Air Wars: Television Advertising and Social Media in Election Campaigns, 1952-2012

by Darrell M. West

Tracing the evolution of political advertising, Darrell M. West returns with his much anticipated sixth edition of Air Wars: Television Advertising and Social Media in Election Campaigns, 1952-2012 . Integrating the latest data and key events from the 2012 campaigns, West provides in-depth examination and insight into how candidates plan and execute advertising campaigns, how the media covers these campaigns, and how American voters are ultimately influenced by them. Taking into account technological advances, West now includes discussion of how campaigns are utilizing social media tools to reach audiences and to what effect.

The sixth edition offers significant updates, including:

The face-off between Obama and Romney in the general election;
Case studies of ads during presidential and Congressional campaigns;
The ever increasing use and impact of social media;
Ad stills from the 2012 campaign; and
Concrete examples of which ads worked and which ads did not.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2005

Reviews

[Lucynda Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was informational, but started to get repetitive

[TammyJo Eckhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book is like reading a upper level undergraduate book or perhaps a starting text for a graduate course about politics and campaigns. The tone is basic and the layout is similar to many textbooks I used as a student and a professor. Each of the 10 chapters starts with a simple introductory paragraph, breaks the topics up into easily digestible pieces, and then a summary.

There is talk of statistics and some charts but they are understandable if you read carefully. I never felt overwhelmed by the statistics and they are important when comparing 60+ years of history. It isn't exciting reading for the average person and it may upset some folks who are still stressed because of the 2016 elections. West does offer advice along with the analysis and history, a bit of hope for those who want more facts versus popular flash.

I found the pictorial history of campaigns very interesting and I wish those images had been spread throughout the book to help illustrate points being made. I realize that a lot of photos can increase the price of a book by a great deal but they could have been spread out more. Likewise the Appendix of "memorial ads" from 1984-2016 elections was hard emotionally to read in one big chunk and would have been better understand woven into the rest of the book.

[chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

not great! maybe I'm just not impressed by this style of policy research book.