| richardhutnik said: Just wondering if the media would benefit if a presidential election was set to be a blow out and not remain close? I am curious what benefit they would have by NOT saying the election is close and telling others to stay tuned. |
Talking to your base/personal prefrences. Argueably most of the media does not target moderates... because moderates rarely watch the news. It's a good thing to note that CNN is the least watched news station... except whenever there is a shooting or a terrorist attack or somethign. Then it shoots to first place, because it's the "most trusted" name in news, and the one all the moderates watch. (Though it's moving away from this.)
If we're talking elections... are you going to aim for the "Democrats or not voting", "Republicans or not voting" or the indepentents. Independents are a small portion of the electorate compaired to either big base. Who mostly want to only hear good news about their side one way or the other. Few people actually care about politics, and more about having their prefrences justified. Reporting an election how it is, really is only of interst to "true moderates" and then people who like to talk about elections in other countries as well... because they find poltics interesting and are curious about who's going to get elected everywhere.
That said, i think such things arne't actually consious deciesions so much as the case of a general groupthink that kind of involves most of the media. That in general and a unwillingless to report things differently.
If you had to draw a parralel a good example would be sexism in the media. Sure there are the occasional outlier reporter who's actually sexist like say... Chris Matthews, but mostly there is a prevelent sexism in coverage and how stories are reported largely due to a groupthink and male mindset that generally causes stories to be written and reported differently in slight ways that make all the differnce.
"IE one party hit's back about something, the party complains about it.... one side get's it's authority positions dropped in conversation more etc."
