John C. Tedesco

Introduction Political Information Efficacy and Young Voters

With young voters reporting lower levels of political knowledge and information than older voters, and with young citizens often attributing their abstention from voting to their lack of political ...

Examining Internet Interactivity Effects on Young Adult Political Information Efficacy

Political information efficacy theory was examined in this pretest-posttest experiment of Web interactivity. Experimental (high) and control (low) interactive conditions produced significantly different effects for the participants (N = 271). Exposure to highly interactive Web features resulted in significant increases in political information efficacy. Participants in the highly interactive condition were also significantly more likely than those in the low interactive condition to indicate that voting was an important behavior.

Issue and Strategy Agenda-Setting in the 2000 Presidential Primaries

This article builds on the previous research that focused more specifically on the candidate-media dynamic within the agenda-setting process and extends the research in the direction of strategy framing. Using VBPro, a computer program for content analysis, 1,479 candidate press releases and 756 network news stories were content-analyzed using key words in context frames. Results show significant positive correlation between candidate and media issue agendas, which were particularly strong for the Republican candidates. Appeals to audience frames were highly correlated between Republican candidates and the media. Autocorrelations used to measure the direction of influence suggest that the relationship between candidates and media is reciprocal. However, the process frames were significantly correlated only for McCain and the networks, which may offer support for the appearance that McCain and the media had a “love-affair” during the 2000 presidential primary.

Political Information Efficacy and Internet Effects in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

Despite the increase in young adult political engagement during the early part of the twenty-first century, young adult voting rates remain relatively low. This study explores the effects of Internet messages on young adult political efficacy and political information efficacy through a pretest/posttest experiment. Young voters (N = 486) reported significantly increased political efficacy and political information efficacy following exposure to several experimental stimuli; however, young women in the sample lag behind their male counterparts with regard to the confidence in their political information. Perhaps not surprisingly, Democrat participants were significantly higher in political efficacy in the days prior to the 2008 U.S. presidential election as it seemed likely that their candidate would win the election. Exposure to a negative media presentation of young voters did not appear to thwart young adult political information efficacy. More research spanning citizen-citizen, candidate-citizen, media-citizen, and party-citizen online messages and their effects is warranted.

Intercandidate Agenda Setting in the 2004 Democratic Presidential Primary

This study assesses candidate issue agendas and intercandidate agenda setting during the 2004 Democratic primary campaign. Candidate press releases, downloaded from official Web sites of Wesley Clark (n = 232), Howard Dean (n = 328), John Edwards (n = 512), and John Kerry (n = 459), are used to construct candidate issue agendas for each month spanning October 2003 through February 2004. This study investigates prominent issues among candidate agendas, agenda consistency, and intercandidate agenda-setting effects. Despite consistent issue agendas among the leading primary candidates, intercandidate agenda-setting effects were evidenced in each month of the primary campaign.

British Party Election Broadcasts: A Comparison of 1992 and 1997

This article presents a content analysis of the British party election broadcasts (PEBs) aired by the Conservative and Labour Parties during the 1992 and 1997 general elections. Using “videostyle,” a content analysis catagorical framework that measures components of verbal, nonverbal, and production techniques, several revealing findings are presented in this article. Among the more interesting findings is the increased tendency for the British electoral advertising to follow the American example in terms of negativity and heightened personalization. In addition, the trend during the period was toward greater use of commercial advertising techniques in PEBs as part of a more concerted communication strategy. As a result, PEBs are now the subject of news and are part of a wider debate on the role of media in electoral politics. The 1997 PEBs placed greater focus on the party leaders than the 1992 PEBs, particularly in the case of Tony Blairs role in the 1997 Labour PEBs. The dominant negative nature of the PEB, while on the rise, also appears to present more direct, hard-hitting, personal attacks at the opposing party and party leaders. Furthermore, like their U.S. counterparts, PEBs are dominated by discussion of policy issues. However, despite the greater length of the PEBs, there were many missed opportunities for specific policy proposal presentation.

Presidential ads as nightly news: A content analysis of 1988 and 1992 televised Adwatches

For years, scholars have been interested in how the media report political campaigns. Until recently, however, few researchers have focused media attention on how the media cover political ads. In response to the increasing number of ads capturing media and public attention, the researchers conducted a content analysis of 1988 and 1992 televised, presidential adwatches. Findings offer much support for previous research including: adwatches (1) focus on negative ads, (2) portray advertisements more negatively than positively, and (3) usually appear as priority agenda items. An interesting change was found between 1988 and 1992 in the way adwatches are reported. In 1988, adwatches were found mostly as part of routine campaign reports whereas in 1992 adwatches were more prominently featured as the focus of the news story. Findings point to the increasing importance of political advertising as part of news reports on political campaigns.

Toward a Virtual Town Square in the Era of Web 2.0

The use of information and communication technology has been leading to foundational changes in democratic society. In the US, new forms of information distribution, citizen discussion and citizen-to-citizen exchange, including content syndication, tagging, and social software, are changing the ways that citizens access information and participate in democratic discussion with other interested citizens as well as government, especially at the local level. We are interested in how local governments and citizens act as agents of change in the community-wide use of social media (also known as Web 2.0). To what extent and for whom does citizen exchange, discussion and collective decision-making supplement offline communication. What is lost in the migration from direct democracy to digital democracy? There are perils as well as opportunities to civic life with the advent of new forms of interaction. Some traditionally politically active participants in the US, such as the older generation, are often uncomfortable with computers. Has their access or participation declined with the migration to electronic forms of government? Conversely, could young adults become more active in civic life through new forms of online social interaction around local or national issues? We report here on changes in civic awareness, political participation, political and collective efficacy, and knowledge sharing among diverse community members based on a decade of research on the social and political use and impact of community-wide computer networking.

Effects of Bipartisanship Messaging and Candidate Exposure on the Political Organization–Public Relationship

As an online experiment with a 2 × 3 factorial design, this study manipulates participants’ (N = 441) exposure to a candidate’s (Barack Obama or Mitt Romney) post-election speech along with additional messages about bipartisanship (supporting bipartisanship, challenging bipartisanship, no message). Results showed main and interaction effects on all relationship factors based on experimental cell. In addition, data indicate that assessment of candidate sincerity was most strongly affected by ideological strength, more so than relationship or exposure support messages calling for bipartisanship. The study focuses on first-time voters and is framed through the lens of political public relations.

Journalistic Responsibility and Political Advertising: A Content Analysis of Coverage by State and Local Media

In order to provide voters with information about the candidate‐controlled format of televised political advertising, journalists at all levels now incorporate coverage of political ads into their campaign analyses. Often labeled “adwatches, “such coverage has tended to focus on presidential campaigns, and little is known about how well journalists perform their responsibility to voters in scrutinizing political ads at lower electoral levels. Using content analysis, this study analyzed journalistic coverage of political advertising in newspapers and local television stations in 16 locations throughout the U.S. in the 1996 election. Results indicate that, even in local outlets, political advertising/or candidates below the presidential level receives little attention. Negative ads also continue to be the focus of a great deal of journalistic coverage, and findings indicate a lack of careful scrutiny or attention to the claims provided in the ads, suggesting that much more attention needs to be focused on “...