Internet’s Immediacy Gives Political Advertising a Boost

By: Barbara Gutierrez Social media and microtargeting have changed the name of the game for modern campaigns, University of Miami experts say. In 1988, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis was running against George H. W. Bush and leading in the polls. Dukakis was against the death penalty and for weekend furlough programs for prisoners. Bush was against both. The Bush campaign ran a television ad using the case of Willie Horton, a Black prisoner who, while on a weekend furlough, raped a woman and stabbed her boyfriend. Dukakis lost the election. [...]