Media and Politics with David Paletz: A USP Seminar Recap

7:27 – Tori introduces professor David Paletz
Tori reads out various comments from Unis and recent media. For instance, Irene had something to say about Gene Weingarden talking about media bias toward conflict. Paletz agrees that he is correct.
7:33 – David begins. Thanks Tori, says he’ll return to the Uni comments later. He begins to talk about the election. “Obama had Bush… Obama had all of those advantages. He had one major disadvantage: the responsibilities of the presidency. High, albeit unjustified expectations”
7:35 – “One important reason was race.” Paletz points out that one study argues that Obama received 5% less than he would have received if he was white. Another study in 2012 suggested he lost 3%
Paletz begins to discuss the youth vote. “The demographic 18-29 are usually 11% of the electorate, in 2008 they increased to 18%.”
7:37 – In this election cycle, Paletz says “Obama was in trouble. The major factors that drove him to victory in 2008 had mostly dissipated in 2012.” So what he did was change his strategy. Candidates pick their strategy based on their own polls. He begins to identify features that influence a strategy:

1. PARTY identification (Paletz points out that no political parties were ever mentioned in presidential ads all this election cycle?)
2. IMAGE. The same facts can be described in many ways. Take Romney’s experience at Bain Capital. It can be described as smart, pragmatic, job creator or calculating, job exporting, uncaring
3. ISSUES. “It was clear early on that if this election was settled on Obama’s performance as a manager of the economy, he would lose.” So he responded by pivoting away to focusing on how the economy would look in the counterfactual world in which Obama was not elected.
4. The importance of the GROUND GAME. Paletz tells a fun anecdote of himself as an English schoolboy pressuring people to vote.

7:45 – Paletz discusses the impact of media on strategy. He lists four categories:

1. MEDIA ORIGINATED. The media was something they could not typically control. The comedy programs mattered. They were popular and all in Obama’s camp. The cable news channels are avowedly partisan. Talk radio is also partisan and typically against Obama’s camp.
2. MOSTLY MEDIATED. Message of the day, spinning stories, and winning story cycles. But ultimately, the media makes the decisions, which is why the candidates call the media “the Beast.” When you think of the media, you mostly think of scandals, gaffes, and goofs. You also think of news.
3. PARTLY MEDIATED. Candidates have some control over how they are presented. e.g. conventions, debates, show appearances, etc.
   Obama did not have a primary, so he did not have to take extremely liberal positions. Romney had a very hard-fought primary and found himself having to take extremely conservative positions, which meant that when he found himself in the election he was in a difficult position of either being far to the right of the mainstream or withdrawing all of his positions.
4. UNMEDIATED. The campaigns control for the content and placement of their messages, which are transmitted uninterrupted. e.g. political ads. Things that are important for political ads: credibility, memorable visuals, timing. Here Paletz shows some political ads:

8:11 – Obama ad declaring Romney a vulture capitalist. Paletz points out key details and word choice in ad.
8:15 – Romney ad declaring Romney saved his business partner’s daughter. Paletz points out key details of music and composition.
Paletz talks about recontextualizing & reframing. The New York Times reported on the effect of money in the campaign, but failed to contextualize it or point out cases where money did have a key role in the election. Two more ads:
8:22 – Obama ad pointing out how he killed Bin Laden. Paletz points out the medium and the messenger was thoughtfully chosen.
8:25 – Santorum ad showing consequences of Obama victory. Paletz points out how other countries find this perplexing.

Question and Answer section
8:28 – Daniel Rice (1st Year Law Student) asks about the Supreme Court and Citizen’s United. Paletz responds with how it has a huge impact on the local elections
8:30 – Meg Shea (Physics 2nd year) asks about how the primary processes. Paletz responds that the primary process makes the candidates vulnerable. So in the future, they will try to limit the length of the process.
8:34 – Nina Brooks (Pub Policy 1st year) Obama on whether he has a mandate going forward. Paletz points out that there are many issues, what happens internal to the party, demographics, and how the parties interact.
8:39 – Connor Tinen (Engineering) whether Obama’s coalition of women, young, middle class, urban will influence how the Republican party will evolve. Paletz says that the Republican party feels it has not run an appropriate campaign to win Cubans, and other individuals. They think they need to revise their message.
8:42 – Wanyi Ng (Mech. E fresh) Super Pacs and the presidential race. Will they ever stop? Paletz: You are so nice, he says ruefully.
8:44 – Meg Perry asks whether we can ever go moderate if all the money comes from the extremes? Paletz: if Republicans lost, they might reconsider Citizen’s United.
8:47 – MaryAnne (Div 1), where do you see CNN? Paletz: in theory, CNN is in the middle, but in practice they are merely commentators on the other channels.
8:49 – Sarah Feagles (Business 1), what will the news channels do now that the election is over? Paletz: cable television relies on the pomp over policy. We just don’t know.
8:53 – Abhijit Mehta (Physics 8): what kind of effect will polling and Nate Silver have on the media? Paletz: the polls have done well despite their limitations. Pollsters are not happy with his popularity.
8:57 – Andrew Cannon (Div 2): what is the role of faith in the campaigns? Paletz: I must be careful, because this has caused problems in my class, particularly with relation to Sandy. If we take this at its word, then perhaps God wanted the Democrats to win with Sandy. God is central to American politics, especially when seen externally.
9:03 – Greg Payne (Business 2): Do you think the Republicans missed out on the opportunity to highlight Romney’s positive religious aspects without emphasizing Mormonism. Paletz: they decided that there was no way to use Mormonism, the electorate that could be swayed by it was already going to vote for him
9:06 – Nina: what about the cult of personality around Obama. Paletz: shows Super Pac ad attacking Obama for being popular yet ineffective.
9:09 – Thank you all.