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Polls and Elections : Editorial Cartoons 2.0: The Effects of Digital Political Satire on Presidential Candidate Evaluations
Author(s) -
BAUMGARTNER JODY C.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-5705.2008.02675.x
Subject(s) - presidential system , politics , political science , audience measurement , media studies , test (biology) , advertising , sociology , law , paleontology , business , biology
While the number of full‐time editorial cartoonists has declined in the past few decades, several have taken their craft online in the form of animated Flash cartoons. In this article I test the effects of one of the more popular animated editorial cartoons on presidential candidate evaluations of 18‐ to 24‐year‐olds. A posttest‐only experimental design was used to survey students from several universities in six states. The results from this online experiment suggest that these editorial cartoons have a negative effect on candidate evaluations. However, viewing the clip did not change candidate preferences and an analysis of the control group suggests that viewership of online humor may have a positive effect on political participation.