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POLITICAL ADVERTISING ON SOCIAL MEDIA:
THE IMPACT ON YOUNG PEOPLE’S POLITICAL
BEHAVIOR AND ATTITUDES

by
DANIELLA STACH

A THESIS

Presented to the Department of Political Science
and the Robert D
...
I would especially like to thank Professor Kahle for supporting, encouraging
and guiding me through this research––his patience, kindness and quick email responses
have been tremendous sources of comfort throughout this seemingly daunting yet
rewarding process
...
Additionally, I would like to thank Carly Smith for kindly
taking the time to educate me on Amazon Mechanical Turk and for providing me with
IRB guidance
...
Her BA 317 Marketing class and the
recommendation to read Socialnomics by Erik Qualman helped me formulate the
concept for my thesis
...


iii

Table of Contents
Introduction

1

Theoretical Background

4

Social Networking Sites and Young Voters

4

Efficacy, Involvement and Political Attitudes

10

Target Advertising

13

Study Overview

18

Methods

20

Measures

23

Results

27

Descriptives

27

Correlations

28

Comparison of Groups

32

Discussion

33

Efficacy and Involvement

33

Perception of Political Advertisements

34

Conclusion

38

References

40

iv

List of Tables
TABLE 1: Sample Demographics

22

TABLE 2: Social Media Visits, Interactions and Political Advertisement Exposure

27

TABLE 3: Efficacy, Involvement and Perceptions in Relation to Political
Advertisement Exposure On Social networking sites

28

TABLE 4: Perceptions of Political Advertisements Online

30

TABLE 5: Education and Income

31

v

Introduction
Marketing and advertising are powerful revenue-generating tools used to create
brand awareness, customer acquisition and retention
...
Parties, candidates and activists
deploy marketing techniques such as persuasive advertising to convince voters why
they should vote for a particular candidate or measure that the party or organization
promotes
...
The
psychology of consumer behavior strives to understand how consumers “think, feel and
reason” between options (Perner, 1999)
...

Understanding consumer behavior and decision-making patterns is important for any
brand, including political brands, because understanding how consumers (voters) make
decisions between options affects how a political campaign will advertise to specific
subsets of voters
...
Similar to marketing campaigns, political campaigns use data
about potential voters to promote their candidates and ideas
...
Whereas
television was previously the most prominent way to target specific groups, the Internet
has opened up endless possibilities for advertisers to better reach their target audiences
...
The use of
personalized political advertisements has already begun to affect the way in which
citizens make political decisions
...
It’s
unparalleled in any other medium
...
We
are probably one presidential cycle away from everyone believing that
(Fouhy, 2011)
...
Forbes
reported that the 2014-midterm elections spent $271
...

The trend in social and digital media advertising has been especially important
for gaining political support from young adults (Gerodimos, 2012; Kushin &
Yamamoto, 2010; Ward, 2012)
...
Campaign managers and
2

marketers focus on ways to entice this sector to get to the polls and vote (Cooperstein,
2013; Samuelsohn, 2014)
...
Socialization involves using interactive communication
between an organization and its intended audience to encourage potential supporters to
engage in the political process (Ward, 2012)
...

This study will explore the relationship between political advertisements on
social networking sites and the political attitudes and behaviors of young people in
order to understand the impact of target political marketing on the electoral process
from engaging voters to winning their vote
...
It provides new
insights into the effectiveness of targeted political advertisements and their impact on
political behavior and attitudes of young adults (18–29)
...
While social media and social
networking are often used interchangeably, the distinction between social media and
social networking sites is important
...
This content includes blogs, videos,
status updates, and photos
...
Social networking sites, on the other hand, are the platforms used to publish or
display social media
...
Social networking
sites are many-to-many communication tools, including popular sites like Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram
...
Agenda setting in media has transformed from the media telling people
what issues they should think about to people telling the media what issues they want to
think about (Bennett & Iyengar, 2008, p
...
The ability of user-generated content has
been made possible by the interactivity and socialization features offered on social
networking sites
...
Ward (2012) found that young people, in the

4

habit of using social networking sites, prefer co-productive interactivity and
socialization in order participate politically (Ward, 2012, pp
...
Because social
media usage is highest in the youngest voter demographic, political campaigns must use
this communication tool to engage this sector of the voting population
...

