Journal ArticleDOI
In Defense of Negativity: Attack Ads in Presidential Campaigns
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In defense of negativity: Attack ads in Presidential Campaigns as discussed by the authors argues that democracy requires candidates to attack each other, which is the role of the opposition, and it can only be done by offering criticisms of the opposing candidate or party.Abstract:
In Defense of Negativity: Attack Ads in Presidential Campaigns. By John G. Geer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006. 218p. $47.50 cloth, $19.00 paper. This book begins with a series of quotes from scholars and media pundits arguing that negative political advertisements are uncivil, mean-spirited, emotion-laden distortions of the truth, which not only smear their target but also mislead voters and undermine the political process itself; in short, they are the scourge of democracy. Or so the conventional wisdom goes. But John Geer asks us to reject the starting assumption that attack ads are bad. In fact, he argues that democracy requires candidates to attack each other. His argument is simple but powerful: All advertisements, by their very nature, exaggerate the truth. But this point applies equally to negative and positive ads. We cannot expect political candidates to fairly discuss their weaknesses along with their strengths. That is the role of the opposition, and it can only be done by offering criticisms of the opposing candidate or party. The real questions, then, are 1) whether negative ads perform their role effectively, or instead distort and confuse the vote choices citizens must make; and 2) whether attack ads, in performing a role that seems to be required of them, nonetheless undermine the democratic political system of which they are a crucial part.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Election Night’s Alright for Fighting: The Role of Emotions in Political Participation
TL;DR: This article found evidence for the distinctive influence of anger in a randomized experiment, a national survey of the 2008 electorate, and in pooled American National Election Studies from 1980 to 2004, finding that anger, more than anxiety or enthusiasm, will mobilize.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Effects of Negative Political Campaigns: A Meta‐Analytic Reassessment
TL;DR: This paper found no reliable evidence that negative political campaigning depresses voter turnout, though it does slightly lower feelings of political efficacy, trust in government, and possibly overall public mood, and found that negative campaigning is an effective means of winning votes, even though it tends to be more memorable and stimulate knowledge about the campaign.
Journal ArticleDOI
From Incivility to Outrage: Political Discourse in Blogs, Talk Radio, and Cable News
Sarah Sobieraj,Jeffrey M. Berry +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors attempt to conceptualize and measure more dramatic types of political incivility, which they termed "outrage" discourse, which involves efforts to provoke a visceral response from the audience, usually in the form of anger, fear, or moral righteousness through the use of overgeneralizations, sensationalism, misleading or patently inaccurate information, ad hominem attacks, and partial truths about opponents.
Journal ArticleDOI
News, Politics, and Negativity
Stuart Soroka,Stephen McAdams +1 more
TL;DR: For instance, the authors found that negative news elicits stronger and more sustained reactions than does positive news, and that negative information plays a greater role in voting behavior than positive news.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Gatekeeping Function: Distributions of Information in Media and the Real World
TL;DR: In this article, a new automated content-analytic procedure was used to analyze the differences between the distribution of information in the media and the real world, and to identify the gate-keeping function.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Election Night’s Alright for Fighting: The Role of Emotions in Political Participation
TL;DR: This article found evidence for the distinctive influence of anger in a randomized experiment, a national survey of the 2008 electorate, and in pooled American National Election Studies from 1980 to 2004, finding that anger, more than anxiety or enthusiasm, will mobilize.
Journal ArticleDOI
From Incivility to Outrage: Political Discourse in Blogs, Talk Radio, and Cable News
Sarah Sobieraj,Jeffrey M. Berry +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors attempt to conceptualize and measure more dramatic types of political incivility, which they termed "outrage" discourse, which involves efforts to provoke a visceral response from the audience, usually in the form of anger, fear, or moral righteousness through the use of overgeneralizations, sensationalism, misleading or patently inaccurate information, ad hominem attacks, and partial truths about opponents.
Journal ArticleDOI
News, Politics, and Negativity
Stuart Soroka,Stephen McAdams +1 more
TL;DR: For instance, the authors found that negative news elicits stronger and more sustained reactions than does positive news, and that negative information plays a greater role in voting behavior than positive news.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Gatekeeping Function: Distributions of Information in Media and the Real World
TL;DR: In this article, a new automated content-analytic procedure was used to analyze the differences between the distribution of information in the media and the real world, and to identify the gate-keeping function.
Journal ArticleDOI
The Strengthening of Partisan Affect
Shanto Iyengar,Masha Krupenkin +1 more
TL;DR: This article found that partisans not only feel more negatively about the opposing party, but also that this negativity has become more consistent and has a greater impact on their political participation, while partisan animus began to rise in the 1980s, it has grown dramatically over the past two decades.