Videostyle

Videostyle is a concept used to describe the pattern of styles and strategies that candidates use in their [Page 809]televised political advertising. A candidate's videostyle includes three important components of their ads: the verbal elements, the nonverbal elements, and the production elements. The concept of videostyle was influenced by several studies looking at personal style, presentation of self, and communication style. These earlier studies of style suggested that a person's communication style would be revealed through a pattern of behavior that recurred over and over again in different settings.

Videostyle builds on this concept, proposing that a political candidate's personal communication style is translated and constructed for voters through the candidate's television ads. A candidate's videostyle is also influenced by his or her political status, ideology, and the context of the campaign.

The videostyle approach to political advertising, first outlined by Lynda Lee Kaid and Dorothy Davidson in 1986, has been updated, revised, and enhanced through the numerous studies using the approach. The current videostyle coding instrument has approximately 62 categories into which ads are systematically coded. Those categories are organized into the three dimensions of the ads: the verbal elements, the nonverbal elements, and the production elements of the ads. Kaid and Johnston have used the system to analyze U.S. presidential campaign commercials beginning with their first use in 1952, and the system has been applied by many other researchers to candidate advertising at different electoral levels and in numerous countries.

The first dimension or aspect of a candidate's videostyle is the language or verbal elements of the ads. This dimension includes things like whether the ad is a positive ad and says good things about the candidate or is a negative ad and criticizes the opponent. Other verbal categories that make up a candidate's videostyle include the use of certain appeals (appeals to issue stands, personality characteristics, or group/ partisan affiliations), the types of issues discussed, the types of proof or evidence provided (use of facts, use of emotional appeals, use of the candidate's credibility), the use of fear appeals, the appeal to certain values in the ads, and the communication strategies and styles present in the ad associated with incumbent or challenger political positions. One interesting finding about candidate videostyle is that presidential political ads contain lots of issue information and that important candidate characteristics mentioned in ads over the years have included honesty, competency, and aggressiveness.

A second critical element of a candidate's videostyle is the nonverbal dimensions of his or her ad. Nonverbal aspects of communication include things such as gestures, eye contact, facial expressions, and appearance. The nonverbal aspects of videostyle include the setting of the ad, the candidate's eye contact, dress, facial expression, body movement, fluency, rate of speech, and pitch. In addition, other aspects that add to a candidate's nonverbal videostyle include the speaker used in the ad, the use of American symbols (flags, landmarks, or monuments), and the presence of family members or partisans in the ad. Researching the nonverbal dimensions of a candidate's videostyle has revealed that candidates use a variety of speakers in their ads. In addition to the candidates themselves, speakers used in political ads have included family members, anonymous announcers, politicians, celebrities and average citizens.

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