The most comprehensive portrait of a presidential campaign in more than a decade, Crosstalk focuses on the 1992 U.S. presidential race and looks at how citizens use information in the media to make their voting decisions and how politicians and the media interact to shape that information.Examining political advertisements, news coverage, ad watches, and talk shows in Los Angeles, Boston, Winston-Salem, and Fargo/Moorhead, the authors chart the impact of different information environments on citizens and show how people developed images of candidates over the course of the campaign. Crosstalk presents persuasive evidence that campaigns do matter, that citizens are active participants in the campaign process, and their perceptions of a candidate's character is the central factor in the voting process.This innovative study contributes significantly to our understanding of the 1992 presidential campaign and of campaigns in general, and shows how election campaigns can play an important role in the long-term vitality of democracy. (view table of contents)

Product Description: Advertising overwhelms news coverage. That is the essence of the point Montague Kern drives home repeatedly throughout her insightful examination of political advertising in the eighties. . . . Any professional interested in political advertising would profit from reading this book...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

This analysis of the Kennedy administration's relationship with the press during the Laotian, Berlin, Cuban missile, and Vietnam crises of 1961-63 suggests that press coverage and Kennedy's influence on the press were far more varied than scholars have supposed. Focusing on press coverage of government officials, foreign leaders, domestic politicians, and interest groups, the study combines quantitative analysis with previously untapped sources in the Kennedy Library.Originally published in 1984.A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.