After watching the debate, I got a sense that both candidates were (unconsciously) doing their best to adhere to what we decided were the six enduring values of journalism. The candidates brought up poor little Joe the Plumber twenty-four different times in the debate. McCain seemed to broach the subject to not only put down Obama and his economic values, but also to ally himself with the Everyman of America who builds his dreams from nothing and lives out the American dream. McCain’s attempts to show his allegiance with the common people is a palpable reference to what he wants us to believe is his respect for and connection to small town “pastoralism.”
Meanwhile, in response, Obama went on to describe his plans for the economy and taxes to the American people should he become elected. His analysis of the economy in addition to his comments regarding the similarities between McCain’s and Bush’s economic plans reflects Obama’s favoring of “responsible capitalism.” I say this under the assumption that the American people consider Bush’s fiscal policies to be less than responsible, especially during our current economic crisis.
I dunno what else to say concerning these values of journalism in relation to the debate, though I think it’s clear that Obama and McCain are generally aiming for different sectors of the six values. McCain is definitely geared toward focusing on ethnocentricity, his affiliations with small town pastorale Americans, and his own story as an individual standing up for his country blablabla. Obama, meanwhile, tries to make his economic policies appear to be responsible capitalism (rather than socialism…but that’s a whole other story), while caring for the environment and standing behind altruistic democracy.
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2 comments:
I wrote about more or less the same topic as well, concerning Joe the Plumber and the candidates' views on the small town people. I like how you also included their views on responsible capitalism as well. I also agree with your idea of McCain having ethnocentric views and blablabla (as you said) and that Obama is looking at the country as a whole and trying to make it better from a responsible capitalistic view.
Claudia,
Nice job incorporating the journalistic values in your blog post here. You obviously got the major points in the lecture.
Doc Rod
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