blog 13 – analytical posts
Type of document Essay
1 Page Double Spaced
Subject area Political Science
Academic Level High School
Style APA
References 4
Order description:
Throughout the semester you will be expected to participate in course blogs. You will post your responses to prompts and reply to other students’ posts. This forum is meant to provide you a venue for reflecting on course concepts, sharing your own examples of the concepts, and engaging in discussion with your fellow students.
Your analytical posts should be at least 2 paragraphs long and substantially targeted to address the central topic/theme of the blog. In your posts, you should use examples and citations to support your arguments. I strongly encourage you to make the posts lively and engaging. We want this to be fun for everyone to read. However, be mindful that your posts should be clearly written and detailed.
In addition to your own posts on the subject, it is expected that you will be writing responses to the posts from your classmates. You should regularly read and respond to this blog.
Grades for the blog will be assigned using the rubric attached to the blog. I strongly encourage you to review this rubric before starting the assignment.
In this module, you’ve had a chance to look at the dynamics of voting, but for this blog entry, we are going to step back and take a look at the efforts that are put forth to not only persuade voters to endorse particular candidates or views, but also the efforts to structure the rules of campaigns so as to shape the makeup of the participating electorate to a particular advantage.
First, consider the power of campaign advertising. These ads can be found in almost every format (television, radio, webpages, buttons, pamphlets, bumper stickers, etc.) Even as you read this, I suspect that you can easily recall a campaign advertisement that has stuck with you long after the election cycle has ended. Many Americans, and commentators, lament the nastiness of American political campaigns and we tend to romanticize the past by believing that today’s campaigns are uglier than ever. However, let’s not forget that even the early American republic was dominated by attacks that more than hold their own in today’s climate. Remember that Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel with the sitting Vice-President (Aaron Burr) over attacks he had launched on Burr’s character. Additionally, this approach to politics and campaigning is still so prevalent because it is effective. Voter’s harbor a great deal of cynicism, and in many cases, spend little energy learning or researching issues.
As I previously stated, there are two aspects for you to consider on this topic. The first is where we see candidates, parties and groups trying to persuade a voter to either vote for or against a candidate or an issue.
Locate a political advertisement from the large database housed at Stanford’s Political Communication Lab or, for a larger historical perspective, you can find one on The Living Room Candidate website (requires Flash player installation). You should embed or include a working hyperlink of your selection into the blog entry that will allow the reader to go and visit the advertisement.
Answer the following questions regarding the advertisement:
What issue or candidate is the advertisement for or against?
What year did the ad air?
What is the campaign message asking the viewer to do?
Who is responsible for the advertisement?
Did you find this advertisement to be persuasive? Why or why not?
What could the ad creators have done to make this message more persuasive?
The second aspect of political advertising that we want to consider is the effort to discourage certain types of voters (usually those that you don’t think will vote for you) from casting a ballot. To get a better picture of this topic, you should read an excerpt from Stephen Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar’s book entitled, Winning but Losing, How Negative Campaigns Shrink Electorate, Manipulate News Media. As you complete this reading, pay attention to the efforts and effects of this type of advertising.
To put the matter into a more practical example, consider the following NBC news story from the 2016 presidential election. Pay attention to the analyst’s remarks about how the Trump campaign is making a strategic decision to marginalize voters that they don’t think they will win over. (This is not an approach that is unique to the Trump campaign.)
Sources in and around 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign says their strategy focuses on “discouragement” tactics and is targeting groups of voters who are less than thrilled about Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
After completing this section, you should go and find a news story that describes efforts by political candidates or groups to discourage voters from casting a ballot. This might be in the form of legislative efforts to change voting or registration laws. Alternatively, you might point to campaign messages or techniques used by a campaign to discourage people from casting a vote.
Post a working hyperlink to the example that you found and describe your feelings on the subject. Should we be concerned about what you’ve uncovered? Is this just politics in action?
