Through out the past fifty years reporters have tried to find different things about candidates to make them look bad or make other candidates look good. In the mid nineteen hundreds, negative images of candidates were being shown to people but not on a large enough scale to make an impact. However, this has been more affective in the past ten years or so. With the increase in technology and its access, these negative images are seen by more people and cause them to believe things that are not necessarily true. Even recently with the election of President Obama, people have been put things in articles that are not true or things that have nothing to do with his role as president. In the Charlotte Observer there was an article about how President Obama's half brother married someone who was 30 years younger than him and is also his third wife. But this has nothing to do with President Obama being president or how he is doing his job but people that do not like him for what ever reason use this as another reason not to like him. Even though some things said on the media are positive when talking about politics, the information that seems to be remembered and circulates around is the negative information people hear in the news.

I believe that the media has a negative impact on politics. So long as politicians are capable of marketing themselves as being "cool" and having popular musicians support their cause, they will be able to essentially trick voters into voting for them. If one votes for a candidate just because Aerosmith told them to, whats the point? They weren't actually voting because they thought that candidate would be best for the country. These are the kinds of voters that popular culture draws. The media also makes debates and similar things horribly useless. In essence, both of the participants in the debate end up saying the same thing and not directly answering the question. This in the long run leaves the viewers confused and unsure of what each candidate supports. Why even air the debates if they don't inform the people?

I believe that the media has been a negative impact on politics because within the past 50 years, Media has had a closer eye on the candidates. This makes every little mistake the politicians make into prime time news and can ruin campaigns and politicians chances of winning elections. Even mistakes that have nothing to do with politics.

I think that the media ultimately has a negative impact on politics because of the way in which politicians can make political ads that don't necessarily address the issues, and if they do the other side can't immediately defend itself. The more productive way to get a sense for each candidates' opinions would be through watching a debate where issues are discussed and each candidate can defend themselves. Even though the media is what brings us those official debates, the media is also the outlet for cowardly commercials that let candidates attack each other in an unhealthy way.

I do not believe that media itself negatively impacts politicians and the political process, but it's how we use it. Instead of a neutral news/ media source we have one sided views on ideas and politics. False information being produced and slanderous campaigns, news, and stories. This one sidedness of major media outlets destroys the political process with lies.

I believe that media has had an overall negative impact on politics in the last 50 years. While media allows politicians to reach more groups easily, it also opens up more opportunities for them to mess up. Take Howard Dean for example. After the speech where he shouted "Byah!", thats all that people now know him for, not for being a political figure. Without mass media that incident would have been localized to that single campaign rally, and his political career might have still been intact.

I believe media has a big negative impact on politics. The big cable news corporations, in my opinion, are the worst. CNN and Fox news both clearly has political bias, making it hard for the public to get fair, balanced political news. Media also causes huge divides within the country, clearly distinguishing party lines, instead of trying to unite the country.

I believe that media impacts politics in a negative way. If you watch different news stations, you hear a different biased point of view regarding politics. Since our nation revolves around a two-party political system, the media is able to polarize the nation by giving biased view points on politics. Also, political ad campaigns revolve around ridiculous attacks against opponents, which has the ability to brainwash people into believing anything that they hear on television, and further starve Americans of credible and reliable factual information.

Politics and media combine has been a negative impact on our society for the main being that the level of competition shown between candidates has been overwhelmed and exposed with disruptive behavior as of calling each other out with campaign commercials and interviews. It is not how it use to be when a person is running for an elective term, they sit that person down and get their full knowledge of how they are going to change America and its problems. Now its all about who has the biggest popular name out there and who's been on television especially on stations that are most watched so that they can win peoples hearts and votes through manipulation of their speeches is the guy who would win. Its very annoying when you have an idiot who runs for an elective position and people really don't try to get information from this person to see if he or she knows what they are doing. Like Sara Pelin or however you spell her name. She is the governor of Alaska.. No one pays attention to what goes on in Alaska and she ran for an elective position and people actually voted for her, but when they interviewed her she looked like a complete idiot and people stopped voting for her. Thats how it should happen, the old fashion sit down and ask questions will get the knowledge out of those who runs for these positions. Any one can go out now and run for a spot in the white house and its sad.

Media can never help politics, it can only hurt the image of the politician or the party running for that office. For example, Howard Dean's speech that was suppose to be for a little group of supporters, yet it ends up as one of the most commonly butchered speeches in the 21st century. Because somebody was filming the speech ,and he has a voice crack and yells BYAAAAHHH. He did not plan on doing that for his speech, but that moment hurt his campaign because people saw him in a different light after that voice crack.

I believe that the media has a negative impact on politics. With all the different TV networks, newspapers, etc. sending out news that is skewed to the left or right to make their side look good and the other side look bad, people cannot really get genuine information about politics, much less trust it. And for the people who trust what the media tells them about politics, it separates those people because they feel they have the correct information and everyone else is wrong. This creates tension among the people, further proving how the media has a negative impact on politics.