Socialization and personalized communication cater to the phenomenon of civic
consumerism, which is a central component in young people’s willingness to engage in
participatory politics (Gerodimos, 2012)
...
184)
...
Research has revealed that socialization and personalization
(Ward, 2012), personality traits (Correa, Hinsley, & Gil de Zúñiga, 2010), cognitive and
emotional elements (Gerodimos, 2012) and website features (Gerodimos, 2012) are all
essential factors that motivate young people to engage on social media and to
participate in the democratic process (Ward, 2012)
...
Ward (2012) explains that there are three types of
1

Eighty-nine percent of adults ages 18–29 use social networking sites compared to the average total adult
use of 74 percent (Pew Research Center, 2014b)
...
One-way communication means information is directed towards an
audience, and transactional interactivity is a way of gathering information from Webusers (e
...
, collecting personal identification information like age, address, location
through an online form
...
Ward (2012)
determined that co-productive interactivity is essential for engaging young people due
to their inherent need for socialization
...
Socialization means that Web pages must be interactive and
personal
...
In this way, users can show support by following,
liking, and retweeting political campaign pages, while political campaigns can learn
more about their followers and send personalized messages aligned with their specific
demographics and psychographics
...
al
...
For instance, extroverted men
and women are more likely to engage on social media than their introverted
counterparts (Correa et
...
, 2010)
...
al
...
Personality traits are important for political campaigns to understand when
6

attempting to interpret the various levels of engagement and interaction of their
followers (and non-followers) on various social networking sites
...
Common emotions among youth in
regarding the political environment and political participation include frustration and
skepticism (Gerodimos, 2012)
...

Gerodimos (2012) reveals that youth engage with online political content based
on “the availability (or lack) of accessible, appealing and constructive communication
that acknowledges young people’s needs, abilities and cultures” (Gerodimos, 2012, p
...
Not only do young people want solid communication from organizations,
political leaders and campaigns, but they also want a way to channel their voice as well
(e
...
, Ward’s (2012) co-productive interactivity)
...
Perhaps to feel that when we discuss public affairs online we will be
listened to—otherwise it’s all complaining and nothing being done (Gerodimos,
2012, p
...

In other words, youth want to know that their participation is actually having an impact,
and an effective way to convey that their voice is heard is through interactive
communication that acknowledges their concerns and informs youth how their voice
can make an impact
...
The study found that
youth are less likely to engage in public debate or discussion about politics because they
are not as knowledgeable and are more self-conscious about discussing politics among
people whom they consider older and wiser (Gerodimos, 2012)
...
171)
...
11)
...

Research has also found that if young people cannot see how an issue will
directly affect them, they tend not be concerned about it (Gerodimos, 2012)
...
Young
voters are often frustrated that they cannot see the direct results of their engagement, so
they are skeptical that their individual participation makes a difference (Gerodimos,
2012)
...
, 2007, p
...
Gerodimos (2012) concluded that young people,
8

today more than ever, have a serious lack of political self-efficacy, which makes it more
difficult for political campaigns to encourage them to engage in the democratic process
...
Important website features include content, design and
interactivity (Gerodimos, 2012)
...
They want to know where
their money or vote is going and who benefits from their actions
...
Content should also be direct and personal; it should be distributed in a way
that is easy, convenient and cost-effective (Gerodimos, 2012)
...
174)
...
Faced with limited funding at the outset of his
campaign, the campaign utilized social media, knowing that Obama would fail to defeat
his opponent, Hillary Clinton, if he used traditional media
...

62)
...
Because today’s young people are so preoccupied and experience
high levels of information overload (Malhotra, 1984; Palfrey & Gasser, 2008, p
...
According to one participant of Gerodimos’ (2012) study, youth need
“‘[p]ictures that speak more than words to get you more involved and get involved more
efficiently
...
176)
...
176)
...
174)
...
Two decision-making variables that determine a citizen’s level of
democratic participation are political self-efficacy and situational political involvement
...
In other words, political selfefficacy is the degree to which individuals believe their efforts impact political
outcomes (Tan, 1980)
...
Those who have a higher degree of political self-efficacy are more likely to
participate in these civic duties
...
A
catalyst of political self-efficacy, situational political involvement looks at the perceived
relevance of an issue and degree of interest in election outcome (Austin & Pinkleton,
1999; Kushin & Yamamoto, 2012)
...
When this concept is applied to the digital era, it means that the
more someone perceives an issue is relevant, the more likely he or she is to seek out that
information on social and digital media outlets
...
Keeping in mind
that young users’ primary use of social networking sites is to serve their individual
desires and sense of self-importance, individuals that have a higher sense of political
self-efficacy are more likely to involve themselves in political social media use beyond
their individual needs
...
Young
people’s degree of self-efficacy and situational political involvement structures their
political behavior and attitudes
...
, 2007, p
...
With the information tide of the digital era,
defined by constant sensory overload (Palfrey and Gasser, 2008, p
...
al
...
Misinformation is especially dangerous in an era of targeted political advertising,
where apathetic and undecided voters are being targeted by advertisements designed to
attract their interests and gain their vote
...
20)
...
For
instance, people with certain political convictions may find themselves learning about
more political authors who share those same interests and thus strengthen their
preexisting notions instead of expanding their thought process and contributing to
further rational deliberation
...
One of the primary reasons young people give for not voting is their lack
of sufficient knowledge to participate as an informed voter (Kaid et al
...
1095)
...

