The spectacle of u.s. senate campaigns / Kim Fridkin Kahn and Patrick J. Kenney.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fridkin, Kim, 1962- author.

Kenney, Patrick J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Elections--United States.

Elections.

Political campaigns--United States.

Political campaigns.

United States--Politics and government--1989-.

United States.

United States. Congress. Senate--Elections.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (296 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

Spectacle of US senate campaigns

Place of Publication:

Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1999]

Summary:

This book offers a bold, comprehensive look at how campaigns actually work, from the framing of issues to media coverage to voters' decisions. In so doing, it challenges the common wisdom that campaigns are a noisy, symbolic aspect of electoral politics, in which the outcomes are determined mainly by economic variables or presidential popularity. Campaigns, the authors argue, do matter in the political process. Examining contested U.S. Senate races between 1988 and 1992, Kim Kahn and Patrick Kenney explore the details of the candidates' strategies and messages, the content, tone, and bias of the media coverage, and the attitudes and behaviors of potential voters. Kahn and Kenney discover that when the competition between candidates is strong, political issues become clearly defined, and the voting population responds. Through a mix of survey data, content analysis, and interviews, the authors demonstrate how competition influences serious political debates in elections. Candidates take stands and compare themselves to their opponents. The news media offer more coverage of the races, presenting evaluations of the candidates' positions, critiques of their political careers, and analyses of their campaign ads. In response, the voters pay closer attention to the rhetoric of the candidates as they learn more about central campaign themes, often adjusting their own voting criteria. The book concentrates on Senate races because of the variance in campaign strategy and spending, media coverage, and voter reactions, but many of the findings apply to elections at all levels.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Part One: Understanding And Measuring Campaigns

One. The Nature of Political Campaigns

Two. Measuring the Content and Consequences of Political Campaigns

Part Two. The Campaign Strategies Of Candidates

Three. In Order to Win: An Examination of Campaign Strategies

Four. Attack Politics: Understanding the Determinants of Negative Campaigning

Part Three. The News Media's Coverage Of Campaigns

Five. Deciding What Is News: The Media's Coverage of Senate Campaigns

Six. The Struggle for Control over the News Media's Agenda: How Candidates Influence the Content and Tone of News Coverage

Part Four: Citizens' Reactions To Campaigns

Seven. The Dynamics of Competition: The Impact of the Candidates and the News Media

Eight. Citizens' Knowledge about U.S. Senate Campaigns

Nine. How Voters Make Decisions in U.S. Senate Campaigns

Part Five: Conclusions

Ten. Conclusions and Implications

Appendixes

A. Interview Schedule for Successful Incumbents

B. Political Advertising Code Sheet

C. Sample of Newspapers

D. Newspaper Content Analysis Code Sheet

References

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [263]-274) and index.

ISBN:

9780691005058

0691005052

9780691227924

0691227926

OCLC:

1273307700