ABSTRACT
This chapter first explores how the media helped elect an ex-movie and television actor, Ronald Reagan, as president of the United States. It then discusses how television helped him govern and survive one of the most explosive political scandals of the century, retiring as the most popular president in recent times. Next the chapter examines the 1988 presidential election and discusses the ways in which television and the transformation of politics into a battle of images helped George Bush win the presidency. It argues that television and the media were key factors in protecting the Reagan administration from complete collapse after the Iran/Contra affair in 1986-1987 and in electing Bush president in 1988, thus preserving the conservative hegemony that the media had helped construct during the first half of the decade. The chapter also argues that this "hegemony" argument is more illuminating than the "postmodern" image analysis, which claims that television's most important effects are to replace "reality" with images.
