The early use of mass media focused heavily on newspaper articles and propaganda pamphlets. Many governments and groups throughout the world have used these mediums too control or at least sway public opinion. Totalitarian governments utilized these methods to not only empower their own messages but also vilify groups or contrary messages. Support for these contradictory messages could also be quickly quailed with articles about the trials and punishment of parties involved with them. Democratic nations, such as the United States of America (US), could not rely on newspapers as often since they were privatized and would therefore have their own ideals. The US government had to instead rely on other media.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to heavily utilize mass media. Roosevelt had a radio program known as “fireside chats”. He first started these during his first term as governor of New York. The fireside chats was an attempt to get public support for Roosevelt’s proposals. This was necessary at the time because being a democrat, he was faced with a republican legislature. In doing this Roosevelt found that he gained more support than other forms of communication. Once Roosevelt became president the fireside chat was changed to the President’s Weekly Address, which is continued to this day.

Television continued to change the mass media coliseum. The first presidential debate televised was between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. The reason this was so important was that Nixon had been ill with a fever and was unshaven, while Kennedy was not only shaven but even wearing makeup to avoid glare from lighting. The televised debate was a boon to Kennedy’s overall victory as many people that watched felt Kennedy won the debate hands down, however radio listeners felt Nixon did or at that it was at best a draw. This was the first time television was the dominant medium for politics.

The most recent election also saw changes utilizing modern mass media. President Barack Obama utilized the internet’s multiple mediums throughout his campaign and currently during his term. Obama used Twitter to attract tech savvy, younger voters. His Twitter account has more than 3.5million followers which allows for him to not only propose new ideas but keep people up-to-date on his other media appearances. On top of Twitter usage, Obama also utilizes other internet media. The Weekly Presidential Address that was started by Roosevelt is now not only audio but Obama utilizes YouTube to broadcast the address as video as well. This video is also available in other formats across the internet as subscription based feeds. All of these new media allow the president to spread his message to a larger audience.

While the trying times of the 1920s may have seen mass media come to the forefront of politics, it has not stagnated in one form. Totalitarian nations media usage is focused easily due to the control the government has over the sources. Democratic nations however must carefully mold media otherwise private companies that control the media can turn against a particular politician. The advances in mass media technologies require candidates to also change with them.

The recent discoveries I am talking about are the ones dealing with water.  The moon for many years has been assumed to be barren and dry.  However in the last two years we have discovered trace amounts of water molecules in the soil and at least 600 million tons of frozen water in the deep craters of the Moon’s North pole.  Most scientist believe that water is essential to terrestrial life, so I question why we wouldn’t pursue this.

The good news that comes out of the cancellation is the opportunity of improved space travel.  President Obama is not trying to cut NASA out of the budget he is simply calling for a change in goals.  The goals he has setup are ones to improve shuttles.  The main reason this is a concern is because we have been using the same shuttles since the 50′s and 60′s.  Realistically, shuttle improvement should have been on par with the rest of NASA’s improvements but has instead simply relied on the old technology.  The other aim of these new goals is cultivation robotics.  These robots would allow us to begin utilize minerals and resources from the Moon and Mars. (There maybe some ecological irony behind this, but not the point.)

Overall the decision is a little sad since it makes it a lot less likely I will have a trip to the Moon.  However this will hopefully improve our understanding of the universe and alleviate some concerns of nonrenewable resources.

Teleprompters are the screens on both sides of him.

My friend quickly changed what they were saying and claimed I was missing the point.  Apparently the new point was that Obama was getting ahead of the teleprompter where he has repeated things or apparently began reading the first two paragraphs of someone else’s speech.  Well now let me mention that in the case that he reached the end and had to repeat, the TD should have had a general idea of how fast he reads.  And really if you notice someone completely about to hit the end of the displayed text maybe move it up.  Maybe?

Now as far as the other persons speech goes, again it shouldn’t have been displayed to him.  Teleprompters do not show up like a script, they show up more like an essay.  Therefore you would have to totally know your speech word for word.  This is unlikeyl.  But again suddenly the point changed.  Oddly enough I wasn’t told what the point was this time.

Low and behold though I came up with the real point.  The real point is because their candidate didn’t win I’m in for four years of bitching from them.  Maybe more.  So please if you want to talk to me about issues that’s great, but if you want to shove propaganda crap at me, just go ahead and shove it back up your ass.