Surprising findings about the positive effects of political advertising

Michael M. Franz is Assistant Professor of Government and Legal Studies at Bowdoin College. His research interests include political advertising, interest groups politics, campaign finance reform, and mass media. He has published articles in American Journal of Political Science, Political Communication, Political Analysis, Political Behavior, and Social Science Quarterly.

Paul B. Freedman is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. His work has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Communication, Campaigns and Elections, and Slate. Since 2000, he has been an election analyst for ABC News in New York.

Kenneth M. Goldstein is Professor of Political Science at University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to publishing widely in academic outlets, his reputation for unbiased and non-partisan analysis has made him a favorite source for the national news media. He has appeared on numerous network and cable news broadcasts as well as being quoted extensively in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. He is currently a member of the ABC News Election Night Decision team.

Travis N. Ridout is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Washington State University in Pullman. His research on political campaigns and advertising has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, Political Behavior, The Annual Review of Political Science and several other journals. He also has served as an election night consultant for CBS News.

Campaign Advertising and American Democracy
Table of Contents

Chapter 1 -- The Whipping Boy of American Politics - 1
Chapter 2 -- Campaign Ads as Information Supplements - 17
Chapter 3 -- Measuring Exposure to Campaign Ads - 42
Chapter 4 -- Tracking the Volume and Content of Political Advertising - 59
Chapter 5 -- What, When, and Where: Making Sense of Campaign Advertising - 77
Chapter 6 -- What Did They Know and When Did They Know It? - 98
Chapter 7 -- Campaign Advertising and Voter Attitudes toward the Political Process - 123
Chapter 8 -- Campaign Advertising and Citizen Participation - 144
Chapter 9 -- Advertising Tone and Political Engagement - 159
Chapter 10 -- Campaign Advertising and American Democracy - 180
Appendix A -- Assessing the Validity of the CMAG Tracking Data - 194
Appendix B -- Assessing the Reliability of the Storyboard Coding - 196
Appendix C -- Data Set and Variables - 203
References -- 270