Page 138 - An Introduction to Political Communication Fifth Edition

Intro to Politics Communication (5th edn)-p.qxp 9/2/11 10:55 Page 117

ADVERTISING
process in general), and the force of commercial pressures on access to
broadcast airtime, make some degree of change inevitable in the years to
come.

Further reading
Diamond and Bates’ The Spot remains the best source of further
reading on American political advertising. Margaret Scammell’s
Designer Politics: How Elections are Won (1995) includes political
advertising in its examination of British political communication
before the era of New Labour. Martin Rosenbaum’s From Soapbox to
Soundbites examines party-political campaigning in the UK since
1945. Andrew Wernick’s Promotional Culture (1991) presents critical
perspectives on the allegedly damaging effects which the steadily more
sophisticated use of commercial advertising techniques by politicians
has had on the quality of modern democracy. For a recent study of
politicians’ use of public-access broadcasting see McNair et al. (2003).
Peter Mandelson’s autobiographical account of his work for the
Labour Party between 1986 and 2010 (The Third Man, 2010) includes
fascinating material on the background to iconic examples of British
political advertising such as the Hugh Hudson-directed ‘Kinnock’. The
Sage Handbook of Political Advertising (Kaid and Holtz-Bacha, 2006)
provides a comprehensive overview of the role of political advertising
in democracies around the world. Sally Young’s edited collection on
Government Communication in Australia (2007) discusses advertising
and other forms of political communication in that country.

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