The prominence of politically-themed entertainment is evident across the global media landscape. Given its popularity, it is important to gain a firm understanding of the mechanisms through which this diverse and multi-faceted content can generate democratic outcomes. In addition, it is essential to isolate and predict properly the strength of a given effect and the conditions under which a specific outcome will become evident. The works contained in this edited volume explore affect- and cognition-driven processes of influence, recognizing that humans are both emotional and rational beings. In addition, empirical evidence is offered to isolate and compare specific types of political entertainment media content (e.g., different types of satire) and citizens' proclivities for this content (e.g., a person's Affinity for Political Humor), in order to best understand the complex means by which entertainment media can generate political influence. Attention is also paid to expanding what can and should be defined as "political entertainment" media, which includes opinion-based political talk programming. The collection and its authors represent a global perspective to reflect the rise of political entertainment media as a global phenomenon. This book was originally published as a special issue of Mass Communication and Society.

This collection is concerned with two fundamental concepts of social science- power and emotion. Power permeates all human relationships and is constitutive of social, economic, and political life. It stands at the centre of social and political theorizing, and its study has enriched scholarship within a wide range of disciplines, including sociology, political science, philosophy, and anthropology. The conceptual cluster of emotion, by contrast, had a more troubled time within these same disciplines. However, since the 1970's and the advent of the 'emotional turn', there has been a widespread re-evaluation of emotion in and for our shared social existence and, today, emotions research is at forefront of contemporary social science. Yet, although both concepts are now widely seen as fundamental, research on these two phenomena has tended to run in parallel. This collection, featuring leading international scholars, seeks to unite and deploy both concepts, emotion and power, in a variety of ways, and on a diverse array of topics such as: education, organizations, social movements, politics, 'old' and 'new' media, rhetoric and in comparative intellectual history. The results are at the bleeding edge of scholarship on these concepts, and will make important reading for practitioners and students working in the sociology of emotions, social and political power, political sociology, organization studies, and for sociological and political theory more generally. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Political Power.

International relations as a discipline has largely ignored the role of religion in shaping international events. The growth of Islamist militancy, the increasing influence of the Christian Right on US foreign policy and George Bush's war on terror changed this for good. Now more than ever we need to analyze this change and consider how religion and the way it is represented affects international politics. Lee Marsden and Heather Savigny uniquely bring together some of the leading figures in the fields of politics and media, international relations and security, and international relations and religion, including freelance journalist and newspaper columnist Nick Cohen, the international authority on politics and religion Professor Jeffrey Haynes, and Professor Justin Lewis who has a number of BBC commissions under his belt. The volume offers a series of case studies reflecting on how the media covers religion as conflict within and between states. It challenges readers to critically examine how media reportage and commentary influences perceptions and responses to religion and security.

It was the best of elections; it was the worst of elections. The 2004 presidential contest mobilized a record number of voters, with 121 million Americans showing up at the polls. But in many eyes, the 2004 race also plumbed new depths. It was the most expensive presidential election in history, with a price tag of $2.2 billion. It was also marked by unprecedented negativity -for example, both George W. Bush and John Kerry came under fire for their activities during the Vietnam War, which ended three decades ago. In Vital Signs, David Dulio and Candice Nelson analyze the Bush and Kerry campaigns and use them as the springboard for a broader exploration of the current U.S. campaign system and its strengths and weaknesses. The book addresses four key issues: Who's in charge of modern campaigns? How effective are the key players? What role does money play? And are campaigns being conducted in an ethical manner? In answering these questions, Dulio and Nelson draw on a wide range of sources, including focus groups, interviews with campaign professionals, and a unique dataset based on multiple surveys of political consultants, party operatives, and the public. The culmination of the seven-year "Improving Campaign Conduct" project, Vital Signs should become an integral part of the debate about American campaigns and elections.

This book draws on a multi-method study of film and television narratives of global criminal networks to explore the links between audiovisual media, criminal networks and global audiences in the age of digital content distribution. Mapping out media representations of the ongoing war on drugs in Mexico and the United States, the author delves into the social, cultural and geopolitical impacts of distribution and consumption of these media. With a particular emphasis on the globalized Mexican cartels, this book investigates three areas - gender and racial representation in film and television, the digital distribution of content through the internet and streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix, and depictions of extreme violence in film, television and online spaces - to identify whether there are fundamental similarities and differences in how Hollywood productions reproduce stereotypes about race, gender and extreme violence. Some of the movies and television series analysed are Breaking Bad, Ozark, Weeds, Rambo: Last Blood, No Country for Old Men, Sicario and the Netflix series Narcos, Narcos: Mexico and El Chapo. Taking a unique interdisciplinary approach to the study of cartels in the media, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of media studies, film, television, security studies, Latin American and cultural studies.

