Political ads are designed to capture the attention of the audience and make them adopt a particular political inclination or support a particular political proposal. In the modern day and age, politicians have discovered that the design of the advert can have humongous implications on its target audience. Consequently, they have done everything possible to come up with adverts that not only capture the attention of the audience at that time, but also leave a lasting impression. However, on thing is clear. Modern political adverts stimulate the emergence of varying opinions from the audiences.
The RAS model is a theory of human opinion formation. The theory has its basis on four specific axioms that include receiving, acceptance, accessibility, and finally sample. In regards to receiving, for any information to stimulate opinion formation, one must be exposed to this information. In regards to acceptance, individuals are likely to resist accepting the information that is not at par with one’s political disposition. In the accessibility axiom, the more recent a given consideration has been called up to the mind or even thought about, the less that time it takes to retrieve it from the human memory and bring to the head’s forefront for use. In regards to sample, when one is asked a survey question, he or she dips into their head and looks for the easiest possible answer and what comes up is in actual sense dependent on reception and acceptance. Hence, the analysis of an ad using the RAS model can be used to show how the opinions of a liberal vs. conservative vs. unaware person might be shaped by watching the ad.
One such ad features a governor of a major city (Mayor Bloomberg of New York city), showing support for more stringent gun control laws. It frames him mainly as liberal who wants more stringent gun control measures to be enacted. This is a pro-gun control advert that would reverberate differently with liberals, conservatives and politically unaware individuals on a year of elections. From the RAS model, liberals would be of the opinion that individuals do not require guns for their protection because it is the role of the federal government to protect people via law enforcement agencies as well as the military. In this case, the liberals are consistent with the acceptance/resistance axiom. They would accept the message in the advert because it is consistent with their political disposition. They would, therefore, be of the opinion that gun control laws should indeed be enacted and would consequently support the governor. On the other hand, a conservative would tend to have the opinion that individuals have ta federal right to guard and protect themselves at all costs. They would, therefore, argue the already existing gun control laws are too much and would tend to hold the opinion that additional laws would indeed have no effect on the reduction of gun related crimes.
Consequently, these individuals correspond to the resistance axiom of the RAS model in that they resists the message of the ad because it against their political disposition. They would not support the governor. In regards to politically unaware individuals, they would be split right at the middle because they would consider recent gun related crimes and see the need for more laws. However, at the same time, they would tend to focus on the need to protect themselves since they are not in real sense aware that the government has a responsibility of protecting them. They would in this case also orient towards minimized gun control. However, the politically unaware people are more than likely to be supportive of the message because of their cognitive engagement with the issue (reception axiom) as well as accessibility. This is because of the widespread gun related crimes that are being reported on the news on a weekly basis making people more aware of such happenings. In regards to this, the governor would receive support from this group of people.
In conclusion, the governor’s political ad is likely to shape the opinions of liberals, conservatives and the politically unaware in different modes.
References
Ahern, A. L., Bennett, K. M., Kelly, M., & Hetherington, M. M. (2011). A Qualitative Exploration of Young Women’s Attitudes towards the Thin Ideal. Journal of Health Psychology, 16(70).
Aubrey, J. S. (2006). Effects of Sexually Objectifying Media on Self-Objectification and Body Surveillance in Undergraduates: Results of a 2Year Panel Study. Journal of Communication, 56, 356-386.
GildeZuniga, H. (2012). Social Media Use for News and Individuals’ Social Capital, Civic Engagement and Political Participation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17, 319-336.
Zaller, John R. (1992) The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Ad Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF0Yjjrtbs8
