Negative Campaign Advertising. Which effect does New Media have? (PDF)

Master's Thesis from the year 2018 in the subject Communications - Media and Politics, Politic Communications, , language: English, abstract: The research question of this master thesis is how the content of political ads on YouTube and on TV differs with regards to their negativity.

In the past few election cycles, presidential campaigns have begun to integrate YouTube into existing messaging strategies, which traditionally used to rely heavily on television advertising. The goal is to determine whether campaign messages on YouTube should be considered as a complement to traditional means of communication or a surrogate for them. In particular, the differing channels are analyzed concerning their content and tone. Thus, it should be determined whether the tone of YouTube messages occupy a unique place in modern campaigns distinct from that of television ads. Understanding how politicians use YouTube as compared to older forms of communication is crucial in order to comprehend the full campaign repertoire used by candidates and the possible differences in the types of messages, i.e. more positive or negative, to which citizens are exposed.

In terms of advertising, the 2016 presidential election stands out specifically through the fact that advertising spending for television did not exceed spending in 2012. The trend during the last few election cycles has consistently indicated spending to far outpace the prior cycle in terms of dollars spent by the major-party candidates. Clinton's final total was far less than Obama's budget in the past two elections. Her spending was almost cut in half when compared to Obama's 404 million U.S. Dollar budget in 2012. When comparing the two campaigns, the Clinton campaign vastly outspent the Trump campaign in terms of TV ad buys. Although the Trump campaign made up ground in the final weeks of the campaign, it did not nearly reach the level of the Clinton budget in terms of overall spending. By the 2nd November 2016, Clinton had already spent 211.4 million US Dollar on TV ads, while Trump had spent only 74 million US Dollar, about of third of Clinton's budget.