• Takes a sweeping look at the role of political humor in framing the nation’s political discourse, putting an entertaining topic in context with serious political analysis. • Offers the first look at political humor during the Biden years and projects past them to the evolution of political humor post-Trump. • Combines content analysis of leading late-night programs and public opinion studies from other sources, including the Pew Research Center, showing students the importance of empirical research and analysis. • Focuses on the very latest aspects of the social media age – and on comedy programs very popular with young adults – speaking to college-age readers in particular. • Takes a unique interdisciplinary/mixed-methodology approach to American political humor, from political science, communication studies, media studies, and other fields.

• Takes a sweeping look at the role of political humor in framing the nation’s political discourse, putting an entertaining topic in context with serious political analysis. • Offers the first look at political humor during the Biden years and projects past them to the evolution of political humor post-Trump. • Combines content analysis of leading late-night programs and public opinion studies from other sources, including the Pew Research Center, showing students the importance of empirical research and analysis. • Focuses on the very latest aspects of the social media age – and on comedy programs very popular with young adults – speaking to college-age readers in particular. • Takes a unique interdisciplinary/mixed-methodology approach to American political humor, from political science, communication studies, media studies, and other fields.

Political humor has been a staple of late-night television for decades. The Trump White House, however, has received significantly greater attention than that of past presidents, such as Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and even Bill Clinton. In response to Trump's strident politics, late-night comics, including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Trevor Noah and Jimmy Fallon, have sounded key policy notes, further blurring the boundary between news and satire. Weekly humorists, including John Oliver and Samantha Bee, extend the critique with in-depth probing of key issues, while Saturday Night Live continues to tap the progression from outrage to outrageousness. Using unique content analysis techniques and qualitative discussions of political humor, Farnsworth and Lichter show how late-night political humor, and these seven programs in particular, have responded to the Trump presidency. Employing a dataset of more than 100,000 late night jokes going back decades, these noted media scholars discuss how the treatment of Trump differs from previous presidents, and how the Trump era is likely to shape the future of political humor. The authors also employ public opinion survey data to consider the growing role these late-night programs play in framing public opinion and priorities. This book will interest scholars, the curious public, and students of politics, communications and the media, and contemporary American culture.

As Barack Obama settles in at the White House, the media and the administration are in full gear trying to influence and exploit each other in the never-ended battle over news content. This book looks at how presidents and presidential candidates use television, the Internet, and newspapers to promote their policies and themselves, even as they are sometimes manipulated by the media they so avidly seek.Looking at White House media strategies relating to the Iraq War and occupation, health care reform, tax and budget debates, the debate over Bush s competence, the Clinton-Lewinsky sex scandal, and the early battles of the 2008 presidential election, media scholar and former journalist Stephen Farnsworth examines how presidents shift the direction and limit the amount of public debate over policies to favor themselves and how reporters and Internet commentators often help them do so.The result short-circuits the public s role in evaluating competing visions for the country s future and the legislative branch s role in policy making. The modern presidential obsession with public relations and media willingness to be used to advance executive power undermine the country s long term ability to deal with crucial problems, including foreign and military relations, a growing government debt, and public health care shortcomings.See Stephen Farnsworth discussing "Spinner-in-Chief" on C-SPAN: C-SPAN Interview"

Political humor has been a staple of late-night television for decades. The Trump White House, however, has received significantly greater attention than that of past presidents, such as Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and even Bill Clinton. In response to Trump's strident politics, late-night comics, including Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Trevor Noah and Jimmy Fallon, have sounded key policy notes, further blurring the boundary between news and satire. Weekly humorists, including John Oliver and Samantha Bee, extend the critique with in-depth probing of key issues, while Saturday Night Live continues to tap the progression from outrage to outrageousness. Using unique content analysis techniques and qualitative discussions of political humor, Farnsworth and Lichter show how late-night political humor, and these seven programs in particular, have responded to the Trump presidency. Employing a dataset of more than 100,000 late night jokes going back decades, these noted media scholars discuss how the treatment of Trump differs from previous presidents, and how the Trump era is likely to shape the future of political humor. The authors also employ public opinion survey data to consider the growing role these late-night programs play in framing public opinion and priorities. This book will interest scholars, the curious public, and students of politics, communications and the media, and contemporary American culture.

As Barack Obama settles in at the White House, the media and the administration are in full gear trying to influence and exploit each other in the never-ended battle over news content. This book looks at how presidents and presidential candidates use television, the Internet, and newspapers to promote their policies and themselves, even as they are sometimes manipulated by the media they so avidly seek.Looking at White House media strategies relating to the Iraq War and occupation, health care reform, tax and budget debates, the debate over Bush s competence, the Clinton-Lewinsky sex scandal, and the early battles of the 2008 presidential election, media scholar and former journalist Stephen Farnsworth examines how presidents shift the direction and limit the amount of public debate over policies to favor themselves and how reporters and Internet commentators often help them do so.The result short-circuits the public s role in evaluating competing visions for the country s future and the legislative branch s role in policy making. The modern presidential obsession with public relations and media willingness to be used to advance executive power undermine the country s long term ability to deal with crucial problems, including foreign and military relations, a growing government debt, and public health care shortcomings.See Stephen Farnsworth discussing "Spinner-in-Chief" on C-SPAN: C-SPAN Interview"

The Nightly News Nightmare, Third Edition, examines news coverage of presidential nomination and election campaigns from 1988 to 2008. The book focuses on changes in the amount, tone, and focus of news coverage in these different electoral contexts. In addition to network news, the authors examine online news, cable television, talk radio, candidate campaign discourse in these election years. Farnsworth and Lichter find that the news media, despite the wide variety of outlets, have consistent problems in terms of fairness and focus on substantive matters rather than the horse-race reporting of the latest polls. In addition to the extensive discussion of the 2008 campaign, the third edition offers far more discussion and evidence regarding the use of alternative media, including online content, in the most recent presidential election. The authors conclude that online news had many of the same problems found in mainstream news coverage.

