Content analysis of political television commercials of the Peruvian election campaign of 1990

Despite the assumed impact of television in political campaigns, its effects are not yet completely understood. Many uncontrolled variables make it difficult to generate or even to assess cause-effect relationships. This thesis studied 99 Peruvian television commercials from the electoral campaign of 1990. The objective was to explore the relationship between content and form of ads with their environmental variables. The question was: Is there any relationship between the verbal message and form of commercials and the political parties, broadcasting stages and offices pursued? A content analysis was conducted on the 99 commercials. The independent variables were the eleven political parties responsible for the ads; the presidential, senatorial and deputorial offices pursued; and the four broadcasting stages. The dependent variables were five variables of verbal message and twenty eight of form. Important patterns of variations were found. Particularly relevant was the pattern of temporal effect in the ads, both in content and form. Also, models of variation due to party sponsorship and due to office pursued were found.