Network News Coverage of Campaign Advertisements

Abstract

In this article, the author examines whether network news coverage of a campaign advertisement's issue can reinforce the ad's basic message for the public and alter individual candidate assessments. The author uses the 1988 Willie Horton ad to investigate this question, combining data from the 1988 American National Election Study with content analysis from the Vanderbilt Television News Archives. Results show that general campaign coverage of race and crime issues as well as coverage of Horton influenced individual ideological perceptions of Dukakis. In line with Zaller's theory of public opinion, this influence was limited to certain individuals within the population, namely, media coverage affects individuals with moderate levels of political awareness who have weaker initial predispositions. Combined, these results demonstrate that media can exert both significantly and substantively significant influence on the public.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ansolabehere, S. , & Iyengar, S. (1994). Riding the wave and claiming ownership over issues: The joint effects of advertising and news coverage in campaigns. Public Opinion Quarterly, 58, 335-357.

Ansolabehere, S. , & Iyengar, S. (1995). Going negative. New York: Free Press.

Bartels, L. M. (1993). Messages received: The political impact of media exposure. American Political Science Review, 87, 267-285.

Bennett, S. E. (1995). Comparing Americans' political information in 1988 and 1992. Journal of Politics, 57(2), 521-532.

Buchanan, B. (1991). Electing a president. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Delli Carpini, M. X. , & Keeter, S. (1993). Measuring political knowledge: Putting first things first. American Journal of Political Science, 37(4), 1179-1206.

Delli Carpini, M. X. , & Keeter, S. (1996). What Americans know about politics and why it matters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Entman, R. M. (1993). Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication, 43, 51-58.

Friedrich, R. J. (1982). In defense of multiplicative terms in multiple regression equations. American Journal of Political Science, 26(4), 797-833.

10.

Iyengar, S. , & Kinder, D. R. (1987). News that matters. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

11.

Joslyn, M. , & Cecolli, S. (1996). Attentiveness to television news and opinion change in the fall of 1992 presidential campaign. Political Behavior. 18(2), 141-170.

12.

Just, M. , Crigler, A. , & Wallach, L. (1990). Thirty seconds or thirty minutes: What viewers learn from spot advertisements and candidate debates. Journal of Communication, 40(3), 120-133.

13.

Kaid, L. L. , Gorbetz, R. H. , Garner, J. , Leland, C. M. , & Scott, D. K. (1993). Television news and presidential campaigns: The legitimization of televised political advertising. Social Science Quarterly, 74, 274-285.

14.

Kamber, V. (1997). Poison politics: Are negative campaigns destroying democracy? New York: Plenum.

15.

Keith, B. E. , Magleby, D. B. , Nelson, C. J. , Orr, E. , Westlye, M. C , & Wolfinger, R. E. (1992). The myth of the Independent voter. Berkeley: University of California Press.

16.

Kinder, D. R. , & Sanders, L. M. (1996). Divided by color. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

17.

Krosnick, J. A. , & Brannon, L. A. (1993). The impact of the Gulf War on the ingredients of presidential evaluations: Multidimensional effects of political involvement. American Political Science Review, 87, 963-975.

18.

Krosnick, J. A. , & Kinder, D. R. (1990). Altering the foundations of support for the president through priming. American Political Science Review, 84, 497-512.

19.

Lemert, J. , Elliot, W. , Bernstein, J. , Rosenberg, W. , & Nestvold, K. (1991). News verdicts, the debates, and presidential campaigns. New York: Praeger.

20.

Nelson, T. E. , & Kinder, D. R. (1996). Issue frames and group-centrism in American public opinion. Journal of Politics, 58(4), 1055-1078.

21.

Patterson, T. E. , & McClure, R. D. (1976). The unseeing eye. New York: G.P. Putnam.

22.

Price, V. , & Zaller, J. (1993). Who gets the news? Alternative measures of news reception and their implications for research. Public Opinion Quarterly, 57, 133-164.

23.

Zaller, J. R. (1992). The nature and origins of mass opinion. New York: Cambridge University Press.