How Has Television Affected Presidential Elections

Television has been influential in United States presidential elections since the 1960’s. It almost feels like without television, there’s no election. That’s how important the broadcasting of elections on Television has become. Television started the era of “movie star presidencies.” Presidential elections have become more accessible to Americans, but less fair. Because there’s more audience watching, presidents are required/supposed to look and appear “presidential.” This means they have to appear as pleasing as possible to the Americans people. They got to have white teeth, good smile, tall, etc. Image has taken over policies in the age of television. The use of television to broadcast the presidential elections has been used in the American household since the late 1940’s. As

People listened and comprehended each presidential candidate’s policy carefully. They didn’t think much about the candidates looks. When television was introduced, it changed everything. Even though television made presidential elections accessible, it also made it less fair. Presidential candidates now have to look “pleasing” to their audience. They are looked at as celebrities. That means they had to have white teeth, good smile, tall, etc. Television made looks and image more important than policies. As source B says, “because of television’s celebrity system, Presidents are losing their distinctiveness as social actors and hence are often judged by standards formerly used to assess rock singers and movie stars.” An example of this is the Kennedy v. Nixon election. JFK was more “pleasing” presidential candidate than Richard Nixon. His “image on television was “crisp”(Menand). Nixon on the other hand was not that crisp. His “light-colored suit, wrong makeup, bad posture—was “fuzzed”(Menand). As stated in source C, “An effective President must be every year more concerned with projecting images of