Page 57 - An Introduction to Political Communication Third Edition

POLITICS IN THE AGE OF MEDIATION

ways intended to generate negative and positive responses, such as
the inclusion or omission of a smile. It was found that such changes
affected ‘both the degree to which an individual is perceived to be
fit for public office and the degree to which he is perceived to
possess those qualities (competence, integrity and likableness) that
other research has shown to be relevant to voters’ evaluations of
political candidates’ (ibid., p. 37). Furthermore, even when subjects
were made aware of the respective candidates’ policies on important
issues, image as constructed by the photograph continued to exert
an influence on voting intentions.
The researchers acknowledged the methodological limitations of
their research, in so far as it was an artificial election with artificial
candidates, lacking ‘the social context and duration of a real
campaign’ (ibid., p. 45), but claim that they were able to repeat the
experiment with similar results, thus strengthening their validity.
Research conducted in Germany by Kepplinger and Dombach
indicated that certain camera angles, such as filming at eye level,
produced a more favourable audience response to a politician than
others. They concluded that ‘camera angles influence perception,
particularly among a politician’s supporters’ (1987, p. 71).
Some research has been concerned with the specific effects of
different media. Scott Keeter, for example, has found that of all
voters, those who watched television were the most likely to be
influenced by the candidate’s ‘image’. He accepted, however, that
this may not be ‘a reaction to the particular stimuli of televised
politics – although such a direct effect is plausible – as a more
general increase in the importance of candidate factors resulting
from various political changes in which television has played a role’
(1987, p. 336).

THE EFFECT OF POLITICAL ADVERTISING

We noted above the importance of distinguishing between types of
political communication, such as election broadcasts and TV news
interviews. If the candidate’s image and personality (as perceived by
the audience) is an important factor in shaping voting behaviour so
too, arguably, is the party’s political advertising. As we shall see in
Chapter 6, advertising is a major component of modern political
communication, consuming huge financial and creative resources
during and between elections. The fact of parties’ expenditure on
advertising might be thought to point to evidence that it works

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