“This provocative and important book will be of interest not only to scholars in the fields of political advertising, media, and elections, but will also be vital to campaign consultants, political journalists, and political junkies of all sorts.”—Ann Crigler, University of Southern California
“American political campaigns inspire a good deal of uninformed alarmism. John Geer’s book is a splendid antidote. His positive campaign for negative campaigning is based on careful reasoning and solid empirical evidence. His counterintuitive conclusions deserve broad attention from political scientists, democratic theorists, pundits, and citizens.”—Larry M. Bartels, Princeton University
"Geer has set out to challenge the widely held belief that attack ads and negative campaigns are destroying democracy. Quite the opposite, he argues in his provocative new book: Negativity is good for you and for the political system. . . . In Defense of Negativity adds a new argument to the debate about America's polarized politics, and in doing so it asserts that voters are less bothered by today's partisan climate than many believe. If there are problems -- and there are -- Geer says it's time to stop blaming it all on 30-second spots."--Dan Balz, Washington Post
"Geer puckishly argues that negative ads are more nutritious for democracy than sunnier, Morning-in-America-style spots. . . . The point, Geer says, is that campaigns should provide information about the differences between candidates on issues, and attack ads do a good job of this."—Christopher Shea, Boston Globe
"This book is well written, well argued and logical and steers the reader to the counterintuitive conclusion that political mudslinging can be beneficial. . . . For political advertising scholars in particular, this book provides an alternative, refreshing viewpoint on the subject. Political junkies of all denominations however would also benefit from reading this insightful book."—Mark Thomas Rice, Political Studies Review
"An important book, containing a large systematic content analysis of presidential advertising over the past 12 elections. The book addresses several basic questions that have been missing in the debate about the impact of negative ads."
"This book has a great deal to recommend it for undergraduate and graduate students alike. This is what high quality social science is all about. It should become required reading for all journalists and political pundits before the next round of federal elections."
"Attack advertising is good for democracy. This is the main argument of John Geer's excellent book on negative ads in U.S. presidential elections. . . . The argument and evidence in this book should prompt critics to rethink the merits of attack ads."
"This is a fine piece of scholarly workthat is readable enough for use in the undergraduate classroom and systematic enough to be taken seriously by other investigators. . . . Whatever your particular perspective on the question of negativity, there is no doubt that this book is essential reading. It is thoughtful, interesting, and full of evidence that is badly needed in this literature."
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. The Need for Negativity: An Introduction
2. Assessing Negativity
3. The Information Environment and Negativity
4. Evaluating Character Attacks
5. Evaluating the Content of Negative and Positive Issue Appeals
6. Dragging the Truth into the Gutter? The News Media, Negativity and the 1988 Campaign
7. Negativity, Democracy, and the Political System
Appendix
Notes
References
Index
For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu
