Media Matters

     Campaigning for 2020  has started with a bang featuring the usual media  blitz, like TV interviews, Town Halls and print articles. What is notably missing are other kinds of campaign coverage, popular years ago before current media practices. Would you believe buttons, banners,  flags, quilts, hats, and aprons took center stage to promote a presidential candidate, particularly popular during  the Civil War period?      Yet, campaign slogans were also important and represented media of a different kind. Consider  "Let Us Have Peace" ( Ulyssess S. Grant- 1868 ), " A Square Deal All Around" ( Theodore Roosevelt- 1912 ),  " Happy Days Are Here Again" ( Franklin Roosevelt- 1932 ), and " Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" ( Bill Clinton- 1992 ).     The last two slogans were put to music which got voters' attention in an effective way. After all, William Saffire once said," Good slogans have rhyme, r...

     Today was definitely a "headache" day. Not because of fatigue or illness, but because this critic watched Cable News for eight straight hours. A lot of Breaking News was currently exploding: The Trade War with China; a possible war with Iran; Alabama's law against abortion; the death of architect I.M. Pei at age 102. Of course, provocative and/or upsetting news explodes every day, it seems. But Friday, May 17 was different. This was the day yours truly realized that the events which stood out and seemed especially important were all about death, including figurative as well as literal ones. It reminds us of the policy that broadcast news always followed even before Cable News: "If it bleeds, it leads."      The news today was no doubt sensational, each in its own way, with salient consequences. And on Cable News, at least, its presentation was "over the top," delivered by hosts, reporters and pundits in often exaggerated, passionate ways. Th...

     There isn't anything or anyone that Donald Trump won't criticize. Recently, this included the way Beto O'Rourke uses his hands. Such gesturing is just too much, according to the President. O'Rourke responded with examples of Trump's employment of his own gesturing. Those instances weren't great, either.      Observing the 2020 Presidential candidates, there isn't one person among them who doesn't use a myriad of gestures and other non-verbal behavior to convey his/her messages. If there are criticisms aimed at these communication codes, it probably is because they call attention to themselves. That's when people get in trouble.      Yet, often, these non-verbal markers can help make communication more effective. Why? Because they enhance meaning, increasing the ability to interpret what someone is really saying.  Let's take two kinds of gestures as  examples. Emblems stand as substitutes for words/phrases as i...