Public Relations

     It's very difficult to draw a line between public relations and advertisement, especially where politics is concerned. It seems that every piece of news you find is slanted favorably in the direction of one of the two main candidates and against the other. It's all basically advertisement, telling the masses to vote for this person and not that one, and often for similar reasons that you should buy a certain product in favor of another. It'll cost you less money, they say, and it'l make your life better if you vote for this guy and not that one. But in a way, this can be considered public relations as well. Even though it's not coming straight from the organization that's being promoted, it still promotes the organization fairly effectively. Perhaps it's even more effective on the grounds that it doesn't come straight from the benefiting organization (assuming that whoever wrote the article wasn't actually directly paid by said benefiting organization.) People see it and think, "oh, someone else besides Obama wants Obama in office," and are curious as to why. So they read the articles about racist Pro-Romney shirts and Sensata scandals and are greeted by a bunch of emotional appeals and very little actual fact and analysis into the potential ramifications. That sure sounds like public relations to me.
     This first article caught my eye because of the picture at the top. I was interested to see what this writer would say about the guy wearing the slogan "Put the White Back In the White House." I wanted to see what it would say about the potential social ramifications of the Presidential race coming down to actual Presidential race. I wanted to read about how our modern society would be subtly affected if racial discrimination reared its ugly head yet again. But instead, I ended up reading a very heartfelt article about how depressing it was for the writer to see this shirt. Because race was being dragged back into things while everything nowadays is trying to stop race from being a contributing factor to all things social? Actually, no, that wasn't his point. He was depressed because Romney seemed to be trying the "good old days" comfort plea, portraying himself as a reasonable, middle-aged white man with a political history, exactly the type of person an American President should look like. The writer didn't want people to be taken in by this facade. It's a very interesting point, but he also didn't back it up with very much fact. He presented his own version of what he thinks Obama should say and use as a defensive stance, and it was very nicely said, but there was little substance to it. It was still an appeal to the emotions of the reader. It said "look at how much we owe Obama, don't you think we should continue to trust him?" It said "don't be taken in by Romney and his acting, because he'll let us down." The internet is chock full of articles like these, full of fancy fluff words and very little fact. A man wore a shirt. Feel obligated to vote Obama back into the Presidency and don't believe Romney's lies because my 72-year-old mother is wonderful.    
     Here's a link to that article: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/12/1143940/--Put-the-White-back-in-the-White-House
     This second article caught my interest because I saw a tabloid in Price Chopper last night about some outsourcing scandal that Romney was involved in and decided to do a bit more research. Apparently the asset management firm he co-founded, Bain Capital, has decided to outsource a company they recently bought out, Sensata Tech, to China. I was expecting an article discrediting this choice and raising lots of issues about how we, the American people, don't want all our business and manufacturing to be outsourced. I wanted to hear about the economical ramifications of not making anything on home turf, and how we could expect the government to conduct itself on these matters if Romney was voted in as President. Instead, the article raised a bunch of points that I feel are completely unnecessary. They brought in Chinese workers to be trained before the outsourcing. So what? That makes sense from a business standpoint if you're planning to outsource a company. They put up a Chinese flag at the plant in Illinois. That has nothing to do with our economy whatsoever, it's just a cause for affront to those who feel personally offended by the situation. The company is set to close one day before the election. Again, this has nothing to do with the political or economical ramifications of this event. It's just a chance for the writer to be scathing and sarcastic. I thought the whole article was scathing and sarcastic and too short to impart much information at all. Though, I'm not confident it would have been very much more informative had it been longer, anyway. It just seemed like a chance for someone to rail on Romney's personal business decisions because of the effect they'll have on the nation as a whole, without explaining the connection they saw. I do think there's a connection, which is why I was disappointed this article didn't expand upon it, and only provided a few shallow talking points for anyone who's already against Romney to utilize in their next argument. It was all fluff words with very little fact.
     Here's a link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/10/13/1143996/-The-Sansata-Story-Could-Destroy-Romney
The writer was kind enough to include some source articles where it's possible to find actual information and news, though. Those are worth looking through.
     Needless to say, I won't be getting my political news from the Daily Kos any time soon. It's one of those sites that acts very much like a forum, though, and makes it very easy to share your opinions with others and read up on what people think. For that reason, it's pretty popular among bloggers and redditers who love the discussions that are available. Unfortunately, because of the form these articles take, they end up arguing over emotionally-based points and not factually-based opinions, so the discussions aren't worth very much. People frequently talk about how bad something is without digging very deep to figure out why. It's all a battle of public relations.

Additional Sources:

Bettina Fabos, Christopher R. Martin, and Richard Campbell. Media & Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, 8th Edition. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. Print.