The article ‘Bill Clinton the Man in Demand for Democrats’ is an example of free media. The article lists a number of Clintons stops along the campaign trail e.g. “The former president starts Monday in Kentucky, where he teams up with Jack Conway…Next Clinton heads to West Virginia, where he's the main attraction at a rally in Morgantown, West Virginia for Gov. Joe Manchin. Later Monday Clinton flies to Syracuse, New York, where he headlines a rally for Rep. Dan Maffei.” The article goes on to say that Obama is very popular with a favorable rating of 65%. This article, by Paul Steinhauser is an example of free media according to the textbook which states that free media is news coverage about a political campaign as opposed to paid advertisement material for a campaign (60).
As well as providing the audience with times and locations it also provides a context for Clinton’s campaign trail. The article states that the locations that Clinton plans to speak at have something in common which is that they are, “all areas where moderate to conservative voters predominate, and where arguably the former president may be more popular that President Barack Obama.” The democrats are relying on Clinton to rally the democrats who aren’t supporters of Obama.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a great example of free media it helps to show the free media that Clinton is receiving but it also shows the free media the whole Democratic Party is gaining even if it hints at Clinton being more popular than Obama. The free media will help both the attentive and inattentive public to become more aware of the involvement of the Democratic Party and to see how Clinton is making his way to get in touch with everyday Americans that Obama’s campaign has not touched and it helps that President Clinton is helping to rally those voters to still stay positive and supportive of the Democratic Party as a whole.
ReplyDeleteFree media is right! Clinton has been out of the presedential seat for more than 10 years now and yet, he is still considered a very influential and highly publicized politician. News coverages are definitely giving him free advertisement and keeping him "in the game". Which then keeps Hilary Clinton in the game and like Courtney said, its free media for the whole democratic party. I was wondering however if CNN is more aligned with democrats or republicans. It would make sense for CNN to cover this story if they were more aligned with Democrats. Anyhow, this free media has also helped Obama's campaign becuase Clinton is reaching those audience members who have felt nothing is being done.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing,
-Damian
This was an interesting article because it has been very apparent that Bill Clinton and others have been getting a lot of "Free Media" lately. It reminds me of the 2008 election when President Obama had a ton of free media and basically a free pass by the media. Damian brings up a good point how President Clinton has been out of the seat for over 10 years now yet still is a "big shot" in the democratic party. This is mostly because of the free media he has gotten over the years, appearing on Larry King and doing interviews with many talk show hosts. Of course politically its an advantage for both President Obama and Hillary Clinton to have President Clinton campaigning for both of them and getting a lot of free media in the process.
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