Controlling the Message: New Media in American Political Campaigns

by Victoria A. Farrar-Myers (Editor), Justin S. Vaughn

From the presidential race to the battle for the office of New York City mayor, American political candidates’ approach to new media strategy is increasingly what makes or breaks their campaign. Targeted outreach on Facebook and Twitter, placement of a well-timed viral ad, and the ability to roll with the memes, flame wars, and downvotes that might spring from ordinary citizens’ engagement with the issues—these skills are heralded as crucial for anyone hoping to get their views heard in a chaotic election cycle. But just how effective are the kinds of media strategies that American politicians employ? And what effect, if any, do citizen-created political media have on the tide of public opinion?  
 
In Controlling the Message, Farrar-Myers and Vaughn curate a series of case studies that use real-time original research from the 2012 election season to explore how politicians and ordinary citizens use and consume new media during political campaigns. Broken down into sections that examine new media strategy from the highest echelons of campaign management all the way down to passive citizen engagement with campaign issues in places like online comment forums, the book ultimately reveals that political messaging in today’s diverse new media landscape is a fragile, unpredictable, and sometimes futile process. The result is a collection that both interprets important historical data from a watershed campaign season and also explains myriad approaches to political campaign media scholarship—an ideal volume for students, scholars, and political analysts alike.

368 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2015

Reviews

[Dan Graser · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology compiled and edited by Victoria A. Farrar-Myers and Justin Vaughn is a thorough dissection of the role which new media and social media played in the 2012 US elections. The four parts of the work outline a complete picture as to how this election was quite different than any seen before:
Part I - Elite Utilization
Part II - Message Control in the New Media Environment
Part III - Social Media's Impact on Campaign Politics
Part IV - Social Media and Civic Relations

Now of course this is the type of book that would need to be updated every four years or so especially given the volatile nature of the 2016 elections with special emphasis on the role of new/social media by foreign entities wishing to sway voter opinion and/or suppress turnout. However, it remains a fine supplement to many political science survey courses or mass communication courses.

Where the anthology is at its most adumbrative is Part IV which expresses what we have all come to know and expect, that the use of these platforms by campaigns, supporters, PACS, pundits, and foreign entities is generating not just polarization but a uniquely factually-hollow and emotionally-charged form of polarization where more people have opinions on issues, yet are even more ill-informed as to the facts surrounding those issues. Having an opinion on an issue in today's climate is frequently only expressed by trolling the other side with a trite and genuinely stupid image or article created by people/entities not much more informed than the unlettered masses to whom they are catering. Identification in opposition to another group's position on an issue is now taken to be an acceptable form of opinion development where previously this was seen as unlettered and frivolous.

I sincerely hope this continues to be studied and most importantly that those with the power to influence how we gather, disseminate, and discuss political information take note of such exhaustive studies.

[Zach Cohen]

My recap for National Journal: http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazi...

[Mills College Library]

324.73097 C7649 2015