The Rhythm and Lore of Electoral Behavior

Feb19by The Political Pipeline

http://politicalpipeline.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/the-rhythm-and-lore-of-electoral-behavior/

The political pipeline wrote a 447 line poem ALL about voting research and electoral behavior throughout the years.  The poem was clever, highly entertaining, and most importantly informative. Their artistic work had a simple two-line statement about how the media "was not the main attraction"  when it came to voter behavior. Well, this was quite disheartening to read while taking a topics class exclusively about media and its effects on politics. Only two lines, out of the 447 line long poem, mentioned the media's weak affect on the voter. 


The lack of mention or importance placed on the media in this poem made me reconsider the actual affect of the media on voter behavior. Previously, I had thought that the media obviously must have some large affect on the voting population, considering the vast amounts of political information that circulates the industry. However, the more I learn and read about the different variables that contribute to socialization and the process of "growing up," the far less I credit the media for swaying or influencing voters or the public in general. The audience seems to be much more active than the hypodermic theory lets on. In fact, this poem implies that the media has little to no affect on the audience. 


The poem comes to an end with a basic yet powerful statement, "Electoral behavior is thoughtful like a child." This last line suggest that electoral behavior may not have any pattern or sense of predictability since it is "like a child." In this point of view, the media cannot even be considered as having a slightly significant effect on the audience it touches. 


What we can take away from this poem is that regardless of all the research, voter behavior is not necessarily a predictable function of every member of society. It artistically reveals that while many studies have been done on voter behavior, there is no way to pin point a specific major contributor to the voters' choice. More interesting and more pertinent to this class is that the media received such little coverage in this poem. And the only coverage it did receive was to ensure the reader that the media did not have a large affect on its people. Can this be true, can the media really have no signification affect on its audience?