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Fortnightly Group Learns Of Media And Politics

The Fortnightly meeting was held on Jan. 12, at the Gloria Dei Church in Lakewood.

A social hour was held prior to the meeting, with 26 members in attendance. President Kathleen Kane presided at the business meeting and introduced guest Carolyn Stow.

The speaker was Beth Richetti who read a paper on Media and Politics. She outlined how the media has been involved with politics dating back to newspapers. In the 19th century the only means of communication were newspapers.

She stated that few presidents were as defiled as Abraham Lincoln during his time in office. He was accused of many misdeeds and even treason in the newspapers. This gave newspapers great influence over politicians. McClure’s Magazine was founded in 1893 and investigative journalism was born. The next big change was radio and Franklin Roosevelt perfected the use of this medium through his fireside chats. Radio also helped citizens follow the news of World War II.

TV followed radio and the first illustration of the use of TV in campaigns was the Nixon-Kennedy debates in 1960. CNN followed in1980 with the 24 hour news cycle. Now we have computers with facebook, twitter, etc. which have had a large effect on the voting population through advertising, direct contact with voters, tailoring the message to the audience, fundraising and feedback. A downside to direct access is controversy, which we have experienced first hand in the last six elections.

Questions and answers followed. The next meeting will be on Thursday at Gloria Dei Church. The topic will be “The Dawn of Artificial Intelligence”

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