Gershkoff, Kushner and Obama

As the Professor has pointed out, Barack Obama in his campaign developed and shaped his narrative consistently throughout the campaign.

Although President-elect Obama was an amazing marketer, the media helped his cause and played an important role in this election I am not proposing a conspiracy where the media was biased and did what it could to help Obama get elected, I am arguing that Obama used the media (which acted as it usually does and I believe Obama's campaign staff knew this) to his advantage.

Although Hochschild (summarizing Jacobs and Shapiro) states that "this whole elaborate strategy of crafting the message seems not to work," I believe that this is only true in strategies involving policy reform (like Clinton's health care plan). On the other hand, when a candidate like Barack Obama is able to form an push a strong and persuasive narrative to the American public, it seems to be a successful campaign strategy. Furthermore, Shapiro states that

"The media do...amplify and distort partisan disputes and increasingly report on political stratagems rather than substantive policy proposals."

If this is true, then the media certainly was able to help Obama in his campaign against the much less interesting and sellable John McCain. Seeing as the media focuses on story lines and "political stratagems" then Barack Obama was certainly able to capitalize on his strong personality and outgoing appeal to the American public, using the media as his tool and method to get to the American people (knowing that they would carry his narrative and story because of its appeal).

Furthermore, we know that statistically speaking Obama got more media exposure then McCain (I know this is an old and limited state, but I tried to find what I could) and we know from Behr and Iyengar that the amount and matter in which an issue is found in the media greatly effects its importance and the public's responses and beliefs about and issue. In addition, we know thatMcCain got more negative coverage than Obama, which might have persuaded the people who saw this coverage to vote for Obama instead of Mccain.

Lastly, as stated above, Obama was able to carry a strong narrative, and convince the public that he not only had the better agenda, but was also able to carry out his plans for the United States. This clearly echoes (although in a different context) the words of Gershkoff and Kushner who argue that the statements made by politicians (and especially those highlighted by the media) with great repetition will stick to the American people and impact their opinions and choices of who and what to support.