ught to thepublic's attention, as it should have been. Age was not seen as affecting his behavior,analytic ability, concentration, and memory. (Abrams 1998,p.481) It is not truly knownwhether his age would have been a matter of consequence in the election, but the mediacertainly didn't help it out any. Campaign information affects voters' issue preferences, candidate evaluations, andthe likelihood of voting. Exposure, reception, and acceptance all play a role in thisgathering of campaign information and in the voter perception. Exposure involves onephysical proximity to a message. Reception involves actually getting or taking in amessage. Lastly acceptance involves allowing the information contained within themessage to influence one's preference, opinion, or attitude. (Shaw 1999,p.347) The morecampaign ads seen and the amount of campaigning covered also has a greater effect on thevoter turnout and the information gathered about the candidates and the issues. Campaigns are used to prime the voter's perceptions of politics and their candidatepreferences. "To a considerable degree the art of politics in a democracy is the art ofdetermining which issue dimensions are of major interest to the public or can be madesalient in order to win public support." (London ) Many times the media often bring up the worst in a public official or candidate asseen by that of Bob Dole. They cover low salient issues that are irrelevant to everyday lifeand also overplay or cover the issue too much. Another example is with the TexasGovernor, George W. Bush. The main issue on the media's mind was the rumor of hispast cocaine use. They should have been covering his views on Social Security,HealthCare Reform, Russia , and the Middle-east. Only 7% of the major three eveningnewscasts during August dealt with politics. Half of the stories were dealing with Bushand his use in his younger age and Clinton's marriage. The media should be filling in tothe p...
