Bøger i Lexington Studies in Political Communication serien

Democratic Disunity: Rhetorical Tribalism in 2020 addresses that while attention has recently and rightly been paid to the tribal bifurcation of the GOP, the Democratic Party is similarly divided. Americans live in a democratic republic rather than a direct democracy and choices regarding governing concerns are configured through communicative action. These choices include those made between and within American political parties. Without rhetorical mediation and intervention, toxic partisan tribalism within the two major American political parties is likely to destabilize the nations' federalist system of government. Kelley argues that intraparty tribalism poisons public life and consumes public space within which electoral politics, including discussion, deliberation and compromise, should be thriving. Democratic Disunity considers intraparty tribalism as a rhetorical form, uniquely positioned within the twenty-first century. Details are provided regarding language-in-use strategies with which to anchor a rhetoric of governing through a mindful, deliberative dialogue which diminishes the effect of political partisanship, including its toxic variations both between and within American political parties. Scholars and students of rhetoric, political communication, and political science will find this book particularly interesting.

In Horror Framing and the General Election: Ghosts and Ghouls in Twenty-First-Century Presidential Campaign Advertisements, Fielding Montgomery reveals a pattern of mostly increasing horror framing implemented across presidential elections from 2000 to 2020. By analyzing the two most common frameworks of horror within U.S. popular culture (classic and conflicted), he demonstrates how such frameworks are deployed by twenty-first-century U.S. presidential campaign advertisements. Televised advertisements are analyzed to illustrate a clearer picture of how horror frameworks have been utilized, the intensity of their usage, and how self-positive appeals to audience efficacy help bolster these rhetorical attempts at persuasion. Horror Framing and the General Election shows readers how the extensionally constitutive ripples of horrific campaign rhetoric are felt in contemporary political unrest and provides a potential path forward.

In this book, Natalia Mielczarek engages with close to one thousand editorial cartoons to trace visual representations of President Donald Trump and the rhetorical mechanisms that construct them. Mielczarek argues that editorial cartoons largely either hide or overexpose the president, often resembling partisan propaganda, not social critique.

Political Problems and Personalities in Contemporary Maryland provides a comprehensive rhetorical analysis of contemporary politics and political communication in Maryland at both the state and local levels. Theodore F. Sheckels and Carl Hyden approach rhetoric in a broader sense, arguing that actions by political players including decisions on housing policy, urban redevelopment policy, and transportation policyare not in a separate category from their messages. In many cases, they argue, actions are messages, often with important material consequences. Rather than focusing solely on previous or upcoming elections, as political communication has traditionally been examined, Sheckels and Hyden give considerable space to non-election topics, responding to current shifts in political communication scholarship and encouraging others to examine political communication at the local and state levels elsewhere in the United States. Scholars of communication, political science, rhetoric, and history will find this book of particular interest.

This book explores how social media influenced presidential campaign rhetoric. Janet Johnson discusses media use in American presidential campaigns as well as social media campaigns for Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump.

More than two billion dollars. That's how much money was spent in the 2012 presidential campaignthe most expensive campaign in history. Each party raised and spent more than one billion dollars as the traditional boundaries of campaign financing were ignored. Both parties could do so because they were playing in a game with new rulesrules that largely developed after the 2010 Supreme Court ruling known as Citizens United. That case removed many restrictions on donation limits, particularly for corporations and unions. The result was the development of a new set of political players called ';Super PACs' that were allowed to enter the political arena and spend an unlimited amount of money on behalf of clients.This book looks at how Super PACs raised and spent money and influenced the 2012 election. It provides an insightful look at how both right- and left-leaning groups approached the election and impacted the political process.

Drawing on a decade of their own research from the 2000 to 2012 U.S. presidential elections, Renita Coleman and Denis Wu explore the image presentation of political candidates and its influence at both aggregate and individual levels. When facing complex political decisions, voters often rely on gut feelings and first impressions but then endeavor to come up with a ';rational' reason to justify their actions. Image and Emotion in Voter Decisions: The Affect Agenda examines how and why voters make the decisions they do by examining the influence of the media's coverage of politicians' images. Topics include the role of visual and verbal cues in communicating affective information, the influence of demographics on affective agenda setting, whether positive or negative tone is more powerful, and the role of emotion in second-level agenda setting. Image and Emotion in Voter Decisions will challenge readers to think critically about political information processing and a new way of systematically thinking about agenda setting in elections.

In President Trump and the News Media Kuypers analyzes policy addresses by President Trump, comparing them with reporting through lenses of framing analysis and Moral Foundations Theory. Differences point to widespread journalistic bias. The effect of this bias on reportorial practices and the functioning of the American Republic is addressed.

Nonverbal Communication in Political Debates presents a framework for understanding the role of nonverbal behavior in political debates, including an examination of candidates' attempts to undermine opponents while presenting themselves as likeable. Theory and historical examples underline the importance of nonverbal elements in political contests.

