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To even the least astute observer of modern electoral politics it is obvious that
television advertising has become an important—perhaps the most important—means for
candidates to communicate with citizens. How electoral campaigns generally and
television advertising specifically are viewed in terms of their contribution to
representative democracy is very much dependent on how well these exercises serve to
inform citizens about candidates’ ideological orientations and issue positions (Bartels,
2002; Kelley; 1960). If candidates’ advertisements lead citizens to become more
informed about their ideological orientations, and thus suggestive of what these
candidates will do if placed in office, we will probably decide that campaigns enhance
democratic government by increasing the ability of voters to influence future government
policy. Contrariwise, to the extent campaigns produce an uninformed or, even worse, a
misinformed electorate we will probably view these events more skeptically, concluding
they do little to enhance the representation of citizens’ interests and preferences in
government policy making, and in fact may present a barrier to its attainment.
In this paper I seek to extend our knowledge of the impact of candidates’ political
commercials by examining their impact on citizens’ certainty and knowledge of 1998
House candidates’ ideological orientations. This research addresses the question of
whether candidates’ issue advertisements lead citizens to believe they have learned
something important about the ideological positions of candidates for the House of
Representatives, and whether in fact they did learn something about their ideological
orientation.
In addition to normative considerations, the research presented here is also
motivated by an interest in understanding the electoral benefits for the candidate who
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