On Friday, Mitt Romney intended to give a moving speech, speaking about ways to revive the American economy. Sadly, what he gave instead was "an unintended lesson about how poor visuals and errant words can derail a candidate’s message in this modern political news culture."
Romney gave his speech in Ford Field, a football stadium equipped to seat 65,000 seats, to a group of 1200 people. Romney's campaign staff states that they did not even choose the venue; the Detroit Economic Club did. However, this fact mattered little to the media, as they posted pictures portraying the empty stadium before Romney had even uttered a word.
Furthermore, despite the fact that this speech was supposed to be about policy, the media focused largely on the aesthetics of his presentation, leaving only one sentence about his actual policies.
Personally, I think it ties very well with our recent chapter, supporting the fact that the media gives little attention to actual policy and instead focuses on the material that will sell. A headline that could hurt Romney's campaign would catch more eyes than an article about his policies.
What are your thoughts on the media's portrayal? Do you think that this will impact Romney's campaign heavily?
Friday, February 24, 2012
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3 comments:
I think we can guess that Gingrich's GOP opponents, and maybe even President Obama, will capitalize on this detail, and use it to spin their portrayals of Romney. Romney needs to gain some momentum in order to win Michigan, and this event could devastate him if Santorum plays this up a lot. Like Sophia suggests, because the media often emphasizes performance over policy, it will be hard for Romney to defend himself in this situation, especially with the Michigan primary right around the corner.
I think this incident is a good example of how media operates. As opposed to covering policy and substance, it focuses more on facts that will captivate people and provide them with interesting stories or gossip. That being said, the facts are that Romney had a small audience, and I think he will need to find a way to gain more support if he wants a chance at winning.
Jon Stewart also dwelled on this incident for a few minutes in one of his latest episodes. As somewhat expected, he only highlighted the contrast between the football field (Mitt Romney stood on about the 20-yard line, with 90 yards of field behind him) and the size of Romney's audience, as well as the fact that even several seats near the front were empty. In addition, the sound bites from Romney's speech that Stewart showed were of Romney rambling on about how much he loves cars and describing the cars that his family drives. This further exhibits the media's focus on the trivial moments of candidates' campaigns and speeches rather than the actual substance within, as our three bloggers stated.
I don't think the incident will affect Romney's campaign too heavily. Nevertheless, Romney is gradually losing his image as a candidate unassociated with gaffes or other embarrassing moments, which was a big advantage for him early on. In contrast, the media, concentrated on the horserace aspect of elections as usual, continues to cover Santorum's recent surge, and this could knock Romney a spot down the list of remaining GOP contenders.
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