ABSTRACT
The 2008 presidential election marked a turning point in the evolution of campaign media. It has been characterized as the first twenty-first-century campaign-an intensive campaign managed on multiple fronts that made extensive use of digital technologies alongside traditional strategies (Brownstein 2008). The election media environment now comprises a complex amalgamation of traditional and new media, and the interplay among them. Mainstream media, including television news, newspapers, and news magazines, maintain an important place in elections, while new media, especially online and digital communication platforms, have become more influential. Modern forms of campaign reporting, such as a citizen journalism and blogs, have emerged that complement and compete with the work of professional news organizations. These developments in the campaign context reflect larger trends in the political media system which is in the midst of a fundamental restructuring that exhibits elements of both consolidation and fragmentation. Media institutions have become increasingly consolidated within a small number of large corporations. Message content is highly redundant across channels, even as the outlets for disseminating information have proliferated. At the same time, the media system has become highly fragmented. The number of available media options offering specialized content directed at specific audiences has multiplied. Micro-targeting, where political messages are tailored for particular segments of the media market, has become standard practice, including during campaigns (Howard 2006; Hillygus and Shields 2008). These shifts in the media environment are altering the ways in which candidates contest for office, journalists cover elections, political parties and organized groups manage their campaign presence, and voters engage in the political process. To be successful, candidates must run sophisticated campaigns that embrace both established and novel media strategies. Professional journalists have been forced to coexist with amateur content creators. Journalists continue to cover campaigns using time-worn approaches, especially poll-heavy horserace journalism. They have also adopted the personalized, opinionated style of citizen journalism, and practice their craft in both
traditional and new media venues. Voters, once relegated to the sidelines by traditional media, have become more active consumers, producers, and disseminators of campaign messages. With fewer professional journalists on the campaign trail (Steinberg 2008), citizen journalists have filled the gaps in onsite coverage of election events. The developments in election media have influenced the balance of power in campaigns, as the tools available for managing messages have proliferated. Journalists and candidates historically have engaged in a tug-of-war to gain the upper hand in setting the election agenda. Candidates have been able to use new media to communicate to voting blocs at little or no cost, lessening their dependence on traditional “free” media. However, the same social networking and video-sharing sites that provide candidates exposure for little or no cost may be used by citizens to spread their own messages and images outside the control of campaign staffs (Gueorguieva 2008). This chapter begins with an overview of recent developments in campaign media to provide a context for the subsequent discussion of new avenues for research. These sections will be guided by the basic questions: What are the major trends in campaign media over the last half century? What are the characteristics of the twenty-first-century media campaign? And, what implications do these trends have for the ways in which journalists cover elections, candidates run campaigns, and voters engage in electoral process? The chapter will then consider new directions for election media scholarship, especially the need to reconsider traditional research questions, revise theoretical assumptions, and engage novel methodologies. The opportunities for scholars to carve out new research paths are vast; thus, the discussion here will propose two agendas for research-mapping the election media system and exploring the fragmentation of media-related campaign participation. The chapter concludes with some informed speculation about the future of campaign media, as novel applications are adapted to the election context and new formats gain a stronger foothold.
