Abstract
This article uses the functional theory of campaign discourse to determine whether differences exist in the purpose and content of 75 web-only video ads and 742 television ads created by candidates and national parties during the 2004 and 2008 presidential campaigns. Web-only ads were more likely to include attack themes than TV ads, and TV ads were more likely to include acclaim themes than web-only ads. Ads differed little in their use of news-mediated evidence to bolster ad claims.
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