The expanding cult of candidate personality: An Ethnographic content analysis of gender and race in political advertising of Mexico and the United States
Open Access
Author:
Martinez-carrillo, Nadia Ivette
Graduate Program:
Mass Communications
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
May 01, 2012
Committee Members:
Colleen Connolly Ahern, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor Colleen Connolly Ahern, Committee Chair/Co-Chair John Spicer Nichols, Committee Member Amit Schejter, Committee Member Matthew Bennett Restall, Committee Member Marie Hardin, Special Member
Keywords:
political advertising international communication comparative studies Mexico political campaigns framing women and minorities
Abstract:
The 2006 Mexican presidential election and the 2008 U.S. presidential election are valuable opportunities for cross-cultural comparative research. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, a woman and an African American man, were two candidates in the United States. Patricia Mercado, a woman and strong defender of minorities’ rights, was one of the candidates in Mexico. This dissertation used a comparative ethnographic analysis of these candidates’ political advertisements to identify the framing devices that female and minority candidates utilized in their self-presentations to audiences. The findings show that candidates in both countries use similar frames and tend to emphasize personality traits over issues and policies.
