Search

The article discusses the concept of hybrid media campaigning in relation to the authors' claim about how 2016 U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump utilized mass media coverage to secure the American Republican Party's nomination. Political communication in America is addressed, along with populist politicians, celebrity culture, and Trump's blend of politics and entertainment. Publicity and Trump's use of social media platforms such as Twitter during his campaign are assessed.

Some contemporary politicians try to mobilize racial attitudes by conveying implicit racial messages against their opponents—messages in which the racial reference is subtle but recognizable and which attack the opponent for alleged misdeeds. Although targeted politicians have tried a number of different strategies to respond to implicit racial appeals, little is known about the effectiveness of these strategies. Using two survey experiments, we answer the following question: Does calling the appeal “racial” work? That is, does it neutralize the negative effects on the attacked candidate? We find mixed evidence that it does. However, offering a credible justification for the attacked behavior works more consistently. We also test whether effects vary by candidate race. The results suggest that Black candidates’ rhetorical strategies are more constrained than identical White candidates’, but that White Americans are more open to credible arguments and justifications than the previous literature implies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As a key element of their strategy, recent Presidential campaigns have recruited thousands of workers to engage in direct voter contact. We conceive of this strategy as a principal-agent problem. Workers engaged in direct contact are intermediaries between candidates and voters, but they may be ill-suited to convey messages to general-election audiences. By analyzing a survey of workers fielded in partnership with the 2012 Obama campaign, we show that in the context of the campaign widely considered most adept at direct contact, individuals who were interacting with swing voters on the campaign’s behalf were demographically unrepresentative, ideologically extreme, cared about atypical issues, and misunderstood the voters’ priorities. We find little evidence that the campaign was able to use strategies of agent control to mitigate its principal-agent problem. We question whether individuals typically willing to be volunteer surrogates are productive agents for a strategic campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

At the outset of the 2012 presidential race, Republican candidate Mitt Romney touted his private sector leadership of the private equity firm Bain Capital. As this election unfolded, Romney's Bain Capital story became less of a narrative he could run on and more of a narrative he had to run from. Why did this Bain Capital story, a story about someone's success in the free marketplace in a society that seemingly values such success, become so troubling for the Romney campaign? This question constitutes the centerpiece of the present essay. In addressing this question, we argue that the Bain Capital narrative's role in the 2012 presidential race divulges a great deal about the fundamental nature of economic discourse in American democracy. Specifically, we contend that the economic narratives circulating in American democracy actually construct a tale of two economies--a tangible economy and a speculative economy. Unfortunately for Romney, his Bain Capital narrative situated him on the wrong side of this economic divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective How do immigrants become politically active? While this process has been extensively studied, the role of ties to formal and informal institutions of society has been understudied. We test whether informal (political discussion) and formal (connections to community organizations) ties encourage immigrant voters to participate in other campaign activities. Methods Data were collected through a 2008 exit poll of Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA voters. Along with assessing the bivariate relationship between social ties and campaign participation, we use a Poisson event count regression model to control for alternative explanations. Results The positive relationship between social ties and campaign participation among immigrant voters disappears once we control for alternative explanations. There is, however, a positive relationship among the native born (including second-generation immigrants). Conclusion Voters need to acquire personal resources, and become assimilated into American political culture, before social ties have an effect on campaign participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the majority of previous research suggests there are positive relationships between digital media use and political participation and knowledge, most studies have relied on cross-sectional surveys and have thus not been able to firmly establish the chain of causality. Also, there is little research investigating use of different forms of digital media and their relative effects on political participation and knowledge. This study examines (a) the effects of digital media use on political participation and knowledge and (b) whether different forms of digital media use affect people differently. Drawing on two representative panel surveys, the study demonstrates that there are only weak effects of digital media use on political learning, but that the use of some digital media forms has appreciable effects on political participation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using a telephone survey of randomly selected voters from the general population, the authors sought to understand the interrelatedness of the use of the Internet as a political information source with perception of political participation, political information efficacy, and cynicism. Guided by the uses and gratifications theory and employing the Political Media Gratifications Scale, the authors examine these constructs in terms of emergent generational differences. Findings indicate that digital natives differ from their older voting counterparts, and the researchers conclude more research must investigate further to accurate determine meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a study which aims to investigate the political participation and the difference of level of perception of women on U.S. election in 2006 and 2008. The study made us of role model effect theory to explore the political participation of 18-23 years women voters in 2008 compared in 2006. Results indicate that 2008 women voters were more skilled to talk about politics than those in 2006. Results also show that women were less cynical on politics in 2008 election than in 2006.

The existing literature on gender effects in the electoral process offers little evidence of significant gender vote share differentials. In this paper it is shown that for the 2006 Canadian federal election, once candidate campaign spending is introduced into the model with appropriate flexibility in the vote share responsiveness across genders, significant differences are found to exist between male and female candidates. The findings suggest that, for equal levels of spending, male incumbents have a vote share advantage relative to female incumbents, though this vote share advantage is found to diminish with increased expenditures. Female non-incumbent candidates, on the other hand, have a vote share advantage over male non-incumbent candidates for higher levels of expenditure and this advantage was found to increase with increased expenditures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electoral rallies in public plazas cannot predict the winner of the elections, although they do reflect the cultural dimension of politics. In this article, the qualitative analysis of electoral rallies explains both the existence of alternative projects for citizenship and the nation and their conflictive rootedness in political culture. By comparing the different political parties' rallies in 2000 and 2006, the author looks in detail at three components of political culture: symbolic physical space, social space and discursive space. campaigns, political appropriation of public space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of candidate campaign spending on votes and abstention in multiparty elections is estimated from the specification of a structural model of voter behavior. This model accounts for the endogeneity of campaign spending as well as the heterogeneity in voter preferences. Empirical results are estimated from aggregate (actual) election data. The results demonstrate the importance of spending during the campaign period and voter heterogeneity with respect to these expenditures. The own- and cross-expenditure vote share elasticity estimates reveal that political campaign spending not only redistributes voters across parties but also decreases the size of the abstaining group of the electorate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the nature of candidate organizations as convention participants and its influence on environment changes. Activities involved on the political campaign of candidates; Role of organizational measures in providing campaign necessities of candidates; Necessities of political candidates during campaigns.

Ethnic minority under-representation in British politics is apparent at both local and national level. This article focuses on the candidate selection procedures of the main parties to assess explanations of under-representation and account for the development of a critique, by the Labour Party, of the 'liberal' paradigm that underpins candidate selection. Labour have developed a positive action strategy to promote women's candidacy. This article contends that the development of such a critique has clear implications for other under-represented groups, such as ethnic minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]