The nature and impact of emotional content in congressional candidate emails to supporters

Hassell, Hans J. G.; Johnston, Christopher A.; Khan, Jessica; Cook, Edgar

doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2022.102501

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Traditionally, political advertising aims to convey the campaign's message to persuade voters and spur turnout. However, the primary goal of email campaigns is more to mobilize than to persuade (Hassell et al, 2022;Nielsen, 2011). Thus, it is uncertain whether findings from the political advertising literature on other communication channels are relevant to emails.…”

Section: Emails For Political Advertisingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, it is uncertain whether findings from the political advertising literature on other communication channels are relevant to emails. For example, a recent study on U.S. congressional candidates' emails found no differences in usage of emotional appeals across candidates and minimal impacts on voters (Hassell et al, 2022).…”

Section: Emails For Political Advertisingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Battle for Inbox and Bucks

Chen,

Borah,

Dahlke

et al. 2024

JQD

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Despite its proven pervasiveness and effectiveness, the role of email in political campaigns has been understudied. In this article, we seek to understand the use of emails by Donald Trump's and Joe Biden's campaigns during the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Employing newly collected email data (N = 4051), we compared how the two campaign teams differ in the use of appeals in their emails, and the functions of the message (e.g., attack, acclaim). We found that, while both campaigns used emails primarily for fundraising, Trump's campaign (compared to Biden’s campaign) was more likely to use all of the four appeals we defined — material, solidarity, ideology, and issue appeals. We also found that by sending emails, Biden's campaign tends to acclaim itself more while Trump's campaign attacks opponents more.

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Section: Emails For Political Advertisingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Emails For Political Advertisingmentioning

confidence: 99%