AN EXTRAORDINARY POWERFUL MEDIA CHANNEL? AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF POLITICAL ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION COMPARED TO RADIO

AN EXTRAORDINARY POWERFUL MEDIA CHANNEL? AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF POLITICAL ADVERTISING ON TELEVISION COMPARED TO RADIO There is little empirical evidence for the claim that political advertising on television has a stronger effect than advertising through other media channels. In this article we study to what extent and in what sense political advertising on television has a stronger effect than political advertising on radio in an experimental study of 147 young voters. Two groups were exposed for political advertisements on television and two other groups were exposed for political advertising on radio. We search for effects in regards to vote choice, the evaluation of parties, as well as issue ownership. The results reveal that when political advertising has an effect, advertising on television has a stronger effect than radio advertising. In our study, advertising has no effect on vote choice, but has an effect on the evaluation of parties as well as issue ownership. The effect is most evident for issue ownership, and the effect of television is significantly stronger than the effect of radio.