The media effects the political process enormously. The presidential election gets turned into a popularity contest soon after the media gets involved. Many newspapers and TV news's only show parts of debates that maybe interesting such as bad comments or a small section a debate to make a candidate look bad. However the media good also have a very positive influence on the public. A lot of media attention can be good because it will get the candidate well known and possibly get them a lot more votes.
Much of the media is out there to educate the voter on many of the issues out their today and the positions the candidates take on these issues. Some popular issues these days are abortion, death penalty, welfare, and education. In many newspapers candidates" will state there positions and make their selves sound good to impress all the voters. One very common statement used is the quote from the bible, thou shall not kill, as a comment against abortion. .
Research on Australian elections say that candidates' use of the media can have a strong impact on those who make up their minds about candidates during the campaign. These voters are more likely to be convinced by political debates than people who have decided who to choose before a campaign starts. While other voters use the media because they are interested in politics, voters that have not decided refer to media sources for information about parties, candidates, and issues.
In some political campaigns, even the lack of debates can have significance. Both of the major U.S. political parties have used such strategies, considered to be departures from ethical behavior. The televised debates sometimes affect the candidates in a positive and negative way. However when candidates don't debate it sometimes give them an advantage because they don't criticized about what they did or didn't say.
