Overview

Written by leading scholars of political communication, this book provides a comprehensive accounting of the campaign communication that characterized the unprecedented 2016 presidential campaign. The political events leading up to election day on November 8, 2016, involved unprecedented events in U.S. history: Hillary Clinton was the first woman to be nominated by a major party, and she was favored to win the highest seat in the nation. Donald Trump, arguably one of the most unconventional and most-unlikely-to-succeed candidates in U.S. history, became the leading candidate against Clinton. Then, an even more surprising thing happened: Trump won, an outcome unexpected by all experts and statistical models. An Unprecedented Election: Media, Communication, and the Electorate in the 2016 Campaign presents proprietary research conducted by a national election team and leading scholars in political communication and documents the most significant—and in some cases, the most shocking—features of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The information presented in this book is derived from national surveys, experiments, and textual analysis and helps readers grasp the truly unique characteristics of this campaign that make it unlike any other in U.S. history. The chapters explain the underlying dynamics of this astonishing election by assessing the important role of both traditional and social media, the evolving (and potentially diminishing) influence of televised campaign advertisements, the various implications of three historic presidential debates, and the contextual significance of convention addresses. Readers will come away with an appreciation of the content and effects of the campaign communication and media coverage as well as the unique attributes of the electorate that ultimately selected Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States.

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Reviews

Any researcher, from the mildly curious to the 24-hour-cable-news-cycle obsessed, will find something of interest in these pages. * Booklist * This scholarly, balanced compilation effectively sheds light on an election that continues to confound experts and prognosticators alike, presenting not only original insights into the events and outcomes of 2016 but also clues of what may lie ahead. VERDICT Political junkies and undergraduate/graduate students will find this a clear-sighted resource. * Library Journal * This volume adds to the literature by offering a look at this event through an academic lens situated in the communication discipline. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice * These academic studies are built around carefully defined hypotheses with narrowly drawn results and therefore do not provide a blueprint for future candidates to follow. Their value is to portray how the 2016 election broke all the rules. Because this research was conducted soon after the election, the dynamics of the campaign and the perceptions and opinions of the American electorate were captured while the campaign cycle was still fresh in the public mind, providing a rich resource for scholars as we get further removed from this tumultuous election. * ARBA *

Author Information

Benjamin R. Warner, PhD, is assistant professor of communication at the University of Missouri. Dianne G. Bystrom, PhD, is director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University. Mitchell S. McKinney, PhD, is professor of communication at the University of Missouri and currently serves as faculty fellow for academic personnel in the Office of the Provost. Mary C. Banwart, PhD, is associate professor in the Communication Studies Department at the University of Kansas and director of the Institute for Leadership Studies.

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