perhaps the most obvious tranformation in political campaigns has been in the area of technology.although the additions of radio in the 1920s and televistion in the 1950s brought with them a number of alteration to us political campaigns, as technological advancements, they were only the beginning. today, campaigns from the country to the national level rely on a number of devices sophisticated enough to have hardly even been envisioned in a campaign as contemporary as jimmy carter's in 1976. in so doing,their nature as well as the people who run them have changed.for example, in statewide as well as president campaign, the old electoral map on the headquarters wall showing in what districts the voters live has been supplemented with a map of the major media markets.
the new map decides how and where the candidate travels, carves new political regions around the interstate televistion centers, and pinpoints with a computer's help the exact demographic audiences who should serve as the targets of the candidate's campaign. Specialists, not country or state party leaders, now conduct campaign for the candidates.
The specialists who understand the media map can appreciate the intricacies of demographic target selection or the even newer geodemographics. Today's candidates for state legislature, governor, Congress, and president pick their media consultant almost before they do anything else. In fact,as sidney blumenthal writes in his book the permanent Campaign, early in the contest, candidates are often viewed as successful or not successful by the person they are able to hire to run thier campaign. The bigger the name of the consultant, the more serious a contender the candidate is considered to be
Not only have the media consultants taken over the modern political campaign, but they are also assisted by other specialists--in media advertising, in public opinion polling, in direct mail fund-raising, in street and telephone canvassing, and even in ethnic analysis. As theodore White once wrote, everything has changed, including the vocabulary. Anyone who has the direct ear of the cabdidate is now called a "strategist" the old-fashioned hatchet man out on the hustings is now styled a "surrogate" and a sudden rise in the public opinion polls conducted by the candidate's polling specialist show "momentum" Thus, the sophisticated use of modern