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Accusations of partisan bias in Presidential election coverage are suspect at best and self-serving at worst. They are generally supported by the methodology of instance confirmation, tainted by the hostile media effect, and based on simplistic visions of how the news media are organized. Media Bias in Presidential Election Coverage 1948-2008 by Dave D'Alessio, is a revealing analysis that shows the news media have four essential natures: as journalistic entities, businesses, political actors, and property, all of which can act to create news coverage biases, in some cases in opposing directions. By meta-analyzing the results of 99 previous examinations of media coverage of Presidential elections from 1948 to 2008, D'Alessio reveals that coverage has no aggregate partisan bias either way, even though there are small biases in specific realms that are generally insubstantial. Furthermore, while publishers used to control coverage preferences, this practice has become negligible in recent years. Media Bias proves that, at least in terms of Presidential election coverage, The New York Times is not the most liberal paper in America and the Fox News channel is substantially more conservative in news coverage than the broadcast networks. Finally, Media Bias in Presidential Election Coverage 1948-2008 predicts that no amount of evidence will cause political candidates to cease complaining about bias because such accusations have both strategic potential in campaigns and an undeniable utility in ego defense.

Communicator-in-Chief: How Barack Obama Used New Media Technology to Win the White House examines the fascinating and precedent-setting role new media technologies and the Internet played in the 2008 presidential campaign that allowed for the historic election of the nation''s first African American president. It was the first presidential campaign in which the Internet, the electorate, and political campaign strategies for the White House successfully converged to propel a candidate to the highest elected office in the nation. The contributors to this volume masterfully demonstrate how the Internet is to President Barack Obama what television was to President John Kennedy, thus making Obama a truly twenty-first century communicator and politician. Furthermore, Communicator-in-Chief argues that Obama''s 2008 campaign strategies established a model that all future campaigns must follow to achieve any measure of success. The Barack Obama campaign team astutely discovered how to communicate and motivate not only the general electorate but also the technology-addicted Millennial Generation - a generational voting block that will be a juggernaut in future elections.

Media events are a central communication tactic used by political communicators in political campaigns and in governmental affairs. Each president has an advance staff that creates mediagenic events to influence the news media, generate coverage and excitement, construct favorable political images, and persuade voters. Advance men and women are visual speechwriters who focus not only on what the politician says, but also on how the candidate looks and the visual message communicated by the event. This timely and groundbreaking work examines media events and advance in political communication by exploring: (1) how media events are conceived and staged, (2) the role of advance in an overall communication strategy, (3) how media events holistically function to generate a rhetorical impact, and (4) the implications of politically communicating by media event. This book gives readers the tools and background necessary to both analyze and understand media events and to create their own. Media events and advance are a significant element of political communication that has not been systematically or comprehensively studied, and Schill's innovative work ably fills this major gap in the literature.

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 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.

To simply say the 2008 presidential election was historic seems like an understatement. The election was unique in many ways beyond the selection of the nation''s first African-American as President. The drama of the election was also heightened by the historic nomination battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The contest generated issues of race and gender throughout the campaign, as did the candidacy of Sarah Palin as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee. And John McCain brought his own unique qualities to the campaign: Vietnam War hero, long-term Congressional service record, feisty temperament, and the oldest first-time presidential candidate to run for the Presidency. Thus, issues of race, gender and age dominated the campaign both implicitly and explicitly. The candidacies of Clinton, Obama, McCain and Palin provided the context and dynamics for charges of racism, sexism and ageism. Studies of Identity in the 2008 Presidential Campaign explores issues of identity politics and the presidential election. Investigating all aspects of race, gender or ageism, the contributors to this volume address the role and function of "identity politics" in political campaigns, and highlight challenges of "identity politics" in contemporary political campaigns.

Ending Racial Preferences: The Michigan Story provides an in-depth account of the 2006 Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, told from the perspective of Toward A Fair Michigan, a non-partisan educational organization. The book also analyzes the campaigning and impact of similar initiatives in California, Florida, Washington, and the city of Houston.

