Negative Campaign Communication In US Political Elections Research

According to the Pew Research Center,roughly three-quarters of voters(76%)believe the 2020 election is too negative,with an impressive array of political gridlock and partisanship.Today,negative campaigning has become a prominent feature of American electoral politics,and its performance and influence in the political field have attracted much attention.In this context,this paper attempts to explore the political ecological environment of the United States from the perspective of negative campaign communication,which has practical significance for understanding American political elections.In addition,as a very important individual in international politics,studying its political behavior helps us understand the motivation of its behavior,see its democratic nature,and make better coping strategies when needed.This article will explore the specific performance of negative election campaigns in the United States through the use of negative campaign advertisements.with the help of Wesleyan Media and the Wisconsin Advertising Project collected raw coded data on all TV campaign ads from 2000 to the 2016 election,as well as a total of 206 negative campaign ads for 2020 bipartisan candidates from the You Tube platform.Starting from the theory of negativity bias,combined with the functional theory of political campaign discourse,a systematic comparative study is made on the influencing factors and content strategies of negative campaign advertisements through content analysis.The results of the study found that,first,on the whole,negative campaign advertisements dominated the election campaign,which was not a subjective illusion under the influence of negativity bias,but an objective presentation of facts.Second,in terms of influencing factors,candidates are more inclined to adopt aggressive strategies when the election campaign area is a swing state.The closer the election campaign stage is to the general election stage,the more likely candidates are to use aggressive strategies.Third,in terms of content strategy,first of all,the two parties are similar in that they both focus on image attacks rather than issues,and the time direction of the attacks is mostly retrospective attacks;however,there are significant differences in the methods of attack.Biden mainly uses "voters against you".and Trump ’ s attack methods are diverse;secondly,both parties focus on the line of emotional appeal,the difference is that fear and anger are the core emotional appeal of Trump’s negative ads,while sadness and anger are Biden’s negative ads.The most commonly used affective dimension.Finally,from the perspective of performance,Biden’s negative advertisements are more moderate and are mildly offensive;Trump’s negative advertisements are full of negative images such as violence and terror,which are daunting.In general,negative campaigning is an inevitable product of the American political ecology.Under the catalysis of money politics,media politics,polarization politics,and performance politics,negative campaigning will continue to become the mainstream trend.Although the fact-based negative campaign has a certain rationality and can play a certain role in monitoring and restricting,the unreasonable negative campaign has made the American democratic elections a pure political struggle,and in the process,the election has become vulgar,The politicization of fear and the further intensification of partisan antagonism and voter division in American society will jeopardize the healthy development of American democratic politics.