Week 9 Overheads
Television and democracy
‘Pseudo-event’: Programming politics
Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image (1962)
Presidential campaigns
Across 20th Century: Decline of old (partisan) press, speaking
tours.
Rise of new media (radio, TV, Internet)
Marketing techniques applied to campaigns. The ‘living room’
campaign
First independent presidential publicity campaign: Theodore
Roosevelt, 1912
Rise of media advisors: Adman Bruce Barton, 1920-1950s
(BBD&O)
1952: First TV presidential campaign
New Hampshire primary, national conventions, campaign TV spots,
opinion polling, TV attempt to project winner.
Rosser Reeves: “Prince of Hard Sell”
25% of campaign budget for TV
1960: First televised presidential debates
1964: “Daisy spot,” Tony Schwartz, “Deep sell, partipulation”
1968: “Selling of the President” (Nixon). 67% of budget for TV;
75% for TV spots. White House Office of Communication created.
1980-84: White House producer: Michael Deaver (Reagan)
1992: Internet, first White House website (Clinton)
Access to TV's Marketplace of Ideas, 1950-1980
Three-network nation:
Adman Tony Schwartz: Three political parties are now CBS, NBC and
ABC
Campaigns take place in the living room, not in public speeches
Key concepts: Gatekeeping and agenda-setting
Civil rights movement, 1955-65
Birmingham, 1963: John Lewis
Emmett Till
Ralph Nader and citizen public relations
Unsafe at Any Speed, 1965
Publicity and grassroots organizing
Saul Alinsky