Gender and Campaign Communication: TV Ads, Web Sites, and Media Coverage

Abstract

From the time a candidate contemplates her candidacy to the day of the election, she will be engaged in some aspect of communication.Analysis of female candidates' communicationprimarily their television commercials and web sites-during political campaigns reveals their styles and strategies in running for public office and offers a comparison with male candidates.Similarly, by looking at the media coverage of female and male candidates for political office, we can see how both are presented to voters and speculate on how differences in coverage may affect their support from voters.This paper focuses on the three major communication channels through which voters see candidates-their newspaper coverage, television commercials, and web sites.In today's political campaign, the media are powerful and important sources of information, not necessarily because they influence voting behavior, although there is some evidence that they do, but because they draw attention to the candidates and their campaigns.Moreover, candidatesespecially for federal and statewide elected office-have found that the media provide efficient ways to reach potential voters and, thus, focus their campaigns on getting their messages out through television ads, web sites, and newspaper coverage. Media Coverage of Women Political CandidatesWomen forging new political ground often struggle to receive media coverage and legitimacy in the eyes of the media and, subsequently, the public.According to some observers, journalists often hold women politicians accountable for the actions of their husbands and children, though they rarely hold male candidates to the same standards.They ask women And, Murray and Smith are different "in style as well as politics.Even the shades of their blue power suits hinted at the gap between the women.Murray's was powder blue; Smith's royal." 5 Although there seems to have been less emphasis on the physical appearance and personality of women political candidates in the 2000, 2002, and 2004 campaigns, there were still examples of such coverage.For example, the weight, wardrobe, and hairstyles of former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who successfully ran for U.S. Senate in New York in 2000, were