THE IDEAL CANDIDATE - A STUDY OF THE DESIRED ATTRIBUTES OF THE PUBLICAND THE MEDIA ACROSS 2 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS

The view of image as a transaction between what a candidate does and t he evaluative response that voters have to it creates at least three c ritical questions as yet unanswered in the literature of political com munication. First, although the power of the media to affect the succe ss or failure of political campaigns and candidates has been demonstra ted by researchers and is popularly believed, do the views of individu al media members regarding the qualities necessary for presidential ca ndidates differ significantly from those of the electorate? Second, al though voters share many beliefs about the personal qualities that pre sidential candidates ought to possess, do these attributes vary from p residential election to election? Finally, although voter assessment o f a candidate's image is a major determinant of voter behavior and vot ers have a mental picture of an ideal candidate that they use to evalu ate actual candidates, do the evaluative dimensions differ by party af filiation? The answers to these questions were determined from the res ults of a survey of 236 professional journalists covering and 444 voti ng citizens attending presidential rallies in New Hampshire in 1988 an d 1992.