Travis Ridout | Washington State University (original) (raw)

Papers by Travis Ridout

This research explores the extent to which YouTube helps democratize campaigns by allowing nontra... more This research explores the extent to which YouTube helps democratize campaigns by allowing nontraditional political actors to be heard. We examine political advertisements posted on YouTube in races for the U.S. Senate in 2010. We find that ads posted by citizens and quasi-political organizations are viewed just as often as ads sponsored by some traditional electoral actors, such as parties and interest groups, but that ads sponsored by candidates are most likely to be viewed. However, news media coverage of ads posted online by nontraditional actors is dwarfed by coverage of traditional television advertisements.

This research explores the extent to which the news media are able to shape people's views of pol... more This research explores the extent to which the news media are able to shape people's views of political campaigns, focusing specifically on their assessments of campaign tone. Does the news media's portrayal of campaign tone-typically quite negative-do more to shape evaluations of campaign tone, or are people turning to more personal experiences with campaign advertising to make such assessments? And if the former, by what route do the media influence perceptions of campaign tone? In order to investigate such questions, we take public opinion data from the 2006 Cooperative Congressional Election Study and combine it with ad tracking data and a content analysis of the newspapers and local television newscasts to which respondents were exposed. We then use these measures to predict people's perceptions of campaign tone, finding a strong role for political advertising in shaping perceptions but a weaker role for the news media.

Political Research Quarterly, 2014

This research examines how an attack ad's sponsorship conditions its effectiveness. We use data f... more This research examines how an attack ad's sponsorship conditions its effectiveness. We use data from a survey experiment that exposed participants to a fictional campaign ad. Treatments varied the ad's sponsor (candidate vs. group), the group's donor base (small donor vs. large donors), and the format of the donor disclosure (news reports vs. disclaimers in the ads). We find that ads sponsored by unknown groups are more effective than candidatesponsored ads, but disclosure of donors reduces the influence of group advertising, leveling the playing field such that candidate-and group-sponsored attacks become equally effective. Increased disclosure does not, however, advantage small-donor groups over large-donor groups.

Political Communication, 2015

We draw on a comprehensive database of American political advertising and television audience pro... more We draw on a comprehensive database of American political advertising and television audience profile data to investigate the ways in which gender influences choices about the use of voice-overs in political advertising. Our findings suggest that although men voice the vast majority of political ads, campaigns do strategically choose the sex of the voice-over announcer and that it systematically varies with candidate characteristics, ad tone, and, to a lesser extent, issues. Moreover, using survey data, we show that the choice of voice-over influences the perceived credibility of the ad.

International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 2011

Do electronic newspaper databases contain all of the stories that appear in the print edition? An... more Do electronic newspaper databases contain all of the stories that appear in the print edition? And does this depend on the database used? To explore these questions, we collected print copies of newspapers from cities across the USA and Canada. We compared coverage of two topics in these newspapers with the coverage obtained from keyword searches in three electronic newspaper

The Journal of Politics, 2008

Krasno and Green have argued that political advertising has no impact on voter turnout. We remain... more Krasno and Green have argued that political advertising has no impact on voter turnout. We remain unconvinced by their evidence, given concerns about how they measure the advertising environment, how they measure advertising tone, their choice of modeling techniques and the generalizability of their findings. These differences aside, we strongly agree that political advertising does little to undermine voter participation.

Social Science Quarterly, 2009