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Mock Election Curriculum Resources

TV

The Media Campaign

Objectives: To evaluate advertising techniques; to analyze political campaign ads.

Procedures:
1. Review with students standard advertising techniques, including the expert opinion, bandwagon approach, etc. Use prerecorded television ads or print campaigns from magazines.

2. View several prerecorded political campaign ads, noting similarities and differences with standard advertisements.

3. Evaluate the substance of the ads. What arguments are used? How well do they stand up under scrutiny? ( Students should be assigned the task of checking facts and figures, when these are cited. If they are not cited, they should research the issue to determine if the claims made are valid. They should consider newspapers, government statistics, and responses from the opponent’s campaign headquarters as sources.)

4. Evaluate the presentation of the ads. How are the candidates dressed? In what colors? Why? What symbols (the flag, the American eagle, etc.) are used? With whom are the candidates speaking? Why were these people chosen to appear in the ads? What lifestyle (rural, urban, etc.) and economic status (working class, professional, the poor) do they represent?

5. As an additional exercise, the class might evaluate campaign videos, which some campaigns will give to teachers upon request. Many of the same questions can be used. As the videos are longer, they provide a greater opportunity to evaluate the candidate and his/her positions in depth.

6. Following the in-class work, students should collect and evaluate ads on their own. If at all possible, they should record at least two ads (one from each candidate in a campaign), then analyze them. Students may be given a standard evaluation sheet, including the questions above and any others generated by the classroom teacher. Students should also be given credit for generating their own questions about particular ads and answering them. The class should compare and contrast the presentation in the ads.

7. Students should also be assigned to watch news programs with commentary on the campaigns, such as the Newshour with Jim Lehrer, the McLaughlin Group, or Washington Week in Review to hear how journalists respond to the campaigns. They should take notes on these presentations and be prepared to respond to them in class.

Text/Materials: Materials on advertising; print advertisements; prerecorded TV ads and campaign ads; TV/VCR; research source materials from newspapers, the Internet, government statistics, and candidates’ campaign headquarters and websites; campaign videos, if available; blank videotapes for student use; teacher-made evaluation sheets; news commentary programs listed above, among others.

Evaluation: Student analysis of advertisements, campaign advertisements, and campaign videos.

Web Sites

The :30 Second Candidate
Companion web site to the PBS program the :30 Second, Candidate, this site looks at the process of creating a political ad.

CNN All Politics
Clips of political ads from the past.

Special Interest Ads
Story that aired on PBS' Online Newshour in January 12, 2000.

Ad Wars
Story that aired on PBS' Online Newshour in January 12, 2000.

Political ads practice art of half-truths
Article from October 25, 2000 USA Today. Includes clips.

Political Advertising
Collection of links from the University of Iowa Department of Communication Studies.