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Article of the Week

Week of 10/17-10/21
Directions: Complete all steps below, which includes annotating, answering questions, and margin
notes. You should read this article multiple times before Friday. Be prepared to share your thoughts,
ideas, and opinions on Friday!
Step 1 : Read the article. Use the coding we practiced in class to annotate the article. You can use
the following options:
* important idea

+ you agree

X you disagree

! surprising idea

__ Underline a specific line that you


found interesting

Circle a word you dont know-try to


guess the meaning using context
clues

? you are wondering about that idea


Step 2: Read the article a second time. Number the paragraphs. Read the article carefully and
make notes in the margin. Notes should include:
The 5Ws:
Who is involved in the text?
What is the main subject of the text?
When is the event of the text happening?
Where is the event of the text taking place?
Why is this text written? What is the point?
Comments that show that you understand the article. (A summary or statement of the main
idea of important sections may serve this purpose. You could also [bracket] the paragraph and
write the GIST.)
Questions you have that show what you are wondering about as you read.
Notes that differentiate between fact and opinion.
Make a connection (another event, another historical movement) with something you read (no
personal connections!)
Observations about how the writers strategies (organization, word choice, perspective,
evidence) and choices affect the article.
Step 3: Read the article again noting anything you might have missed during the other reads of the
text.
Step 4: Answer the questions that follow the article. Be sure to use evidence from the article when
necessary.

The 30-Second Campaign


By Patricia Smith | October 10, 2016 NY Times Upfront

Even in the age of social media, TV ads still play an enormous role
in presidential elections. Can they be trusted?
In one ad, a string of grim images of shuttered factories and struggling
Americans are the backdrop for the gloomy narration: In Hillary Clintons America,
the middle class gets crushed. The other ad shows a series of more dignified images
of Clinton. She is in meetings with foreign leaders, and the narrator gives a reassuring
message: A steady leader in an unsteady world.
With ads like these, Democratic candidate Clinton and Republican candidate
Donald Trump are trying to present themselves to voters in the best possible light. At
the same time, theyre trying to convey unflattering, even frightening, images of their
opponent.
Political ads offer a biased point of view like all advertising. Just as an iPhone ad
is designed to sell iPhones, a political ad is designed to sell a specific candidate.
Americans in battleground states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida are seeing
a lot of political ads this fall. And voters everywhere are watching and debating them
on social media. That is because advertising plays such a key role in our elections.
Old-fashioned TV advertising is tremendously important if for no other reason
than most Americans dont pay very much attention to politics, says Erika Franklin
Fowler of the Wesleyan Media Project in Connecticut, which tracks political
advertising. Campaigns are looking for ways to reach less-attentive citizens. One of
the best ways you can do that is to reach citizens who are at home watching other
programs.
Political advertising has been around since the mid-19th century. In its early days,
it consisted mostly of buttons, banners, and posters. They were intended to generate
turnout at local rallies and polling places on Election Day.

Notes on my
thoughts,
reactions and
questions as I
read:

Ads on I Love Lucy

That began to change in the 1920s when radios reach became widespread. But

the truly significant shift came with the arrival of television. In 1952, an advertising
executive convinced Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower that the sights and
sounds of TV offered the fastest and most effective way to get his message across to
voters.
His ads ran during popular shows like I Love Lucy and were a huge hit.
Eisenhowers opponent, Democrat Adlai Stevenson, thought TV ads were undignified.
He ran half-hour speeches on TV instead. (He lost. When he ran again against
Eisenhower in 1956, he used TV ads. He lost anyway.)
In 1964, the campaign of Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson ran whats
considered TVs first negative political ad. The Daisy spot was based on concerns
that Johnsons opponent, Senator Barry M. Goldwater, a Republican, wouldnt rule out
the use of nuclear weapons against Americas enemies.
The ad showed a little girl in a field. She was pulling petals off a daisy and
counting up from one. Then her voice was replaced by an official-sounding male
voice. The male voice was counting down from 10 as a prelude to an atomic blast. The
screen was then filled with a mushroom cloud. The ad was so controversial that it
aired only once.
Negative ads have been with us ever since. Most politicians claim to dislike them.
But the simple fact is that negative ads work. They can influence voters to change their
minds. They can also affect a candidates poll numbers. But just because an ad is
negative doesnt mean it has no value.
Negative ads invariably have more substantive policy information than positive ones
do, so negative advertising may actually be good for democracy, Fowler says.

Clinton vs. Trump


Usually, the number of commercials on TV for each of the major-party candidates
is pretty balanced. However, in the first few months of this years general election, ads

Notes on my
thoughts,
reactions and
questions as I
read:

by Clinton and super PACs* supporting her aired more than 100,000 times.
Commercials for Trump aired just 8,500 times in that same period. Trumps campaign
hasnt had nearly as much money as Clintons to buy ads. Trump triumphed in the
primaries without them. Hes been relying on Twitter and lots of free media coverage
of his provocative sound bites.
I would never advise a presidential candidate to be off the air for so significantly
long, says Michael Franz, a political scientist at Bowdoin College in Maine. Weve
never seen anything like this before. Its either brilliant, or its complete
incompetence.
Clintons huge advertising edge could allow her to define Trumps image to
voters before he has a chance to counter it, Franz says. But research shows that
viewers often dont remember political ads for long. So maybe spending money on ads
earlier in the race is a waste, Franz says. And its also possible that paid advertising is
less important this year for Trump because hes been so successful at getting free
media exposure.
In any event, most media analysts expect Trump to boost his advertising before
Election Day in November.
It will be up to voters to decide what to believe in Trumps and Clintons ads. Al
Tompkins, a broadcast media expert at the Poynter Institute in Florida, says voters
should always be wary.
No candidate is going to come on the air and say, Here are a few things Im not
very good at, and I have no idea how to solve these problems, Tompkins says. The
bottom line is its a sales job, so we all have to look at these ads with a critical eye.
But thats our job as a voter.
*A super PAC is an independent political action committee that can raise unlimited amounts of
money from corporations, unions, and individuals, but cannot give that money directly to
candidates.

Notes on my
thoughts,
reactions and
questions as I
read:

Directions: For these vocabulary questions, use the words bolded in the article.
Vocabulary Work:
1.PART A: The word grim most nearly means ___.
a. dirty b. forbidden c. grisly d. depressing
PART B Which word or phrase from the excerpt provides the best support for the answer to Part A?
a. string b. struggling Americans c.dignified images d. Backdrop
2. Infer the meaning of the word shuttered in the article. Then answer the question.
Meaning: ______________________________________________________________________
Why might a factory or other business suddenly be shuttered? _________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
3. Infer the meaning of the word battleground in the excerpt. Then use the word in an original sentence.
Meaning: ___________________________________________________________________________
Sentence:___________________________________________________________________________
Directions: For these comprehension questions, respond in complete sentences.
4. What is the article mostly about?

Directions: Answer each question in one or more complete sentences and by providing complete
explanations.
4. Why do you think TV campaign ads are still such an important part of a U.S. presidential race? Do
you think that will still be true a decade from now?

5. Why does media expert Erika Franklin Fowler say that negative campaign ads may be good for
democracy? Do you agree or disagree with Fowler? Explain your answer

6. What makes a state a battleground state? Why do these states tend to see more political ads than
other states?

7. What do you think of Donald Trumps decision to rely on Twitter and free media exposure and spend
less money on TV ads? Would you make the same decision? Why or why not?

Adapted from Valle Middle School

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