The Illusion of Intimacy Television and the Role of Candidate Personal Qualities in Voter Choice

Abstract

The role of television in the increased candidate orientedness of voters in U.S. presidential elections was examined using data from eight National Election Studies conducted by the Survey Research Center at The University of Michigan. The importance of candidate personal qualities and traits was estimated using voter responses to open-ended questions about the candidates. Candidate personal qualities became more important for television dependent voters during the 1960s, and in each post-1964 election were less important for voters who relied on newspapers than for those who relied on television. The differences did not appear to be a function of the higher level of education of newspaper readers.