Television Advertising in Canadian Elections

Walter I. Romanow, prior to teaching, followed a career in television broadcasting.Professor de Repentigny studies mass media and communication.Professor Cunningham studies mass media and communication.Walter C. Soderlund is a professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science at the University of Windsor. His books include Africa's Deadliest Conflict, The Independence of South Sudan, and The Responsibility to Protect in Darfur.

• Television Advertising in Canadian Elections: The Attack Mode, 1993, edited by Walter I. Romanow, Michel de Repentigny, Stanley B. Cunningham, Walter C. Soderlund, and Kai HildebrandtAcknowledgementsIntroduction Walter I. RomanowThe Theory and Use of Political Advertising Stanley B. CunninghamThe 1993 Canadian Federal Election: Background and Party Advertising Strategies André Gosselin and Walter C. SoderlundContextual Analysis of Political Advertising: The Attack Mode on English-Language TV Walter I. RomanowPolitical Ads on Quebec TV during the 1993 Federal Election Michel de RepentignyThe Role of Images in Quebec Political Advertising Estelle LebelQuantitative Assessment of Advertising Effects: Survey Data Walter C. Soderlund, Kai Hildebrandt, Stuart H. Surlin, and André GosselinExploring the Impact of Negative Political Ads through the Use of Participatory Action Research T.F. Carney and Alexander GillCognitive Responses to Political Advertising on Quebec TV in the 1993 Election Jacques de GuiseThe Ethics of Political Advertising Stanley B. CunninghamConclusions Walter I. Romanow and Walter C. SoderlundAppendix A: Political Advertisements in EnglishAppendix B: Political Advertisements in FrenchNotesGlossaryBibliographyAbout the AuthorsName IndexSubject IndexAbout the AuthorsTom Carney (PhD, University of London, 1957) was professor of Communication Studies at the University of Windsor from 1977 until his retirement in 1995. His research covered many subjects, and he has published several books as well as numerous articles and reviews in journals such as the Canadian Journal of Communication and the Journal of Computer Documentation. Methodology has been a special interest for him since the publication of Content Analysis: A Technique for Systematic Inference From Communications (University of Manitoba Press, 1972, reprinted in 1979). In recent years, his focus has shifted to qualitative research, investigating innovative methods for eliciting information from collaborators without leading and then recording, verifying, analysing, and synthesizing these data so as to present them clearly and succinctly while showing their larger significance. A compilation of his innovative research designs may be found in Collaborative Inquiry Methodology (University of Windsor, Division of Instructional Development, 1990).Stanley Cunningham (PhD, University of Toronto, 1965) began teaching in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Windsor in 1961 and since 1980 has been professor in the Department of Communication Studies. His principal research interests lie in the philosophy of communication, propaganda and communication theory, as well as communication ethics. He has published in both philosophy journals such as Journal of the History of Ideas, The Monist, Philosophy and Rhetoric, and Informal Logic and in communication serials such as Communication Yearbook, Communication Studies, the Canadian Journal of Communication, and Journal of Mass Media Ethics.Alexander Gill received his MA in Communication Studies from the University of Windsor in 1994, authoring the thesis Message and Context: Political Information Use and the 1993 Federal Election. He is currently communications director for the Toronto branch of the Alliance of Canadian Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA). Prior to assuming this position, he led a research team at a Toronto-based media analysis firm, working on more than 50 studies, largely for the finance industry. In addition to his work with the Windsor-Laval advertising project as a research associate, he has worked for the federal Department of Indian and Northern Affairs in the area of environmental regulation and as a freelance journalist, contributing items to CBC Radio and various print publications.Andre Gosselin received his PhD in Communication Studies from the University of Paris in 1990, and he is currently an associate professor in the Departement d'information et de communication at Universite Laval. His research interests lie in the area of political communication, violence in the media, and economic communication. His articles have been published in Communication et information and the Canadian Journal of Communication, and he is the editor of an issue of Hermes (a journal of political communication published in France) on political communication research in Quebec and France. His undergraduate and graduate courses all deal with methodology of social sciences and social psychology of mass media and communication.Jacques de Guise studied communication at l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, La Sorbonne (Paris), and is currently a professor in the Departement d'information et de communication at Université Laval. His teaching and research interests lie in the areas of media effects and attitude change, social marketing, and health communication.Kai Hildebrandt received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 1990 and is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Windsor. His interests range from political attitudes and behaviour in Western Europe to political communication and methodological issues in intercultural comparisons. He co-authored Germany in Transition (1981) and published various book chapters as well as articles in the Canadian Journal of Communication, European Journal of Political Research, Politische Vierteljahresschrift, and elsewhere. He is currently part of a research project on comparative legal education that studies alumni/ae and students in five Canadian law schools in terms of issues of access to and success of legal education.Estelle Lebel received her PhD in Sciences de 1'education from the University of Montréal in 1989 and is currently an associate professor in the Departement d'information et de communication at Université Laval. Her research interests are in the areas of mass-mediated images (advertisements, TV programs, photojournalism) and representation of women in audiovisual media. Her research has been published in Communication et information, Semiotic Inquiry, and Recherches feministes. She is also participating in SSHRCC-sponsored research dealing with women in Quebec television over the period 1952 to 1992.Michel de Repentigny received his PhD in linguistics from Universite Laval in 1984, where he currently serves as an associate professor in the Departement d'information et de communication, teaching a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses dealing with mass-media language and discourse. His research interests lie in the area of daily newspaper and television news coverage of events, both in terms of verbal and non-verbal content. His articles have been published in Communication et information and the Canadian Journal of Communication. As well, he is the author of a UNESCO New World Order of Communication research document on the treatment of international news in the Canadian press.Walter Romanow received his PhD in Communication Studies from Wayne State University in 1974 and served as professor and founding chair of the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Windsor. Subsequently, he served as dean of the Faculty of Social Science at Windsor, where he currently holds the rank of professor emeritus. His research interests focus on the interrelationships between mass media and society, media and political processes, and advertising. He is co-author of Media Canada: An Introductory Analysis, and he headed a research study on political advertising for the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform and Party Financing that was published in volume 12 of the research findings of that commission. Over the years, he has published articles in the Canadian Journal of Communication, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Communication et information, American Review of Canadian Studies, and Gazette: International Journal for Mass Communication Studies.Walter Soderlund received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 1970 and is currently professor of Political Science at the University of Windsor. His research interests lie in the area of international communication, especially media portrayal in North America of events in Latin America and the Caribbean and the role of mass media in Canadian political processes. He is co-author of Media and Elections in Canada (1984) and co-editor of Profiles of Canada (1998), and he has published research in journals such as Comparative Politics, Journalism Quarterly, Communication et information, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Canadian Journal of Communication, and Canadian Journal of Political Science.Stuart Surlin (PhD, Michigan State University, 1974), until his death in September 1995, was professor of Communication Studies at the University of Windsor. A skilled researcher, his interests spanned areas as diverse as reggae music, soap operas, talk radio, and the relationship between culture and values. He was co-editor of Moss Media and the Caribbean (1990), and his research has appeared in virtually every leading communication journal in Canada and the United States. An article that he authored with Thomas Gordon, “How Values Affect Attitudes Toward Direct Reference Political Advertising,” published in 1977 in Journalism Quarterly, was one of the pioneering studies into the phenomenon of negative advertising.

``[T]his volume makes an important contribution, both in terms of theory and practice, to understanding the permanent part that TV plays in modern elections.'' -- James Gillies, Literary Review of Canada