Political Communication in Real Time

Much has been made of the speed and constancy of modern politics. Whether watching cable news, retweeting political posts, or receiving news alerts on our phones, political communication now happens continuously and in real time. Traditional research methods do not capture this changed, dynamic environment so it is time to recognize emerging ways of knowing how communication works. This book provides the first real assessment of methods used to study the new digital media environment. Top researchers in the field use continuous or real time response methods to explain how viewer attitudes can be measured over time, message effects can be pin-­pointed down to the second of impact, behaviors can be tracked and analyzed unobtrusively, and respondents can naturally respond on their smartphone, tablet, or even console gaming system. Leading practitioners in the field working for CNN, Microsoft, Google, and Twitter show how the approach is being innovatively used in the field.