LSE - Small Logo
LSE - Small Logo

Charlie Beckett

November 7th, 2012

Some media-related questions after Obama’s victory

4 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Charlie Beckett

November 7th, 2012

Some media-related questions after Obama’s victory

4 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Some media-related questions after Obama’s victory. (Some of these are stupid, some rhetorical, and the list will grow) Please feel free to suggest more via @CharlieBeckett or in the comments.

1. Why do political journalists still treat campaigns like theatre or sport when it is now maths? (cf Nate Silver)

2. What difference does the short campaign (last 2 months) make?

3. Everyone says events like Sandy or the first TV debate ‘made no difference in the end’ – but did they make a real difference at the time? (cf UK General Election 2010)

4. Was the election really so close, or does the news media need a tight finish to justify their investment and boost ratings?

5. Was there any more policy debate involved in voters’ decisions in USA 2012 than there will be at the NC of CPC2012?

6. (From @StefanStern)  Did editors think electoral college system was too complicated/obscure to bother explaining it fully, sooner? Because citing only a national poll and saying it’s “too close to call” was not really the most accurate account

7. Just how embarrassed are these guys?

8. Who was most accurate in predicting the result – the pollsters or the pundits? (Peter Kellner thinks pollsters – obviously)

9. (From @EdStaite) Is media obsession with process (tactics/strategy) getting in the way of meaningful debate on issues e.g level of debt? [I would answer yes, but it’s mainly because politicians don’t want to debate Big Issues and the public can’t be bothered to read the reams of policy detail that was actually put out by both candidates]

10. (An easy one to get us into double figures) What was the most retweeted tweet of the election? Answer here

11. (From @MarkPack) Why do British journalists report so many US political rallies without ever asking why they work there and not here? (the UK)

12. From @TimNewburn: Did social media play any significant role other than in helping the circulation of news, opinion & gossip?

13. From @Elle12twee  Obama had a Social Media advantage since his Facebook/Twitter were created in 2006. Was this a contributing factor to his 2012 election win?

14. From  @AntSilverman: Was social media more influential as a campaign tool or a way for media to gather & share content?

 

About the author

Charlie Beckett

Posted In: Politics

4 Comments

Comments are closed.