Media Crazed Elections

This is election season. The election is on June 3rd. This makes this time of year full of political ads. Every politician sends out multiple ads to degrade its competitors in their election race. This year is even more special for the city of Sacramento because we have 4 political races going on. Three of those races have multiple candidates running. in them.

When I get home from school everyday I take in the mail. I have been taking inside the political mailers for months. I realized on Friday this would be perfect media blog material. So instead of recycling the 8 mailers we received I kept them to look at the advertising techniques they all use.

From the 8 mailers, 6 of them had quotes from Sacramento Bee articles. The sender of these mailers wanted to improve the ethos of their argument by putting a Sacramento Bee quote. When some people see a Sacramento Bee quote in a mailer they will instantly be persuaded to vote against or for this person because The Sacramento Bee never lies.




One mailer I received was arguing against Kevin McCarty. It had a line of text on it that read, "Kevin McCarty is a weasel doing weaselly things." This was accompanied by a picture of a weasel. I think you can see what I'm getting at. This argument uses weasel words. We don't know what the campaigner means by 'weaselly things.' You have to project your idea of a weaselly thing a politician does and assume McCarty does it. The campaigner wants to portray him as a lying, sulking weasel.

I received three different mailers concerning Dr. Richard Pan. To start he really is playing the doctor thing. On every campaign I have seen for or against him, the Dr. title has always been there. His main issue he wants to cover is healthcare and making sure all Californians are covered. He is trying to show he is certified to be a politician and talk about this subject because of his Dr.status. Also the pictures that are on his ads that are for him usually show him with his family. He is trying to express that he is a family guy ans not just aspiring politician.

These and many more in-home mailers we have received play on the idea that the opponent is a corrupt politician. They scrounge around to find little things like Dr. Richard Pan taking a per diem even though he only lives 10 minutes from the capital. Or how Anne Marie Schubert took pay raises year after year despite budget cuts and people being laid off. Or. how Roger Dickinson went on multiple tax payer funded trips despite budget cuts. All these and so many more are sent out to persuade the receiver to vote in their favor.

But the real problem here is not the politician themselves its our world that is so over run by media that campaigners will have to send out so much just for their voice to be heard. It makes running for government which should be available for all people more of a rich persons job so they can pay for advertising to win their election.