From Parties to Candidates: Examining the Role of the Media

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between campaign media expenditures and the saliency of attitudes about parties and candidates in the electorate using data from the 1978 National Election Study and the Traugott/Goldenberg study of campaign managers. A negative relationship is found between media spending and party saliency. In contrast, a strong positive correlation is shown to exist between media expenditures and candidate saliency. These relationships are found to be accentuated when the party organizations in the congressional district are weak and where political action committees contribute a large proportion of the total campaign expenses.