Including late-breaking data from the Iraq occupation and the disastrous CBS News reports on Bush's Vietnam-era National Guard Service, acclaimed media scholars Stephen J. Farnsworth and S. Robert Lichter examine news coverage of military policy, economic policy, and scandals from the last four U.S. presidencies, including the current controversial administration. Using a quarter-century of content analysis data, the authors demonstrate how the White House dominates Capitol Hill on every dimension of news coverage, undermining Congress's attempt to compete as a co-equal branch before the public. At the same time, they show how the networks are steadily losing ground to new media outlets and suggest future paths our media mania may take.

In the past decade various studies have examined how political humor may influence various political attitudes and voting behavior; whether it affects learning, cognition and media literacy, how it might shape political participation; how people process different forms of political humor; and more. This book is devoted to anticipating and addressing where the field of political humor and its effects will move in the next generation of scholarship, exploring the continued evolution of the study of political humor as well as the normative implications of these developments. It includes research accounting for important changes and developments "on the ground" in the political humor landscape. These include the fact that the cadre of late-night television hosts have completely changed in the past 3 years; there are now more late night television choices; and many hosts have become more overtly political in their presentations. Recommended for scholars of communication, media studies, and political science.

In the past decade various studies have examined how political humor may influence various political attitudes and voting behavior; whether it affects learning, cognition and media literacy, how it might shape political participation; how people process different forms of political humor; and more. This book is devoted to anticipating and addressing where the field of political humor and its effects will move in the next generation of scholarship, exploring the continued evolution of the study of political humor as well as the normative implications of these developments. It includes research accounting for important changes and developments "on the ground" in the political humor landscape. These include the fact that the cadre of late-night television hosts have completely changed in the past 3 years; there are now more late night television choices; and many hosts have become more overtly political in their presentations. Recommended for scholars of communication, media studies, and political science.

In The Global President: International Communication and the US Government, scholars Stephen J. Farnsworth, S. Robert Lichter and Roland Schatz provide an expansive international examination of news coverage of US political communication, and the roles the US government and the Presidency play in an increasingly communicative and interconnected political world. This comprehensive yet concise text will engage and inform students in many intersecting disciplines, as it includes analyses of not just the Presidency, but US foreign policy and contemporary political media itself. The media developed to keep pace with the headwinds of political change are being asked more and more to adapt to and enhance the ways in which policy-makers, voters, and students make sense of the process of governance. The realities of an ever-changing political landscape are magnified nowhere more greatly than in the realm of foreign policy, and the stakes surrounding the need for quality communicational skills are no higher than at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because - when the voices of the US government speak - the world is listening. This book provides students a perfect entry point into the complex and amorphous relationship between media and government, where that relationship has been, and where it looks to be heading in the future.

In The Global President: International Communication and the US Government, scholars Stephen J. Farnsworth, S. Robert Lichter and Roland Schatz provide an expansive international examination of news coverage of US political communication, and the roles the US government and the Presidency play in an increasingly communicative and interconnected political world. This comprehensive yet concise text will engage and inform students in many intersecting disciplines, as it includes analyses of not just the Presidency, but US foreign policy and contemporary political media itself. The media developed to keep pace with the headwinds of political change are being asked more and more to adapt to and enhance the ways in which policy-makers, voters, and students make sense of the process of governance. The realities of an ever-changing political landscape are magnified nowhere more greatly than in the realm of foreign policy, and the stakes surrounding the need for quality communicational skills are no higher than at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because - when the voices of the US government speak - the world is listening. This book provides students a perfect entry point into the complex and amorphous relationship between media and government, where that relationship has been, and where it looks to be heading in the future.

The Nightly News Nightmare, Third Edition, examines news coverage of presidential nomination and election campaigns from 1988 to 2008. The book focuses on changes in the amount, tone, and focus of news coverage in these different electoral contexts. In addition to network news, the authors examine online news, cable television, talk radio, candidate campaign discourse in these election years. Farnsworth and Lichter find that the news media, despite the wide variety of outlets, have consistent problems in terms of fairness and focus on substantive matters rather than the horse-race reporting of the latest polls. In addition to the extensive discussion of the 2008 campaign, the third edition offers far more discussion and evidence regarding the use of alternative media, including online content, in the most recent presidential election. The authors conclude that online news had many of the same problems found in mainstream news coverage.

Public confidence and trust in government is low these days. Farnsworth pinpoints this disappointment to shifting expectations of what, exactly, government should do. Politicians were once expected to maintain economic growth, but in our post-scarcity era most citizens expect them to provide services - such as welfare or environmental -that are often contentious. Enlarging the scope of local political empowerment will increase public support by making politics more approachable and responsive.