| Cycles of Spin: Strategic Communication in the U.S. Congress Contributor(s): Sellers, Patrick (Author) |
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ISBN: 052113580X ISBN-13: 9780521135801 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $28.49 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2009 Annotation: Sellers marshals diverse evidence, resulting in this comprehensive and unprecedented examination of politicians' promotional campaigns and journalists' coverage of those campaigns. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Political Science | American Government - Legislative Branch - Political Science | Political Process - General - Social Science | Media Studies |
| Dewey: 324.709 |
| LCCN: 2009010898 |
| Series: Communication, Society and Politics |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 5.9" W x 8.9" (0.80 lbs) 270 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: How do politicians try to shape their news coverage? Sellers examines strategic communication campaigns in the U.S. Congress. He argues that these campaigns create cycles of spin: leaders create messages, rank-and-file legislators decide whether to promote those messages, journalists decide whether to cover the messages, and any coverage feeds back to influence the policy process. These four stages are closely related; decisions at one stage influence those at another. Sellers uses diverse evidence, from participant observation and press secretary interviews, to computerized content analysis and vector auto regression. The result is a comprehensive and unprecedented examination of politicians' promotional campaigns and journalists' coverage of those campaigns. Countering numerous critics of spin, Sellers offers the provocative argument that the promotional messages have their origins in the actual policy preferences of members of Congress. The campaigns to promote these messages thus can help the public learn about policy debates in Congress. |
Contributor Bio(s): Sellers, Patrick: - Patrick Sellers is currently a Professor of Political Science at Davidson College. He has also taught at Rice University and Indiana University and worked in the U.S. House and Senate in Washington, DC. He is coauthor (with Brian Schaffner) of the forthcoming book Winning with Words: The Origins and Impact of Framing. His research has appeared in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Political Communication, and other leading journals. |