| The goal of this dissertation is to explore the role that political advertising plays in the democratic process. More specifically, it has examined whether and how political ads encourage citizens to engage in communication activities and further participate in the campaign process. To address these questions, this study has proposed and tested four sets of hypotheses regarding (1) whether political advertising affects the patterns of individual communication behavior, (2) whether negative ads have a stronger influence on communication activities than positive ads, (3) whether political ad effects on citizen communication is conditioned by individual characteristics (i.e., political knowledge and political interest), and (4) whether citizen communication behavior mediates the influence of political ads on campaign participation.; To examine these four questions, political ad tracking data were combined with a national daily survey collected throughout the 2000 election campaign cycle. The data about ad volume, individual communication and political behavior by geographic location and date allowed for examination of the contextual influences of political advertising on citizen communication and participation.; The results showed that, in response to the influx of political advertising in their local media markets, people sought more political information through television news programs, the Internet, and their social networks. Specific attributes of political ads, however, complicated this general pattern. That is, people responded to negative ads more actively than they did to positive ads. This is shown in their increased use of national and local television news as well as their increased engagement in political discussion. Further, characteristics of individual citizens also played a role in this general relationship between political ads and citizen communication. Specifically, those with high levels of political interest became more apt to use national news and discuss politics as the volume of political ads increased in their media markets. Finally, the results showed that political ad volume in local media markets held a positive relationship with individual campaign participation, and the strength of relationship decreased when news consumption and political discussion were introduced, suggesting that individual communication behavior mediated the effects of political advertising on campaign participation. |