Over the past 50 years media has had a negative impact on politics. This is because all tv channels that are 24 hour news bring up all these stories that take attention away from the major issues. They find one little thing on a politician and run with it. Sometimes these stories they report aren't even true. This has taken much away from voters being able to see a politicians true views on an issue. Many voters couldn't tell you the difference between two candidates stances simply because the media spends so much more time on stories that dont matter.

I think that the media has ultimately had a negative impact on the political system. Rather than properly informing voters about political issues, media has allowed for a lot of biased or incorrect ideas to be spread through television, radio, or internet. Spoofs and parodies pinpoint certain flaws of each candidates, causing voters to base their decisions on images of candidates that might not be completely accurate. I think that media tends to be a distraction from real politics, because the primary purpose of political media is entertainment, not necessarily information. Media also changes the way that politicians campaign, and it leads to candidates caring more about creating a perfect image than actually backing that image up.

Media has not helped politics at all. Let's look at the scene 50+ years ago. If a candidate wanted to run for office, they had to be very methodical and organized. They had to PLAN where they were going to go to and who they were going to contact. They could avoid certain places and touch others if they felt it was strategically beneficial. Now they cannot avoid anyone and they contact everyone whether they want to or not. It has eliminated the strategy out of politics. Any Joe Shmo can just waltz onto the internet to contact millions of people, which honestly is both dangerous and counterproductive. Candidates that aren't qualified can contact voters much easier, which isn't good.

Also, media makes political figures accountable for EVERYTHING they do, which honestly isn't fair. Everyone is going to make a mistake. Now every slip of the tongue can be scrutinized because it could be on film and on the internet within hours. BIG mistakes are always going to spread, as they should, and they always have regardless of media. Yet small mistakes are now being criticized, which isn't what politics is about. Elected officials aren't superheroes, yet they are expected to behave as such.

Media and Politics have become very intertwinded. I think the lines between entertainment and politics have become very blurred. With so many parodies and comedy shows creating joke about canadits, more people are look to those show for information than news show or debates. Politicians know how important media is and how much people look into it so now politicians use media to entertain people and get people to like them. I think this is negative because politics seem to be more focused on the image in the media than getting the true point across and actually making a difference.

I think that recently media has had a negative effect on politics. I think this because of the fact that news stations focus way to much on the negative aspects of a politician and do not focus on the issues. For example in this upcoming election Christine O'donnell has been scrutinized for her past, and the media has taken something almost meaningless and made it a lead story. Im sure the average viewer is unaware of what she stands for, but knows all about her endeavors with witch-craft at a young age.The same thing was true in 2008 with all of the Obama conspiracies that made headline news. This gives people a false sense of who each candidate is, thus making media negatively impact politics

I think that media does have some positive effects on politics, but the negatives seem to play the biggest role. Many people who watch the news and get their updates on politics only get it from sources that share their same beliefs. For example conservatives watch FOX and liberals watch CNN, and from watching only this they are only being exposed to their beliefs, they aren't getting the other side. I think that the media has really spread the gap between conservatives and liberals which ultimatley harms our country more and doesn't allow politicians who are moderate to be given as much of a chance. The media has created a stubborn society that isn't being exposed to enough ideas and opinions of their opposing beliefs.

It really depends on the media outlet. Although I prefer Fox News, it is bias, but so is MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CNN and CBS.

There is more of a negative impact because liberal media complains and attacks Fox News because they are report news different with separate set of beliefs; thus making Fox News bias and unbalanced.

While I believe that the media has greatly increased the general citizenry's awareness of politics and government, I also believe the way it has presented itself in recent years is the center of why our political culture is so poisoned. The 24 hour news cycle leaves so much room for people's views to be distorted and thats exactly what happens. You have news stations that cater to each side of the debate, but in the end, fudge the truth to make their news sound more unbelievable. The media informs us, but they also have managed to ruin us.

Most of the media is simply too shallow and lacks enough substance to have a positive influence on political knowledge.

I think that media has without a doubt a negative impact on politics. The reason that I believe this is because it is extremely rare to be exposed to an element of political media that is not skewed or changed in any way. Whenever you read an article or watch a video about a candidate whoever is creating it normally has some sort of selfish motive behind the production. Whether its a video on why someone doesn't like Obama or a parody about someone in politics, it is normally misleading and information that is given is not completely truthful. Although some might say that media is necessary because it informs our citizens, I would argue that it misleads more than informs. This is why media has a negative impact on politics.

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These days the news reported by the media is not even close to the actual truth. The politicians bribe the media channels to broadcast news which helps them to make their image favorable in the public mind.

Media has some positive impact on politics, but the way that the information on tv and in newspapers is presented is biased, because people can say only the things that they want you to see. The media's personal preferences always play a prominant role in how you receive the information. The media has the ability to play a positive role in politics, but the media chooses to continue to be a negative source of information.