The concept of networks and the techniques of social network analysis have each assumed increasing importance in social science in recent years, not least in relation to the analysis of collective action and particularly social movements. This timely collection offers a fascinating glimpse into the state of the art. Each chapter uses network analysis to tackle a different question regarding the nature and dynamics of social movement activity, and each reflects upon the advantages and limitations of the method for its purposes. The case studies focused upon are drawn from a variety of national contexts, both contemporary and historical, and both the methods used and the uses to which they are put are no less diverse. A must have book for anybody interested in social movement networks and contemporary ways of analysing them. This book was published as a special issue of Social Movement Studies.

Negative campaigning is frequently denounced, but it is not well understood. Who conducts negative campaigns? Do they work? What is their effect on voter turnout and attitudes toward government? Just in time for an assessment of election 2004, two distinguished political scientists bring us a sophisticated analysis of negative campaigns for the Senate from 1992 to 2002. The results of their study are surprising and challenge conventional wisdom: negative campaigning has dominated relatively few elections over the past dozen years, there is little evidence that it has had a deleterious effect on our political system, and it is not a particularly effective campaign strategy. These analyses bring novel empirical techniques to the study of basic normative questions of democratic theory and practice.

First published in 1999, this study will examine the nature of the difficulties in the UK, Belgium and Ireland and the accompanying need for parliamentary communication, setting that parliament within an institutional, historical and political EU context and examining its ability to mobilise popular support through the use of mass media.

?Bruce I. Newman tells us briskly, firmly what our instincts also tell us: We are mass marketing images rather than providing real leadership.? --Paul Simon, Former U.S. Senator, Public Policy Institute, Southern Illinois University ?Gatorade and Coke do it, so do candidates for high office?they manufacture images and manipulate reality to win our favor. In this insightful and compelling study, Bruce I. Newman demonstrates what politicians and interest groups are doing to us and what we need to do to strengthen our democracy.? --Dennis W. Johnson, Associate Dean, George Washington University ?Bruce Newman has written an incisive account of the role that marketing plays in contemporary politics. He argues persuasively that mass marketing techniques are profoundly changing and corroding American politics. His book provides an enlightful analysis of the ways in which marketers have transformed the presidential election.? --Richard M. Perloff, author of Political Communication: Politics, Press and Public in America ?This book is a must read for anyone concerned about the growing trend of sound bite over substance, willful manipulation of the media over honest engagement of the American Public.? --David Wilhelm, Former Chair of the Democratic National Committee ?While marketing has led to better quality in most markets, we are beginning to have serious doubts about what is doing to the quality of political life. Bruce Newman raises serious questions about whether anyone of merit can get elected today without the support of expensive and sophisticated marketing machinery.? --Philip Kotler, S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Northwestern University Marketing, not ideology, drives America?s contemporary political system, with an emphasis on image over substance, personality over issues, and 30-second sound bites over meaningful dialogue. Through the use of carefully crafted messages meant to manipulate voter thinking, the same marketing tactics used by Fortune 500 companies is shaping public opinion. The Mass Marketing of Politics details how marketing tactics are being used to determine public opinion, win votes, and shape public policy in the White House and Congress. The book points out the pitfalls of relying too heavily on marketing as a campaign and governance tool and offers solutions to fix our political system before it is too late. Bruce I. Newman is the author of The Marketing of the President (Sage, 1993) and the forthcoming Handbook of Political Marketing. He has served as a communication advisor to top White House officials and has written widely on the subject of political marketing in both scholarly and popular media. The Mass Marketing of Politics is provocative and essential reading for anyone interested in American politics, marketing, political communication, and media studies.

