The use of political campaigning through television has been around for quite a while. Broadcasting politics on television allows the elections to be more accessible to more viewers. Although politics through media was meant to be positive, the true purpose was quickly overcome by a concern about image rather than the issues at hand. Television has allowed presidential candidates to win votes through ideas and addressing problems, and through creating a vision for themselves that would appeal to the public.
             Initially, the use of media to relay news was a good idea: television has "restored" the nation "feeling of direct contact," "the people have once more become the nation" (Source A). Television has allowed thousands of people to be involved with current events. At first people were drawn to this idea of being able to follow the presidential elections on television; between the 1960's and the 1980's the number of homes watching the presidential debates drastically increased from 28.1 million to 45.8 million (Source D). This "early promise" America had seemed to be "fulfilling" (Source A) soon began to fall through the cracks.
             After the initial interest of the people began to die down, the media had trouble keeping the ratings up. No matter what approach they attempted, it was unsuccessful. "Even those aiming low [back then were] failing, more often than not, to get good ratings" (Source F). This lack of success was apparent in the plummeting presidential debate ratings due to America's disinterest. The ratings dropped from 80.6 million viewers in 1980 to 65.1 million viewers in 1984. This drop in numbers continued through the most recent data of 1996 (Source D).
             Due to America's decreasing interest in televised politics, presidential candidates have begun to take on a new approach of creating an image that appeals to the public and ultimately wins votes. "An effective president must be every year more concerned with proje...