A weblog for Pete Ellertsen's mass communications students at Benedictine University Springfield.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_exclusive/20101025/pl_yblog_exclusive/poll-whats-wrong-with-washington-its-the-people-in-charge-not-the-system;_ylt=Ao4RFg188B.ITwBq0325BiKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTVsbTB2MWFlBGFzc2V0A3libG9nX2V4Y2x1c2l2ZS8yMDEwMTAyNS9wb2xsLXdoYXRzLXdyb25nLXdpdGgtd2FzaGluZ3Rvbi1pdHMtdGhlLXBlb3BsZS1pbi1jaGFyZ2Utbm90LXRoZS1zeXN0ZW0EY2NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwMyBHBvcwM1BHB0A2hvbWVfY29rZQRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNwb2xsd2hhdHN3cm8-

9 comments:

Haleyobrien said...

Well first of all, it is ridiculous that almost every single commercial is a negative ad campaign. I was watching TV yesterday and I saw an ad for Alexi and the next ad was bashing Alexi. It is overwhelming! Also, by putting negative ads like these on TV just add to people's views on the government. I think our government is corrupt and these dumb commercials just add to it! When these commmercials are on TV and the runners promise all these things, but don't follow through, it just adds to the "sense that our political system is broken."

Pete said...

Thanks for posting, Haley. That's a good word for it, overwhelming. After a while, all the charge-and-counter-charge just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

And I've got to say this: When I covered politics and government as a newspaper reporter, I got to know a lot of politicians. And most of them struck me as decent, hard-working people ... not liars or crooks. Yet the impression we get from the way they talk about each other, and keep hammering away in the ads, we think of them all as just liars and crooks.

Kayla said...

I try not to watch many campaign commericals because just like Haley said their just too much! After watching these clips it just makes you realize that all these commericals are negative and just try to bring down the others. It certainly does not add to the corrupt government that we already have!

AndrewColeman said...

Negative political advertising plays a major role in the way that people percieve the government. I think in many ways the political ads going on are very misleading to the viewer. Much of the information is embelished and alot of the points are not valid. All I would like to know is the candidates goals, not what the other candidate did.

Katie Barling said...

I think these 4 campaign ad's are all very clever. But do they get all the main points across, NO. I think they all try to be positive in retrospect but then turn into negativity. If I had to vote for an Alaskan representative based upon these ad's I would gladly choose the last spot. His ad is the most clever, and to me it really shows he cares about Alaska. I really don't care to watch these ad's, to be honest I think it is a bit ridiculous, it just shows that no person can be that "better man". Every single candidate takes a "shot" at each other. I don't appreciate seeing it in between commercials.

kdowis said...

The negativity in these commercials I thank play a major role in why our generation is so politically apathethic. We are told these are the people who will represent us, however they can't even represent themselves without bashing their opponents - and to make it worse they don't even use the opponents issues,; they use character flaws. This is why we dont feel as though we can trust anyone in politics, because they all say the same things & they always end up lying. I think political figures need to grow up and stand up for the people of this country who they are supposed to be helping!

Teriann said...

The negative commercials are most definetly getting on my nerves! It has just gotten out of hand with how they will bash each other and their families, their lives, so that they will be elected?!?! This is absolutely a reason that we do not trust the government. They need to focus more on themselves and how they will successed instead of how the other person will not. Our political system is definetly broken.

Cait131 said...

The videos definitely try to put down other people. Negativity. Does negative political advertising play a role in ways that people see the government? Yes, in my opinion it does. Many political advertisments can be misleading to people. Not all of the ads are negative, but a lot of them are. The majority anyways. And I honestly just think the way they are doing these things is stupid.

Gljudson91 said...

The ads are so funny to me I think the point is that a lot of people see the government as an over powered system and it's not ran correctly my thing is candidates bash other candidates are giving negative fallacies which is not talking about how they are goin to change but they are talking about other candidates point of view which is dumb because people want to know what are you going to do for me that the last candidate did not do but to be honest all fail horribly

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About Me

Springfield (Ill.), United States
I'm a retired English, journalism and cultural studies teacher at Springfield College in Illinois (acquired by Benedictine University and subsequently closed). I coordinate jam sessions for the "Clayville Pioneer Academy of Music" at Clayville Historic Site and the Prairieland Strings dulcimer club, and I sing in the choir and the contemporary praise team at Peace Lutheran Church in Springfield. On Hogfiddle I post links and video clips for our sessions and workshops on the mountain dulcimer (a.k.a. "hog fiddle"), as well as research notes on folklore and cultural studies, hymnody and traditional Anglo-Celtic and Scandinavian music. I also posted assignments and readings in my interdisciplinary humanities classes. The Mackerel Wrapper (now on hiatus), carried assignments and readings for my mass comm. students. I started teaching b/log when I chaired SCI-Benedictine's assessment committee, and reopened it as the privatization of public schools grew increasingly troubling and closer to home.