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Research yields election insights
While Rose may have left us to use her considerable talents to publicize people and events at Southwestern Community College, she helped us out this week with one last interview.
Actually, she's helping her interviewee. Rose is serving as senior project mentor for Smoky Mountain student Samantha Blanton.
 Although Samantha can't vote Nov. 2 (she's not old enough), she has been very involved in this year's election through the work she's done to complete her project. Samantha contributed an essay comparing presidential candidates George Bush and John Kerry to this week's Kids Voting feature on page 1C.
Samantha's project is a study of the media's influence on the election.
"Even though I can't vote, I understand, especially from the last election, how each vote really does count," said Samantha, who urges those who can vote to exercise that right on Tuesday.
How much the media affects one's choice surprised Blanton.
"My project opened my eyes to the world around me by letting me see the bias in politics. When I first began my project I knew little to nothing about my topic," she said. "However, several months of research has made me more politically and news conscious."
Blanton learned that green-tinted makeup was a key factor during the 1960 debate between John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. In the first-ever televised debate, 70 million viewers got to see the candidates on a black-and-white screen.
"I read accounts that Nixon came across as intense but tired looking while Kennedy looked cool, collected and healthy," said Samantha. "Kennedy was wearing green-tinted makeup. Television viewers clearly agreed Kennedy won the debate while radio listeners thought Nixon won. This really reinforced that image is everything in a political victory."
In 1964 when he was running for president against Lyndon Johnson, Barry Goldwater criticized the Democratic Party for not taking a more aggressive approach to war. In a New York Times article, Goldwater said he might possibly use nuclear weapons if elected. Immediately Johnson's staff came out with attack commercials showing a young girl plucking petals from a daisy while a nuclear countdown was going on; the end of the commercial showed the girl being replaced by a nuclear cloud. The ad influenced many voters into considering Goldwater a "dangerous" candidate, Samantha found.
Media coverage of the Vietnam War played a big part in President Johnson's decision not to seek re-election in 1968, according to Samantha's research.
"CBS – a station many people listened to and trusted – characterized the war as a 'hopeless stalemate' and urged the United States to withdraw," Blanton said.
During Richard Nixon's second term as president, the Watergate scandal brought about his resignation, and the nation lost faith in their president.
"I think Jimmy Carter won the 1976 election because the media showed him as a person who would not deceive the American people," Blanton said. "Carter was shown to be an honest, hard-working peanut farmer, a common man with high Christian morals."
In 1980, Ronald Reagan defeated Carter by using the news media to criticize Carter's failure to prevent the Iran hostage crisis, according to Blanton.
"Reagan portrayed himself as a calm, steadfast patriotic American and clips from cowboy movies where he wore the proverbial white hat and rode in to save the day didn't hurt," she said.
During the 1996 campaign between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole, Clinton's popularity and his appeal to the people caused most of the news media to focus on him, Samanthana said.
"I think the lack of news coverage for Dole made him less popular with voters," she said.
The 2000 election between Al Gore and George Bush will go down in history as the most drawn-out and closest election in history, Samantha found.
Media polls predicted that whoever carried Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida would be the winner. At 8 p.m. election night, the Voter News Service had declared Gore the winner of Florida. Several hours later Fox News countered that Bush was the winner. Throughout that week, broadcast stations aired 183 news stories about the deadlock, Samantha said.
News media significantly impacts young people, especially those ages 10-17, according to Samantha's research.
"Survey results found that children who watch and read the news have a better idea of what is going on around them, and it impacts their future by making them more politically active adults," said Samantha.
As she concludes work on her senior project, Samantha says she is eager for the 2008 presidential election when she can use her research to help her choose how she will vote.
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