ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the state of the field at present, showing how the work of political scientists can sharpen historians’ analysis of this important, but often overlooked, variable. Political scientists, meanwhile, have contested whether public opinion consists of “nothing more than shifting and changing ‘moods.’” The most persuasive alternative has been posited by John Zaller and Adam Berinsky, who emphasize the importance of “elite discourse” in determining public attitudes, arguing that when there is an elite consensus informed citizens will generally follow this lead, but, if “political elites disagree, the informed minority will mirror that split.” After television began to supersede radio in the 1950s and 1960s, John F. Kennedy allowed the live broadcasting of press conferences— a gamble that gave him a chance to appeal over the heads of the print media, something that Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan, with their set-piece Oval Office speeches, and Donald Trump, with his tweets, were also keen to do.
