Media Frenzy

So the big story in the media today (the day after presidential elections) is of course Obama as the new President of the United States. Not surprisingly, this story is everywhere. Every media outlet and technology is being used to publicize and even celebrate the outcome of the election. All the news stations last night were covering the results of the elections, radio was covering the election, newspapers, websites, billboards and even bumper stickers promoted the importance of electing a new president. I found it extremely interesting how as months turned into days and days turned into hours, more media was being utilized for politics. I definitely think it is an important part of our patriotic duty as US citizens to vote and participate in elections. I noticed a lot more with this election the important role media had in helping America "know" and "see" the political canditades.

As I was thinking about all the media coverage I thought of specifically why it was important that different kinds of media were being used for an election. My first thought was this was a sure way to reach almost everyone. Since these elections are so important it is equally as important for the public to be informed. Not everyone has access to a television or the internet but radio is pretty easily accessable as is the newspaper and billboards. I also think that the compilation of all this media created a more complete whole.

As I tried to be informed about the elections I drew information from all over the place. I watched national morning news and looked at websites for both local and international news. I listened to NPR and KSL. I listened to what people were saying about the candidates, read the paper and watched the debates. By looking at the information in different media formats I was able to get a more complete picture of political standings. As the elections got closer I looked at the websites provided by each candidate. I know I didn't catch everything the candidates were working on but I was able to get a broad range of information that helped me make an informed personal decision.

Now, application for the classroom dosen't necessarily have to be about politics. I would like to explore the broad idea of utilizing all media to spread information. I think it would be benificial to talk to the class about the election and what happens in an election (being as objective as possible and leaving out personal political opinions). Explain how people vote to elect the new president of the United States. The teacher could ask the class how they thought their parents got their information (via radio, newspaper, TV, internet, etc). The teacher could give a lesson on the different strenghts and benifits of the different types of media. After the lesson, the teacher could set up a senerio saying that each student is running for president. How would they tell people to vote for them and why? How would they use media to inform their voters so they could make a decision? Each student could write a proposal for how they would use five different kinds of media to promote their campaign. Each student would get to share their proposals with the class when complete.