Creating Legislative Pressure: State Level And Federal Level

By Author: blown
Total Articles: 39
Comment this article

Both the state and federal governments exercise considerable control over commerce, including advertising. Action by state governments often precedes federal action and, ironically, creates an incentive for industry to acquiesce to federal legislation. One in-stance occurred in July 1965, when Governor Nelson Rockefeller signed an act requiring a health warning on all Tag Heuer Carrera Replica(http://www.imitatewatch.com/GoodsSeries/Replica-Carrera-Watches-383.html) cigarette packages sold in New York State. "If there was anything the cigarette companies wanted less than federal regulation," explains A. Lee Fritschler in Smoking and Politics, "it was state requirements that health warnings appear. This could have meant as many different labels as there are states, creating an obvious marketing problem."

Congress can exercise enormous power over the government regulatory agencies, which were created by and can be modified by congressional legislation, are funded by congressional appropriations, and are overseen by congressional committees. In addition, high-level government appointments, including appointments of FCC ...
... commissioners, must be confirmed by the Senate.
Actual congressional action is not always necessary to produce change in the media. For example, on February 3, 1971, the FTC asked Congress to require that all print advertising for cigarettes carry a health warning. On April 15, seven of the nine largest cigarette companies began voluntarily including health warnings in all print ads.

When Congress is affronted by the actions of a regulatory agency, however, it is capable of strong action. In the mid-1960s, for example, without consulting key members of Congress, the FTC bowed to pressure from anticigarette forces and issued a notice of rule making, requiring a health warning on all packages of cigarettes and in all cigarette advertising. Both houses of Congress held hearings on the FTC action. The resulting legislation removed the FTC's rule-making powers concerning cigarette advertising and negated the FTC rule. In October 1995, R. J. Reynolds removed Joe Camel—the controversial cartoon icon—from billboards in response to pressure from those opposing advertising tobacco products to children.

This brief consumer's guide to influencing the mass media describes how otherwise powerless individuals or groups can exploit the complex relationship among govern-ment, industry, and audience to influence advertising and news coverage. In some cases individual action is effective; in others, group action is necessary.
Established organizations have a Tag Heuer Replica Watches(http://www.luv-replica.com/GoodsBrand/tag_heuer_replica_watches-20.html) distinct advantage over social movements; re-source-poor groups also operate at a significant disadvantage.
An understanding of journalistic norms and routines, regulatory and self-regulatory procedures, and the legal process enhances the likelihood that a rhetorically sophisti-cated but resource-poor group will succeed.
In those instances when change can occur only through legislation, individuals may be forced to gain influence as members of congressional staffs or to run for office. Groups can support candidates for public office sympathetic to their points of view. Therefore, in the following chapters, we focus on the use of media to elect politicians.