Today, with all of our advanced technology, the media influences our lives more than ever. Whether it is television, radio, newspapers, magazines or the Internet, the media has a huge impact on American lives. In the last fifty years alone the media has in some way or form shaped just about every aspect of American life. The media tells us everything, from what kind of laundry detergent we should use to who we should vote for for president. The greatest impact the media has is that on politics. The media shapes America's interest in politics, the type of candidates that will run for office, and even tells us what to think about candidates and issues.

The media affects American interest towards politics by only showing us what they want us to see. If there are many issues in a certain campaign, the media will focus on the ones they believe to be the most important, they may leave others out completely. We become interested in certain areas of politics because we hear about them very often, and we lose interest very fast because we are always being bombarded with new bigger things. There is usually always a much greater turn out to vote for president than there is to vote for se

Now, more than ever, the media influences and impacts almost every aspect of American lives. They tell us what is important, who should run in an election, how a candidate should appear to the public and even what to think about an issue. With there being so many ways to get information today, we are influenced to believe what we are told and not to question it. In some ways the media influences politics in a good way, by making sure the candidate has some idea of what they are running for. The media also has a lot of bad influences on politics, ads which promote uninformed voting, brainwashing the publics beliefs and only informing the public about what they believe to be important. I do believe that the media does wield too much power in America, they should not be allowed to present biased news to the public and let them make up their own minds on what they want to believe.

There is so much media coverage in politics today that in order to be elected one must be appealing to the public. Years ago the only way people had to find out about candidates and the issues they stood for was by reading a newspaper or listening to the radio. Today, anyone can turn on the television or go to a web site on the Internet and see the candidates themselves talking about their issues. With 98-99% of all American homes having at least one television, a candidate must be physically appealing as well as having appealing plans and ideas. Now, more than ever Americans place excessive importance on appearance. This means that a candidate has to appear like they can handle the job, like they are well educated, that they know what they are doing and like people can trust them, as well as not being horrible to look at. When was the last time a horribly ugly president was elected, it was probably in the 1800's with the election of Abe Lincoln, and look at what

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Approximate Word count = 1250
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)