Gender And Political Communication In America

At a time when presidential campaigns are shaped to appeal to women voters, when masculinity constructs impinge on wartime leaders, and when the United States appears to move towards the possibility of a woman president, it is vital that communication scholarship addresses the issue of gender and politics in a comprehensive manner. Gender and Political Communication in America: Rhetoric, Representation, and Display takes on this challenge, as it investigates, from a rhetorical and critical standpoint, the intersection and mutual influences of gender and political communication as they are realized in the nation's political discourse. Representing some of the leading investigators on gender and political communication, as well as emerging scholars, the volume's contributors update and interrogate contemporary issues of gendered politics applicable to the 21st century, including the historic 2008 election. Through their original research, the contributors offer critical examinations of the impact of salient theories and models of gender studies as they relate to historical and contemporary roles and practices in the political sphere. Gender and Political Communication in America's broad and diverse engagement with the subject matter makes it a must-read for those interested in women's studies and political communication.

This text focuses specifically on three interrelated sets of questions with respect to gender, politics and communication: How do serious and popular media alike represent male and female politicians, how do they frame their politics and how can these representations and frames be explained? What is the role of mainstream and movement media for the women's movement, how are feminist issues covered in the media, and what kinds of media-related activities do women's movements undertake? How are the social and political concerns of ordinary women voiced in the media - in talkshows in particular - and how does this different popular platform interact with mainstream and feminist politics? The first section of the book is about how women active in national politics are represented in the media. The second section deals with communicative practices and successes and failures of feminist movements in different parts of the world. The final section deals with the talkshow, an analysis of which raises new and problematic issues about the mediazation of feminist concerns.

At a time when presidential campaigns are shaped to appeal to women voters, when masculinity constructs impinge on wartime leaders, and when the United States appears to move toward the possibility of a woman president, it is vital that communication scholarship addresses the issue of gender and politics in a comprehensive manner. Gender and Political Communication in America: Rhetoric, Representation, and Display takes on this challenge as it investigates, from a rhetorical and critical standpoint, the intersection and mutual influences of gender and political communication as they are realized in the nation's political discourse. Book jacket.

Although women constitute half of the world's population, their participation in the political sphere remains problematic. While existing research on women politicians from the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada sheds light on the challenges and opportunities they face, we still have a very limited understanding of women's political participation in emerging democracies. Women in Politics and Media: Perspectives From Nations in Transition is the first collection to de-Westernize the scholarship on women, politics and media by: 1) highlighting the latest research on countries and regions that have not been 'the usual suspects'; 2) featuring a diverse group of scholars, many of non-Western origin; 3) giving voice through personal interviews to politically active women, thus providing the reader with a rare insight into women's agency in the political structures of emerging democracies. Each chapter examines the complex women, politics and media dynamic in a particular nation-state, taking into consideration the specific political, historic and social context. With 23 case studies and interviews from Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Russia and the former Soviet republics, this volume will be of interest to students, media scholars and policy makers from developed and emerging democracies.

In particular, the strategies which women employ to gain some control over the ways in which they are presented and reported on by journalists are discussed, making explicit the tension between publicity and privacy but also making clear that women are not irrevocably positioned as "victim." The critique offered here also factors in the ways in which political parties themselves, their elites as well as their rank and file, are seriously implicated in supporting processes which attempt to undermine the potency and potential of women's political contribution through a variety of convert and overt mechanisms." "This is an important book as it integrates the debates about women, media and politics in ways which give equal voice to the embodied political woman and her views as well as discussing the representational image of "women politician" as the subject and object of research on mediated discourse."--BOOK JACKET.

Familiar narratives and simplistic stereotypes frame the representation of women in U.S. politics. Pervasive containment rhetorics, such as the distinction between women as mothers and caregivers and men as rational thinkers, create unique hurdles for any woman seeking public office. While these 'governing codes' generally act to constrain female political power, they can also be harnessed as a resource depending on the particular circumstances (e.g., party affiliation, geographic location and personal style). One of these governing codes, the metaphor, is an especially powerful tool in politics today, particularly for women. By examining the political careers of four of the most prominent and influential women in contemporary U.S. politics_Democrats Ann Richards and Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republicans Christine Todd Whitman and Elizabeth Dole_Karrin Vasby Anderson and Kristina Horn Sheeler illustrate how metaphors in public discourse may be both familiar narratives to embrace and boundaries to overturn.

A poll as recently as 2000 revealed that a third of the population thinks there are general characteristics about women that make them less qualified to serve as president. As the public and the media rely on long-held stereotypes, female candidates must focus even harder on the way they want to define their own image through traditional mass media, such as television, and new forms, such as the internet. Gender and Candidate Communication digs deep into the campaigns of the last decade sifting through thousands of ads, websites, and newspaper articles to find out how successful candidates have been in breaking down these gender stereotypes. Among their findings are that female candidates dress more formally, smile more, act tougher when they can, and prefer scare tactics to aggressive attack ads. Gender and Candidate Communication also presents the most comprehensive, systematic method yet for identifying and understanding self-presentation strategies on the web. The internet may be the medium of the future, but Bystrom has found that coverage on the web tends to draw even more heavily on old stereotypes. No close observer of campaigns, gender, or the internet will be able to ignore their findings.

""What makes this book unique is the basic structure: Descriptive or historical chapters, followed by discussions of strategies and tactics of political communication in numerous contexts.""