A Media Journal Project

Students can explore this question and the larger issue of classism by monitoring candidate
activitycurrent or pastthrough a media journal project.

1. Each student should select one candidate whose campaign he or she will research or
follow for a set period of time. (Teachers should establish an "end date" for the
information-gathering portion of the lesson.) During this time, students will compile
individual campaign binders that include media information about their candidate --
notes about or video tapes of the candidate's television appearances, newspaper
clippings, audio tapes of (or notes about) radio interviews, magazine stories or on-line
candidate information, for example. Teachers can keep costs to a minimum by asking
local newspapers to donate subscriptions or by coordinating the lesson with the
school's media specialist.

2. At the end of the information-gathering period, ask students to review their journals,
paying special attention to entries about fundraising. Did the candidate draw attention
to fundraising events? If not, why do you think he or she was hesitant to do so? Were
the fund-raisers televised? If not, why is that? Were they mentioned in the newspaper,
on the radio or in on-line information? If so, what details do the media accounts
provide? Who attended the fund-raisers? Where were they held?

3. What interest groups, newspapers or other entities endorsed the candidate or,
alternatively, his or her opponent? What are the beliefs, values or platform of the
group making the endorsement? Did the organization make a contribution to the
candidate's campaign or encourage others to do so?

4. Ask students to identify the campaign's core issues by reviewing their notebooks.
What sort of social and economic issues did the candidate discuss? What topics, for
example, did the candidate address in his or her television commercials? Judging by
 his or her concerns, what constituencies did the candidate try to reach? What stops
did he or she make along the campaign trail -- schools, local factories, homeless
shelters, hospitals, military bases, chambers of commerce, business organizations?

Historical Background

In 1787, Virginia statesman George Mason opposed the final draft of the Constitution, in part
because he feared that the document failed to encourage "a fellow feeling" between elected
officials and the people whom they were to represent. He wrote:

In the House of Representatives, there is not the Substance, but the Shadow only of
Representation; which can never produce proper Information in the Legislature, or inspire
Confidence in the People: the Laws will therefor be generally made by Men little concerned
in, and unacquainted with their Effects and Consequences. ... This Government will
commence in a moderate Aristocracy; it is at present impossible to foresee whether it will,
in its Operation, produce a Monarchy, or a corrupt oppressive Aristocracy; it will most
probably vibrate some years between the two, and then terminate in the one or the other.

Although Mason's concerns regarding an impending monarchy have proven unwarranted, we

must take pause and consider the latter option -- the threat of aristocracy.

Do the People Have the Power?

Like Mason two centuries ago, many citizens worry that today's politicians are driven not by the
needs or interests of "the people" but rather by the wants and desires of an elite class -- rich and
powerful individuals, corporations and special interest groups who fund the bulk of many
candidates' election expenses. To promote a more level playing field, some suggest an overhaul
of the campaign finance system to reduce the influence of money in politics. But, in recent years,
Congress has failed to pass legislation that would accomplish this goal. Representatives and
Senators are reluctant to go forth with the reforms, analysts say, because it might hurt their
chances for re-election.

While "the people" continue to clamor for changes in how campaigns are financed, many
politicians have responded by simply pushing their fundraising efforts into the background and
out of the media spotlight. So, who really has the ear of candidates, ask advocates for campaign
finance reform, "the people" or "the funders"?