The second activity for week two involved political campaigns and the tactics that are used to portray a candidate in a negative way in political ads. In the video, Robert Kubey discussesd the historical and current ways that negative advertising is used in political campaigns. He stated that the media often uses greed and fear to skew messages to benefit a certain party. He discussed smear tactics which are used to portray an individual's character in a harmful/negative way. Kuby also discussed scare tactics which are used to instill fear in the public regarding a political figure, such as supporting terrorism or contributing to global warming.
In the article Making the Election About Race, I don't think that the ads were used to promote racism. I think that they were used more to promote classism. The ads that were discussed seemed to be targeted to middle to upper class citizens due to the images/discussion of working people and welfare. Fear and greed tactics were definately used in both ads, as the first advertisement seemed to convey the message that Obama is going to give handouts to those on welfare and the images shown were of people working with looks of despair on their faces. The second advertisement utilized greed tactics in convering the message the Romney doesn't pay his fair share of taxes and he will support more tax breaks for the rich.
The following ad in support for Obama also uses fear and greed tactics:
Good observation that the ads promote classism! Racism and classism often go hand in hand!
ReplyDeleteOne of my interests in promoting media literacy in schools is to create a citizenship that demands more from politicians. We need politicians who seek to educate the public on the issues and who can explain solutions to growing world problems!