channels have largely portrayed the democrat candidate Barrack Obama in manner of glossing over his possible nomination as historic development in American politics demonstrating the American society commitment to values of racial reform and egalitarianism. CNN has always hammered the nuances of 'historic' ticket aspect that Obama's candidature is.

Besides the presenting of Obama's ticket as historic development, CNN has captured various political and economic analyses from some ...Download file to see next pagesRead More