ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on why the media have become so important in American politics. The emphasis on the media as the technique to reach the voters has created a whole new industry in the United States: media expertise with specialists who can create the kind of image that the candidate wants to project into voters' living rooms. The media men increasingly tell the candidate what the candidate wants to do. And the media peoples' ideas are shaped largely by the polls they take. The good media people work very hard to line up five-minute spots but most of them just abandon the idea. As far as the primary election process and non-federal elections, however, a major task of every candidate is to raise money in order to be able to finance media activity. The public financing aspect of the system comes down to money for primaries and money for the general election.
