INDIANA — It’s election season and that means political ads are everywhere, from yard signs to advertisements on your TV screen and social media feed.
One expert WRTV spoke with says you should be skeptical about what those advertisements are saying.
"These political ads, their number one intention is not to inform you, it's to sway you to support their candidates,” Nicolas Casas, who studies misinformation at Indiana University Northwest, said.
Casas has been studying political ads since 2015. He says a lot has changed since then.
His biggest piece of advice is to consider the context of all political ads regardless of party affiliation.
"A lot of times, political attack ads are coming from a snippet of a longer video or an audio clip,” Casas said. “Or they may be quoting someone, maybe they said something for 10 seconds or they could be clipping something from a larger interview that comes from the written word.”
Watch | Candidates spend millions on political ads. Do they persuade voters?
To see how these political ads impact voters, WRTV’s Meredith Hackler stopped by a polling place in Hamilton County. Most people say ads don’t have an impact on how they decide to vote.
"I watch them, but they don't influence me because sometimes I don't believe them, sometimes, I do,” Sandy Fink said.
"I find it to be a lot of lies,” Christine Davis said. “I don't believe any of the ads. I have to check it myself. I just don't believe any of them anymore."
One younger voter said she sees fewer ads and more video clips of candidates on different social media platforms.
"If they have positive things, they would definitely influence my opinion,” Caroline Jessup said.
These voters agree it's best to do your research, which is what Casas recommends as well.
READ MORE | Hoosier Voting Guide: Everything to know about the upcoming election (wrtv.com)
"Double check to see if another news source has verified or debunked what that political ad is saying,” Casas said.
Casas says one way to see if something is true or not is to double-verify with multiple news sources, especially local ones that are closely following local races. He says PolitiFact is also a good website to fact-check claims.
