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Television Dbq

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Effects of Television on Coverage People say television has increased people's awareness of politics to make elections more fair and accessible. However, I think TV has had a negative impact because it promotes a superficial image and provides content that will give the TV station good ratings.
Television promotes the candidates’ image over their policies. Instead of the candidates discussing what they are going to do for the country, they simply argue why they are better than each other. The candidates being televised gives the audience a sense of knowing them, which causes them to “no longer feel the need for party guidance”(Source B). In other words, the audience no longer feels the need of the politician's policies due to basing their judgments on the superficial characteristics. In a recent political debate, candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton argued that their images weren’t very presidential. It started off with Trump saying Clinton didn’t have the looks and the stigma of a president and she quickly fired back that Trump didn’t have the temperament. Instead of discussing how they were going to run the country they just bickered about appearance. The …show more content…

Over time, TV lost its viewers and ratings because people turned away from politics. In order for the television stations to gain back viewers and ratings, the stations “dumbed down the issues by forcing the candidates to respond instantaneously” (Source C). This made the debates more interesting, boosting ratings and viewers. This also provided less information about the politicians. Dumbing down the information has turned the debate into game making it less about the politicians content and more about arguing over pointless things and ratings. However this has furthermore decreased the interest in politics. Even the stations that dumb down content “are failing, more often than not, to get good ratings”(Source

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