Moyers on Media and the Electoral Process

The Future of Media's first section discusses how our electoral process has become corrupt and ineffective. Moyers talks about how voter turnout is at its lowest, the cost of elections has skyrocketed, and how the media controls the coverage we see. He believes that we need to revamp the system that controls media in order to create a better society.

In regards to the current election, I think some of what Moyers talked about can be applied, but I also think some improvements have been made in the most recent years. Though it may be true that voter turnout is low, I've noticed an increase in the use of media to make a change. For example, MTV's Choose or Lose campaign is practically unavoidable as it is so prevalent on television, radio, and in print. There's also the "Don't Vote" campaign created by actor Leonardo Dicaprio and backed by handfuls of celebrities which uses the "viral video" technique to gain viewership on the internet. In this sense, I think that the media is being used as a tool that will likely increase votership by the people that are less likely to vote normally, mainly young or poor people. While it certainly appears to me that scarily large amounts of money are being spent on predidential candidates' ads, its important that money also be spent towards the media encouraging and helping people to have a voice, and to vote.

With the improvement of technology in the media, I think that Americans are given better coverage of debates and speeches. As we watched the presidential debate and discussed in class, I believe that we are given a clear perspective of our candidates. Though as Moyers said, it is true that networks have been known to skew the perspective of viewers, I believe that with high definition picture and sound, we can really get up close and personal to our potential leaders. Another great feature we discussed is the split screen. I think it is so helpful to see both debaters on screen the whole time, giving the viewer the chance to see reactions and all types of body language. In all, I think some changes are needed in the media, and the electoral systems are infact unfair to many, but the media is responsible for a lot of positive contributions to the electoral process as well.