Symposium at MTSU to Focus on Political Attack Ads

Oct 22, 2012 at 12:10 pm by bryan


Despite heavy public criticism, there’s a reason negative campaign ads still flood the airwaves: They work, some experts say.
 
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As the 2012 presidential campaign hits the home stretch, a panel of experts will visit MTSU on Tuesday, Oct. 23, to discuss these negative ads, which voters are sure to see more of as President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney conclude their neck-and-neck race for the White House.
 
The MTSU Department of Political Science, Albert Gore Research Center and the College of Liberal Arts are sponsoring “Attack Ads In American Politics: How Much Is Too Much,” a symposium on negative campaign advertising. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held in the Student Union Building, Ballroom 250-C.
 
Dr. John Geer, chairman of the Department of Political Science at Vanderbilt University and an expert on negative political advertisements, will be on campus along with former longtime Democratic Congressman Bart Gordon, Republican state Sen. Jim Tracy of Shelbyville, former 4th District congressional nominee Jeff Whorley and media consultant Bill Fletcher.    
 
Geer will make a presentation from 3 to 4 p.m. entitled “Advertising and the 2012 Presidential Campaign: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly,” followed by a panel discussion including the other experts that will be held from 4:30 to 5:45 p.m. 
 
“This is set up to talk about the impact of campaign advertising, particularly negative advertising on American politics and American government,” said Kent Syler, an assistant professor of political science and moderator of the panel discussion. “This election cycle has seen more spending on negative advertising than any in American history.”
 
Syler, the former longtime chief of staff for Gordon, said the symposium brings together some experts on negative advertising, as well as some people who have been the subject of negative advertising.
 
“No one likes negative ads, but they’re effective,” he said. “That’s why you see so many of them.”
 
Syler, who uses one of Geer’s book to teach one of his courses, said the Vanderbilt professor will make the case that those ads play a critical role in making our democracy work.
 
“His contention is that negative ads give voters more useful information than positive ads do,” Syler said. “And that negative ads actually add to the information environment in a campaign … and give voters information that they really need to know.”
 
The counterpoint is that too many negative ads make it hard for whoever wins the race to govern as well as making it hard for government in general to do its job.
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