ABSTRACT
Voters learn about politics through a range of “information intermediaries” including personal discussants, social organizations, news media and political parties (Gunther, Beck, Magalhaes, & Moreno, 2016; Gunther, Montero, & Puhle, 2006). However, political advertising is one of the ways that political parties can communicate directly with voters free of the screens or biases provided by those other intermediaries. As a “fourth wave” democracy (Berg-Schlosser, 2009; Dorenspleet, 2000; McFaul, 2002), South Africa has traversed, in a relatively short period, the span from a total prohibition of television campaign advertising in its first three democratic elections (1994, 1999 and 2004) to an environment in its most recent elections (2009 and 2014) in which political parties are allowed to purchase advertising time on both private and public television networks, and where the public broadcaster is also required to provide free advertising time. Thus, South Africa provides a laboratory in which to understand effects of political advertising in a new democracy.
