After reading “A Vaster Wasteland”, I found myself looking into the way I use the radio and television, and how this society inevitably uses it, and came to the realization that we are all undermining it’s potential. Communications in the United States have been somewhat educational but for the majority of it’s lifetime, it’s been entertainment. This is proven by what gets the highest rating-which always is the newest reality show or the classic sitcom. I feel that the use of public airwaves for politics has not been efficiently maximized. People want to hear how the future leaders are going to run this country and how they feel about a certain subject. Sure there’s news stations but they’re all biased and that’s essentially all we have to receive information.
I wish, like Mr. Minow said in the article, we would see more of the valuable spectrum of true politics that should be shown clearly on the airwaves. When you’re given only a couple mintues to portray yourself and your ideas to the public, you’re inevitably going to condense it, make it vague, leave out the important details. And that’s what happens on the air with the presidential candidates. There’s no substance there, just slogans and catchphrases. They say only what they feel like the audience what’s them to say. If there were more opportunities to showcase ideas and explain the rationale behind agreeing with a certain side, then maybe we’d actually see a revival in the interest of American politics. I know nowadays we have the internet and we could do our “own research” but that should not detour us from utilizing this amazing technology we have in just about every household. I would rather be told the truth, be told how the leader of our country would respond to an attack or how they would go about improving health care plus explanations, not just a collection of mere vague statements. And I believe that a lot of people feel the same way. So how about we come together and raise our voices as one? Make it know to the politicians that Americans do value substance over slogans, truth over sayings! And it all starts with giving our potential leaders more chances to enlighten us on how they are going to change our country.