with respect to the 1980 Ronald Reagan presidential campaign and noted that the IOD strategy reduces the frequency and increases the formality of candidate contacts with the media while emphasizing a single issue over an extended period of time. The net result of the IOD strategy is to encourage the media to portray the candidate in terms preferred by the candidate and thus to reinforce a desired image capable of generating a positive response from members of the electorate.
The IOD strategy focuses on press relations and therefore encompasses both telecommunications and the print media (Covington, et al, 1992). The strategy requires a homogeneous content over an extended period of time, minimizes the media's control over the content and interpretation of campaign stories, restricts the variety of subjects raised and controls the settings in which issues are discussed. The IOD strategy has been identified as helping the candidate to promote a preferred image in three ways:
. Leading the media to repeat a single issue maximizes
the chance that the public will learn those things that
. Highly structured, infrequent interactions minimize
the likelihood that there will be an unexpected mistake
. Emphasizing a single issue or a limited number of
issues that are related, deters the media from reporting
other messages that could mask or dilute the candidate's
preferred message (Covington, et al, 1992).
In tandem with the IOD media strategy, it is recommended that all advertising be framed within a positive orientation and that attack advertising or negative advertising be avoided in both the primaries and in the general election. Attack advertising has been found to demobilize the electorate. According to Ansolabehere, Iyengar, Simon, and Valentino (1994), though the advent of television has radically changed the nature and the tone of political campaign discourse, negative advertising has be...