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Spinning Debates The Impact of the News Media’s Coverage of the Final 2004 Presidential Debate
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Spinning Debates: The Impact of the News Media’s Coverage of the Final 2004 Presidential Debate
The purpose of the article is the analyses the role of the media in shaping the outcome of the 2004 presidential election. The media a presidential debate heavily sided with president Bush and influenced the outcome of the election. The article specifically researches on the influence of the media on voters’ presidential decision. The presidential candidates were George Bush and John Kerry. Bob Schiefer the moderator asked both candidates to share their opinion on homosexuality. Senator John Kerry answered, ““We’re all God’s children, Bob. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she’s being who she was, she’s being who she was born as.”
The remarks by senator Kerry gained a lot of media attention both Fox news, CNN and political surrogates commented on how cruel that statement of Cheney’s daughter being lesbian. The horrible comments from senator attracted extensive media attention the following day with the media seek comments from Lynne Cheney’s response to the comments made about her daughter being lesbian. The counter response from Lynen was emotional showing that the man senator Kerry is very bad and the comments were unfortunate and hurtful. Also, the vice president responded that he was angered by the remarks and showed how far senator Kerry can go to attract votes. The negative analyses on senator Kerry comments had an effect on how the voters viewed the presidential candidates. The article examines how the one-sided coverage of presidential candidates affects the opinion of voters on their presidential choice. The extensive coverage by all media on the comments by senator crated a one-sided coverage as the issue of Mary Cheney became an issue of focus for the both campaigns and the media.
The current literature on the influence of the media in the presidential election is limited and shows that the media has little influence on the voters’ decisions as the candidates are constantly countering their messages through campaigns and advertisement. However, the media shapes the agenda, making considering on issues and influencing voters’ position on issues in the election. However, the media are not effective in influencing the voters on their presidential candidate as they already have preconceived choice of their candidate’s based on their party affiliation.
The article seeks to find out the effect of the media coverage of the presidential debate an its effect on the decision of voters. There is a distinction between the debate and the media coverage of the debate which might be one sided as they can support one candidate over another and affect the voters decision. The survey was conducted using the news coverage following the 2004 presidential election using the coverage of the famous television of NBC, ABC, CBS and cable network of CNN and Fox news. Also, the popular newspapers of New York times and Arizona republic were analyzed. From the experiment, it is can be concluded that the people who watched the media coverage of the senator Kerry but did not watch the debate had a negative perception of senator Kerry and did not expect him to win the election. This shows that media coverage after the debates affects voters’ opinion and evaluation of presidential candidates.
Political Issues and the Dynamics of Vote Choice in 2008
The 2008 presidential election occurred during the financial crisis. The article seeks to determine the factors which influenced voters decision making during the 2008 presidential election. The consistent factor which decided the 2008 presidential election between Obama and McCain is the economy. Obama performed better in the economy and many believe that it may have heavily influenced the outcome of the election. This article disputes this notion and suggest that the voters had already made a decision concerning their candidates before the economic crisis started and start of the crisis just seven weeks to the election did not sway voters.
There are other significant social factors which influenced the outcome of the election. 2008 was a difficult election and research since the 1980s have shown that when the economy is performing poorly, voters tend to remove the incumbent. 2008 was a difficult year as the country experienced a financial crisis never seen before. The stock market crashed, many people lost their hems and many lost jobs. The economy became an important issue for the election for 60% of Americans.
The collapse of Lehman brothers in September was the pivotal moment and marked a very unique election where election happened during an economic crisis and made the economy one of the important issues of the election and not the moral conduct, or the Iraq war which determined the outcome of the 2004 election. The bush administration announced a $700 billion bailout program to help solve the economic crisis. The economy was rated por and in a worrying condition by over 90% of Americans.
However, when we look at the data, 63% of democrats thought the economy was a primary issue of concern for the election while 54% of republicans saw the economy as important factor, making a difference of 9% between the voters. This small difference in the perception of both voters of the different parties meant that the 2008 election was not determined by the economy as an issue as almost all voters agreed that the economy was a problem and therefore could not eb the deciding factor in the election. The article seeks to determine the extent to which the economy became a deciding factor in the 2008 presidential election.
