Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (2)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Min, Y.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

News Coverage of Negative Political Campaigns

An Experiment of Negative Campaign Effects on Turnout and Candidate Preference

Young Min

School of Journalism and Communication at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea, youngmin{at}khu.ac.kr

The present experiment examines the effects of negative campaigns on voting participation and preference over which previous studies have provided inconsistent findings. This study focuses on the impact of negative campaigns covered in the news rather than those delivered in political advertising. Findings do not support an across-the-board "negativity-demobilization" hypothesis but demonstrate that the focus of campaign (i.e., policy-versus personality-focused) moderates the impact of campaign attacks on the likelihood of turning out to vote. While policy-based attacks covered in the news slightly stimulate voter turnout, personality attacks significantly depress one’s participatory intention. The data also indicate that negative strategies generally do not benefit the sponsoring candidates, and it is even more so when attacks concern personal matters. In general, voters appear to prefer a policy-appealing candidate over a personality-appealing one.

Key Words: negative campaign effects • turnout • candidate preference • news media

The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Vol. 9, No. 4, 95-111 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1081180X04271861
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?