An Analysis Of Three Key Factors In Influencing The American Presidential Elections: Parties, Interest Groupsand Mass Media

American presidential election is an important aspect of U.S. electoral politics, whichhas significant impacts on U.S. domestic politics and foreign affairs. The study of it helpsus understand the cores of US domestic politics and enrich our academic context of theAmerican studies.The thesis aims to discuss the American presidential elections from the perspective ofthree key factors---parties, interest groups and mass media. As a most important elementof the presidential elections, the political parties assist the presidential election in severalways. Firstly, political parties act as intermediaries nominating candidates. Secondly,political parties run candidates under their own party labels. Thirdly, political parties alsohelp raise money for candidates in the presidential elections. Interest groups play a majorrole in presidential campaign by providing campaign funds and assistance for candidates.In order to understand the role of interest groups deeply, the author analyzes a case study ofthe NRA’s anti-gun-control efforts in this paper. Mass media serves as tools of presidentialelections for conveying political messages and mobilizing voters of the nations. Themedia’s role, especially that of television and the Internet, will be discussed through theexamples of John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama in the thesis.Hopefully, the analysis of three key factors in the American presidential elections willhelp us predict the trend of the American presidential elections and find the evolving rulesof it.