The article focuses on the undecide voters and who did they trust on the issue of the economy. However, it is determined that only 3% of the 11% of undecided voters changed their mind concerning their presidential choice after the collapse of the economy. Obama had a slight advantage over McCain on the issue of the election even before the collapse of the economy and the data suggests that the economy was not a significant decider in the election. Social factors and Iraq were more deciding factors in the election and gave Obama an important advantage over McCain. Obama had promised to withdraw troops in Iraq and offer health care insurance. This ultimately proved to eb the deciding factors in the election outcome and not the economy as many had projected.
Equality in life is an integral part of the human livelihood, which makes it worth fighting for using all possible and approp
Equality in life is an integral part of the human livelihood, which makes it worth fighting for using all possible and appropriate means. Martin Luther King was an activist who lived through hard times as he fought for fairness in his community. Fighting for equal civil rights was among his leading purposes of being an activist, which included just treatment of everyone in society. As such, he went down in history as one of the most prominent citizens of the United States to have ever lived and fought for equal rights among people. I relate to Martin’s speeches, and I fully feel that people in the world should be treated equally despite their religion, race or gender.
Whilst people are at work, for example, they may face discrimination based on their gender, job position or experience. Indeed, this is unjust, and despite people’s education background or the position they hold at work, they should not be subjected to any form of injustice. People at the places of work have a right to be there as long they are not violating any rules; therefore, they should all be respected and treated fairly.
President Obama believes in fairness when it comes to health; hence, he proposed, through his speeches, for a just treatment by amending the current healthcare law. In turn, he would want everyone in the United States to own an insurance cover to cater for their medical and health care. Thus, it is essential to treat people equally, be it at school, home, hospital, on the road, and social places among other locations. Fairness in life not only encourages harmony among people but also increases cohesion among individuals.
Virtue ethics refers to a philosophy developed by Aristotle.
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Blackfish Film and Ethics
Virtue ethics refers to a philosophy developed by Aristotle. It is a character-based approach to mortality. This theory indicates that practice is vital in the process of virtue acquisition. Virtue ethics contrasts with the view that virtue is present in the world as a natural representation of goodness. Virtue ethics being character-based means that there are different traits and forms of virtue, but all come from constant practice in one’s moral character. For instance, courage would be considered a type of bravery and resoluteness, but bravery comes from years of constantly acting bravely, whereas resoluteness is often displayed when you are angry or feel threatened. Virtue ethics also suggests that healthy interpersonal relationships can have their own virtues (Van Zyl, 46). For example, generosity would be one such virtue for many people around the world since it’s seen as a way to give and express care for others without expecting anything in return.
The blackfish film is closely related with virtue ethics. The blackfish documentary shows the lives of people working with Orcas. It follows the life of a famous orca trainer, Dawn Brancheau, who was killed by an orca in 2010 at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. While it seems that few people would care about the death of a whale trainer, this film sparks controversy on how animals are treated in such places. This movie is praised for its engaging and emotive portrayal of animal abuse and exploitation in captivity; therefore, it can be said that it is virtuous. The film portrays the lives of whales and what really goes on behind closed doors at places like SeaWorld.
The documentary titled ‘Blackfish’ is mainly regarding natural history of whales on the basis of how they were treated by humans before shooting one’s attack against them. The Blackfish film illustrates the segregation, hunting practices, and annihilation that face the sea world which comprise of the whales and other animals. These practices are effectively demonstrated in the Tilikum captivity ordeal, the dolphin hunting procedure and many other ways in which the hunt practices are conducted during whale hunts of sea creatures. The movie reveals these incidents to the audience and tells them that there is no need to have a look at these cruel acts which are happening in the field. The people who are involved in these activities have thought it fit to kill whales and other marine animals thinking of their own safety and convenience. In this way, they also avoid being seen as criminals by the people who are watching them doing this activity.
In this film, Orca is discussed to demonstrate great aggressiveness after being incarcerated in the SeaWorld. However, SeaWorld has been fighting against that idea. Since the film was released, it has caused a great amount of controversy on the trainers working in such places and the killers have been removed from captivity. The film is not just about killer whales but also about how they are treated by humans. In general, Blackfish documentary is a great piece on how we treat animals, including whales and dolphins, in captivity at SeaWorld in John Krasinski’s directorial debut. It is an emotional documentary with power conversations to help change our perspective of animal rights and treatment.
