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Making Sense of Election 2016: How the Media Mattered in the U.S. Presidential Election

Sun, May 28, 15:30 to 16:45, Hilton San Diego Bayfront, Floor: 3, Aqua Salon D

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Political communication scholars and practitioners from the worlds of campaigns and journalism are puzzling over the 2016 US presidential election. In response to the 2017 ICA conference theme, numerous “interventions” during the 2016 presidential election have “prohibited events from proceeding in a ‘normal’ course.” Donald Trump’s unconventional campaign is the most noteworthy aspect of an election that may signal profound transformations in party politics, voter behavior, campaign communication and journalistic practice. This panel brings together scholars doing research on the cutting edge of electoral communication to put election 2016 into context. Will 2016 be seen as an historical footnote and anomaly—or as the shape of things to come?

Specifically, the scholars on this proposed panel will examine the role of legacy media and social media in election 2016, and how news media interacted with candidate strategies, popular culture, and social networks to create one of the most unique elections in recent memory. The papers will investigate analytically and empirically just how much and whether 2016 is a break from prior practice in particular domains, and whether and to what degree these factors may constitute a permanent shift in American elections and beyond. For example, along what dimensions is the Trump candidacy an outlier (i.e.: his celebrity, use of social media to set the agenda of the professional press, eschewing of a traditional campaign apparatus etc.) and along what dimensions is his candidacy an extension of larger trends in contemporary presidential politics (the Republican Party’s racial politics, for instance)?

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