One issue that I read about in Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death, was about how politics and politicians nowadays have become, in a way, celebrities. I have always believed that people are more concerned about a politician's looks and their image to represent their country, and not by their intentions, and now that I see that Postman mentions this in his book, I believe it even more now. Television and the media, they offer quick impulses of information but in very simplistic forms, and really, the only thing that people grasp from this are the images that are being shown. So say there is a commercial involving a political campaign, the only thing a person will really focus on is the image that the candidate portrayed, and this makes people ask themselves, "Do I want this person's face to represent my country?"
Politics as Postman explains are only pictures in our minds, but this is thanks to television and media. People nowadays do not ask themselves deeply enough about a politician's background, ideas, and intentions, and they may end up regretting it later when those politicians they elected end up making many mistakes that are not appealing to the majority of the crowd. This can relate even today with the conflicts that are arising with Trump in office. We cannot be thinking on a superficial level when it comes to politics because politics have to be more than a means for showbusiness in our lives.
-Andrew Ramos
Because television and the internet are our main forms of portraying information, it's not exactly easy to get a firm grasp of who we are voting for. All we ever know about the candidate is what we hear about and what we show us, and if our main forms of media only show us little glimpses into who they actually are, is it really our fault that we don't know who we are voting for?
ReplyDeleteI don't think looks really affect the way we view people. For some jobs, good looks are a must such as being a weather man, news reporter, or model; this is most common in the entertainment industry. Yet there are people that are not good looking like Mick Jagger, Seth Rogan, and Steve Buscemi. These people are loved celebrities not because of their looks but because they are entertainers with god given talent. I definitely do not think Trump's physical appearance influenced people to vote for him. If people really cared about handsome looks, Marco Rubio probably would have won to represent the Republican party. And Monica says the media doesn't allow us to truthfully know who we are voting for. I think that is erroneous because so much was exposed about the candidates during the 2016 race for president. The media was responsible for showing the candidates history. There are countless recordings and articles from the past; some of them were used to show the candidates' dark sides and some were used to show the good sides. Nevertheless, the media let us know everything there is to know about the people running for office. Although, the media is sometimes biased when offering news, it still informs us.
ReplyDeleteThere have been psychological studies that prove looks and personality do affect people's votes. Humans tend to feel more comfortable voting for the more attractive candidate or a candidate who smiles more. Personality and body language can also affect a voters choice. People more often than not choose confident speakers over soft spoken ones. I personally believe this is why Trump won the presidential election. He didn't always say the most politically correct or intellectual things, but he always spoke with confidence. Smart voters do overall vote based on qualifications and what the candidate promises to do for the country, yet they still might subconsciously rely on attractiveness, happiness, and confidence to decide between two similar candidates.
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