Campaign Advertisements' Impact on Voter Certainty and Knowledge of House Candidates' Ideological Positions

• DOI: 10.1177/1065912908316804
• Date: 01 December 2008
• Published date: 01 December 2008
• Author: Jeffrey W. Koch
• Subject Matter: Articles

Political Research Quarterly

Volume 61 Number 4

December 2008 609-621

© 2008 University of Utah

10.1177/1065912908316804

http://prq.sagepub.com

hosted at

http://online.sagepub.com

609

Campaign Advertisements’ Impact on

Voter Certainty and Knowledge of

House Candidates’ Ideological Positions

Jeffrey W. Koch

State University of New York at Geneseo

One expectation for American election campaigns is that they inform citizens about candidates’policy inclinations, clari-

fying the policy directions advocated by the major party nominees. Evidence from the 1998 elections to the House of

Representatives indicates that the more negative issue advertisements were broadcast,the more confident citizens became

that they knew the targeted candidate’s ideological position. However, the more negative issue advertisements about a can-

didate aired, the greater citizens’ perceptual error of the candidate’s ideological position. Issue attack ads lead citizens to

believe they know more than they actually do, failing to produce the democratic ideal of an informed electorate.

Keywords: campaign advertising; certainty; candidate ideology; House elections

To even the least astute observer of modern elec-

toral politics, it is obvious that television advertis-

ing has become an important—perhaps the most

important—means for candidates to communicate

with citizens. How electoral campaigns and television

advertising are viewed in terms of their contribution to

representative democracy is very much dependent on

how well these exercises serve to provide citizens

with substantive information about the candidates

from which they can choose (Bartels 2000; Kelley

1960). In this research, I seek to extend scholarly

understanding of the role of political commercials in

American elections by examining their impact on cit-

izens’ certainty and knowledge of 1998 House candi-

dates’ ideological orientations. This research

addresses the question of whether issue advertise-

ments lead citizens to believe they have learned some-

thing important about the ideological positions of

candidates for the House of Representatives and

whether they did in fact learn something about candi-

dates’ ideological orientation. If advertisements lead

citizens to become more informed about candidates’

ideological orientations, and thus suggestive of what

these candidates will do if placed in office, we might

conclude that campaigns enhance democratic govern-

ment by increasing the ability of voters to influence

future government policy. To the extent campaigns

fail to inform, these events will be viewed more skep-

tically, concluding that they do little to enhance the

representation of citizens’ interests and preferences in

government policy making, and in fact may present a

barrier to its attainment.

The research presented here concentrates on whether

these ads inform, fail to inform, or misinform citizens

about candidates’ ideological positions. Candidates’ide-

ological orientations represent an important component

to the complex calculus of voter decision making in

House elections and figure prominently in theories of

representation (Ansolabehere, Snyder, and Stewart 2001;

Erikson and Wright 1997; Jacobson 2004). Under-

standing the consequences of issue advertisements for

citizens’ certainty and knowledge of candidates’ideolog-

ical orientations will improve our ability to evaluate cam-

paign advertising’s role in representative democracy.

The influence of issue advertisements on citizens’

perceptual certainty of the targeted candidates’ ideo-

logical orientation represents one perspective on the

usefulness of this information. Given that it is from the

perspective of citizens, it is a particularly important

point to consider for evaluating the contribution of

issue advertisements in clarifying the relevant choices

and improving knowledge. However, to find that issue

advertisements lead citizens to believe they know the

targeted candidate’s ideological orientation with a high

level of certitude is not the same as demonstrating that

Jeffrey W. Koch, Professor of Political Science, State University

of New York-Geneseo; e-mail: koch@geneseo.edu.

Author’s Note: I am thankful for a grant from the Geneseo

Foundation that enabled me to complete this research project.