The 2000 Presidential Campaign: A Communication Perspective

(Paperback)

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What led up to the great debacle of the American 2000 presidential election Denton and his colleagues analyze the presidential campaign with a special focus on key topics and elements of political communication. Their analyses go beyond the quantitative facts, electoral counts, and poll results, inspecting the nuts and bolts of what became one of the most controversial elections in American history. Each chapter focuses on a specific area of political campaign communication, including:^L^L ^DBLThe early campaign period^L ^DBLThe nomination process and conventions^L ^DBLCandidate strategies^L^DBLPresidential debates^L ^DBLPolitical advertising^L ^DBLThe use of the Internet^L ^DBLNews coverage^L ^DBLPolitical cartoons of the campaign^L ^L This definitive resource is ideal for scholars, students, the general public, and other researchers interested in political communication, American elections, presidential studies, political sociology, and journalism.

Reviews

Denton and colleagues have produced a valuable and insightful work on the 2000 presidential campaign that features both an in-depth scholarly perspective and a journalistic commitment to clear writing. It is a handy resource for students of political campaigning that will, no doubt, serve as a vital reference for studies of the 2000 campaign in the future. The chapters are filled with the context of the race, thoroughly reviewing the strategic and communication decisions of the Gore and Bush campaigns, the primary race that secured their nomination, and even the preprimary positioning that drastically limited the field they competed against. In addition to chapters on traditional campaign communication topics such as news coverage of the race and candidate advertising, chapters also consider campaigning on the Internet, debate strategy, party conventions, and the role of political culture in the race. While a number of authors here find fault with the Gore team, suggesting it squandered its advantageous position and produced a campaign reminiscent of Walter Mondale's, the ten chapters offer no easy answers or dominant themes in explaining this unique and complicated election contest. Recommended at all levels.-Choice
"Denton and colleagues have produced a valuable and insightful work on the 2000 presidential campaign that features both an in-depth scholarly perspective and a journalistic commitment to clear writing. It is a handy resource for students of political campaigning that will, no doubt, serve as a vital reference for studies of the 2000 campaign in the future. The chapters are filled with the context of the race, thoroughly reviewing the strategic and communication decisions of the Gore and Bush campaigns, the primary race that secured their nomination, and even the preprimary positioning that drastically limited the field they competed against. In addition to chapters on traditional campaign communication topics such as news coverage of the race and candidate advertising, chapters also consider campaigning on the Internet, debate strategy, party conventions, and the role of political culture in the race. While a number of authors here find fault with the Gore team, suggesting it squandered its advantageous position and produced a campaign reminiscent of Walter Mondale's, the ten chapters offer no easy answers or dominant themes in explaining this unique and complicated election contest. Recommended at all levels."-Choice

Author Bio

ROBERT E. DENTON JR. holds the W. Thomas Rice Chair of Leadership Studies and serves as Director of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets Center for Leader Development at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. In addition to numerous articles, essays, and book chapters, he is author, co-author, or editor of 12 earlier books. The most recent title is Political Communication Ethics: An Oxymoron (Praeger, 2000).