Brawner: Campaigns, Press Enter New Era

Steve Brawner with our content partner, the Arkansas News Bureau, looks at recent developments in the political media and examines how dramatically different the times are.

He notes that candidates aren’t as interested in having media attendance at all of their events, that blogs turn out news on a regular basis, and timing – well, it isn’t everything.

Writes Brawner:

What’s the big change here? Candidates once communicated their message in two ways, paid advertising and free media exposure. To get that free exposure, they were at the mercy of a handful of news directors and newspaper editors that they tried to manage through persuasion and manipulation.

News providers, for their part, have been willing to be manipulated. When a provider is under a tight deadline, it can be a relief just to transcribe what a candidate says, get a quote from the other side, paste it on the page, and be done…

The press, meanwhile, has more tools at its disposal, and it’s less controlled by a few powerful figures. In fact, it’s hard to define what the “press” is anymore.

Read more of Brawner’s take at this link.