Media And Campaigns
Focus on candidate character and image
- Personality flaws are fair game
- Parties become less important
“Bad news”
- 1988: The “dirty campaign” (Willie Horton; Pledge of Allegiance)
- 1992 Campaign
- Negative coverage of the U.S. economy hurt George Bush in 1992
- Clinton managed to survive coverage of character weakness
- 1996: Would Bob Dole “go negative?”
- Negativity effects: does the public believe that bad news is more “informative”?
- Ansolabahere & Iyengar: negative campaigning “demobilizes” the electorate