The Medium and the Message in Argentina's Presidential Campaigns

Abstract

Do campaigns message to voters consistently across different media? And do competing candidates tend to converge over time on a single national style of campaign messaging? To address these questions, this article employs novel data from a content analysis of campaign spots and candidate tweets from the 2015 and 2019 presidential elections in Argentina. We find that the policy orientation of candidate messaging is similar across different media, with spots and tweets addressing specific issues in similar proportions. We also find that, consistent with the theory of success contagion, campaign messaging across candidates and election cycles varies along a wide range of variables as candidates have failed to converge on a similar campaigning style. Contrary to expectations drawn from prior research, we find that candidate tweets contain policy content and attacks on opponents just as often as do campaign spots.