Using "Position Theory" To Analyze The 2004 American Presidential Election Campaign Television Advertisements

The media broadcast of election campaign events is resultant of each factors common use, no single, independent participant can dominate and lead the entire process. Candidates along with their campaign organizations, as well as the mass media and citizens are all primary participants in the presidential election campaigns in the United States. Each participant has unique objectives and motivations for being involved with the election campaign and each participant will achieve different results. The candidates take advantage of mass media to broadcast their image so as to achieve the goal of being elected. From media broadcasting, the masses of voters receive vital information that influence their decisions as to which candidate will receive their votes. The mass media, by means of news reports, interviews, advertisements, and televised debates, broadcasts all types of information regarding candidates and their campaign parties', thus influencing voters'attitudes and behaviors.This thesis utilizes"position theory", a marketing studies research tool, to research the 2004 United States presidential election's television campaign advertisements. Within an election campaign, the candidates themselves are campaign products, and all of their publicity promotes sale. By casting their votes, the voters act as consumers, essentially deciding which campaign product they would like to purchase. In order to influence the voting results, candidates must identify their own market region strengths and establish their positioning, from which they can win a majority of the votes. In this thesis, a candidate's position is two-fold; position that is defined by personal image and position that is determined by the candidate's standpoint on major issues. Furthermore, the realistic manipulation of position requires four steps; analysis of a candidate's strengths and weaknesses, evaluation of a candidate's competitiveness, definition of the candidate's goals, and the establishment of the candidate's image.The American presidential election campaign can be broken down into four stages; the pre-primary stage, the primary election stage, the party representative endorsement stage, and the general election stage. At different periods of time, presidential candidates must address various different voter concerns. A candidate's campaigning strategy will thus be tailored to meet objectives brought about by the voter concerns at each period of time. This thesis uses the four stages of the American presidential election campaign as the transversal axis (X-axis) and uses the four steps of positioning as the axis of ordinate (Y-axis) to analyze the 2004 American presidential election campaign television advertisements.This thesis uses case analysis, textual analysis, and comparative research methods synthesized with communications, advertising, marketing, political science, and statistics to conduct research.