New Directions in Media and Politics by Travis N. Ridout

Author:Travis N. Ridout [Ridout, Travis N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9780415537339
Google: yr2WtgAACAAJ
Goodreads: 15858687
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2012-12-10T00:00:00+00:00

Defining Negativity

In order to understand the effects of negativity, it is first important to define what we mean by a “negative ad.” At its most basic definition, a negative ad is one in which a candidate critiques another.14 Conversely, a positive ad is one in which a candidate promotes himself. In between a purely negative ad and positive ad is a contrast ad, which includes both a criticism of the opponent and positive information about the sponsor of the ad.

Each of these types of ads—negative, positive, or contrast—can have different types of content. An ad may have issue content, which focuses on the issue positions, beliefs and/or past votes of either the candidate or the opponent. For example, a 2016 ad sponsored by the Trump campaign highlighted Clinton’s financial backers, stating that “Hillary received $48.5 million from Wall Street hedge funds,” while Clinton’s campaign sponsored an ad focusing on Trump’s policies on Muslims and abortion. Alternatively, an ad may be focused on image—personal characteristics or character traits of either the candidate or the opponent. In 2016, for example, Trump launched a negative television ad against Clinton that focused on her lack of “fortitude,” “strength,” and “stamina.” Similarly, Clinton launched an ad that juxtaposed Trump’s negative comments towards women with video of young girls looking in the mirror, closing with, “Is this the president we want for our daughters?”

Lee Sigelman and Mark Kugler have suggested that voters are more likely to identify negative image ads as being truly negative and are much more likely to believe that negative image ads are problematic.15 In contrast, voters are more likely to forgive negative issue ads. Further, scholars suggest that voters are more likely to judge negative issue ads as being more “fair” than negative image ads. Freedman, Wood, and Lawton report that while 81 percent of voters believe that it is fair for an ad to criticize a candidate for “talking one way and voting another,” only 28 percent believe that it is fair for an ad to criticize a candidate for extra-marital affairs.16

Generally, negative issue ads have been more prevalent than negative image ads. In 2008, for example, only 21 percent of all ads sponsored by the Democratic candidates for Congress and 23 percent of all ads sponsored by the Republican candidates for Congress focused solely on the image attributes of the opponent.17 While this may have differed in the 2016 presidential election—Clinton, for example, relied less on issue ads and focused her campaign the personal traits of her opponents—this could be credited to the uniqueness of the two presidential candidates.18

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.