'. . . and I Approve This Message'
I suspect I'm not the only one who will be glad when the election is over, partly because we can't stand to hear this phrase repeated a hundred times a day. Perhaps one of the reasons U.S. voting participation falls behind other countries is the campaign "noise," especially that coming from negative TV ads.
One report from FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, studied more than 200 congressional ads from the top 101 TV markets. Their findings:
Of 115 National Republican Campaign Committee ads, 91% were judged to be purely negative and only 6% were purely positive.
Of 104 ads by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, 81% were judged to be purely negative and only 2% purely positive with the rest a mix of positive statements about the supported candidate and negative statements about the opponent.
Why so many negative ads? Simple: They seem to work.
Every major election year, pundits are heard saying this is the most negative election in history. But as FactCheck.org director Brooks Jackson said, "This time it might be true. It's hard to see when over 90% of the Republican ads are negative how you could go any more negative than this." The FactCheck.org report stated, "What stood out in the (Republican congressional committee's) report was a pronounced tendency to be petty and personal, and sometimes careless with the facts."
Reporting from Election Central
Journalists could be in for a long evening Tuesday, especially in many parts of Ohio.
With the importance of the election, the number of races, the increased number of absentee ballots and the probability of voting machine problems, networks may be hedging on control of the House and Senate until late in the evening and a.m. papers may be stuck with "election too close to call" stories.
But as Washington Post media analyst Howard Kurtz notes, "A big political wave can wash away much of the drama. During the Republican sweep of 1994, the networks began talking of a GOP takeover as early as 8:45."
Although most stories I've seen in the last week have focused on a predicted Democratic resurgence, I'd be cautious in basing my plans on that. I am reminded of the Kerry-Bush voting in Portage County in 2004. The Democrats got the heavy vote they expected, but they totally underestimated how well the Republicans would do in getting their voters to the polls.
In fact, Kurtz predicts "caution" will be the byword for election night. He quotes Marty Ryan of Fox News as saying, "House races are notoriously difficult to call. How do you call 50 House races?"
Some areas for media watchers to focus on:
How well are the on-air networks able to compete with cable, which is going to follow the elections full time?
Will Web sites have enough of the latest returns to cut into the TV audiences?
In Northeast Ohio, how well will Cleveland TV stations do on state and local returns? And to what extent will people get their information from the TV and newspaper Web sites?
The addition of two new TV anchors, ABC's Charles Gibson and CBS's Katie Couric, gives media critics another focus. And former anchor Bob Schieffer will join Couric, and at NBC longtime anchor Tom Brokaw will join Brian Williams.
All in all, it should be a very interesting evening.
Portage County Results
TV viewers can check what's happening in Portage County by watching TV-2 on the Kent State campus or tuning to Channel 16 on the cable in Kent. Adviser Gary Hanson says TV-2 will be on the air from 9 p.m. until the Portage County returns are final, barring a vote-counting catastrophe.
TV-2 news director Katie Morse and assistant news director Julie Bercik will host the election night special. Hanson says they will have reporters posted at election headquarters to follow the counting..
ToughSledding
Kent State public relations head Bill Sledzik has joined the blogosphere. Bill is writing a blog twice a week on both local and national issues affecting the PR world. With his extensive network of former students and other media professionals, Bill's blog is a must for PR practitioners.
Friday's post dealt with PR battles over smoking including Ohio Issues 4 and 5. Bill says, "Smokers may win one more round in my state, but we all know that tobacco is soon to become a complete social taboo--if not this year, very soon."
One report from FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, studied more than 200 congressional ads from the top 101 TV markets. Their findings:
Of 115 National Republican Campaign Committee ads, 91% were judged to be purely negative and only 6% were purely positive.
Of 104 ads by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, 81% were judged to be purely negative and only 2% purely positive with the rest a mix of positive statements about the supported candidate and negative statements about the opponent.
Why so many negative ads? Simple: They seem to work.
Every major election year, pundits are heard saying this is the most negative election in history. But as FactCheck.org director Brooks Jackson said, "This time it might be true. It's hard to see when over 90% of the Republican ads are negative how you could go any more negative than this." The FactCheck.org report stated, "What stood out in the (Republican congressional committee's) report was a pronounced tendency to be petty and personal, and sometimes careless with the facts."
Reporting from Election Central
Journalists could be in for a long evening Tuesday, especially in many parts of Ohio.
With the importance of the election, the number of races, the increased number of absentee ballots and the probability of voting machine problems, networks may be hedging on control of the House and Senate until late in the evening and a.m. papers may be stuck with "election too close to call" stories.
But as Washington Post media analyst Howard Kurtz notes, "A big political wave can wash away much of the drama. During the Republican sweep of 1994, the networks began talking of a GOP takeover as early as 8:45."
Although most stories I've seen in the last week have focused on a predicted Democratic resurgence, I'd be cautious in basing my plans on that. I am reminded of the Kerry-Bush voting in Portage County in 2004. The Democrats got the heavy vote they expected, but they totally underestimated how well the Republicans would do in getting their voters to the polls.
In fact, Kurtz predicts "caution" will be the byword for election night. He quotes Marty Ryan of Fox News as saying, "House races are notoriously difficult to call. How do you call 50 House races?"
Some areas for media watchers to focus on:
How well are the on-air networks able to compete with cable, which is going to follow the elections full time?
Will Web sites have enough of the latest returns to cut into the TV audiences?
In Northeast Ohio, how well will Cleveland TV stations do on state and local returns? And to what extent will people get their information from the TV and newspaper Web sites?
The addition of two new TV anchors, ABC's Charles Gibson and CBS's Katie Couric, gives media critics another focus. And former anchor Bob Schieffer will join Couric, and at NBC longtime anchor Tom Brokaw will join Brian Williams.
All in all, it should be a very interesting evening.
Portage County Results
TV viewers can check what's happening in Portage County by watching TV-2 on the Kent State campus or tuning to Channel 16 on the cable in Kent. Adviser Gary Hanson says TV-2 will be on the air from 9 p.m. until the Portage County returns are final, barring a vote-counting catastrophe.
TV-2 news director Katie Morse and assistant news director Julie Bercik will host the election night special. Hanson says they will have reporters posted at election headquarters to follow the counting..
ToughSledding
Kent State public relations head Bill Sledzik has joined the blogosphere. Bill is writing a blog twice a week on both local and national issues affecting the PR world. With his extensive network of former students and other media professionals, Bill's blog is a must for PR practitioners.
Friday's post dealt with PR battles over smoking including Ohio Issues 4 and 5. Bill says, "Smokers may win one more round in my state, but we all know that tobacco is soon to become a complete social taboo--if not this year, very soon."
posted by Joe at 9:06 AM
0 comments