Target Advertising
Targeting consumers is a relatively new concept in the digital advertising world
...
Online
behavioral targeting has exploded in the past five years, with innovations in big data
capabilities and the immersion of the big data industry for consumer information
...
S
...
Information providers like Acxiom offer details
on millions of customers around the world, of which companies and marketing firms
use in order to obtain details about “frequency of content consumed, the recency of user
engagement, and interactions” on millions of websites throughout the world (Liu &
Tang, 2011)
...
” This new form of targeting is called social targeting (Liu & Tang, 2011)
...
The campaign amassed large support
13

through big data (Cooperstein, 2013), target advertising (Viser, 2012) and the use of
socialization (Fouhy, 2011; Qualman, 2009), particularly among the youngest voter
demographic, ages 18–29
...

The first step in targeting voters online is to determine whom to target
...
However, the 2012
Obama campaign took that thought-process one step further and divided undecided
voters into two categories: those who were truly undecided and apathetic and those who
were undecided yet persuadable (Cooperstein, 2013)
...
Most importantly,
the Obama campaign’s implementation of online advertisement during the 2012
election placed heavy emphasis on targeting young voters because they are the primary
users of social and digital media (Cooperstein, 2013; Pew Research Center, 2014b)
...
After determining whom to target, the campaign utilized Web
browsing history to target these potential voters
...
The campaign also used a special social network for its
14

supporters called Dashboard, where it organized offline events and received 1
...
The campaign also created its own Facebook App that allowed it
to cross-reference “voter files with the friend network of its supporters” (Sherer, 2012)
...
The targeted campaign proved successful, as Obama won 60 percent of the voter
group ages 18–29 (Roper Center, 2013)
...
Research has determined that there is
a positive relationship between consumers’ product preferences and their reception
towards retargeted advertisements (Lambrecht and Tucker, 2013)
...
The study concluded that the more interest one takes in a subject––
the more research one does––the more positively he or she will perceive retargeted ads
that align with the topic (or product) of interest (Lambrecht & Tucker, 2013)
...
If Lambrecht and Tucker’s (2013) theory
holds true to targeted political advertisements, online users’ reception of political
15

advertisements should relate to how much information they seek and subsequently how
many advertisements they see
...
If, on the other hand, the opposite proves to be
true––uninterested and unengaged voters receive more targeted ads and have a positive
perception of them––then the nature of the democratic process could be in jeopardy
with voters making misinformed decisions due to technological advances
...
This thought process does not typically take into account political
competence––degree of political knowledge of a voter––or it considers many who
already actively participate to be politically incompetent, so it does consider political
knowledge to be a distinguishing factor between engaged and unengaged voters
...
Understanding the relationship between political attitudes and
behaviors of young adults who participate more frequently on digital platforms is
instrumental for the future of political campaigns as social and digital media begin to
threaten the longstanding influence and power of traditional media and advertising
16

platforms
...


17

Study Overview
The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between young adults’
(18–29) political attitudes and behaviors and their exposure to and perceptions of
political advertisements on social networking sites
...
Young adults are the focus of this
study because young people are the most concentrated users of social and digital media
(Pew Research Center, 2014a) and are traditionally the most persuadable group of
voters, as they are less habitual in their voting behavior and are the highest percentage
of voters that claim independent (Newport, 2014)
...
Because they are considered highly
persuadable and undecided, independent voters are an important focus for all political
parties
...

