Primedia: Who knew?

Greetings! It’s election day, 2016.  Nothing needs to be said about the last 18 months. However, I’m sure social scientist have much data for presentations, articles and manuscripts. Aside from this election I have long been interested in the role of the media in the political landscape. I believe the media, mostly televised media, has had the most profound impact on modern American politics. I have found that the television has become the primary source of political information, and the American public has become dependent on television to that end. Thus, policymakers, political parties, and lobbyists have used television as a medium to block or promote legislation. The television clearly yet is the easiest way to convey a message to millions of people.

In the early 1990s I came up with the term “primedia.”  The word captured my concept of the increasing role of television in politics, from campaigns to talk shows. I saw television as the primary medium by which political ideas were shared at the time. A point of interest was voters being removed from candidates and elected officials and only being exposed to polished and well edited sound bites. In the late 1990s I wrote a number of columns for a local political magazine that chronicled the historical development, as well as some other concerns for the future. Specifically, I looked at campaigns, legislation, public influence, voter apathy, and the effect on the information once it had been edited for television.

In the last 20 years my notion about media creating a gap between voters and public policy went from an informal gap into an impersonal great canyon.  Of course there was no way to even imagine the role of social media, and how memes and limited text might completely remove substance from the political discussion. Given this last presidential campaign and the continuing development of personal technology, I tremble to think what awaits the future dissemination of political information.

Be informed. Vote.

Tom