How Journalists Change Elections

In my social aspects of the media class today the subject of political priming in campaigns was the topic of the day. Priming occurs when a member of the audience is exposed to communication through the media which triggers related preexisting thoughts that were stored in the viewers' mind previously and encourages the viewer to make new associates or recall old ones. Election priming works best on people with little or no previous knowledge of politics. Reporters offer a structure in a way that people who view them would understand ads. In the 1988 presidential election between Bush and Dukakis, the Political action committee aired an ad that used the name "Willie" Horton, instead of William Horton and used the word,"weekend passes" instead of furlough. The use of the Republicans' vocabulary was widely used by reporters and set up a language to make sense of the official Bush ad which aired after the PAC ad did. The reporter use of Republican vocabulary helped voters see Dukakis as someone is who is weak on crime. When the official Bush ad was aired, it created a cognitive link and primed audiences to see "Willie" Horton when they saw the revolving door. When the Horton story was perceived by the public, the simple mention of his name triggered the story.