Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Political and Public Policy Communication

Politics has long been like a foreign language to me. I always felt that as I got older, it would all start to make more sense, but unfortunately that just isn't the case. The more I try to pay attention and educate myself about things like legislation and public policy in our country, the more confused I become.

From what I see online and read about in the news, politics seems simply like a weird, dirty game. People cheat, lie and steal their way into positions of power. Everyone claims that our individual votes matter, and that "government officials pay close attention to public opinion" as the chapter states, but I find this very hard to believe.



From a communications standpoint, I really don't think I'd be able to handle any sort of position where I was involved in a political organization. It's not that I don't believe politics are important, because they most certainly are, but I feel that at this stage in our society's development, we've veered so far from the path we should be on that it feels as if all hope is nearly lost.

I've recently started watching a new show on Hulu called Battleground. It sounds sort of hokey and cliche but as someone who watches far too much television, this show is extremely well-executed and engaging to watch.  It follows the campaign of a democratic dark horse candidate who is running for US Senate for Wisconsin. I think I've learned more about politics and public relations by watching this show than in school, as pathetic as that sounds. It explores all the facets involved in a political campaign, from the fundraising activities, to speechwriting, to writing press releases and attending press conferences, to making televised statements and hosting events, and so on.

Battleground

It's one thing to hear about these things through news media outlets, where the stories are carefully crafted by powerful people looking to spin a certain message, but to see it all happen from a behind-the-scenes mockumentary point of view is intriguing to me. It's actually helped me see the brighter side of politics, even if it is just a fictional show on the internet.

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