1992-1993 Harry Singer Foundation National Essay Contest
What Role Does and What Role Should the Media
Play In Choosing Our Candidates For National Office?
Teacher: Wanda Allen
Camden Central High School, Camden, Tennessee
1st Aaron Guillory
2nd Lisa Hollingsworth 3rd Matt
Lowe
"...the media is biased towards female candidates....Reporters from papers like the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times wrote almost nine paragraphs more each day about races with female candidates." unidentified student
"The media should have been reporting on candidates and issues, not on misspellings and rumors." unidentified student
"In my opinion, the role the media plays in the election process is scary." unidentified student
The media is there to find truth and express it in a professional fashion. If we look at the media in a positive light, we can see the benefits. . .outweigh the negative. . . This is why the media does and should play a large role in helping to choose our candidates for national office. The media should be commended for their superb job and effort to help inform us on political matters." unidentified student
"The reason that the media coverage is infested with biases and unequal coverage of candidates and issues is because it is a business. Competing networks sometimes do anything to distinguish themselves in their coverage of the same news because money is involved. If a network is primarily concerned about making money, a conflict of interests may arise, given the opportunity. I work on a newspaper, and an editorial was discarded when it was learned that the institution it was criticising was buying an add." unidentified student
"They should not be able to use polls as a means of determining who is in the lead." unidentified student
"I believe that people or candidates who want to gain the public's trust should be willing to give up their privacy on matters of money and illness but that is as far as it should go." unidentified student
Some think that if politicians are going to run our lives, the least we can expect in return is some entertainment value out of them." unidentified student