NEW
Ad Watch Columns
(evaluating spots 
for accuracy)

Background/Introduction/Standards: 

Increasingly today, getting elected means skillful use of the media by the candidates to get their message across. Politicians now employ advertising consultants to convey their messages to voters, sometimes spending millions of dollars in the process. 
 
It is critically important that students, our future voters and leaders, learn to understand the role and influence of media in the political process. (Do your students understand, for example, the history of the recent Campaign Finance Reform efforts?)

To that end, many state standards for Social Studies and Citizenship include the need for students to understand how media influences politics and decision making. 


"The bottom line, then, is that it's important for citizens to look carefully at political ads. Certainly the truth or falsity and, regardless of ‘truth’, the deceptiveness of ad content is important to examine. Many newspapers and television analysis programs provide the citizen a good opportunity to learn more about the quality of the verbal content of political commercials. Although a majority of Americans are not aware of this, government closely controls the truth-value of national product advertising on television. But because of the principle of free speech, a principle protected by the U.S. Constitution, there is no control whatsoever on the content of a political commercial. Basically, a politician can say anything she or he wishes in a political ad. The only ‘control’ over content in a political ad is media and public response to that content." (Source:  PBS By The People)

National: 
Center for Civic Education