Smart Talk

Smart Talk


A big change -- TV ads driving political campaigns

October 10, 2022

A month before the November election, Pennsylvanians are being bombarded with commercials on TV. The commercials have been airing for months and there are more of them as we approach election day. It didn’t used to be this way. Campaign season and especially the TV spots didn’t used to start until after Labor Day and usually became more frequent the last few weeks before the election. But today, most voters learn about candidates through the ads and here’s what is troubling. Most of the ads are increasingly negative toward a candidate’s opponent and many if not most are misleading with only half truths or edits without context. To discuss TV advertising and commercials for candidates is Alison Dagnes, Professor of political science at Shippensburg University and author of multiple books on politics.

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