Page 235 - Comparing Political Communication Theories, Cases, and Challenge

P1: KaF/KaB P2: JzZ
0521828317c09.xml CY425/Esser 0521828317 June 2, 2004 23:44

Political Campaign Communication

election in 1959. While television did not have much effect on images, it
proved its influential role by improving voters’ campaign knowledge. By
asking how people used the media during the campaign, the follow-
up study on the occasion of the British election in 1964, Television
in Politics, by Jay Blumler and McQuail (1968) can be regarded as an
early example of the uses and gratifications perspective. Some time later
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann published the first articles on her concept
of the Spiral of Silence, which propagated the “return to the concept of
powerful media” (1973) and also prompted German communication re-
search to turn to elections. The international perspective first arose with
the publication of La t´el´evision fait-elle l’´election? by Jay Blumler, Roland
Cayrol,andGabrielThoveron(1978),whichstudiedtheroleoftelevision
fortheelectorateandthefactorsinfluencingtheinterestintheelectionby
comparing the 1974 electoral campaigns in Belgium, France, and Great
Britain.
These studies of the first wave of electoral research in Europe under a
communication perspective were primarily interested in how the media
affected the electorate. Meanwhile, a new angle emerged in the United
States by looking at the way campaigns are conducted and how they are
oriented toward the mass media. In a first step, journalists presented
descriptions of electoral campaigns. In 1961, the journalist and author
Theodore W. White published the first book in what later became a se-
ries under the title The Making of the President in which he recounted
his observations during the 1960 presidential campaign. He used the
same format for describing the campaigns of 1968, 1972, and 1976. How
campaigns became more and more adapted to the challenge of television
became even clearer in The Selling of the President (1969) written by jour-
nalist Joe McGinnis who had closely followed the 1968 Nixon campaign.
In the appendix to the book, McGinnis documented notes by campaign
managers on their advertising strategies and thus demonstrated that
campaigning has long become a commercial business. Finally, represen-
tatives of the newly developing profession appeared in the public them-
selves. When Joe Napolitan’s The Election Game and How to Win It was
published (1972), this also dealt with the 1968 presidential campaign.
It was the first time that a political consultant gave a behind-the-scenes
account of the campaign business. Napolitan was also the initiator of the
American Association of Political Consultants, which was founded in
1969 and, as a professional association, demonstrated the establishment
of a profession that has made politics a business. In 1981, Larry Sabato,

215