The performative presidency : crisis and resurrection during the Clinton years / Jason L. Mast.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mast, Jason L., author.

Series:

Cambridge cultural social studies.

Cambridge cultural social studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Clinton, Bill, 1946-.

Clinton, Bill.

Clinton, Bill, 1946---Public opinion.

Press and politics--United States--History--20th century.

Press and politics.

Mass media--Political aspects--United States--History--20th century.

Mass media.

Mass media and public opinion--United States--History--20th century.

Mass media and public opinion.

Communication in politics--United States--History--20th century.

Communication in politics.

Political culture--United States--History--20th century.

Political culture.

Public opinion--United States--History--20th century.

Public opinion.

United States--Politics and government--1993-2001.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 198 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2013.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The Performative Presidency brings together literatures describing presidential leadership strategies, public understandings of citizenship, and news production and media technologies between the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and Bill Clinton, and details how the relations between these spheres have changed over time. Jason L. Mast demonstrates how interactions between leaders, publics, and media are organized in a theatrical way, and argues that mass mediated plot formation and character development play an increasing role in structuring the political arena. He shows politics as a process of ongoing performances staged by motivated political actors, mediated by critics, and interpreted by audiences, in the context of a deeply rooted, widely shared system of collective representations. The interdisciplinary framework of this book brings together a semiotic theory of culture with concepts from the burgeoning field of performance studies.

Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Presidential leadership under the conditions of defusion

3. Character formation: the rise of two Bill Clintons, 1992

4. The profanation of a president, 1992-1994: presidential character, the 'climate of suspicion', and the culture of scandal

5. The Conservative revolution as purification and its subsequent pollution: the rise and fall of Newt Gingrich, and the fall and rise of Bill Clinton

6. Birth of a symbolic inversion: Clinton (re)fuses with the presidential character

7. The second term: the Republicans' polluting scandal and Clinton's successful performance

8. Conclusion.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-107-23650-9

1-139-85418-6

1-139-84274-9

1-139-84036-3

1-139-84510-1

1-139-20693-1

1-139-84598-5

1-283-83629-7

1-139-84155-6

OCLC:

823234576