Candidate Survivor: When Push Comes to Pull on the Campaign Trail

[Commentary] Most current analyses of media and the election go to the nature of press coverage of the candidates. But this election has a more transformative nature: the emergence of push versus pull candidacies that reflect the changing nature of media itself.

In this election, the results may very well depend on how citizen-sovereigns view their role. Will they passively receive the messages pushed through the din of information overload? Or will they actively pull in the information they need to make knowledgeable decisions? The new media are indeed the message.

[Charlie Firestone is the Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s Communications and Society Program]