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For the 2012 Presidential Election, 126,144,000
Americans voted. Which is 57.5 percent of America’s registered voters. However,
the total number of American citizens who were eligible to vote was
218,959,000, but only 146,311,000 of those Americans were registered to vote.[1]
Although these statistics from the 2012 Presidential Election occurred four
years ago; they still have an impact in this upcoming presidential election.
During the 2012 Presidential Election there were
several media platforms which were heavily used for potential voters to follow
the presidential campaign; such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Although I missed being eligible to vote by a
week, I was still influenced and informed through the political campaign
commercials, national debates, and news stories. They made me become aware of
how much the media influences American Politics and the political views of
potential voters. Since this is my first
eligible presidential election which I can vote for, I wanted to become an
informed voter as much as possible. Therefore, I have been researching about
all the presidential candidates which represent each of the parties for the
2016 Presidential Election. As a junior student
who is a Communication major, I also learned about the Cultivation Theory in my
Communication Foundations course. This theory has helped me to become more
informed by the research I have conducted thus far on how gender, age, and race
affect the various political perspectives America has.
By looking at three recent political events that
occurred on March 1’s Super Tuesday and reading about the Cultivation Theory; I
saw firsthand how the media can influence the messages they broadcast towards
their viewing audiences. In addition, I learned most of what I viewed supported
the Cultivation Theory. According to
“Functions and Theories of Mass Communication”, section 15.2 from the book A Primer on Communication Studies
states: "Cultivation theory is a media effects theory created by George
Gerbner that states that media exposure, specifically to television, shapes our
social reality by giving us a distorted view on the amount of violence and risk
in the world. The theory also states viewers identify with certain values and
identities that are presented as mainstream on television even though they do
not actually share those values or identities in their real lives".[2]
This statement resonated with me after I took a closer look at the three
political events I observed.
The first political event I applied my knowledge of
the Cultivation Theory to was Minority
Voters Push Hillary Clinton to Victories[3].
This article addressed how Hilary Clinton was gaining the black vote in the
majority of the southern states and how her growing support was in recent
rallies compared to her Democratic component Burnie Sanders. It had both male
and female representation. However, the title just mentioned Hilary and
minority voters, but did not mention Trump or Sanders who were also discussed
in the article. The age of the
individuals mentioned in this article were of various age ranges. The ages of
the supporters were not mentioned but as with the majority of presidential
candidates they tend to attract voters of various generations. The politicians
who were mentioned were of the mature age range as Hilary Clinton, Bernie
Sanders and Donald Trump are all over the age of 60. As for race this article’s
main subject was how Hilary was gaining the minority vote. Therefore, this
article had representations from various racial groups. For example, the
politicians Hilary Clinton, Donald Trump and Burnie Sanders are racially white;
while the minority voters mentioned were racially black. This was because most
of the minority voters were from Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee which
have counties with large black populations. To conclude on this article, it
ultimately depends on the political views one has to see it as a good news
story or a bad news story. But since the United States has a diverse
population, I would see this story as positive because it promotes the act of
voting from people who historically did not have the right to vote due to their
racial background.
The next political event I looked at was an article
called Donald Trump’s Backers Express
Deep and Diverse Support[4].
This article addressed how Donald Trump had a growing base of various types of
supporters. The supporters gave their
reasons on why they were supporting Donald Trump as a Republican Presidential
Candidate. This article had both male and female representation. However, there
were more male perspectives than women’s perspectives mentioned in the article.
This can affect how people who read this article politically identify with
Trump’s views since the Cultivation Theory states individuals tend to “identify
with certain values and identities that are presented as mainstream.”[5]
The age of the individuals mentioned in this article were of various age ranges
and each of the ages of the supporters were mentioned before they gave their
perspectives. The youngest age mentioned was 34 years old while the oldest age
was 75 years old. As for race this article’s main subject was how Donald Trump
had backers of deep and diverse support. Although there was a diverse age range
and some perspectives came from women; there was very little representation
from other racial groups besides the white race. For example, the only
non-white individual who gave their perspective in this article was an
Ethiopian Muslim woman. To conclude on this article, it ultimately depends on
the political views one has to see it as a good news story or a bad news story.
But since the United States has a growing mature age range (due to the Baby
Boomer population growing older) I would see this story as positive. This is because
it promotes the act of voting from people who are advanced in age and their continuing
commitment to vote in presidential elections.
The final
political event article I connected to the principles of the Cultivation Theory
was an article called Bernie Sanders
Raised Over $42 Million in February, Campaign Says[6]
This article focuses on how Senator Bernie Sanders has raised more than
$42 million in the month of February for his campaign. No matter one’s
political stance this article brought up a very surprising point. That most of the funds came from individual
contributors primarily from the middle class; whereas many of the other components
have received their funds from wealthier donors. This correlates to the
Cultivation Theory because it shows that individuals from economic status
groups have an effect on how a candidate’s monetary political platform will be.
The more funding the candidate has the more they can promote their candidacy
through the use of media. The mention of
gender, age, and race were rarely mentioned in this article because it focused
more on the funding of the presidential campaign. But the article did bring up
politicians Burnie Sanders and Hilary Clinton so both genders were mentioned.
As for age in the article, the campaign funders’ ages were not mentioned. But
one can assume supporters were of various ages. The race of the supporters was
not mentioned nor was there any perspectives made from representative racial
groups Although I attribute this to the article’s main subject being about Burnie
Sanders’ versus Hilary Clinton’s campaign funding. However, each of these politicians come from
the white racial group so race had a discrete mention in the article. To conclude on this article, it ultimately
depends on the political views one has to see it as a good news story or a bad
news story. But since the United States has many people who belong to the
working class I would see this story as positive. This is because it promotes
the act of individual people promoting the presidential candidates through
monetary funding versus the candidates seeking monetary funding from companies.
Overall
these three political events I observed were related to what I read about for
the Cultivation Theory. Even though
these three articles do not express each and every political stance of the
candidate or of their potential voters; it provides a glimpse into the
political image presented through the form of media. Some of the results
surprised me because it seems as if the news is progressing in how they promote
political information. This is by including more individuals from minority
groups and females into their articles. However, they are still progressing
slowly due to having men and majority group individuals accompany minorities
and females. Hopefully as the future progresses there will be more news
articles that show a greater emphasis of older individuals, females and
non-represented minority groups; so that the news can show more opinions and
contain different points of view in the American Political Realm.
