Politicking Goes High-Tech

Politicking Goes High-Tech

Steven V. Roberts

This reading dealt with the fact that the major decision makers for
people when voting (especially for Senators) are the television spots. The
article discussed how today's campaigns are now candidate-centered rather than
political party-centered and how they require large sums of money in order to
pay for all the advertising, and a team of professional workers rather than a
team of volunteers is a necessity. Much of the money goes to commercial
advertisements, but another large portion goes to continuous polling and direct
mail strategies.
The article talked about the need to have the speed and technology to
know how the people feel right away. A candidate cannot wait weeks or even days
for the results to come back to him or her whether he or she is in the lead.
The results are needed within hours. After getting the results from the polls,
it is then time to determine what action needs to be taken to aid your campaign
(or more often hurt your opponent). The candidate then needs to create new
television ads to make himself or herself appeal to the interests of the people
or sometimes to counteract the bad things the opponent has to say. This fight
between the television ads is often referred to as Spot Wars.
While the Spot Wars help out the candidates (or harm the opponents with
derogatory remarks), they can cost an enormous amount of money; and after being
played on television the opponent will return the attack with o...

Politicking Goes High-Tech

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