Why Is Media Important To Presidential Candidates

Since the 1990’s, president candidates have used the media in order to gain an advantage in their campaigns. Two such examples are their use of leaking information to the press, or seeking contributions through political action committees (PACS) and Super PACS. Leaking information to the press is known normally as a trial balloon. If a candidate’s management feels the need to break a story out and test the waters of the public’s reaction in order to change a policy under consideration, they would have a campaign worker intentionally give a reporter an “off the record” interview or quote on how the candidate feels. These trial balloons would almost always be leaked later in the workweek so that the press can come up with an agenda on how they would want to play out the story on the upcoming week.
According to the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, any group who provides a candidate with funding over $2,600 automatically becomes a PAC. In the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Committee Supreme Court case, it was decided that corporations have a First Amendment Constitutional right when giving money to campaigns, allowing them to essentially be able to donate millions of dollars to a candidate. Media corporations like Time Warner Cable and 21st Century Fox (CNN and FOX News respectively) can now contribute to a candidate through this Supreme Court ruling. These are two ways that candidates can manipulate the media in their