While voting citizens attempt to figure out for whom to vote in the upcoming presidential election, one thing is tending to get in their way: the media.

Professors Steve Davis and Grant Reeher lectured about the media’s role in the election and how it could improve in the second in a series of four lectures titled: ‘The 2004 Elections: Politics as Usual?’

Davis said the media does not always fulfill the responsibilities that it should. He offered some goals that the media should have, encouraging the media to tell citizens what the candidates are saying and then check if it is true, as well as explain the issues.

‘You should be able to pick up the newspaper and see the issues,’ Davis said.

Davis also wanted the media to hold the candidates responsible for talking about the issues and making sure to be watchdogs about how money is being raised and who is creating advertisements.

Many times, political reporters are attacked for what they cover. Davis said some reporters even receive death threats.

Because of this, Davis, who is a professor in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, said that he notices fewer of his students have the desire to become political reporters.

‘People used to want to write about politics but it’s not that way anymore,’ Davis said. ‘Kids see this today and don’t want any part of that.’

Davis compared the media’s coverage of the presidential race to the coverage of a sporting event.

‘Who’s leading after the second inning? Who’s warming up in the bullpen?’ Davis said and added that the electorate is like fans, by booing or cheering candidates when they come to speak.

Reeher also described some general problems within the media, including the concentration of the ownership of the media, political views of the reporters and the accuracy of what they are reporting.

He said the nature of news media coverage is shallow and cynical. Everything is about a sound bite, he said. Even the candidates do not get more than nine uninterrupted seconds on the news.

The news has to be new and dramatic as it talks about a cheap shot from one side and then the response to the cheap shot. Reeher used the examples of the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth advertisements against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and the attacks about President George W. Bush’s service in Vietnam.

‘The media is a sitcom that is resolved every week,’ Reeher said.

Reeher disliked the negative advertisements that have been displayed over the past few months. He said if United Airlines was trying to persuade someone to fly on their plane, they would not show a movie of an American Airlines plane crashing.

‘In the short term it might change someone’s mind,’ Reeher said. ‘But in the long term, people won’t fly at all.’

But, Davis said it is not all the media’s fault. Citizens are not informed well enough and they are more interested in entertainment than information. He said 70 percent of people get their news from cable television. Only 30 percent watch the evening news and 40 percent read the newspaper.

‘There is a problem when cable television is our main source of news,’ Davis said. ‘Two people talking to each other is not entertaining unless they are screaming at each other.’

Davis also blamed the candidates.

‘If you think the media is doing a poor job, I think the candidates are doing a lousy job,’ Davis said. ‘(The candidates) do a very good job of playing (the media), and do a good job of blaming (the media) when we don’t play along.’

Davis said many times reporters are punished when they produce a story that is not to the politicians’ liking. The reporter is no longer given the story; instead the scoop goes to a competitor.

In order to help the problem, both Davis and Reeher offered some solutions to how the coverage could be better.

Davis said he would like to see many of the reporters that follow the candidates around write stories about the issues or do fact checking instead. He also said he received good advice from his mother about what to do once the presidential debates have ended.

‘When the debate is over turn off the damn TV and make up your own mind,’ Davis said.

Reeher also offered some solutions.

‘Where is the line drawn when it comes to independent expenditures?’ Reeher said. ‘There should be a ban of all political advertising on television.’

In order to give an example of a problem in the media, a clip of ‘NOW with Bill Moyers,’ was shown that included an interview with Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s

‘The Daily Show.’ Stewart talked about how his show expressed what the rest of the media would not and how he viewed the media as a whole.

Although much of the audience at the lecture had never seen ‘The Daily Show’ before, some were impressed with its anchor.

‘I don’t watch television because I got so disgusted with it a few years ago,’ said Helen Crouch, a resident of Manlius. ‘I might watch Jon Stewart now.’

Others in the audience were worried about the awareness of the public.

‘The stats (Davis) quoted are very discouraging,’ said Minna Buck, a resident of Dewitt. ‘I was especially discouraged by the one about reading the newspaper because even our president doesn’t read them.’

Published on October 12, 2004 at 12:00 pm