so did the number and diversity of those allowed to vote. This new group of voters included women, the poor, and minorities. These newcomers to politics were obviously not as informed as their white male counterparts, who had been voting for some time now, and because of this they turned to the print media for help. The print media obliged with articles and stories explaining the candidate’s views on different issues and their political platform. This was fine except that many people were either illiterate or did not receive these papers and magazines to begin with and, as a result, did not vote at all or voted the way their friends and relatives did. This problem continued, as we fast forward through time and space, until the 1950’s when an amazing invention known as the television was released on the unsuspecting American population.The television set allowed candidates running for election to reach voters that, up to this point, were out of their reach either due to campaign time restraints or the inability to get the “word” out to them altogether. Candidates quickly jumped on this opportunity to make themselves and their ideas known to as many people as possible. Newscasters were the candidate’s biggest ally, presenting stories and features on the candidate’s views and beliefs. Things were going great except for one small problem; no one was listening. Television brought with it an escape from the mundane world where things did not always work out in the end and offered in its place a world of excitement and intrigue. A place where a guy could be more than a factory worker, he could be a cop on the mean streets of San Francisco or an explorer of space, the final frontier. Next to all of this, politics, believe it or not, was boring. The general public’s interest was no longer held by stuffy men bantering on about deficit this and embargo that. As great of an idea as television w...
