Dan LePera- Image Priming

http://antypography.com/2009/01/21/obama/

In class, we discussed the idea of priming. Priming is a cognitive process, in which media information increases temporarily the accessibility of knowledge units in the memory of an individual, which makes it more likely that these knowledge units are used in the reception, interpretation and judgment for external information. It refers to the effort of some preceding stimulus or event on how we react.

We specifically talked about image priming versus issue priming. Image priming is when people judge something, a candidate for example, based on the way they walk, talk, and present themselves. Then there is issue priming, which is when people judge candidates on their policies. There is a big problem in today’s society with image priming and this article greatly supports this problem.

In this editorial, the authors, Scott Thomas and Walker Hamilton, compare the websites of two presidents. They explain how the website of President George Bush is old, the design is dated and the content is boring. The authors continue on to explain how this website represents the man.

Next they explained how Barack Obama’s website is very beautiful and they even refer to it as “flawless”. They continue on to explain how the website makes them proud to be an American and explain the great art and design appeal that Obama has. The authors compare candidates based on websites.

This is relevant to our class discussion on image priming versus issue priming. How can you really compare two people based on their websites? Obama had not done anything, yet these authors already thought he was a better president based on a website. This website supports our idea that image priming is everywhere.

I have a problem with this website and all other cases of image priming, but for candidates, this just tells you that what you say doesn’t mean as much. Issue priming still exists, but in the United States, people have limited political knowledge. The scary part of this website and America in general, is that many people judge things based on appearance.