For better or worse, political image is now more important to electoral victory than a spontaneous exchange of conflicting views over matters of substantive policies. Campaign managers, polling specialists, and communication consultants define issues, set agendas, and explore policy options primarily for electoral gain. In short, campaign contrivances replace substance at all phases and levels of electoral contests. Political estrangement, as illustrated by declining voting levels, may well be a by-product of deceptive political consultant and political journalistic practices rather than Americans being frustrated by insoluble problems.In The Political Persuaders, Dan Nimmo analyzes and critiques the emerging political industry of professional political management and consulting. His volume was the first book-length treatment to do so; it is a seminal work on the subject for both academic scholars and political practitioners. In his new introduction, Nimmo hones his critique in light of the past thirty years and its effects on campaign organization, research, and communication. He assesses changes in campaign technology, stable and shifting practices of candidate marketing, and the consequences for democratic governance inherent in professionally mediated campaigns at the close of the twentieth century.Nimmo succinctly reviews his well-nigh prophetic conclusions, determining that trends discovered in 1970 not only persist, but continue to intensify with a vengeance. Although evolving campaign techniques claim to involve citizens in the electoral process, the actual involvement is more cosmetic than real-this, Nimmo argues is the principle source of deepening popular disappointment and a general political apathy. This timely volume should be read by political scientists, policymakers, and those in the fields of mass communication and journalism.Dan Nimmo has been a professor of political science, journalism, and communication at various institutions, notably the University of Missouri, University of Tennessee, and the University of Oklahoma. He is currently distinguished visiting professor of political science at Baylor University. He is the author or editor of many works including Popular Images of Politics and Newsgathering in Washington.

What does the notion of the 'global south' mean to media studies today? This book interrogates the possibilities of global thinking from the south in the field of media, communication, and cultural studies. Through lenses of millennial media cultures, it refocuses the praxis of the global south in relation to the established ideas of globalization, development, and conditions of postcoloniality. Bringing together original empirical work from media scholars from across the global south, the volume highlights how contemporary thinking about the region as theoretical framework an emerging area of theory in its own right is incomplete without due consideration being placed on narrative forms, both analogue and digital, traditional and sub-cultural. From news to music cultures, from journalism to visual culture, from screen forms to culture-jamming, the chapters in the volume explore contemporary popular forms of communication as manifested in diverse global south contexts. A significant contribution to cultural theory and communications research, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of media and culture studies, literary and critical theory, digital humanities, science and technology studies, and sociology and social anthropology.

The political campaign is one of the most important organizations in a democracy, and whether issue or candidate specific, it is one of the least understood organizations in contemporary political life. This book is a critical assessment of the role that information technologies have come to play in contemporary campaigns. With evidence from ethnographic immersion, survey data, and social network analysis, Howard examines the evolving act of political campaigning and the changing organization of political campaigns over the last five election cycles, from 1996 to 2004. Over this time, both grassroots and elite political campaigns have gone online, built multimedia strategies, and constructed complex relational databases. The contemporary political campaign adopts digital technologies that improve reach and fundraising, and at the same time adapts their organizational behavior. The new system of producing political culture has immense implications for the meaning of citizenship and the basis of representation.

Societies today are in a period of dynamic change, highly fluid and contested in moving from traditional to liberal and from local to global, as well as varying from highly developed to emerging market economies. Alongside and facilitating this is a rapidly and exponentially changing digital media industry, including new technologies, multi-platform distributions and advertising models. This monograph highlights, identifies, evaluates and provides rich insight into the complex nature and meaning of different digital value migration in media corporations and ICT companies. It illustrates how such values affect both the internal and the external environments of media companies and industries, as well as prosumers' consumption. Including chapters from expert scholars and industry practitioners representing cutting-edge research in the U.S. and Europe in the fields of digital convergence, broadband, media and information communication technology (ICT) business and technology, the book helps academics, researchers, media policymakers and corporate executives better understand today's undulating media and ICT markets. Specifically, it illuminates where they have come from, what is at stake and what forces drive and constrain them in global hypercompetitive markets. Ultimately, it aims relatedly to facilitate high academic, business and professional standards. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and business and industry practitioners in digital media, media management, international business, media economics and media policy and, more broadly, to those in the cultural industries, strategic management, business studies and marketing.

Using the best scientific evidence, Drugs: America's Holy War explores the impact and cost of Americaa (TM)s "War on Drugs" a " both in tax spending and in human terms. Is it possible that US drug policies are helping to proliferate, not prevent, a multitude of social ills including: homicide, property crime, the spread of AIDS, the contamination of drugs, the erosion of civil liberties, the punishment of thousands of non-violent people, the corruption of public officials, and the spending of billions of tax dollars in an attempt to prevent certain drugs from entering the country?

In this controversial new book, award-winning economist Arthur Benavie analyzes the research findings and argues that an end to the war on drugs, much as we ended alcohol prohibition, would yield enormous international benefits, destroy dangerous and illegal drug cartels, and allow the American government to refocus its attention on public well-being.

