Now that the presidential campaigns are underway I have stopped watching the news because I am getting sick of all the gouging and rhetoric already. During political races, do you find yourself watching the news much more or less?
If you really take a look at advertisements that these guy have been bought and paid for, they are mostly negative ads. They hardly ever run something positive about themselves. I'm guessing that smear campaigns stick more than anything, and the issues don't. But I haven't watched the news in years. I read about it on the internet and I stay away from anything and everything that FOX news reports.
I'm not the political junkie I used to be, but I still keep abreast of the political situation in the country. I do grant, however, some of the blather around the election cycles can get more than a little tedious.
I'm with you on this. The political ads that politicians display during campaign periods are so lame and annoying. The more annoying thing is, more people are still convinced by these senseless ads. It has always been the trend here in the Philippines. Our national election is still due next year, and election campaign period hasn't started yet but I'm already seeing a lot of political ads on local TV. I'm so amazed at how concerned agencies don't reprimand them when they are obviously campaigning already. Politics here in our country really gives me so much headache. Just merely talking about it raises my blood pressure to higher values.
I hardly ever watch news and around election time since the coverage is mostly about what Candidate A did, what Candidate B said about Candidate C, etc, I find that it's better to get something that has been "distilled" on the net. That way I know what's happening whilst avoiding everything els.
I'd imagine that a lot of people will try and avoid the news and any political shows, leading up to an election, myself included. I think people can make their own minds up who they want to vote for, we don't need advertising campaigns to show us.
Having just had the general election here in the UK, I have to say that I was glued to the news for the preceding fortnight. Mainly because I couldn't decide who to vote for, so needed some help in making up my mind. Here though, coverage is limited to news programmes and party political broadcasts which are shown twice-nightly in the weeks leading up to the election and last for around five minutes. So it's not really rammed down your throat that much and can easily be avoided.
When elections are approaching, I do tend to follow the news more, as I like to know what I'll get when casting my vote. However, I get annoyed by the sheer amount of negative campaigning ads, which only keeps increasing election after election. I know it's a cliché thing to say, but surely there must be a better way to spend the money. If, for example the big parties spent even half the money they spend on advertising on building homes, schools and other facilities, we'd all be much better off.
I usually tend to watch the news more when elections are approaching, I like to hear different points of view: see what they are saying in the news, do research online and then I like to talk with people about it, it's interesting how TV can influence a lot of people, but it's also sad, because not a lot of that people actually take the time to do research and make a good vote decision.
