Analysis #3: Proposal for Research Project

Claudia Ayerdis
Media, Politics & Science 2010

Reading Analysis #3: Proposal for Research Project

Are U.S. candidates more or less aggressive in advertisement when it comes to running for office in regards to 2010 elections verses the elections in 2000 and 1990s? In comparison to those three time frames, does the popular group (Republican or Democrat) have any influence on the way candidates advertise their campaign.
In order to gather a quantitative answer, I will use a graph and create a system of points to compare the 3 years chosen: 1990, 2000, and 2010.
The object is to first see if advertisement has grown in any of these campaign years and how. Secondly, I will select specific position, for example governor, and choose a state, to find out how advertisement has changed over time. Thirdly I will then take the prior information gathered to see if there is a correlation between the advertisement styles and the leading party. The leading party is determined by how many seats in the house either Republicans or Democrats have.
My hypothesis is that advertisement for candidates have become more aggressive over time. By being more aggressive, I mean that they choose to no use facts to bring down their opponent, but instead use satire, emotions, false-truths, and quantity of times the advertisement is shown. I believe the new technology such as the use of tweeter has enabled more confrontational candidates. As to whether or not the leading party plays a role in this, I’m not quite sure. I would presume that a larger Democratic party would be the invitation for a liberal expressions and ideals rather than if Republicans were the larger group.
Method for investigation will be online. This is the easiest way to gather data, watch old commercials and ads, and find statistics and numbers with credible sources quickly. By finding out if there is a correlation, we may better understand the direction that politicians will be taking in the future to gain votes and how they get lazy voters to hit the poles every November 2nd.

Steps:
1.) Find 3 positions that were most controversial as area of focus.
Use the 3 positions selected to link them to a state of focus.
How many Republicans/Democrats voted (within the criteria selected)?
1990? 2000? 2010?
(This means that for each year selected there will be 3 chosen candidates and their respective location (state/ national))

2.) Watch 5 advertisement segments from each of the positions selected.
Take notes on how many times they use Substantive Coverage, Hype, and Humor.
Create a 5 scale system for each to determine the usage and numerical data.

3.) For each year selected, what is the leading party of the state?

4.) Is there a correlation between any of the data collected?