Deliberative effects of campaign communication: Heterogeneous networks, political advertising, and exposure to political disagreement

This dissertation explores how two different modes in which individuals experience political disagreement influence voters' deliberative participation in the electoral process. First, this dissertation examines the consequence of exposure to dissimilar political views through heterogeneous social networks, where individuals are surrounded by those holding opinions that diverge from their own. Second, this dissertation also situates political adverting as a low-cost, low-risk, and low-involvement source of political disagreement that might complement other interpersonal and media sources. Because it is less susceptible to selective exposure and because it carries explicitly partisan messages that might easily run counter to political predispositions, political advertising is highly efficient in exposing people to differing ideas and diverse perspectives. The key question this dissertation raises is whether these two modes of exposure to political disagreement encourage citizens to make a more informed and considered political choices and lead to a more active citizenry.;To address this question, this dissertation analyzes three national panel survey datasets: the 2008--2009 American National Election Studies panel survey dataset, the 2000--2002--2004 American National Election Studies panel survey dataset, and the 2008 Cooperative Campaign Analysis Project panel dataset. The findings of this analysis indicate social networks and campaign advertising messages generate very different experiences of political disagreement. The consequences of such experiences were also found to be very different. On the one hand, heterogeneous networks were found to encourage voters to learn not only about their preferred candidate but also about the candidates they don't initially choose to support. Voters residing in a heterogeneous network also tend to base their voting decision on a broader set of relevant considerations (i.e., political orientations and relevant attitudes/beliefs). On the other hand, exposure to disagreeable political advertisements was found to be largely inconsequential for learning and citizen communication and even demoralizes people's desire to participate in the campaign process. It also activates and reinforces the role of partisan royalty for political choice. This dissertation concludes by discussion the implications of these findings for our understanding of the relationship between political disagreement, citizen deliberation, and political engagement.