[摘要]

Many studies have been focusing on election related issues. For the past few

decades, research has consistently indicating the weight (and meaning) of women

’s voting. Put simply, literature (at least in the U.S.) shows the growing

significance of women’s voting in determining the result of election. As a

result, terms such as gender gap, voting block, and / or gender crossing

voting have gained extensive attention from many scholars.

This research attempts to forge political sociology (in campaign ads), media

effects (audience study) and gender study into an unified perspective. Using

the 2001 legislator election as a case, I adopt content analysis and in-depth

interview to probe whether campaign ads have gender differences in its

communication effects.

The paper finds, as contrary to conventional studies, that campaign ads mainly

exert impact on attitudinal and cognitive dimensions. This finding along

refutes the traditional view which asserts campaign ads can make voter vote

—if the ads are effective. Other findings include that both sexes favor

positive ads, acknowledge the effects of issue-oriented ads toward persuasion,

and that after controlling education, gender along actually has little impact

on cognition. In all, the study suggests that gender, in combination with

other variables, may be a crucial and yet (up until now) a seriously neglected

factor in our understanding on the effectiveness of campaign ads. Additionally,

future studies may put more emphases on the emotional and cognitive side

rather than focus exclusively on the behavioral dimension.