Using a variety of critical methods, the contributing authors of Telling Political Lives demonstrate the ways in which the autobiographies of U.S. women leaders provide arguments that both reveal and shape perceptions of politics, empowerment, and ideology in the United States.

Over the past two decades, citizens, organizations, and governments have passionately debated the nature of the consequences of nuclear production, and how they should be managed. This volume focuses on the role of communication in shaping-and potentially resolving-the conflicts that emerge during these debates.

Over the past two decades, citizens, organizations, and governments have passionately debated the nature of the consequences of nuclear production, and how they should be managed. This volume focuses on the role of communication in shaping-and potentially resolving-the conflicts that emerge during these debates.

Picturing China in the American Press juxtaposes what the ordinary American news reader was shown visually inTime Magazine between 1949 and 1973 with contemporary perspectives on the behind-the-scenes history of the period. Time Magazine is an especially fruitful source for such a visual-historical contrast and comparison because it was China-centric, founded and run by Henry Luce, a man who loved China and was commensurably obsessed with winning China to democracy and Western influence. Picturing China examines in detail major events (the Korean War and Nixon's trip to China), less considerable occurrences (shellings of Straits islands and diplomatic flaps), great personages (Chairman Mao and Henry Kissinger), and the common people and common life of China as seen through the lenses and described by the pens of American reporters, artists, photographers, and editors. Picturing China in the American Press is of great interest to both scholars of communications, Chinese history, China Studies, and journalists.

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

As Americans worry ever more about the effects of media on the quality of public deliberation, they have developed a renewed interest in public discussion, especially face-to-face public discussion. Over a century ago, public forums_organized and widespread_provided a place where citizens could discuss the political issues of the day, and they became a means of adult civic education. William M. Keith documents the college course developed by the new field of Speech to teach the skills of discussion, as well as the forum movement, which culminated in the Federal Forum Project. Using primary sources from archives around the country, Democracy as Discussion traces the early history of the Speech field, the development of discussion as an alternative to debate, and the Deweyan Progressive philosophy of discussion that swept the U.S. For the first time the structure and details of the Federal Forum project in the context of the forum movement and adult civic education in the U.S. are recounted and analyzed, making this book a valuable resource in the study of political communication and history.

Maryland Politics and Political Communication, 1950-2005 is not a survey of all that occurred between 1950 and 2005. Rather, this book focuses on a set of interesting political events in which communication is a very important variable. These events, be they elections or episodes of governance, are also_arguably_the most dramatic ones during the period. It begins with an examination of George Wallace's 1964 and 1972 campaigns in the state's Democratic presidential primary, considers William Donald Schaefer's flamboyant communication strategies as Baltimore mayor and the vicious 1986 U.S. Senate campaign between Democrat Barbara Mikulski and Linda Chavez, and runs through the 2002 gubernatorial race between Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Robert L. Ehrlich. Sheckels highlights the similarities and differences between political communication at state and national levels and looks forward to questions and scenarios that may emerge in future elections.

Familiar narratives and simplistic stereotypes frame the representation of women in U.S. politics. Pervasive containment rhetorics, such as the distinction between women as mothers and caregivers and men as rational thinkers, create unique hurdles for any woman seeking public office. While these 'governing codes' generally act to constrain female political power, they can also be harnessed as a resource depending on the particular circumstances (e.g., party affiliation, geographic location and personal style). One of these governing codes, the metaphor, is an especially powerful tool in politics today, particularly for women. By examining the political careers of four of the most prominent and influential women in contemporary U.S. politics_Democrats Ann Richards and Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republicans Christine Todd Whitman and Elizabeth Dole_Karrin Vasby Anderson and Kristina Horn Sheeler illustrate how metaphors in public discourse may be both familiar narratives to embrace and boundaries to overturn.

This book is a comprehensive content analysis of the use of polls by the three major television network newscasts during presidential general election campaigns from 1968 to 2016. It documents the dramatic increase of polls and the decline in coverage of substantive issues and the candidates' policy positions over that time.

