Pundits don't like negative campaigning. I do. At the very minimum, negative campaigning has a screening effect: people with questionable records will not bother to become candidates--and that is important if you only have a say every 6 years. But does negative campaigning work? Does it hurt somebody's feelings, other than the pundits? Here is some evidence... with videos included.
Going Negative
Advertising Tone Manipulations
How negative campaigns shrink electorate, manipulate news media
Once upon a time, this country divided itself neatly along party lines. Most people voted; those who did not fended to be poorer, less well educated, and more apathetic, but still party loyal. Television has changed all that. Now, we are split by a new division: between loyalists and apathetics. On the one hand, media propaganda can often shore up loyalists to vote for their traditional party; on the other hand, that same propaganda is increasingly peeling off a band of citizens who turn from independence to apathy, even antipathy, toward our political institutions.
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