1996-1997 Harry Singer Foundation National Essay Contest
What Role Does and What Role Should The Media Play
In Choosing Our Candidates For National Office?
Luck High School, Luck, Wisconsin
Teacher : Barbara Peterson
The students papers were so good we have another tie for 3rd place
1st Katie etersen
2nd
Alysse Nockels 3rd Mia VanDer
Paardt 3rd Hannah Fawver
"Some newspapers, such as The Saint Paul Pioneer Press, have regular
columnists one who has a liberal bias, and one who has a conservative bias. I believe that
is a fairly good way of covering the presidential election, because you hear more than one
person's opinion."
Mia Van Der Paardt, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"Most Criticism of the news media in the past has involved liberals
attacking the conservative bias and domination of the press. Spiro Agnew's claim of a
liberal bias is contradicted by all the major studies of bias conducted during the past
thirty years. That the people were not shocked by Agnew's accusations is itself testimony
to the fact that for over thirty years the media have been using their power to spread
corporation propaganda, protect the establishment from unfavorable news, and prevent a
true competition among ideas. The subsequent popular support for Agnew's position is a
function of media's intentional failure to communicate the most basic ideal of democracy -
that all ideas, popular or unpopular, should be given a chance to compete fairly for
public acceptance."
Jason Nichols, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"In the past newspaper coverage has leaned toward the side which is
most often endorsed editorially by the press, namely Republicans. Democrats did not seem
to be affected by these practices."
Kari Petersen, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"Information can easily be organized in ways that make it not
dishonest, but at the same time creates a false image of candidates."
Amanda Pearson, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"It is evident that even the most conservative newspapers are staffed
largely by writers and editors who would call themselves liberals."
Akiko T. Graves, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"Alice Clausing was ostracized from a large portion of her area
because Jay Grigga just happened to be publisher of three weekly newspapers in that
district. Clausing stated, 'How convenient that my informational news columns about state
issues of importance to residents of Northwestern Wisconsin were carefully omitted from
his papers during his tenure as publisher, then low and behold he becomes my opponent,'.
Voters who read Grigg's newspapers were not hearing from the opposition nor were they
given the information needed to make good choices. Jay Griggs did nothing legally wrong by
not publishing his opponent's news columns. That's exactly the problem. He did nothing
wrong, so this can be happening all over the state and across this country."
Alysse N. Nockels, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"In our local election for senator, our state senator's opponent was
a former publisher of a newspaper. Our senator wrote informational news columns that were
carefully omitted from his papers. She was shut out of the media in an entire portion of
her district because of one individual. This is a prime example of how much power the
media has."
Shane Swanson, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"Are they [politicians] allowing themselves to be led by public
relations' people? How many of their decisions and actions are controlled by their wanting
to please the media rather than what they know is best for our country? Are the hard and
unpopular decisions being passed by in order to create the best image?"
Hannah Fawver, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"Kennedy was a forty three year old attractive senator, with an even
more attractive young wife. He had well chosen words and a youthful vigor that appealed to
the voters appreciation of personality and character. The view of the former Vice
President Richard Nixon, was a totally different story. With poorly fitting suit and a
five o'clock shadow Nixon had the look of a shifty car salesman. This made the people lose
trust in him and view him as 'tricky'".
Andrew Johnson, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"Political coverage is becoming more of a theatrical play.
Controlling the action and creating the scenes rather than reporting aspects of a
political campaign. The media tries to make 'boring' political campaigning more exciting
by touching up a little and leaving information out here and there, so the news will be
more exciting and entertaining to the viewers. Reporters dig into anything and everything
that may be a possible scandal in order to interest the viewers, rather than looking in
depth at the issues that will affect our lives. The question I ask is this: Is this what
we as a society, want and expect? Are we that shallow? Or, is this what the media only
thinks we want to hear?"
Hannah Fawver, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"Some examples of the media's political impact in my area are: for
people with money to buy negative political ads, the lack of information behind the
stories and articles that are printed in local newspapers, and the media's ability to
limit the choice in candidates to represent the area."
Alysse N. Nockels, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"News is everywhere, television, radio, newspaper, even the internet.
People don't know if we are better informed or jsut overwhelmed, and can we believe
everything we hear in the news? There seems to be a shift from in-depth coverage to very
short, superficial coverage. Is the media just providing what our society now wants due to
everyone's increasingly busy schedules or is society just accepting what the media hands
us in their attempts to grab a piece of the financial pie? The truth lies somewhere in
between."
Hannah Fawver, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"Overall I think the media is a big help to society. Somehow they are
always present when news is happening. They give us information we wouldn't always hear on
our own."
Kari Petersen, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"Thomas Jefferson was accused of seducing a Virginian 'blue blood',
fathering several mulattos, and being an atheist. Andrew Jackson was called a murderer,
gambler, and an adulterer. Grover Cleveland was accused of fathering an illegitimate
child. He never admitted its paternity, but he accepted responsibility. His opponents made
up this chant to taunt him: Ma, Ma, where's my Pa? Gone to the White House Ha! Ha! Ha! All
of these men won office, as many others have who were subject to 'mud-slinging'."
