1. COMMUNICATION AND CANDIDATE SELECTION: RELATIONSHIPS OF INFORMATION AND PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS TO VOTE CHOICE.
- Author
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Dyson, James W. and Scioli Jr., Frank P.
- Subjects
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VOTING , *CAMPAIGN debates , *POLITICAL campaigns , *ELECTIONS , *POLITICAL candidates , *PRACTICAL politics - Abstract
The article focuses on the relationships of information and personal characteristics to vote choice. This paper discusses one aspect of an electoral campaign, a campaign debate, by which information about candidates and their stands on political issues are communicated to the voter. A political campaign permits candidates to communicate to voters. In the process of communicating, the candidates attempt to project favorable images, discuss the issues most helpful to themselves, and manipulate symbols to elicit voter support. The media links candidates to publics by serving as a conduit for informational exchanges. As a conduit the press relies primarily on information provided by the candidates, seeing itself as mirroring events, with the result that the public is provided a bland, uniform, filling, but not satisfying diet of campaign information. In dealing with the supply of information, the usual psychological and sociological variables may be included as modifiers of informational exchanges.
- Published
- 1974