This book analyzes top-down and bottom-up strategies of framing the nation and collective identities through commemorative practices relating to events from the Second World War and the 1990s "Homeland War" in Croatia. With attention to media representations of commemorative events and opinion poll data, it draws on interviews and participant observation at commemorative events to focus on the speeches of political elites, together with the speeches of opposition politicians and other social actors (such as the Catholic Church, anti-fascist organizations and war veterans' and victims' organizations) who challenge official narratives. Offering innovative approaches to researching and analyzing commemorative practices in post-conflict societies, this examination of a nation's transition from a Yugoslav republic to an independent state - and now the newest member of the European Union - constitutes a unique case study for scholars of cultural memory and identity politics interested in the production and representation of national identities in official narratives.

This book examines the societal dynamics of memory politics in Russia. Since Vladimir Putin became president, the Russian central government has increasingly actively employed cultural memory to claim political legitimacy and discredit all forms of political opposition. The rhetorical use of the past has become a defining characteristic of Russian politics, creating a historical foundation for the regime's emphasis on a strong state and centralised leadership. Exploring memory politics, this book analyses a wide range of actors, from the central government and the Russian Orthodox Church, to filmmaker and cultural heavyweight Nikita Mikhalkov and radical thinkers such as Aleksandr Dugin. In addition, in view of the steady decline in media freedom since 2000, it critically examines the role of cinema and television in shaping and spreading these narratives. Thus, this book aims to gain a better understanding of the various means through which the Russian government practices its memory politics (e.g., the role of state media) and, on the other hand, to sufficiently value the existence of alternative and critical voices and criticism that existing studies tend to overlook. Contributing to current debates in the field of memory studies and of current affairs in Russia and Eastern Europe, this book will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of Russian Studies, Cultural Memory Studies, Nationalism and National Identity, Political Communication, Film, Television and Media Studies.

This book analyzes the relationship between political power and the media in a range of nation states in East and Southeast Asia, focusing in particular on the place of the media in authoritarian and post-authoritarian regimes. It discusses the centrality of media in sustaining repressive regimes, and the key role of the media in the transformation and collapse of such regimes. It questions in particular the widely held beliefs, that the state can have complete control over the media consumption of its citizens, that commercialization of the media necessarily leads to democratization, and that the transnational, liberal dimensions of western media are crucial for democratic movements in Asia. Countries covered include Burma, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Using the best scientific evidence, Drugs: America's Holy War explores the impact and cost of America's "War on Drugs" - both in tax spending and in human terms. Is it possible that US drug policies are helping to proliferate, not prevent, a multitude of social ills including: homicide, property crime, the spread of AIDS, the contamination of drugs, the erosion of civil liberties, the punishment of thousands of non-violent people, the corruption of public officials, and the spending of billions of tax dollars in an attempt to prevent certain drugs from entering the country? In this controversial new book, award-winning economist Arthur Benavie analyzes the research findings and argues that an end to the war on drugs, much as we ended alcohol prohibition, would yield enormous international benefits, destroy dangerous and illegal drug cartels, and allow the American government to refocus its attention on public well-being.

From conception onwards, Stuart offspring were presented to their subjects through texts, images and public celebrations. Audiences were exhorted to share in their development, establishing affective bonds with the royal family and its latest additions. Yet inviting the public into Stuart domestic affairs exposed them to intense scrutiny and private interactions were endowed with public dimensions. Images of royal children had the potential both to support and to undermine dynastic messages. In Imaging Stuart Family Politics, Catriona Murray explores the promotion of Stuart familial propaganda through the figure of the royal child. Bringing together royal ritual, court portraiture and popular prints, she offers a distinctive perspective on this crucial dimension of seventeenth-century political culture, exploring the fashioning and dismantling of reproductive imagery, as well as the vital role of visual display within these dialogues. This wide-ranging study will appeal to scholars of Stuart cultural, political and social history.

The second edition of this innovative textbook provides a comprehensive overview of mass communication theories, as well as their origins and empirical supports in psychology, sociology, political science, and philosophy. Each chapter presents a specific theory, describing its basic structure in simple formal terms and providing an accessible summary of the research studies and scholarly writings from which it developed. It breaks each complex theory down into five or six interlinked basic propositions, making them easily digestible for students. This new edition includes up-to-date research; improved coverage of all theories presented; expanded treatments of theories such as cultivation theory, the spiral of silence, and framing; contemporary and social media examples; chapter discussion questions; and informative charts and figures. This textbook serves as an accessible core text for undergraduate and graduate Mass Communication, Communication Theory, and Communication and Society courses.

