Look out!
Hey, you are being bombarded - with the media! Did you ever think about how many media messages - from billboards, magazines, Internet pop-up ads, radio, television and newspapers - you see and hear in one day? Try 3,000! And the number goes up during elections, when political candidates use the media to convince YOU to vote for THEM.
Remember - all those ads are carefully staged to have the maximum effect on you - the viewer. How do you sort out all those messages and pick the candidate you really want? One way is to think of the word STAGE:
- Symbols
- Flags, monuments, cute babies - what do they mean? How does a campaign use them? Why?
- Techniques
- Lighting, scenery, background, camera work, music - how do they make you feel? Could they change the way you think about a candidate?
- Action
- What's going on? Is it something that really happened or does it just look that way? Does it hold your interest? Why?
- Groups
- Who is the target group? How can you tell? Check out the people, how they speak, how they are dressed. If it's a TV ad, what show does it run with?
- Engaged
- How does the message engage, or involve, the audience? Are the issues engaging or is it the way they are presented?
More links about political advertising:
- http://www.frankwbaker.com/media_politics.htm
- http://www1.medialiteracy.com
- http://www.medialit.org/
