This volume explores a central political paradox: why American scholars, journalists, and citizens periodically question the viability of their presidential electoral system and yet believe that presidential elections are our best hope for tomorrow. The book argues that the key to understanding this paradox lies in the concept of "self-image," exploring relationships between campaign activities and political culture. After presenting an introduction to the history of presidential campaigning and a theory of political image, the book arranges essays in three parts: images centered on candidates, mass media, and the public. A final essay assesses explanations of the contrasts between the 1988 and 1992elections and suggests tomorrow's research agenda.
Although many developments surrounding the Internet campaign are now considered to be standard fare, there were a number of new developments in 2016. Drawing on original research conducted by leading experts, The Internet and the 2016 Presidential Campaign attempts to cover these developments in a comprehensive fashion. How are campaigns making use of the Internet to organize and mobilize their ground game? To communicate their message? The book also examines how citizens made use of online sources to become informed, follow campaigns, and participate. Contributions also explore how the Internet affected developments in media reporting, both traditional and non-traditional, about the campaign. What other messages were available online, and what effects did these messages have had on citizen’s attitudes and vote choice? The book examines these questions in an attempt to summarize the 2016 online campaign.
The Millennium Election highlights some of the most important campaign communication from the 2000 elections, looking at candidates' political messages, the media's campaign coverage, the impact of the Internet, and the political socialization of young voters. The authors show that we still have much to learn about traditional candidate-voter interactions as well as new forms of political communication--and these forms must work together to engage a new generation of voters. Visit our website for sample chapters!
"Authenticity," the dominant cultural value of the baby boom generation, became central to presidential campaigns in the late 20th century. Beginning in 1976, Americans elected six presidents whose campaigns represented evolving standards of authenticity. Interacting with the media and their publics, these successful presidential candidates structured their campaigns around projecting "authentic" images and connecting with voters as "one of us." In the process, they rewrote the political playbook, redefined "presidentiality," and changed the terms of the national political discourse. This book is predicated on the assumption that it is worth knowing why.
Over the past thirty-five years, the rapid development of communication technology, the decline of political parties, a growing culture of cynicism, and the rise of the Internet have all affected U.S. political campaigns. But while these forces seem powerful, little scientific evidence has been gathered of their impact. Communication in U.S. Elections presents work from some of the best young scholars in two disciplines--communication and political science--on how modern election campaigns are affected by such forces. The authors look at how voters acquire political information, how issues are "framed" for them by the mass media, how attitudes about social groups are created, and how political advertising uses popular culture to affect voting patterns. The result is a fresh and comprehensive overview of why modern political campaigns turn out as they do.
This timely publication offers a fresh scholarly assessment of political advertising across the EU, as well as an insight into differing political and regulatory systems related to political advertising in the individual member states. With a detailed focus on the images and communication styles that characterised the 2014 European Parliament election campaign, this edited collection evaluates political advertising across the EU using empirical data to compare and contrast styles and approaches in different members. This work allows the authors to offer an important evaluation of the similarities and differences in the posters and broadcasts used to win public support in the 2014 campaign at the time of the great European recession and financial crisis, specifically looking at the place of posters and video commercials. This book will appeal to researchers and students of political communication, political science, history, European studies as well as candidates and campaign workers who want a more comprehensive understanding of the representation of Europe in political adverts at the 2014 elections.
Presidential campaigns are our national conversations the widespread and complex communication of issues, images, social reality, and personas. In 2008, more people participated in the conversation, as voter numbers in every demographic group increased to levels of the 1970s. Here, political communication specialists break down the historic 2008 presidential campaign and go beyond the quantitative facts, electoral counts, and poll results of the election. Factoring in everything from the campaign in popular culture, political cartoons, and the effect of celebrity, the authors look at the early campaign period, the nomination process and conventions, the social and political context, the debates, the role of candidate spouses, candidate strategies, political advertising, and the use of the Internet. This enlightening book shows why more technology doesn't always mean more effective communication and how, as we attempt to make sense of our environment, we collect "political bits" of communication that comprise our voting choices, worldviews, and legislative desires."
In this comprehensive introduction to political parties, two of the country's foremost scholars combine the traditional PIE, PIG, PO approach with unique chapters on such issues as race and campaign finance. Throughout the book, the authors argue strongly in favor of the continued relevance of parties in the American political system and provide strong evidence that parties have adapted to the changing American political scene.
Images play an important role in developing consciousness and the relationship of the self to its surroundings. In this distinctive collection, editors Charles A. Hill and Marguerite Helmers examine the connection between visual images and persuasion, or how images act rhetorically upon viewers. Chapters included here highlight the differences and commonalities among a variety of projects identified as "visual rhetoric," leading to a more precise definition of the term and its role in rhetorical studies. Contributions to this volume consider a wide variety of sites of image production--from architecture to paintings, from film to needlepoint--in order to understand how images and texts work upon readers as symbolic forms of representation. Each chapter discusses, analyzes, and explains the visual aspect of a particular subject, and illustrates the ways in which messages and meaning are communicated visually. The contributions include work from rhetoric scholars in the English and communication disciplines, and represent a variety of methodologies--theoretical, textual analysis, psychological research, and cultural studies, among others. The editors seek to demonstrate that every new turn in the study of rhetorical practices reveals more possibilities for discussion, and that the recent "turn to the visual" has revealed an inexhaustible supply of new questions, problems, and objects for investigation. As a whole, the chapters presented here demonstrate the wide range of scholarship that is possible when a field begins to take seriously the analysis of images as important cultural and rhetorical forces. Defining Visual Rhetorics is appropriate for graduate or advanced undergraduate courses in rhetoric, English, mass communication, cultural studies, technical communication, and visual studies. It will also serve as an insightful resource for researchers, scholars, and educators interested in rhetoric, cultural studies, and communication studies.
Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practice, Ninth Edition uses a speech-communication perspective to examine how elective politics contributes to our knowledge and understanding of the electoral process. Through historical and contemporary examples, this book offers readers a realistic understanding of the strategic and tactical communication choices candidates and their managers make as they wage the campaign. Updates to The Ninth Edition Include: Two completely new chapters – Chapter 6 and Chapter 13 – discuss ethical considerations of political campaign communication and the practice of contemporary journalism in today’s campaigns. Political campaign communication from the ground-breaking 2016 presidential election. Expanded material on use and tactics of social media, new platforms and communication technologies. One of the most comprehensive and consistently updated volumes available on the subject, the ninth edition of Political Campaign Communication: Principles and Practice traces political communication from its roots in public speeches and campaign whistle-stops to the current explosion of information in the viral hothouse of social media, making it essential reading for students in communication and political science courses.
