Critique the Presidential Debates like an episode of House of Cards. Additional areas to explore: plot, writing, review of characters, suggested improvements to next seasons…
This is almost too close to home! I've heard that in fiction, only trouble is interesting, so if you approach the election like it's a TV show, won't that make you root for disaster? (And is one of the main candidates already the star of a TV show...?) I think you could make the case that "winning" the TV show of the election by being the most entertaining is essentially the opposite strategy for winning the actual election. – tmatteson7 years ago
This is a wonderful suggestion! I have little to add beside that it could be worthwhile to critique the 'cinematographic' aspects of the show. How has it been staged? How have camera angles been used to emphasise certain aspects of the show? How have ads been parallels of tv show trailers? I really like this. – IsidoreIsou7 years ago
This sounds like it could be incredibly entertaining. I'd love to see plot suggestions. Writer could also mention the candidates' followers as opposing sides of fandom. There are a ton of ways they could take this and I love it. – Emily Schiemann7 years ago
Having done some 250-300 appearances as a political analyst on local TV stations (but addressing primarily Presidential and Congressional elections), I have come to approach the issue of TV media coverage as, perhaps, much like old computers where there was no hard drive (Tandy TRS-80), so programs had to be reloaded every time the computer was turned back on. It is not really possible to build upon foundation information and then develop more complicated ways of looking at political or public policy issues. To talk about a significant Supreme Court case (McCulloch v Maryland from 1819) and explain the importance of one word (expressly) that existed in the Articles of Confederation but was left out of the US Constitution and how the Opinion written by then Chief Justice John Marshall matters to Constitutional interpretation in the present, cannot be easily addressed on TV news. As a result, simplicity dominates where it is believed by, perhaps, too many viewers that there is some truth to the notion that Conservatives are strictly adhering to the Constitution, while Liberals are broadly interpreting it. In real terms, both sides are practicing Constitutional interpretation and there are some ways to understanding a conservative approach (or approaches) to Constitutional interpretation versus more liberal ones. TV news by not bringing this complexity to the small screen fosters, unfortunately, a reality TV show approach to liberal versus conservative, which ends up not helping a broad based public understand complex policy issues. Shows like PBS's Frontline or listening to a lengthy dialogue on CSPAN, can show a contrast with the more popular cable TV news shows, but TV news shows need to generate a profit so hope for improvement (enlightenment?) is debatable. – Joseph Cernik6 years ago