Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T19:54:53.158Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The News Media and the Rise of Negativity in Presidential Campaigns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2012

John G. Geer
John G. Geer
Affiliation:
Vanderbilt University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Negative ads have become increasingly common in presidential campaigns. Figure 1 well illustrates this point (see also West 2009). The upcoming 2012 elections will almost surely augment this upward trend of more and more negativity. In fact, with the emergence of Super Pacs, the share of attack ads in 2012 will likely be significantly higher than in 2008, which in and of itself was the high-water mark for attack ads in the modern era. The harsh tone of the battle for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination certainly points toward an exceptionally nasty fall campaign.

Type
Symposium
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , July 2012 , pp. 422 - 427
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ansolabehere, Stephen, and Iyengar, Shanto. 1995. Going Negative. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Clinton, Josh, and Geer, John. 2012. “The Mediating Effect of the News Media in Presidential Election Campaigns,” manuscript. Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt University.Google Scholar
Fridkin, Kim, and Kenney, Patrick. 2011. “Variability in Citizens' Reactions to Different Types of Negative Campaigns” American Journal of Political Science 55: 307–25.Google Scholar
Geer, John. 2006. In Defense of Negativity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geer, John, Lau, Richard, Nickerson, David, and Vavreck, Lynn. 2012. “Advertising in an Era of Choice,” manuscript. Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt University.Google Scholar
Gerber, Alan S., Gimpel, James G., Green, Donald P., and Shaw, Daron R.. 2011. “How Large and Long-Lasting are the Persuasive Effects of Televised Campaign Ads?” American Political Science Review 105: 135–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iyengar, Shanto. 2011. Media Politics, 2nd ed. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Kahn, Kim, and Kenney, Patrick. 1999. The Spectacle of US Senate Campaigns. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karabell, Zachary. 2001. The Last Campaign. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Lau, Richard R., Sigelman, Lee, and Rovner, Ivy Brown. 2007. “The Effects of Negative Political Campaigns: A Meta-Analytic Reassessment.” Journal of Politics 69: 1176–1209.Google Scholar
Patterson, Thomas. 1993. Out of Order. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Prior, Markus. 2007. Post Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Vavreck, Lynn. 2009. The Message Matters: The Economy and Presidential Campaigns. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, Darrell. 2009. Air Wars: Television Advertising in Election Campaigns, 1952–2008. Washington: CQ Press.Google Scholar