The Mass Media and the Public's Assessments of Presidential Candidates, 1952–2000
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6394152 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martin Gilens (0000-0001-5485-6275, Princeton University), Lynn Vavreck (0000-0003-4582-7960, University of California, Los Angeles), M Cohen (0000-0002-1189-5263, James Madison University) |
| Year | 2007 |
| Volume | 69 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1160-1175 |
| Publication date | 2007-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-3816 • E-ISSN: 1468-2508 |
| Publisher | University of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1468-2508.2007.00615.x |
| OpenAlex | W2146024673 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 32 |
| References cited | 34 |
Media critics blame contemporary news for increasing levels of apathy and ignorance among the electorate. We agree that the amount of policy-oriented information in news coverage of presidential campaigns has declined and the level of news consumption has fallen. Yet, based on 50 years of data on media content and public attitudes, we find that over this period of time Americans have just as much to say about the major-party presidential candidates, what they have to say is more policy oriented, the association of vote choice with policy considerations has strengthened while the association with character considerations has weakened, and factual knowledge about the presidential candidates' issue positions has not declined. We assess the role of education, party polarization, and paid advertising in explaining trends in Americans' political knowledge and engagement. We show that the public's steady level of information and increased focus on policy in presidential politics reflects the high level of policy content in paid ads, which have compensated for the shift of news coverage toward candidate character, scandal, and the horse race
Advertising · Blame · Business · Ignorance · Mass media · News media · Political science · Politics · Presidential election · Presidential system · Public policy · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Law · Media Studies and Communication · Psychology · Social Media and Politics · Social Psychology
Personalization of Politics A Critical Review and Agenda for Research
Institutional Design and the Attribution of Presidential Control
Handbook of Research on Deception, Fake News, and Misinformation Online
Self-coding
Policy or Processes in Focus
Extending the Referendum Model of Presidential Election Outcomes
News Recommendations from Social Media Opinion Leaders
Hearing Campaign Appeals
Toward a Fuller Understanding of the Echoing Press
Flagging fake news on social media
A Policy‐Oriented Electorate
Agency Design, the Mass Media, and the Blame for Agency Scandals
Multiple Dimensions of Mobilization
Media framing biases and political power
Anticipating Unilateralism
Knockout Blows or the Status Quo? Momentum in the 2016 Primaries
The Long-Term Dynamics of Partisanship and Issue Orientations
Revisiting the Myth
The Polarization of Contemporary American Politics
Mass Media and Electoral Preferences During the 2016 US Presidential Race
Political Awareness and Electoral Campaigns
How Ideology Fuels Affective Polarization
Elements of Negativity
Playing with Emotions
Has Television Personalized Voting Behavior
The activation of nationalist attitudes
Lethal Incompetence
From Mass Preferences to Policy
Political Knowledge and Misinformation in the Era of Social Media
Understanding Political Knowledge and its Influence on Voting Preferences in the 2007 Federal Election
Do working-class candidates activate class-based voting
The mobilizing and demobilizing effects of political TV ads
Air wars
What Americans know about politics and why it matters
News That Matters
A Virtuous Circle
Interpreting Elections
Is Anyone Responsible?
Content Analysis in Mass Communication
Soft News Goes to War
Why Are American Presidential Election Campaign Polls So Variable When Votes Are So Predictable
More style than substance
Candidate Strategies to Prime Issues and Image
Evaluating Presidential Candidates
Do Open-Ended Questions Measure "Salient" Issues
The Illusion of Intimacy Television and the Role of Candidate Personal Qualities in Voter Choice
Voice, Substance, and Cynicism in Presidential Campaign Media
Weighted Content Analysis of Political Advertisements
Soft News Goes to War
D-Nominate after 10 Years
Rationalization and Derivation Processes in Survey Studies of Political Candidate Evaluation
News Media Impact on the Ingredients of Presidential Evaluations
Patterns of Congressional Voting
Estimating Party Influence in Congressional Roll-Call Voting
Identifying the Persuasive Effects of Presidential Advertising
Campaign Advertising and Democratic Citizenship
The Reasoning Voter Meets the Strategic Candidate
Estimating Party Influence on Roll Call Voting
Altering the Foundations of Support for the President Through Priming
The Simple Act of Voting
The Myth of the Vanishing Voter
The Statistical Analysis of Roll Call Data
Resurgent Mass Partisanship
Sex, Lies, and War
| Unique citing works | 32 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,78 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2025 (18) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 31 |