Cracked But Not Shattered thoroughly analyzes Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination with an eye to identifying what went wrong-why, the frontrunner, she ended up not breaking "the glass ceiling." Although her communication was flawed and the media coverage of her did reflect biases, these essays demonstrate how her campaign was in trouble from the start because of her gender, status as a former First Lady, and being half of a political couple.

Gender and Political Communication in America is a comprehensive anthology of work that investigates, from a rhetorical and critical standpoint, the intersection and mutual influences of gender and political communication. Building on existing theory and research, the contributors update and interrogate contemporary issues of gendered politics applicable to the 21st century, including the historic 2008 election.

Ending Racial Preferences: The Michigan Story provides an in-depth account of the 2006 Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, told from the perspective of Toward A Fair Michigan, a non-partisan educational organization. The book also analyzes the campaigning and impact of similar initiatives in California, Florida, Washington, and the city of Houston.

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.

What exactly is happening when politicians evoke a center space beyond partisan politics to advance what are unmistakably political arguments? Drawing from an analysis of pivotal speeches surrounding Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign and first term in office, Centrist Rhetoric: The Production of Political Transcendence in the Clinton Presidency takes an extended look at this question by showing how the possibility of political transcendence takes form in the rhetoric of the political center. Faced with a divided and shrinking party, and later with a pitched battle against a resurgent conservative movement, Clinton used the image of a political center, a 'third way' beyond liberal and conservative orthodoxies, to advance his strategic goals, define his adversaries, and overcome key political challenges. As appeals to the center helped Clinton to achieve these advantages in specific cases, however, they also served to define the means, ends, and very essence of democracy in ambiguous and contradictory ways. Touching on controversies from the early 1990s over the future of the Democratic Party, racial identity in American politics, the threat of rightwing extremism, and the role of government, Antonio de Velasco show how centrist rhetoric's call to transcendence weaved together forms of identification and division, insight and blindness, so as to defy the conventional assessments of both Clinton's supporters and his detractors. Centrist Rhetoric thus offers general insight into the workings of political rhetoric, and a specific appreciation of Clinton's attempts to define and adjust to the political exigencies of a critical period in history of the Democratic Party and politics in the United States.

A Communication Universe: Manifestations of Meaning, Stagings of Significance presents a new theoretical understanding of communication. Igor E. Klyukanov conceptualizes the process of communication in terms of space and time, i.e., as a continuous process of meaningful spatiotemporal transformation. He goes on to examine four fundamental transformations and the four theoretical perspectives on the nature of communication. From the first perspective communication appears to be 'pure space,' then time comes into play more and more actively, and from the fourth perspective communication appears to be 'pure time.' Following the fourth transformation communication is seen as returning back to the first stage where it again appears as 'pure space;' however, now its reality contains all meanings created in the process of the previous transformations. Based on these four transformations, the process of communication is understood as a universe, meaning 'whole,' 'entire,' 'turned into one.'

For decades, campaign finance reform has been an on-going topic of discussion. In particular, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) was heralded as a major breakthrough in controlling the flow of money into campaigns. Almost immediately, political players found other ways to financially manipulate the new laws. Campaign Finance Reform: The Political Shell Game provides an in-depth look at the history of political campaign finance reform with special emphasis on legislative, FEC, and federal court actions from the 1970s to present. In particular, the authors examine the ways that campaigns and independent groups have sought to make end-runs around existing campaign finance rules. Oftentimes the loopholes they find make a significant impact on an election, sparking the next round of campaign finance reform. New rules are then enacted, and new loopholes are found. Like a big political shell game, the amount of money in politics never actually decreases, but instead gets moved around from one organization to another.

Communicator-in-Chief examines the role of new media technologies such as e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, blogs, video games, texting and the Internet in the historic 2008 presidential campaign. Politicians of the twenty-first century will use the Obama campaign's new media technology strategy to not only communicate with the electorate, but also raise money and motivate voters to go to the polling places on election day.