Analysis of network news during the 1984 presidential campaign shows that TV coverage of Democratic candidates differed in frequency and in the kinds of expressive displays shown over the course of the pre-convention period. Although political success was generally correlated with media attention, as predicted on the basis of ethology, Jackson was more successful than Mondale in becoming the unquestioned focus of news coverage. Ethological predictions of the type of display behavior shown were generally consistent with the data: happy/reassurance displays were more frequent in interviews, whereas anger/threat tended to be shown more often during speeches, and political success was generally associated with an increased frequency of happy/reassurance displays. Combined with experimental results reported elsewhere, these findings help to explain the outcome of the 1984 campaign and suggest that nonverbal leadership cues are an element in the influence of television in contemporary politics.
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