The first objective of the study is to determine the degree to which young people
are politically engaged, which is operationalized as the individual’s political selfefficacy––the degree to which individuals believe their efforts impact political
outcomes (Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010; Tan, 1980)
...
610)
...
This study attempts to understand the relationship between young
people’s political behavior and attitude and their exposure/attitude towards political
advertisements online
...

H1b: Exposure to political advertisements on social networking sites is
positively related to situational political involvement
...

H2a: Perception of political advertisements on social networking sites is
positively related to political self-efficacy
...


2

Even though demographically speaking, the youngest voter age group is 18–29, this study looked at
voters 18–30 because it did not want to discount those voters who were 29 during the 2014-midterm
elections that occurred four month prior to the study
...
3 Participants were recruited online through Amazon’s
Mechanical Turk (MTurk)
...
MTurk was chosen in order to obtain
a more diverse sample than traditional American college samples, as has been used in
previous similar research about youth, social media and political behavior (Buhrmester,
Kwang, & Gosling, 2011)
...
4
Participants were also required to be American adults between the ages of 18–30 and
registered voters of the United States
...
In addition to the screening test, two
quality assurance questions were asked to ensure participants were reading the
questions and answering to their best ability (as opposed to filling out the form at
3

The 4-month lapse in time frame from the 2014-midterm elections is important to note, as participants
may not remember the exact amount of political advertisements they saw online
...

4

Following the implementation of the HIT, it was brought to the researcher’s attention that Master level
limits a greater variety of participants, which helps explain, at least partially, why the sample has a higher
level of education and income than the average population
...
Of the 468 total responses to the age screening
question, 294 were screened out because their age did not lie within the 18–30 age
range
...
Of the remaining 159 responses, 23
responses were screened out for failing quality assurance questions or not completing
the survey
...

Table 1 provides the demographics of the sample population
...
2 percent of participants
compared to the national average of 32
...
S
...
For all education levels less than Bachelor’s degree, the sample
population was lower than the national average and for all education levels that were
Bachelor’s degree and higher, the sample was above the national average
...
3
percent compared to this sample, which indicated only 55 percent
...
7 percent compared to the sample,
which indicated that 44
...
The average income of respondents was about $37,900
...
Income of the sample population is
slightly higher than the national average (Short, 2014)
...
1% (75)
44
...
2

2
...
7% (1)
13
...
1% (41)
11
...
0% (53)
5
...
7% (1)

24
...
7% (35)
13
...
1% (26)
11
...
9% (8)
52
...
8% (12)
2
...
5% (2)
0
...
9% (42)
2
...
9 percent of
participants identified themselves as Democratic compared to only 8
...
While the reported Democratic affiliation is closely
in line with a 2015 Pew Research study that reported the Millennial generation (18–33)
22

as being 51 percent Democrat, the results do not align with their report that 35 percent
of Millennials identify as Republican (Pew Research Center, 2015)
...
The poll noted that nearly half of
participants initially identified themselves as Independent when asked (Newport, 2014)
...
Thus,
the 30
...
Additionally, the level of education in this sample is above the U
...
average,
and studies show that higher education indicates higher Democratic leaning, which also
helps explain the discrepancy (Pew Research Center, 2015)
...
The measures for political self-efficacy and situational political involvement
were acquired from previous research (Kushin & Yamamoto, 2010)
...

Political Self-Efficacy
...
” 5 The
statements were: (1) “Voting gives people an effective way to influence what the
government does” (2) “I can make a difference if I participate in the election process
...
95), with higher scores indicating higher political self-efficacy
...
Using a 9-point Likert-style scale with
strongly agree (1) and strongly disagree (9), situational political involvement was
measured by directing respondents to, “Indicate whether you agree or disagree with the
following statements
...
”
These items were combined into a four-item situational political involvement index (α =

...

Perception of Political Advertisements on Social Media
...
” The statements were: (1) “Political advertisements on social networking
sites are informative” (2) Political advertisements on social networking sites have
helped me to make a voting decision on at least one candidate in the last 6 years” (3)
“Political advertisements on social networking sites are misleading” (4) “Political
5

9-point Likert-style scale was chosen because nine is the maximum number of categories that a person
can store in short-term memory as he or she is processing
...


