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Thread ID: 127696 2012-11-07 20:14:00 Failure of news media to inform us of Obama electoral college prediction Strommer (42) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1311055 2012-11-07 20:14:00 TV, radio, newspapers, etc, in NZ and elsewhere were all reporting the USA presidential election result to be "too close to call". Well yes, as far as the popular vote it was near a 50:50 result, but the popular vote does not determine who will be president.

Electoral College predictions have stated for a long time (weeks, months) that Obama was going to win. Princeton University, New Scientist and Blogger538 were a few of those that firmly predicted an Obama win, but the major news media outlets kept saying the result could not be predicted. One exception was on National Radio NZ yesterday, an American academic was interviewed, giving the electoral college prediction.

So why do you think major news media keep reporting that the election result was going to be near 50:50?

To keep us in suspense so that we get more interested in the news?? :confused:
Strommer (42)
1311056 2012-11-07 20:23:00 Or is it because the media believes that it can manipulate an election outcome?

:(
Zippity (58)
1311057 2012-11-07 20:23:00 NZ herald online... and the TV 3 coverage (which I caught the end of after work) stated Obama was the winner as it happened. lordnoddy (3645)
1311058 2012-11-07 21:04:00 Its a very good point Strommer, most media said it would be close on the electoral college numbers but it wasn't. Hussein Obama romped home. Its the beginning of the slide of the USA as the greatest power. It also puts paid to the theory were pre polling can influence the end results. prefect (6291)
1311059 2012-11-07 21:09:00 Its the beginning of the slide of the USA as the greatest power. It also puts paid to the theory were pre polling can influence the end results.

Here we go again :rolleyes:
pcuser42 (130)
1311060 2012-11-07 21:10:00 Its the beginning of the slide of the USA as the greatest power.

So ... you didn't tell us you were moving to the US of A prefect ... when does your Green Card arrive ... :rolleyes:
SP8's (9836)
1311061 2012-11-07 21:11:00 I wouldn't want to live there, too many there. prefect (6291)
1311062 2012-11-07 21:12:00 Here we go again :rolleyes: +1 lol wainuitech (129)
1311063 2012-11-07 22:05:00 Here we go again :rolleyes:

make that +2
Strommer (42)
1311064 2012-11-07 22:44:00 So why do you think major news media keep reporting that the election result was going to be near 50:50?

To keep us in suspense so that we get more interested in the news?? :confused:

I must have been composing my thread (A week for (horse) races) and only just read your very similar one . Here's how I started, with a quote from today's Economist:



"The media, meanwhile, and this can't be repeated often enough, is overwhelmingly biased towards producing exciting political races . Horse-race reporting gives the media the collective ability to shape the kind of narrative it needs in order to report excitingly . The increasing interaction between mass media and social media seems only to exacerbate this tendency: both mass-media analysts and private social-media contributors are rewarded for sharply divisive characterisations . We're seeing market segmentation in which a number of players have an interest in keeping the segments at equal sizes . "



:)
WalOne (4202)
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