This movie has greatly demonstrated the role of ethics in the society and how the society must truly have ethical and moral values to have a better society. The film has shown us that the real leaders of this world are the people who are kind and give love to everyone (Cowperthwaite). The people who are cruel and hate to others will be thrown away from his or her position. This has been showed by the documentary and I can’t state it more properly than that. This article discusses ethical issues surrounding the use of exotic or trained marine mammals for entertainment purposes and how Blackfish, as well as other films such as Dolphin Diary helped to raise awareness in this topic. This is an important discussion that needs to be more widely discussed.
During the film, I felt so sorry for the animals of SeaWorld, who live in small aquariums and must experience horrible things. They are beaten and forced to perform extremely unnatural acts while they were helpless and defenseless. There are stories about orcas attacking their trainers in their habitats at SeaWorld, something that is always talked about in this documentary film. No one seems to believe what really happened to these orcas before the attack or why did it happen at all. Blackfish wants to give its opinion on why those killings happened because of ethical issues inside SeaWorld company.
The film teaches us to always think twice before taking an action. This is mostly vital when those actions tend to infringe other people’s rights of expression or liberty. The people who are cruel like those in this film will never be rewarded and they will be erased from the society. The importance of showing the good and bad sides of this world can never be over emphasized, especially when you are seeing it on large screen. Those who have such values in mind must see this film to foster their ethical and moral values into what they do for a living. In a time where we have to share our opinion about many things whether good or bad, we must still remember that these opinions may not just be expressed by us but also by people around us too. Even if a few people do not support you, it does not mean that you are wrong.
From the film, we can also see how the marine family face harsh training and punishments. These shows the level of lack of empathy in the society and its effects. In this article, we can read the following: “Blackfish would probably be a better film if it had not been produced to make a point about the ethics of keeping marine animals in captivity. Yet despite its intent, Blackfish also humanizes marine animals and exposes their suffering and desperation.”
Thus, animal rights have been a major topic since the production of the Blackfish film. The movie has demonstrated animal abuse on a grand scale, with the orcas being kept in captivity and abused by SeaWorld. The documentary rightfully gained much attention from the people of the world who care about animal rights (Stokes 160). Not to mention, the film has also received criticism throughout its run-on different channels such as social media and traditional news media. When it turns out that these supposed “animal rights activists” are actually just taking advantage of this marine park, Animal Rights Organization has created an action plan for what needs to be done in order to help save these animals and make them happy once again. The Blackfish film is a must watch for anyone who is interested in animal rights or activism as a whole (whether they care about orcas or not).
The article, “SeaWorld should set captive orcas free” stipulates Jean-Michel Cousteau’s calling on the SeaWorld to release its captive orcas. The Oceanographic explorer, indicates that “They need to be released and put back into a place where we can keep an eye on them and they can reconnect with nature,”. Cousteau and his organization Ocean Future Society has been advocating for the release of marine mammals in captivity, a movement that has created conflict with advocacy groups such as People for the Ethical treatment of Animals which are calling for the closure of all marine mammal parks. The article indicates that SeaWorld is “one of the most controversial institutions in North America” due to its poor treatment of orcas. The article also mentions that this type of treatment is not limited to SeaWorld, but it is instead industry-wide phenomenon. Nowadays, there are at least 81 orcas currently held captive in marine parks, zoos and aquaria across the globe (Jean-Michel 4).
Works Cited
“Jean-Michel Cousteau: Seaworld Should Set Captive Orcas Free”. The Guardian, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/27/seaworld-free-captive-orcas-jean-michel-cousteau. Accessed 1 Feb 2022.
Cowperthwaite, G., Oteyza, M. V., Despres, E., Ingalls, J., Towey, C., Beal, J., Blackfish. Magnolia Pictures (Firm), Magnolia Home Entertainment (Firm). (2013)
Stokes, Ashli Q., and Wendy Atkins-Sayre. “PETA, rhetorical fracture, and the power of digital activism.” Public Relations Inquiry 7.2 (2018): 149-170.
Van Zyl, Liezl. Virtue ethics: A contemporary introduction. Routledge, 2018.