On Message: Communicating the Campaign »

To what extent are the techniques of campaigning and media management critical to the outcome of modern elections? This book brings together a group of leading scholars to provide a comprehensive analysis of the role and impact of political communications during election campaigns. They set the context of election campaigning in Britain, and the methodology used to undertand media effects, review party strategies and resulting media coverage, and draw together evidence of the impact of the 1997 British General Election campaign, analyzing how far television and the press media influenced the public's civic engagement, agenda priorities, and party preferences.

PART ONE: CONTEXT
Theories of Political Communications
The Campaign Context
Understanding Media Effects
PART TWO: PROCESS
The Party Strategy
The News Agenda
The Public's Reaction
PART THREE: IMPACT
The Imapact On Civic Engagement
The Impact On the Public's Agenda
The Effects of Television News on Party Preferences
The Effects of Newspapers
Conclusions
The Impact of Political Communications