New Media Campaigns and the Managed Citizen

by Philip N. Howard

Overview

The political campaign is one of the most important organizations in a democracy, and whether issue, or candidate, specific, it is one of the least understood organizations in contemporary political life. With evidence from ethnographic immersion, survey data, and social network analysis, Philip Howard examines the evolving act of political campaigning and the changing organization of political campaigns over the last five election cycles, from 1996 to 2004. Over this time, both grassroots and elite political campaigns have gone online, built multimedia strategies, and constructed complex relational databases.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521612272
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/17/2005
Series:	Communication, Society and Politics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 9.06(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Philip N. Howard is an assistant professor in the Communications Department at the University of Washington. He has published an edited collection with Steve Jones entitled Society Online: The Internet in Context (2003) as well as articles in New Media & Society, American Behavioral Scientist and the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Howard has worked as a consultant to the World Resources Institute, the Canadian International Development Agency, and has served on the advisory board of the Survey 2000 and Survey 2001 Projects.

Table of Contents

Introduction: the hypermedia campaign; 1. Political communication and information technology; 2. Producing the hypermedia campaign; 3. Learning politics from the hypermedia campaign; 4. Organizational communication in the hypermedia campaign; 5. Managed citizenship and information technology; Appendix: Method notes on studying information technology and political communication.

Editorial Reviews

"Howard's book is a masterful thick description of the inevitable confluence of two powerful institutions in American politics — the networked computer and the political campaign establishment. He tracks the growth of hypermedia, implanted campaigns, political redlining and explains the meaning of your political 'data shadow.' He follows the struggles of the community of young high-tech consultants as they try to balance the need to make a living, to win elections, and also follow their shared ideals about empowering a better informed electorate. It is an important story. He is a great story teller. And he has an amazingly keen eye for enriching our theoretical understanding of the evolving digital public sphere."
W. Russell Neuman, University of Michigan

"Howard cogently outlines the possibilities, and particularly the potential dangers, of new technologies for deliberative democracy. Using an ethnographic approach, the author provides an understanding of the organizational norms and personal perspectives of key operators engaged in political campaigning through electronic means."
Choice

"...The strengths of this book are many. It overflows provocative theoretical claims....interviews with consultants and case studies organizations produce fascinating insights....an innovative way to reseach decentralized communities..."
—John Sides, George Washington University, Political Science Quarterly

From the Publisher