ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some of the history of communication studies and summarizes some major findings and debates about contemporary media and campaigns. Media effects focused on less subtle questions about whether media were directly altering people's opinions, attitudes, and behaviors. Recognizing the role of the "active audience" in media provides an analytical context for considering the effects of a partial fragmentation of news media–and beyond that, a polarization along partisan and ideological lines. Sociologists Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur have argued that in times of greater conflict and change, media dependency is apt to rise. The voters exposed to the most campaign media were the most partisan and the least likely to change their minds. Election campaigns come in many shapes and sizes, from nationwide presidential campaigns to positions for individual political precincts, as well as issue campaigns.