Money in the House provides a compelling look at how the drive to raise campaign money has come to dominate congressional party politics. Author Marian Currinder examines the rise of member-to-member and member-to-party giving as part of a broader process that encourages ambitious House members to compete for power by raising money for the party and its candidates. As the margin between parties in the House has narrowed, the political environment has become fiercely competitive. Because electoral success is largely equated with fundraising success, the party that raises the most money is at a distinct advantage. In addition to relying on outside interests and individuals for campaign contributions, the congressional parties increasingly call on their own members to give for the good of the whole. As a result, lawmakers must devote ever-increasing amounts of time to fundraising. The fundraising expectations for members who wish to advance in the chamber are even higher. By requiring their members to raise and redistribute tremendous amounts of money in order to gain power in the chamber, the parties benefit from their members' ambitious pursuits. Currinder argues that the new 'rule of money' is fundamentally altering the way House members pursue power and the way congressional parties define and reward loyalty.

The rapid development of democracy and political freedoms has created new and sophisticated psychology-based methods of influencing the way voters choose, as well as political systems based on free market principles. A Cross-Cultural Theory of Voter Behavior uses advanced empirical testing to determine whether the behavior of voters in established and emerging democracies around the world is predictable. The results of the testing suggest the theory is a ground-breaking cross-cultural model with theoretical and strategic global implications. This unique book examines the many facets of political marketing and its direct relationship with the voter. A comprehensive theory meticulously tested in the dynamic political waters of the U.S. and Europe, this text bridges the latest theoretical developments in the emerging and advanced democracies. A Cross-Cultural Theory of Voter Behavior offers an innovative and seldom seen international perspective that integrates up-to-date literature in political science with advanced political marketing to provide readers with useable, unified information. In addition, the text is replete with detailed references and illustrated with a wealth of informative tables and graphics to made pertinent data accessible and easily understood. Some of the topics discussed in A Cross-Cultural Theory of Voter Behavior include politics in an age of manufactured images, partisanship and party identification, candidate-centered politics, political cognition, social categorization of politicians, the role of advertising and emotion, among others. An ideal text for students, academics, and researchers, the information presented in A Cross-Cultural Theory of Voter Behavior is also a vital resource for political practitioners such as consultants, candidates, lobbyists, political action committees, fund-raisers, pollsters, government officials, ad specialists, journalists, public relations executives, and congressional aides.

This book traces a century of militarised communication that began in the United States in April, 1917, with the institution of the Committee on Public Information (CPI), headed by George Creel and tasked with persuading a divided US public to enter World War I. Creel achieved an historic feat of communication: a nationalising mass mediation event well before any instantaneous mass media technologies were available. The CPI's techniques and strategies have underpinned marketing, public relations, and public diplomacy practices ever since. The book argues that the CPI's influence extends unbroken into the present day, as it provided the communicative and attitudinal bases for a new form of political economy, a form of corporatism, that would come to its fullest flower in the "globalisation" project of the mid-1990s.

The Arctic is 5.5 million square miles and has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years, yet it is still a frontier of development. But who owns the Arctic? This book charts the history of performances of sovereignty over the Arctic in the policy and visual representations of the US, Canada and Russia. Focusing on narratives of the effective occupation of territory found in postage stamps, it offers a novel analysis of Arctic sovereignty. Issues such as climate change, plastics pollution and resource development continue to impact the future of this space centred around the North Pole. Who is responsible for the region? This book examines how countries have absorbed Arctic territory into their national consciousness, examining the choice of, and use of, symbols and images in postage stamps. It looks at the story of how these countries have represented their Arctic frontiers and territorial peripheries. The book argues that the performance of policy in these regions has caused relative sovereignty to become a reality. It provides an intriguing account of how these countries have, in their distinctive ways, established, legitimised and reinforced their political authority in these regions. This book will appeal to Geographers and is recommended supplementary reading for students in political history and regional studies of the North.

In tandem with a postnational imaginary which is nurtured by the ever-present promise of deterritorialized mobility and burgeoning migratory fluxes, walls and fences separating nation-states multiply. This is a burning issue: even though nation states at the centre of the global order increasingly present themselves as postnational, calls for tighter border security undermine utopian notions of both a borderless New Europe and the USA as the Promised Land. This collection investigates the urgent issue of borderscapes and the cinematic imaginary by bringing together a range of new approaches in the field of film and media studies, crossing over into sociology, migration studies and artistic research. The contributions focus on the interrelated motifs of borderscapes as they are represented and used in transnational cinematographies, from Palestine to Sweden, Spain, Finland, Italy, Iran, Iraq, France, the UK and US, and as constituting premises of cinematic production. The chapters in this book were originally published in the Transnational Cinemas journal.