Oxford University Press has published the hardcover edition of The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication, which is co-edited by Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson. The book, a wide-ranging examination of the theory and practice of the field of political communication, features 62 essays by many of the discipline’s most insightful scholars and serves both as an indispensable overview and a definitive guide to research in the field.
“This handbook focuses on the greatest theoretical contributions that political communication has made to the field,” said co-editor Kate Kenski of the University of Arizona. Kenski, a distinguished research fellow at APPC and an alumna of Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication, added: “It provides scholars and students with a detailed summary of what those contributions are and a sense of the history as well. And it offers valuable recommendations on where the field needs to go next to build upon those contributions in order to truly understand our political environment.”
As a scholarly field, political communication developed during the first half of the 20th century amid two world wars and the arrival of movies, radio and, later, television. A hybrid, political communication draws from and overlaps the related fields of communication, political science, sociology, social and political psychology, neuroscience, and journalism.
Among the diverse topics covered by the Oxford handbook are theories of media bias; the political uses and abuses of civility and incivility; framing; agenda setting; selective exposure theory; the hostile media effect; cultivation theory and the construction of political reality; the dilemmas of deliberative democracy; political advertising; civic norms and political socialization; how to think normatively about news and democracy; music as political communication; and the political effects of entertainment media.
The chapters were initially presented at a conference at the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC), and the volume is rich with contributions from scholars affiliated with the policy center and the university’s Annenberg School for Communication (ASC). Essays contributed by APPC and ASC faculty, staff and alumni, and APPC distinguished research fellows and visiting scholars include:
- Political communication: Then, now, and beyond – Kathleen Hall Jamieson, University of Pennsylvania (APPC director and ASC professor), and Kate Kenski (Ph.D., ASC; APPC distinguished research fellow), University of Arizona
- Creating the hybrid field of political communication – Jamieson
- Dilemmas of deliberative democracy – Elihu Katz, University of Pennsylvania (ASC professor emeritus)
- Not a fourth estate but a second legislature – Roderick P. Hart (past APPC visiting scholar), University of Texas at Austin, and Rebecca LaVally, California State University, Sacramento
- Political advertising – Timothy W. Fallis (Ph.D., ASC), Hawai’i Pacific University
- Political uses and abuses of civility and incivility – Jamieson; Allyson Volinsky (ASC doctoral student) and Ilana Weitz (APPC), University of Pennsylvania; and Kenski
- The politics of memory – Nicole Maurantonio (Ph.D., ASC), University of Richmond
- The U.S. media, foreign policy, and public support for war – Sean Aday (Ph.D., ASC), George Washington University
- Candidate traits and political choice – Bruce W. Hardy (Ph.D., ASC; APPC distinguished research fellow), Temple University
- Framing inequality in public policy discourse: The nature of constraint – Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., University of Pennsylvania (ASC professor emeritus)
- Selective exposure theories – Natalie Jomini Stroud (Ph.D., ASC; APPC distinguished research fellow), University of Texas at Austin
- The hostile media effect – Lauren Feldman (Ph.D., ASC), Rutgers University
- Public and elite perceptions of news media in politics – Yariv Tsfati (Ph.D., ASC), University of Haifa
- Cultivation theory and the construction of political reality – Patrick E. Jamieson and Daniel Romer, University of Pennsylvania (APPC)
- Uses and gratifications – R. Lance Holbert (APPC distinguished research fellow), Temple University
- The state of framing research – Dietram Scheufele (past APPC visiting scholar), University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Shanto Iyengar, Stanford University
- Two-step flow, diffusion, and the role of social networks in political communication – Brian Southwell (Ph.D., ASC), RTI International and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
- Disagreement in political discussion – Lilach Nir (Ph.D., ASC), Hebrew University of Jerusalem
- Collective intelligence: The wisdom and foolishness of deliberating groups – Joseph Cappella, University of Pennsylvania (ASC professor); Jingwen Zhang (Ph.D., ASC); and Vincent Price (ASC professor emeritus), Duke University
- Online news consumption in the U.S. and ideological extremism – Kenneth M. Winneg (Ph.D., ASC; APPC), University of Pennsylvania; et al.
- Political discussion and deliberation online – Jennifer Stromer-Galley (Ph.D., ASC), Syracuse University
- The political effects of entertainment media – Michael X. Delli Carpini, University of Pennsylvania (ASC dean and professor)
- Theories and effects of political humor – Dannagal G. Young (Ph.D., ASC; APPC distinguished research fellow), University of Delaware
- Political communication: Looking ahead – Kenski and Jamieson
The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication (976 pages, $175) is also available as an eBook.
To download this release, click here.
About the editors:
Kate Kenski (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) is an Associate Professor of Communication and Government & Public Policy at the University of Arizona where she teaches political communication, public opinion, and research methods.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of its Annenberg Public Policy Center.