Kari Petersen, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"On either side of the Boshwitz/Welstone campaign there were two very
different types of ads. Rudy Boshwitz used a very negative and sometimes insulting theme
in his ads. He was trying to make people mistrust Welstone by saying that he had burned a
flag, and in an earlier campaign by sending out letters to Jewish people that said that
Welstone was a poor example of a Jew. Both of these methods were very offensive, and
neither of which were base don fact. Many of the things Boshwitz said did more damage to
his campaign than to the Welstone Campaign. Paul Welstone used mostly positive adds that
portrayed what he had worked for over the last years and what he stood for. Whenever
Welstone refuted the negative ads, he did so by using quotes form the congressional record
to show where he correctly stood. Welstone also used excerpts from the congressional
record to show how he and Boshwitz had voted in order to truthfully show where they
stood."
Andrew Johnson, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"It is becoming tougher and tougher to capture and maintain a share
of the market. News, almost out of necessity, becomes tailored to fit a particular
audience."
Hannah Fawver, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"When money limits are set and biases are distinguished, we can trust
voters to make informed choices…When money and political bias are thrown aside, the
candidates can make themselves and their platforms known to the public."
Alysse N. Nockels, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"There are places on the internet that 'promise' to give you all the
information, the candidate's message unfiltered and uncensored. There are chat rooms where
you can actually talk to all the candidates. When reading the fine print, this program
states that there is a price to those who want their messages to be shown. Computers and
the Internet are not available to all. Money talks, media listens."
Alysse N. Nockels, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"The general population seems to believe what is written in
newspapers, magazines, or on TV as the truth. We all need to look deeper and so some of
our own research on the topics at hand. We must begin to care about our country again and
who our nations leaders will be."
Kari Petersen, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"The incumbents of any election should share equal media coverage
with their opponents. Elections should not be a man vs. man conflict. They need to be the
people of the United States vs. the problems facing our country. Once we start looking at
it from that perspective, then we will have a stable and reliable election system where
the people believe their vote really counts!"
Alysse N. Nockels, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"The media is going to be with us no matter what we do. As voters, we just have to
be smart. We have to think through what messages the media is trying to send us about a
particular candidate. We should pay more attention to the issues the candidate is trying
to discuss and really think about the messages we see on television."
Shane Swanson, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"The media needs to be held accountable to differentiate between a news story
based on fact and an editorial based on opinion. Alice Clausing is still our 10th District
State Senator, but she encountered her share of obstacles."
Alysse N. Nockels, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"Most of the candidates you do not hear of are the people who do not have enough
money to get a 30-second sound bite on television. I believe that every person who runs
for any election should have a certain amount of free air time so people can hear what
they are planning to do during their term. That would help many people to choose whom to
vote and would most likely make our country a better place because we would actually have
the candidate who is best for our country in office. We would also have a large variety of
candidates to choose from. Therefore, by allowing all of the candidates free air time, we
could increase our voting percentage by a large amount."
Mia Van Der Paardt, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"Television should get rid of the negative ads. The campaign season should be a
lot shorter so the media doesn't have as much time to cut down the candidates. Also,
television should just carry one presidential debate. Reporters should try to heighten
what is important, rather than what is trivial. They should get more one-on-one interviews
with the candidates and do more documentaries about then…Also, they [should] put less
emphasis on polling. The media comes out with a new poll every week. We need to look at
the whole picture instead of always looking for who's on first. We can worry less about
what is going to happen tomorrow and worry more about what happened yesterday."
Shane Swanson, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"Wisconsin Representative Bob Dueholm says…voters use television or radio
sound bites to pique their interest to pursue an issue further and not to take a sound
bite as the whole story."
Kari Petersen, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"This year, being an election year, seemed to be one of the best, but the worst
examples of how much media can either hurt or help a candidate. Every time I would turn on
the television, the radio, or look at the paper, there would be an ad or a story about
something that one of the candidates did wrong. Who is right? How do you know what is fact
and what is fiction? There is no real way of knowing the truth, unless somebody actually
invests the time of looking into it [him or her] self."
Mia Vander Paardt, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"The television audience, as a result, is broader, less educated, less
sophisticated, and less interested in public affairs that the readership of
newspapers.…What makes the television revolution even more destabilizing to the
established order than earlier communication revolutions is its ease of accessibility to
the least politically sophisticated strata of society. When Latin was translated into
common tongues during the Renaissance, when the penny press emerged in the nineteenth
century, the availability of information expanded for all groups, but the increase was
greatest among the social, economic, and political elites. These elites served as a filter
of political information; they explained government and politics to the masses. With
television there is no need for intermediation. People can see with their own eyes."
Jason Nichols, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin
"Many historians believe that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington would have
done poorly on television…Some even feel that Franklin Roosevelt would have mad a
weak impression on the world if he would have done a television debate considering he was
in a wheelchair the final years of his term "
Akiko T. Graves, Luck Community School, Luck Wisconsin