Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Mediated Politics: An Introduction
- Part 1 Democracy and the Public Sphere
- Part 2 Citizens, Consumers, and Media in Transition
- Part 3 Mediated Political Information and Public Opinion
- Part 4 Mediated Campaigns
- 15 Issue Advocacy in a Changing Discourse Environment
- 16 Implications of Rival Visions of Electoral Campaigns
- 17 Mediated Electoral Democracy: Campaigns, Incentives, and Reform
- 18 “Americanization” Reconsidered: U.K.–U.S. Campaign Communication Comparisons Across Time
- Part 5 Citizens: Present and Future
- Index
15 - Issue Advocacy in a Changing Discourse Environment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Mediated Politics: An Introduction
- Part 1 Democracy and the Public Sphere
- Part 2 Citizens, Consumers, and Media in Transition
- Part 3 Mediated Political Information and Public Opinion
- Part 4 Mediated Campaigns
- 15 Issue Advocacy in a Changing Discourse Environment
- 16 Implications of Rival Visions of Electoral Campaigns
- 17 Mediated Electoral Democracy: Campaigns, Incentives, and Reform
- 18 “Americanization” Reconsidered: U.K.–U.S. Campaign Communication Comparisons Across Time
- Part 5 Citizens: Present and Future
- Index
Summary
Representative government requires that voters be able to learn about the candidates who seek to represent them. As Madison noted in his 1798 report to the General Assembly of Virginia on the Sedition Act,
The right of electing the members of the government constitutes more particularly the essence of a free and responsible government. The value and efficacy of this right depends on the knowledge of the comparative merits and demerits of the candidates for public trust, and on the equal freedom, consequently, of examining and discussing these merits of the candidates respectively.
Indeed, in their discussions of what would become the First Amendment the founders even considered giving citizens the power to bind the votes of their representatives (see debate on August 15, 1789). That proposal was not adopted, in part because the founders believed that “Representation is the principle of our Government; the people ought to have confidence in the honor and integrity of those they send forward to transact their business” (Gales and Seaton 1834, p. 762). Such confidence is presumably the by-product of knowledge about the individuals who would serve.
Discussions of the nature and importance of representation occur throughout the Federalist Papers (see, for example, numbers 10, 56, 57, 63). Because ours is a representative system of government, the law recognizes that the public has the need to hear the messages of candidates. As a result, the candidate's message is given a privileged space in broadcast law.
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- Information
- Mediated PoliticsCommunication in the Future of Democracy, pp. 323 - 341Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000