The Future of Journalism: Should Political Advertising Have a Future?
In the third of a three-part series focusing on the future of journalism, moderator Professor Stuart H. Loory, Lee Hills Chair in Free Press Studies at the Missouri School of Journalism and director of the Missouri Journalism summer program at The New School in 2007, looks at whether freedom of expression is being stifled by the inability of the public to talk back to an advertisement and if election campaigns are growing too negative. Panelists include Hank Sheinkopf, James Siegel and Joe Napolitan.
With each new election campaign season, political advertising becomes more dominant. One implication is that the candidate who raises the most money can dominate television screens, the Internet, front yards or the printed page with ads that sell an image using the same techniques that sell beer, sleeping pills, or lingerie.
Bio
Stuart Loory
Stuart Loory is the first holder of the Lee Hills Chair in Free-Press Studies at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He is also editor of the IPI Global Journalist, formerly IPI Report, the journal of the International Press Institute, as well as the moderator of a half-hour weekly radio program, "Global Journalist" for KBIA-FM in Columbia, Missouri.
During the Winter 2004 semester Professor Loory served as a visiting professor at Moscow State University as part of the Missouri/Moscow State Curriculum Reform Project and during the Winter 2003 semester as a visiting professor in the Missouri School of Journalism's London Program.
Before coming to the University in 1997, Loory worked for TBS/CNN from October, 1980, to March, 1997, as CNN vice president and Washington managing editor, Moscow correspondent and executive producer, among other positions.
Before joining TBS/CNN, Loory spent 28 years in the newspaper business. Among his positions were Moscow bureau chief for the New York Herald Tribune and White House correspondent for the Los Angeles Times during the last years of Lyndon Johnson and the first two of Richard Nixon. He was a member of the Nixon enemies list. He was later managing editor of the Chicago Sun Times where he supervised several award-winning investigative reporting series.
He is co-author with David Kraslow of The Secret Search for Peace in Vietnam, a prize-winning investigation of President Johnson's efforts to settle the Vietnam War through negotiation; and author of Defeated: Inside America's Military Machine, published by Random House in 1973.
From 1973 to 1975, Loory was the first Kiplinger Professor of Public Affairs Reporting at Ohio State University.
Joe Napolitan
Joseph Napolitan has been a political consultant since 1956 and is considered one of the pioneers in his field. He is president and CEO of Joseph Napolitan Associates, Inc. of Springfield, Massachusetts, which primarily handles domestic campaigns; and chairman of Napolitan Associates /PAA, Inc. of New York, which specializes in political campaigns and public affairs programs outside the United Slates.
Mr. Napolitan is the founder of the American Association of Political Consultants and co-founder of the International Association of Political Consultants, the two largest organizations for political professionals in the world. He has served as president of both organizations and was the first person inducted into the AAPC Hall of Fame for political consultants.
Mr. Napolitan is the author of The Election Game published by Doubleday & Co., which is regarded as one of the basic texts on political campaign management and strategy. He has also written 100 Things I Have Learned in 30 Years as a Political Consultant which has been published in Italian, Spanish and Russian.
Joseph Napolitan served on the campaign staffs of President John F, Kennedy and President Lyndon B. Johnson, and was director of media for Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey in the 1968 presidential election. He has worked on more than 100 campaigns for United States Senate, Congress, governor and mayor of major cities in the United States.
Mr. Napolitan has served as a personal consultant to nine foreign heads of state, including President Valery Giscard d'Estaing of France, President Jaime Lusinchi and President Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela, President Gaafar Nimieri of Sudan, Prime Minister Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam of Mauritius and President Oscar Arias Sanchez of Costa Rica.
In 1986, Napolitan persuaded presidential candidate Oscar Arias to make peace the main thrust of his campaign, an effort that eventually led to President Arias winning the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize.
Hank Sheinkopf
Hank Sheinkopf has been a political, public affairs and governmental relations consultant for nearly 30 years.
He has worked on political campaigns and issue campaigns in four continents, ten foreign nations, in addition to over six hundred domestic political and issue campaigns in forty six American states. Sheinkopf was a member of President Clinton's re-election media team (1995-1996) producing ads for the only Democratic president re-elected since FDR.
He has taught and or/lectured at Brooklyn College, New York University and Harvard University.
Hank Sheinkopf is the president of Sheinkopf Communications, based in New York City, a full service strategic communications company providing media production & placement, direct marketing, public and government relations and crisis management services.
James Siegel
James Siegel is a thriller novelist and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of BBDO New York. He holds a B.A. from the York College 1977, City University of New York, and lives in Long Island. He is an advertising executive in New York City, with writing credits from the "Yo, Yao" ad that aired during Super Bowl XXXVII. He is also responsible for advertisements for Eliot Spitzer's gubernatorial campaign in New York.
The movie Derailed, a film based off his 2003 novel of the same name, was released on October 21, 2005. The novel was also adapted as the Tamil film Pachaikili Muthucharam.