Third Parties, Outsiders, and Renegades analyzes 10 third-party, outsider, or renegade presidential candidates and explores each ones impact on the political process. The list of modern outsider candidates who have attracted the public's attention is fairly long, but most of the time the candidates never garner enough support to become elected or they self-destruct somewhere along the way. A few, however, have taken votes away from more mainstream candidates and changed the course of political parties or election outcomes. This book provides readers with an analysis of how their rhetoric, political tactics, and issues have challenged the political status quo and impacted later campaigns. The future viability of outsider candidates is discussed in light of current political polarization and the legacy of Donald J. Trump, the first elected outsider president, and considers how outsider candidates might be able to compete in upcoming elections given the current political divisions within the nation. Scholars and students of communication, political science, and rhetoric will find this book particularly interesting.

Since the election of Richard Nixon in 1968 to Donald Trump's victory in 2016, both presidential campaigns and television news have undergone significant changes, perhaps most noticeably in the use of public opinion polls in campaign reporting by the national evening newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC. The Influence of Polls on Television News Coverage of Presidential Campaigns explores how during the past 50 years the three networks have quadrupled their use of polls during general election campaigns while the amount of time spent covering the actual issues facing the nation has dwindled. The increasing focus on polls over the years by television news has resulted in an overall diminished quality of journalism which is relying more and more on sensationalism and theatrics. The competition between the candidates has become a central focus of reporting, which has led to presidential campaigns being covered like sporting events. Major party candidates are portrayed increasingly less like potential leaders of the free world and more like athletes who are winning or losing a ballgame. The problem is not exit polls prematurely projecting a winner several hours before voting ends, but pre-election polls which do the same thing weeks before Election Day. Recommended for scholars interested in communication, political science, history, and sociology.

Studies of Communication in the 2020 Presidential Campaign explores a wide range of communication elements, themes, and topics of the 2020 presidential election. Each chapter serves as a stand-alone study focusing on the role and function of communication within the context of the chapter topics and the 2020 election.

This book analyzes the thiry-six political party conventions since 1948 as rhetorical entities with goals often epideictic, constitutive, and even deliberative. Crucial in meeting (and sometimes not) these goals are speeches, demonstrations, and off-camera discussions at each convention.

This book deconstructs the 2016 campaign appeals of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump to disenfranchised and polarized publics at opposite ends of the political spectrum through a rhetoric of divisive partisanship grounded in antipolitics. These ultimately contributed to the defeat of Hillary Clinton and a decline in American democratic discourse.

This book is devoted to anticipating and addressing where the field of political humor and its effects will move in the next generation of scholarship, exploring the continued evolution of the study of political humor as well as the normative implications of these developments.

This book establishes Herbert G. Klein as a formative figure in the Nixon White House. His contributions to Nixon's press strategies and their subsequent impact on the president's actions have been overshadowed in scholarly literature. It explores the enduring conflict between journalistic truth and presidential image.

This book looks at the forces that have developed over the past fifty years that have created a dysfunctional political system in the United States. The book argues that politicians justify their lack of cooperation, once elected, by blaming the other side for starting the decline in political civility.

This book argues that the use of the monster metaphor through media coverage and discourse surrounding Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign suggests characteristics of the monstrous in the public discourse, warranting concerns for the future of national discourse.

This book examines the presidency's relationship with television entertainment, particularly late night comic talk shows. It covers presidential campaigns and administrations from Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump.

Examines the political debates and underlying communications strategies over proposed state lotteries that took place in the Southeastern US between 1986 and 2005. This book is based on research from thousands of media articles, government documents, and interviews with politicians, religious leaders, and journalists.

This book presents the obstacles and opportunities of six women who have run for president of the United States from 1964 to 2016.

Images, Issues, and Attacks explores important differences between incumbents and challengers in the uses of televised advertising in modern presidential elections.

This book theorizes and tests the conditions under which the press is a powerful political institution, and when it cedes its power to other institutions and actors. It gives a theoretical framework and substantive case studies to aid scholars across a wide area of American politics in understanding the news media's role in American politics.

Post-9/11 American Presidential Rhetoric examines the communication offensive orchestrated by George W. Bush and the members of his administration between the initial terrorism crisis of September 11, 2001 and the March 20, 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Chronicles the careers, communication styles, and lives of twelve women in television broadcasting and discusses the obstacles and opportunities in the television broadcasting field as they relate to women.

This book chronicles the lives, communication styles, and presidential bids of five remarkable women_Margaret Chase Smith, Shirley Chisholm, Patricia Schroeder, Elizabeth Dole, and Carol Moseley Braun_while also addressing the obstacles and opportunities for women as presidential contenders.

Persuasive Attacks on Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Primary investigates the nature of persuasive attacks on Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential primary campaign. It begins by extending the Theory of Persuasive Attack to include attacks on character as well as attacks on actions. William L. Benoit & Mark J. Glantz use topical analysis to understand humor (late night television jokes; video from SNL, Colbert, and Oliver; articles in The Onion, and political cartoons) and Republican ';establishment' attacks from Mitt Romney and the National Review. Quantitative content analysis examines attacks in primary debates and primary TV spots. The book concludes with criticisms found on social media platforms and TV talk shows.