U.S. Presidential Elections-Power of Television

So what can I say about the US Presedential Elections? It was a seemingly neverending saga. It all began with with the votes in the caucauses and the primaries the year before. The press seemed to make the elections a tournament based procedure. First there was the semi-finals: Barack Obama versus Hilary Clinton. On the other side there was John McCain and Mike Huckabee. Of course that's when the squabbling started, especaily within the press. Rumours of unrest and internal spats within both Republican and Democratic campaigns were the ideal way of fattening the inside of papers on this two year journey to the White House.

I found the television to be the best form of communicating the election to the public. Of the channels available, I found that Sky News was by far the best channel to watch. It had very good displays in studio detailing where the election would be won and lost. It showed very clearly how the electoral college vote system works, it forecasted how both sides were competing in the swing states and live reporters at the scene added to the huge spectacle. Radio also competed very well during the election campaign and to a lesser extent so did the papers. Yet neither o these 2 mediums could hold a candle to television. Nevertheless channels like Sky News could , nearly in real time, bring you live feeds of where all the drama was unfolding. It was great to watch it all going on in front of your eyes, even if that meant staying awake through the night.

It seems clear to me that the power of the television media was put on full show and the professionalism of a channel like Sky One shone through with fantastic indications of competent and interesting news reports.