Monday, November 29, 2010

Media: A Key Influence in Politics

This year’s midterm election was crucial for the Democrats as they were on the verge of losing their power in the House of Representatives and Senate. On November 2, 2010, 82.5 million Americans cast their vote all over the nation. And the results—the Democrats fell short, continuing their reign in the Senate but losing their position in the House of Representatives, 57 to 40 percent.

Many have said that the lack of youth voters who were very prominent in the 2008 presidential election, which helped President Barack Obama win, could have made a difference. As a result from the general statement, youth voters have stated that because of the lack of media influence on the midterm election, many were not aware of or chose to not take part in voting.

According to The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or CIRCLE, stated only 20.9% of all eligible young people ages 18-29 voted in this year’s election, a 4.1% decline from the 2006 midterm election. In comparison to the 2008 Presidential election the youth vote rose only a couple of percentage points to 51 percent.

Peter Levine, director of CIRCLE, said to the Huffington Post:

“Arguably, we need a game-changing event or movement to increase turnout to a whole different level. If you were hoping that 2008 was such an event, yesterday’s results may be discouraging. It is time to ask whether the millions of young people who were deeply engaged in the 2008 campaign could have been invited to engage more in governance once the election was over.”

This game-changing event or movement Levine is talking about is probably media influence.

In the 2008 Presidential election, media was a huge influence. MTV, an American network based in New York City, heavily focused on the 2006 presidential election but for this year’s mid-term election they barely touched upon it. Instead, MTV decided to do a modern spin on it by having a pop music election. The election asked for the public to vote in four categories: pop start president, pop star vice-president, senate of pop, and house representatives of pop—Justin Beiber, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, and The Jonas Brothers won the titles.

An MTV News intern stated, “We just wanted to have fun with this election,” she continues, “the presidential election was so overwhelming in so many ways, we decided that 2010 should focus more on music.”

When asked if she thought the pop star poll had influenced youth voters to take part in the midterm election she said, “Yes, that was the goal. It’s just hard to reach out to a country when every state has its own race going on. We decided this would be a better way at universalizing the election.”

Heather Smith, executive director of Rock the Vote, a non-profit organization who’s mission is to engage and build the political power of young people, had a similar statement as Levine: “These young people are willing to participate and be active by nature, but they are not going to show up unless they are invited.”

Based on the MTV’s pop star poll, it is misleading. Rather than inviting youth voters to take part in politics, it tells them to stick with pop culture. As a result, this puts pressure on candidates to push harder and make sure their campaigns relate to and reach the youth in a way that will grab their attention. A major attention grabber: Celebrities.

Maegan Carberry from Rock the Vote said, “Plenty of stars have worked with us this cycle; it’s all just much more visible when the country is focused on a major race like the presidency.”

In the 2008 Presidential election, Rock the Vote ran the largest voter registration drive in history. Using a collaboration of online, mobile, and grassroots outreach, Rock the Vote were able to generate more than 2.5 million voter registrations. It is without a doubt that the use of celebrities like Christina Aguilera, Anne Hathaway, Samuel L. Jackson, Wyclef, and Jamie Foxx helped influence youth voters to register and vote. In accordance, Rock the Vote leaned more towards the Democratic party than the Republican party so it was no surprise that Rock the Vote had become a sort of campaign for Barack Obama.

According to their website, Rock the Vote’s goal is to “register and turn out millions more in 2010” but fell short for the midterm election as they were nowhere to be seen.

Surprisingly, 84% of youth voters who voted in 2010 also voted in 2008.

Although Mark Bauerlein, journalist, thinks differently. He stated in his article, “The Youth Vote, 2010” for The Chronicle: Voting should not be an act of inspiration. It should be a mundane duty of citizenship. It is not the responsibility of the government or the media or any other institution to “invite” young people into the voting booth.

It’ll be interesting to see how the 2012 Presidential election will be.

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