Dr. Vaughn May, professor and chair of Belmont’s Political Science Department, recently wrote an article on how types of media voters use to gather information on political candidates has drastically changed over the last 30 years. The article, published by the Tennessean as part of a Roundtable Discussion series on the media, compares the differences between the roles that media played in the presidential elections of 1984 and 2016.
May argues that new media covering politics, such as talk shows and social media activists as opposed to just the “Big 3” networks, ultimately give a more honest representation of the race as a whole. “While traditional media were taking turns calculating the magnitude of Clinton’s Electoral College victory, new media on the ideological edges were correctly assessing Trump’s appeal and offering far more optimistic predictions of his chances,” May wrote.
To view May’s article and thoughts, click here.