24

advertisements on social networking sites are applicable to me” (5) “I ignore political
advertisements on social networking sites” (6) “Political advertisements on social
networking sites have made me more curious about a candidate or an issue in an
upcoming election” (7) “Political advertisements on social networking sites are an easy
and convenient way to attain political knowledge about upcoming elections” and (8) “I
do more research on a campaign, candidate or issue after seeing advertisements about it
on social networking sites
...
76)
...
Using a 9-point Likert-style scale with strongly agree (1)
and strongly disagree (9), respondents were asked, “Please indicate the degree to which
you agree or disagree with the following statements
...
g
...
g
...
” These items were combined into a four-item index of
political influence (α =
...
Using a categorical scale of (1) “Do not use” (2)
“Never” (3) “Once a week or less” (4) “2–3 times per week” (5) “1–2 times per day” (6)
“3–5 times per day” and (7) “More than 10 times per day,” the survey asked
respondents, “How often do you visit each of the following social networking sites?”
The sites included Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, and
YouTube
...
g
...

Exposure to Political Advertisements on Social Media
...

Participants were asked, “In the three months leading up to an election, how many
political advertisements from candidates, parties, measure proposals and interest groups
do you typically see on the following social networking sites each time you utilize
them?” The social networking sites included Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram,
LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube
...

Table 2 shows the means for the number of times each social networking site was
visited per day, the number of interactions participants reported on each day on each
site and the number of political advertisements participants reported seeing in the three
months leading up to any election
...
51
4
...
37
2
...
99
2
...
21

Interactions
SD

2
...
44
1
...
70
2
...
29
1
...
47
3
...
11
2
...
44
2
...
51

2
...
92
1
...
38
1
...
28
1
...
32
2
...
66
1
...
82
1
...
30

1
...
54
0
...
89
0
...
80
1
...
Visits and
interactions are measured on a per day basis
...


The results reveal that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have far greater utilization rates
by the sample than the other social networking sites with higher scores indicating higher
usage
...
The
highest frequency sites where political advertisements were seen were on Facebook
(3
...
71) and YouTube (3
...

27

Correlations
Exposure to Political Advertisements on Social Networking Sites
...

Advertisement exposure was measured in the number of times per day participants
reported seeing ads on each of the following social networking sites
...
This hypothesis was not supported, as exposure to advertisements
on social networking sites and political self-efficacy were not significantly correlated
...
138
-0
...
023
-0
...
016
-0
...
074

0
...
008
-0
...
001
-0
...
094
0
...
174*
0
...
231**
0
...
185*
0
...
128

Note: Although Pinterest and Instagram revealed the highest correlation between
perceptions of political advertisements and exposure, only seven participants indicated
seeing at least one political ad on Pinterest each time they utilized it and only 11
participants indicated seeing at least one political ad on Instagram each time they
...
05 **p<
...
001

Table 3 also reveals a Pearson correlation between situational political
involvement and exposure to political advertisements on social networking sites in the
28

three months leading up to an election
...
This hypothesis was not supported, as there was no correlation between
exposure to political advertisements on social networking sites and situational political
involvement, indicating that participants’ general level of involvement and interest in
politics was not positively related to the number of political advertisements they saw on
social media in the three months leading up to elections
...
g
...
Likewise, those participants who had low levels of situational
political involvement may have had higher exposure to political advertisements because
campaigns, like the 2012 Obama campaign, determined that they were undecided voters
that would require more attention via advertisements on social networking sites
...
H1c was supported, as there was a positive correlation between
participants exposure to political advertisements on social networking sites with
perceptions of political advertisements on social media
...
174), Twitter (r = 0
...
231), Instagram (r = 0
...
185), indicating that the more participants were exposed to political
advertisements on these sites, the more positively they viewed them
...
The second set of
hypotheses predicted relationships between political self-efficacy and situational
political involvement with perceptions of political advertisements on social networking
sites
...
109
0
...
116
0
...
232**
-0
...
032
0
...
036
0
...
023
-0
...
055
0
...
044
0
...
086

0
...
Questions 3 and 5 were
removed to create the final six-item index (α =
...

*p<
...
01 ***p<
...
H2a
stated that there would be a positive correlation between perceptions and political selfefficacy
...
However, Question 5, which was
removed from the multi-item index to indicate overall perception, had a high negative
30

correlation with political self-efficacy (r = -0
...
The results indicate that participants
who ignore political advertisements have a low level of political self-efficacy and do
not believe that their political participation makes a difference
...

Education and Income
...

The results show a positive relationship (r = 0
...

Table 5 reveals a positive relationship between income level and situational
political involvement (r = 0
...
In addition, higher income also correlated with more positive
perceptions of political advertisements (r = 0
...
Table 5 also
reveals that those with greater incomes are more likely to be influenced by family and
peers (r = 0
...


