Rewiring politics presidential nominating conventions in the media age (Louisiana State University Press, 2007)
"Published in cooperation with the Kevin P. Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs."
Includes bibliographical references
Follow the bouncing ball : assessing convention bumps, 1964-2004 - Costas Panagopoulos -- - Conventions and campaign dynamics - Michael G. Hagen and Richard Johnston -- - Party profiles : national convention delegates - John C. Green and John S. Jackson -- - The utility of party conventions in an era of low visibility and campaign finance reform - J. Mark Wrighton -- - Nominating conventions, campaign events, and political information - Costas Panagopoulos -- - Conventions for the unconventional : minor party conventions, 1992-2004 - John C. Berg -- - Lights, camera, chaos? : the evolution of convention "crises" - R. Sam Garrett -- - Rewiring the conventions (again) : the Internet and innovation in politics and media - Michael Cornfield -- - Losing control? : the rise of cable news and its effect on party convention coverage - Jonathan S. Morris and Peter L. Francia -- - Mass media and the democratization of presidential nominating conventions - Terri Susan Fine -- - The new role of the conventions as political rituals - Gerald M. Pomper
A century ago, national political parties' nominating conventions for U.S. presidential candidates often resembled wide-open brawls, filled with front-stage conflicts and back-room deals. Today, leagues of advisors precisely plan and carefully script these events even though their outcomes are largely preordained. Rewiring Politics offers the first in-depth exploration of the profound changes in the nominating process to focus on the role of the media. Fourteen luminaries from the worlds of media and politics examine how the technology of "coverage" has transformed conventions over time. As the contributors demonstrate, the story of the evolution of the nominating process cannot be told without the concomitant story of the revolution in mass media. The impact of the media on political conventions has received surprisingly little scholarly attention. Yet few aspects of the American political process have faced such radical alterations in such a short period of time. From the first live television broadcast from a national convention on June 21, 1948, during the Republican convention in Philadelphia, through the advent of cable networks and the Internet, both the presentation and the content of the nominating process has been transformed. Today, because the party's nominee is selected before the event, candidates use their conventions-and convention coverage-as a form of advertising. They design mega-media events to electrify the party faithful and to woo undecided voters by dazzling them. Without a doubt, the contributors conclude, conventions still matter, though their role has changed over the past decades. Rewiring Politics helps readers assess the evolution of conventions in contemporary politics and addresses the implications of these changes on our parties, politics, and society