The Civic Functionality of Campaigns: Voter Competence, Mobilization, and Salience

Abstract

Leading to an election, television screens are consumed by the faces of candidates; radio shows are teeming with voices of campaign professionals; analysts and voters are being endlessly presented with new information, policy standpoints, and poll numbers. In this busy day and age it can be difficult, inconvenient, and time consuming for voters to seek out political knowledge for themselves. Campaigns can be seemingly interminable and it is far easier for a voter to take their information from these ongoing campaigns than to pursue the information from various sources on their own. Campaigns supply voters with data, analyses, and platforms that can aid them in mobilizing and casting an informed vote. Our question is do campaigns really matter and do they actually affect the amount of knowledge that a voter. We also look to see if campaigns encourage voter mobilization through various forms of media like social media and news or if they have no effect on voter turnout at the polls.