TABLE 5: Education and Income

Political Self-Efficacy
Situational Political Involvement
Perception of Political Advertisements
Political Influence
Exposure to Ads on Facebook
31

Education
R

Income
R

0
...
199*
0
...
098
0
...
177*
-0
...
170*
0
...
111

Exposure to Ads on Twitter
Exposure to Ads on Pinterest
Exposure to Ads on Instagram
Exposure to Ads on LinkedIn
Exposure to Ads on Google+
Exposure to Ads on YouTube

0
...
085
-0
...
058
0
...
112

-0
...
014
0
...
048
-0
...
023

*p<
...
01 ***p<
...
An independent samples t-test revealed a significant
difference between income levels on political self-efficacy (Mhigh = 5
...
70,
t(134) = -2
...
023)
...

Situational Political Involvement
...
83, Mlow = 3
...
42, p = 0
...
High
education participants––those with a bachelor’s degree or greater––reported greater
situational political involvement than less educated participants
...
An independent samples t-test revealed a
significant difference between income levels on perceptions of political advertisements
(Mhigh = 4
...
61, t(134) = -2
...
020)
...


32

Discussion
Efficacy and Involvement
This study looked at exposure to political advertisements on social networking
sites in relation to political self-efficacy and situational political involvement
...

My results did not support this reasoning
...

There are several factors that can explain the lack of correlation
...
There
was no correlation with the amount of time participants spent on social networking sites
with either of the political engagement variables (efficacy and involvement)
...
However, these results did not reveal any
relation between gender and political self-efficacy or situational political involvement
...
In the same way, those participants who reported low selfefficacy or low situational political involvement may be more active on social media,
which would expose them to more political advertisements or re-posts of political
advertisements, regardless of their civic engagement
...
Assuming that people who have a high level of situational
political involvement seek at least some of their information online, current research
does not show that political advertisers are targeting based on this kind of Web
browsing history with this particular population
...
If we apply this literature to targeted political
advertisements, those who are more engaged or interested in politics would have a more
positive perception of political advertisements
...
The results did not support this
prediction
...
Those participants who reported lower political self-efficacy reported ignoring
political advertisements online
...
This result is important for politicians and
campaign managers because, as the Obama campaign discovered in 2012, apathetic
verses undecided yet persuadable voters are entirely different audiences that require
different messages
...
Our results confirm their theory, as voters who do not believe their
vote matters––apathetic citizens––are not as likely to read or engage in political
messages on social media
...
Those respondents who reported more positive
perceptions of political advertisements on social media were more likely to be exposed
to political advertisements on the various social networking sites used in the study
...

Narrowly construed preferences relate to more positive perceptions of targeted
advertisements
...
Stemming from this view is the idea that those voters who are seeing
advertisements are seeing ones that positively correlate with their interests (i
...
,
sponsored by the party they support or promoting an issue that affects them)
...
This explanation makes sense if their social media interactions are
indicative of their political interests (i
...
, “liking” a politicians campaign page or
“retweeting” an interest’s groups tweet), and, in this case, suggests that campaigns are
finding the individuals that support or are likely to support their cause
...
More
research is also needed to understand if those people who are politically engaged (like,
follow, retweet political pages and advertisements, etc
...

Interestingly, the results also showed significant differences between income
levels, self-efficacy and perceptions of political advertisements
...
Income level was also positively correlated with perceptions of political
36

advertisements
...
These results make sense,
because, just as those people with higher income see themselves as having more
influence in what government does, they also have a more positive perception of
politics and therefore perceive political advertisements on social media more positively
...
These results suggest that those with higher education pursue political
information at a greater degree and have an overall higher interest in politics and
election outcomes
...


37

Conclusion
This study has extended prior research by offering a new conception of social
networking sites as a medium for political campaigns to spread messages through
targeted and personalized advertisements, not just a platform for user-generated
political content
...
The
research reveals that exposure to political advertisements on social media positively
correlates with perceptions of those messages
...

The impacts of behavioral and social targeting online have yet to fully be
realized in the political spectrum, but this research indicates that more emphasis needs
to be placed on understanding if, how and when political advertisements on social
networking sites are impacting voting behavior
...
With the evolution of marketing and target advertising in politics,
campaign managers and marketers will need to fully utilize these innovations to be
competitive in future elections
...

38

Since political campaigns and organizations want their message received in the most
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