A Public Service of Santa Fe Community College

Election 2022: Voters don't like negative ads, but they work

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Prepare for the Worst: Political Ads Are Coming!
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Do negative political ads work? Do they increase polarization or just reflect it? KSFR reporter Mary Lou Cooper discusses these questions with Professor Michael Franz, co-director of the Wesleyan Media project, one of the premier political ad tracking groups in the U.S. Leading us into the story is an ad for a Missouri primary candidate which is perhaps the most offensive attack ad of the 2022 election season.

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Mary Lou Cooper reports on consumer issues for KSFR as well as on politics and elder affairs. She has worked for the U.S. Congress as well as for the Nevada and Tennessee legislatures, and remains a political junkie. She worked many years for an association of Western state legislatures and was a contributor to “Capitol Ideas,” a national magazine about state government. In 2016 Cooper received a public service award from the New Mexico Broadcasting Association for her KSFR story on Internet romance scams. She has received journalism awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and from the National Federation of Press Women. She grew up in Oak Ridge, TN and received her BA from Emory University in Atlanta and her MA from the University of Texas Austin. She also holds fiction and screenwriting certificates from the University of Washington.