The Candidate in the Living Room

Abstract

A quarter century of intimate relationship be tween television and the electoral process has stirred up a storm of controversy, furnished critics with the ammuni tion for a barrage of complaints, and encouraged a horde of experts and pseudo-experts to view the results of the marriage with alarm. The new medium of political communi cation, which was once thought to possess magic therapeu tic powers for the ailments of the body politic, came under sharp attack as a force perverting all values and reducing the electoral process to the level of show business. Tele vision has certainly contributed to changing the old order and introducing new techniques, but a careful examination of the evidence suggests that the effect of the substance of broadcasts, as opposed to the form, and the impact on the voter have been grossly exaggerated. This is in sharp contrast to the exuberance that greeted television's first incursion on the political scene and the optimism that its participation generated.