A week ago, a video, which recorded Donald Trump talking about his attempts to grope and seduce a married woman, was released to the public. Later, several women who said they had been sexually assaulted by Trump came out to the media to have their voices heard. Even though Trump apologized after the release of the video from 2005, the scandal still became ubiquitous in newspapers, drawing a great deal of attention.
The Republican presidential candidate is having a crisis, and it is being illustrated by his vast drop in the polls.
In the meantime, a U.S. ship fired missiles on Yemeni rebels, and Wikileaks, an anti-secret organization, released thousands of emails from Clinton’s private email server.
Trump’s scandal was covered more than both of these incidents, and was discussed over and over again in the media. The repetition of a certain incident is referred as priming in media theories. What the media covers and how great of an exposure its audience has to it plays a big role in politics.
If people are only made aware of a controversy for one candidate and not of another, they could be mislead when heading to the polls.
Trump has shown disrespect and discrimination to people of different genders, ethnicities and national origins, but he is not the most important thing happening in the world.
However, it appears that the media does not see it this way. The media’s job is to convey accurate and unbiased information to voters; its journalists shouldn’t solely be focused on reporting events that will bring in an audience. Media outlets have an obligation to inform voters, especially during an election year, not just line their own pockets.
When the FBI was investigating Clinton’s private email server, it quickly became the focus of the media. If one was to have only read the headlines at the time, Clinton may have come across as nothing more than a dishonest, secretive candidate.
Can Trump or Clinton represent the U.S. better? There is no single answer here. For each voter, this is a question that will require careful thought and consideration. However, without neutral and authentic media coverage to inform voters, information that voters deserve to have, they may be forced to make a decision in an arbitrary way. This could lead to a disastrous outcome in the presidential election.
A well-informed electorate and rational decision-making are crucial to a democracy. Trump’s attitude and his previous experience with women, is, indeed, an important issue for the voters, and it should not be overemphasized. There are other important events happening in our world, ones that may have just as big of an impact on the future of our country as the presidential election. Democracy is a collective effort to try and make the best decisions for a nation.
The media plays an enormous role in both America’s democracy and democracies overseas. And because of the significant role it has, the media must return to providing the everyday person more holistic news coverage. Focusing the majority of its coverage on one event is simply unacceptable.
Flora is sophomore intending to major in journalism and music. Do you agree with her that media outlets have given too much coverage to the presidential candidates? Let us know at opinion@dailycardinal.com.
