Glenn J. Hansen

The role of communication in the formation of an issue-based citizenry

Citizens can gain a better understanding of the important issues of a campaign and where candidates stand on those issues from three primary sources: direct candidate-to-citizen mass media messages (e.g., political advertisements, debates), news (e.g., newspapers, television news), or discussion with fellow citizens. The current study conducted a secondary analysis of 1996 American National Election Study (ANES) data to replicate Brians and Wattenbergs (1996) findings concerning the relative influence of political advertisements, television news use, and newspaper use on voter issue knowledge and salience in the 1992 United States presidential campaign. We also analyzed two additional communication information sources, general political discussion and debate viewing. The effects of political advertisement recall, television news viewing, and newspaper use replicated across election studies. General political discussion was found to affect both issue knowledge and salience, and when introduced into the regression analyses nullifies the predictive power of political advertisement recall for knowledge. Talks influence on salience wanes in subsequent analyses. Viewing the first debate was a strong predictor of issue knowledge, but was not associated with issue salience. Advertisement recall maintained predictive power for issue salience even after taking into account the other four information sources, and watching the second debate also predicted salience. The combination of results presents evidence that candidate-to-citizen and citizen-to-citizen communication play unique roles in determining levels of issue knowledge and salience.

Presidential debate questions and the public agenda

Presidential debates have become an institutionalized component of presidential campaigns. Debates have been shown to create learning in voters and are capable of influencing vote choices. Although candidates have some control over their utterances, questions, usually asked by journalists, have a strong influence on the topics candidates can address. It is fashionable to criticize the questions posed by journalists in these “joint press conferences.” This study adds a new twist to media agenda‐setting, providing empirical evidence on the question of whether voters’ issue interests influence the topics of journalists’ questions. Results show that the questions asked by journalists in debates do not reflect the public interest. We recommend that future debates eschew the use of journalists as sources of questions for presidential debates.

The Role of Significant Policy Issues in the 2000 Presidential Primaries

This study examines candidate discourse across four media types: television spots, radio spots, debates, and Web sites in the 2000 presidential primaries. The purpose of the analysis was to determine whether there is a relationship between candidate discourse on certain issues and the level of importance assigned to those issues by voters. The analysis indicates that some candidates are more effective than are others at addressing the issues most important to voters. The analysis also indicates that two message forms—debates and television spots—were modestly successful at adapting to audience preferences and two forms—radio spots and Web sites—were somewhat less successful at adapting to audience preferences.

Issue adaptation of presidential television spots and debates to primary and general audiences

Pundits observe that candidates campaign for partisans in the primary (Democrats run to the left and Republicans run to the right) but for the center of the political spectrum in general campaigns. Issue ownership theory identified five Republican and five Democratic issues. Content analysis of presidential spots and debates revealed Democrats discuss Democratic issues more (and Republican issues less) in primary than general television spots and debates. Republicans address Republican issues more (and Democratic issues less) in primary than general spots, although not in debates. Thus, presidential candidates adapt their television spot messages for the target audience; it is possible that Republican issues are discussed more in debates.

Presidential television advertising and public policy priorities, 1952–2000

Do presidential candidates adapt their spot messages to the publics interests? This study conducts a computer content analysis of the texts of presidential television spots from 1952–2000. Public opinion poll data on the most important issues for voters, in each campaign, are used to structure the searches. The extent to which candidate spot messages conform to the public issue agenda is determined. Democrats’ and challengers’ spot messages are significantly more aligned with the public policy priorities than Republicans or incumbents. There is no significant difference between the correlations for winners versus losers. Finally, in 5 of the 13 elections there is a significant relationship between the issues covered by the two candidates. Clearly, some candidates are better at adapting their television messages to voters and in some elections the candidates tend to discuss the same policy issues.