Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 236
Trim: 6 x 9
978-0-7425-3678-4 • Paperback • August 2005 • $49.00 • (£38.00)
978-1-4616-4479-8 • eBook • August 2005 • $46.50 • (£36.00)
Stephen J. Farnsworth is associate professor of political science at the University of Mary Washington and a former newspaper journalist. S. Robert Lichter is professor of communication at George Mason University, where he directs the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media research organization.
Chapter 1 U.S. Presidential Governance and Television News: Studying Media Content
Chapter 2 Presidents versus Congress: The Competition for Media Attention
Chapter 3 Presidents in Good Times and Bad: Covering the Economy
Chapter 4 Presidents in War and Peace: Covering Military and Foreign Policy
Chapter 5 "Can't We Talk about Something Else?" Covering Presidential Scandals
Chapter 6 Competing Voices: Network Television versus Newspapers
Chapter 7 Presidential Coverage and the Challenges of a Changing Media
At last we have a book that details how the news media cover the presidency and how that coverage changes with the White House occupant and national conditions. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the presidency or the media. For that matter, it's a must-read for anyone who seeks to understand contemporary American politics.
— Thomas E. Patterson, professor of Government &the Press, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Farnsworth and Lichter provide valuable data on the amount, tone, and sources of television news stories, raising important questions about media bias and presidential governance.
— George C. Edwards, III, Texas A & M University
This lucidly-written, comprehensive content analysis of broadcast and print media coverage of the Reagan, Clinton, and G. W. Bush presidencies is unique in its emphasis on major policy areas and on the presidents' battles for media attention. This book is a must-have source for understanding news coverage of the federal government in comparative perspective. It is timely and fills a major gap in the literature.
— Doris A. Graber, University of Illinois, Chicago
The Mediated Presidency makes a major contribution to studies of the presidency and political media. This landmark work provides a detailed analysis of television and newspaper coverage of American presidents from Ronald Reagan to the present. Making use of extensive content analysis data, Farnsworth and Lichter go beyond typical anecdotal accounts to examine the extent, tone, and content of media stories about the presidency, including scandal-driven coverage. A serious work written in a lively style that provides excellent examples spanning over a quarter century, The Mediated Presidency is recommended reading for scholars and students of politics.
— Diana Owen, Georgetown University
Farnsworth and Lichte offer an insightful account of the last quarter century news converage of Amercian national government.
— T. Fackler, University of Texas at Austin; Choice Reviews
This exhaustive study of recent presidential coverage will be of value to journalists, government officials, and political scientists alike. There is abundant material here for everyone interested in the interaction of press and government.
— David S. Broder, The Washington Post
The Mediated Presidency will be of interest both to researchers seeking a critical survey of the U.S. media and politics and to those interested in drawing international comparisons.
— Political Studies Review
—Contains content analysis of over 100,000 news stories from the last 25 years.
—Analyzes network news as well as cable and print, focusing on the Presidency vs. the Congress and all policy arenas—foreign policy, the economy, and domestic politics—as well as presidential scandals.
—Includes coverage of the war in Iraq as well as key events from the 2004 election including the Swift Boat Veterans and the 60 Minutes story on Bush.