Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Why does Trump still remain atop the polls? You can still blame the media.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/08/28/why-does-trump-remain-atop-the-polls-you-can-still-blame-the-media/By John Sides, Washington Post (update to Sides previous post and graph of (July 20):
................
"Cranky Reader: Sides, you are an idiot.
Me: Cranky Reader! Welcome back. It’s been a long time since you’ve been in touch.
CR: Unfortunately, it hasn’t been a long time since you’ve been dead wrong about a presidential election.
Me: What did I do now?
CR: Remember how a few weeks ago you said to “blame the media” for Trump’s surge? And how there is this cycle of “discovery, scrutiny, and decline” for primary candidates? You know, in your stupid book? Well, Trump’s been scrutinized a million times since then. And his poll numbers are just as strong! Where’s the decline?
"Me: What I mean by discovery, scrutiny and decline is that, during the presidential primary, people’s opinions respond to changes in the information they’re getting. The initial surge of news coverage drives up poll numbers. Some combination of scrutiny and the discovery of the “next” candidate brings about the decline."
August 29 media coverage graph:
&w=1484
__________________________
(Side's article from July 20 on the media created Trump "surge"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/07/20/why-is-trump-surging-blame-the-media/
"Donald Trump’s surge to the front of the GOP presidential polls has occasioned not a little media attention and endless speculation as to why. You can disregard most of that speculation. The answer is simple: Trump is surging in the polls because the news media has consistently focused on him since he announced his candidacy on June 16.
Below is a graph that I made with UCLA political scientist Lynn Vavreck using social analytic tools provided by Crimson Hexagon. These tools are devised to gather and reveal the volume and tone of media coverage on major news sites. Vavreck and I are analyzing the news coverage of presidential candidates as part of our joint work on the 2016 election.
The graph shows you how much coverage Trump got in the week before he announced his candidacy, and in the 30 days after. For comparison, there is a line for the other Republican candidates who have announced their candidacy in the past 2 months: Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, and Scott Walker.":
&w=1484
______________________________
My take based on Sides's media coverage analysis:
Trump's "rise" is not about his "charisma".
Not about his "populism".
Not about "a non-politician".
Not any of that, and not even that Trump looks like he would give away blowjobs on command for free.
It is all about the massive media coverage and slant. The advertising may be free, but it is still advertising and what is scary is how powerful that free or any advertising can be.
What will happen to the shape of public opinion in 2016, and who will the masses be forced to watch, listen to and love, hate or fear as desired when this kind of advertising is unleashed x 10, now paid for with billions and billions of dollars of targeted misinformation by undisclosed interests on an hourly basis?
Among other things Trump is also an elaborate media created dress rehearsal for the main act, a free teaser if you will, to sell potential mega-rich media ad purchasers of the power of persuasion.
What happened just now to Univisions's chief and real journalist Ramos is an example of what happens today in America to real journalists. Then we can all be sure that the fake journalists of the corporate mass media will be united in calling the cowardly lion sending in his brown shirts to physically assault the real journalist the brave one?!
Is their any doubt about the power of the media to persuade by sheer force of repetition of half-truths?
Remember the Iraq war? If you have forgotten, remember Ebola, perhaps?
5 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
