1st Edition

Television and Political Advertising Volume Ii: Signs, Codes, and Images

Edited By Frank Biocca Copyright 1991

    This volume represents one of the first major scholarly efforts to unravel the psychological and symbolic processing of political advertising. Utilizing survey, experimental, qualitative, and semiotic methodologies to study this phenomenon, the contributors to Television and Political Advertising trace how political ads help to interpret the psychological reality of the presidential campaign in the minds of millions of voters. A product of the National Political Advertising Research Project, this interdisciplinary effort is valuable to researchers in advertising, communication, and consumer psychology since it helps define future work on the relationship between television, politics, and the mind of the voter.

    This volume, Television and Political Advertising: Signs, Codes and Images, is the second of two, and covers such areas as Generating Meaning in the Pursuit of Power, Analyses of the Meaning of Political Ads, The Campaign Documentary as an Ad, and Regulating Signs and Images.

     

    F. Biocca, Part I:Generating Meaning in the Pursuit of Power. What is the Language of Political Advertising?

    Some Limitations of Earlier "Symbolic" Approaches to Political Communication.

    Looking for Units of Meaning in Political Ads.

    The Role of Communication Codes in Political Ads.

    The Analysis of Discourses Within the Political Ad.

    The Orchestration of Codes and Discourses: Analysis of Semantic Framing.

    Part II:Analyses of the Meaning of Political Ads.

    D. Descutner, D. Burnier, A. Mickunas, R. Letteri, Bad Signs and Cryptic Codes in a Postmodern World: A Semiotic Analysis of the Dukakis Advertising.

    L.D. Smith, A. Johnston, Burke's Sociological Criticism Applied to Political Advertising: An Anecdotal Taxonomy of Presidential Commercials.

    L. Shyles, Issue Content and Legitimacy in 1988 Televised Political Advertising: Hubris and Synecdoche in Promoting Presidential Candidates.

    G. Chronkite, J. Liska, D. Schrader, Toward an Integration of Textual and Response Analysis Applied to the 1988 Presidential Campaign.

    Part III:The Campaign Documentary as an Ad.

    J. Morreale, The Political Campaign Film: Epideictic Rhetoric in a Documentary Frame.

    H.W. Simons, D.J. Stewart, Network Coverage of Video Politics: "A New Beginning" in the Limits of Criticism.

    Part IV:Regulating Signs and Images.

    J.I. Richards, C.L. Caywood, Symbolic Speech in Political Advertising: Encroaching Legal Barriers.

    Biography

    Biocca, Frank

    "...a useful and sometimes illuminating analysis of market research techniques used by the modern Machiavellis who run the campaigns."
    Contemporary Psychology