ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the impact of the media, especially television, on elections and politics in general. Ideally, the media should communicate the kind of political information that the electorate needs in order to make rational voting decisions. Media coverage is the very lifeblood of politics because it shapes the perceptions that form the reality on which political action is based. Many politicians and academics do believe that the American media are politically biased. Media personnel may try to penetrate the politicians veneer but, they provide mostly a simplistic, trivial and perhaps distorted picture. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) audiences are very small, however, with a quality political programme attracting about 1 per cent of the nation's viewers. Main impact of television on the substance of Americans political beliefs stems from its power to help set the political agenda. Most Americans appear to value entertainment more than real politics and that is what both politicians and the media seek to give them.
