In the United States of America, we have these little things called elections, and they are held every four years. It is a fairly simple process: whoever gets the most votes wins and, therefore, becomes President. So where does this leave the rest of us? Well, it is our job as citizens to participate and vote, making a clear and concise choice after many hours of carefully deliberation and thorough investigation of the candidates" policies. But does it really always work this way? Actually, we just might be less involved than we thought. In order to be a successful politician, one must be a master of speech and well learned in the ways of their biggest asset of all: the media. The media has an enormous amount of influence over the entire nation. Therefore, politicians must use this to their advantage to best coax the casual viewer into thinking they"re the best person for the job. A politician will achieve this by exploiting the public's fears and guilt.
The media is a manipulating device, and can be easily manipulated itself. The first thing a politician will do is go right after what the general public fears most. This really is just to get people thinking. Whether it is nuclear war, unemployment, or inflated property taxes, the campaigner will stop at nothing to put images in a citizen's head that may scare, or at least worry, that person. For instance, the politician will conjure up things the nation should fear, and will then proceed to tell you that with him in office, our nation could avoid all of these problems. Think about it: when are people generally most susceptible to influence? Usually, when people are afraid or worried, they are likely to agree with the most confident-looking person, who in this case is our friendly politician. This plan works perfectly in today's age of technology, where the media is the most widespread element on our planet. A whole country can be reached and affected by one speech.
