Why does the media use the "wrong" colors?

[buritobr]

In most of the countries, the colors of the parties follow a standard. The center-left parties (social-democrat, socialist, labor) are red, the conservative parties are black or blue, the liberal parties (liberal outside the US = libertarian in the US) are yellow, I don´t need to say the color of the green parties, and the far-left parties are dark red (red wine color).

Dave Leip follows this standard in the Atlas. But the media uses the opposite colors. It is recent.

I saw some coverages of the election night in the Youtube. In 1976, ABC used blue for Carter, yellow for Ford and red for states that were not called yet. In 1980 and 1984, CBS and NBC used blue for Reagan and red for Carter/Mondale. Someone commented that the map was almost all blue, like a swimming pool in a suburb.
However, since 1988, states carried by republicans are red and states carried by democrats are blue. Why?

[Stranger in a strange land]

Up until the year 2000, there was no set color scheme and newspapers and TV networks generally used blue for the president's party and red for the opposition. The 2000 Election Debacle caused the red for Republicans/blue for Democrats map to be up on TV screens for weeks on end, giving rise to talk of "red states" and "blue states".

[Indy Texas]

Neither major party in the US has ever had an "official" color. The color schemes at political events and on signs and posters have always been at the discretion of candidates, who generally consult with printers and graphic designers. So the colors shown on election maps have always been the call of the newspaper/TV network making the maps. Red and blue were logical starting points given they are our national colors; I don't think the European association of red with labor and social democracy and blue with conservatism entered into the equation. Sometimes yellow or gold was used as a complementary color.

A lot of this has to do with the fact that Americans, even when they identify with a party, tend to channel their support into the specific candidates running rather than the party itself. A Republican might have a bumper sticker for the GOP's presidential and/or statewide office candidates, but probably isn't just going to put the RNC elephant logo on his car. Contrast that with Britain, where people sometimes wear blue ribbons for Conservatives or red flowers for Labour during elections; or South American countries, where political parties often have their own flags which people will display on their cars or houses during elections.

[DS0816]

CBS News' 1984 election-night coverage used the commonly recognized color scheme: red for Republican; blue for Democratic.


Same video (two links)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0_sYOgJzfE

http://youtu.be/K0_sYOgJzfE


I agree with Republican/Red and Democratic/Blue.

[sg0508]

The year 2000 was the first in which the color scheme as we know it was used.

[muon2]

Up until the year 2000, there was no set color scheme and newspapers and TV networks generally used blue for the president's party and red for the opposition. The 2000 Election Debacle caused the red for Republicans/blue for Democrats map to be up on TV screens for weeks on end, giving rise to talk of "red states" and "blue states".

This is part of the story. Most networks had specific schemes to rotate to colors once color TV was available. One network (NBC?) switched the color of the incumbent party every cycle, so that a party that won as a challenger would have the same color for their reelection. Reagan was blue for 1980 and 1984 on NBC, but Bush was red. Bush became blue as the incumbent party switched in 1992 as Clinton was elected as the red party on their map. The color scheme was set for Dem blue in 2000.

Tim Russert is given much of the credit for referring to states as Red/Blue on the Today show leading up to the election. It might have been a blip in history, but the colored maps frozen night after night on the news during the FL vote-counting mess helped cement that. Of course the normal rotation would have kept Bush red in 2004, but the more permanent assignments had stuck by then.

[Joe Republic]

I agree with Republican/Red and Democratic/Blue.

Why?  It's totally the wrong way round.  Ask virtually every other country on earth.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

The year 2000 was the first in which the color scheme as we know it was used.

Actually, no. ABC used the current color scheme all the way back to 1984. CNN used the current color scheme in 1996, and possibly before that.

[SNJ1985]

The Atlas colors make much more sense; since in almost every other country in the world, red is associated with the left and blue is associated with the right (as others have noted).

[buritobr]

The Atlas colors make much more sense; since in almost every other country in the world, red is associated with the left and blue is associated with the right (as others have noted).

Americans do not use the metric system, Americans do not use the Celsius scale. Why should they use an international standard of colors of political parties?

[SNJ1985]

The Atlas colors make much more sense; since in almost every other country in the world, red is associated with the left and blue is associated with the right (as others have noted).

Americans do not use the metric system, Americans do not use the Celsius scale. Why should they use an international standard of colors of political parties?

Well, I would be OK with us switching to Metric and Celsius as well.

[buritobr]

Maybe the terminology "red states" and "blue states" is not a good generalization.

We can see the evidence in the Atlas Forum. There are many members here using red avatars from red states and blue avatars from blue states. It means: being the opposite of their states.

[Joe Republic]

The Atlas colors make much more sense; since in almost every other country in the world, red is associated with the left and blue is associated with the right (as others have noted).

Americans do not use the metric system, Americans do not use the Celsius scale. Why should they use an international standard of colors of political parties?

Because just like those other examples you gave, Americans are doing it wrong.

[Vega]

Because I'm an old fart I remember old the different color schemes that have been used over the years. So there aren't any "right" or "wrong" colors to me.

[buritobr]

Nobody is right, nobody is wrong. That's why I wrote the word wrong between " ". It was an irony.

[Rockefeller GOP]

Just a side note, regardless of which color scheme you use, I hate the general use of "Red State" or "Blue State."  It seems it only refers to which party that state last voted for in a Presidential election.  For example, West Virginia is a "Red State" soley because they've supported the last few GOP nominees, completely disregarding their Democratic state legislatures, Democratic governor and two Democratic Senators.