An Unprecedented Election

Written by leading scholars of political communication, this book provides a comprehensive accounting of the campaign communication that characterized the unprecedented 2016 presidential campaign.
The political events leading up to election day on November 8, 2016, involved unprecedented events in U.S. history: Hillary Clinton was the first woman to be nominated by a major party, and she was favored to win the highest seat in the nation. Donald Trump, arguably one of the most unconventional and most-unlikely-to-succeed candidates in U.S. history, became the leading candidate against Clinton. Then, an even more surprising thing happened: Trump won, an outcome unexpected by all experts and statistical models.
An Unprecedented Election: Media, Communication, and the Electorate in the 2016 Campaign presents proprietary research conducted by a national election team and leading scholars in political communication and documents the most significant-and in some cases, the most shocking-features of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The information presented in this book is derived from national surveys, experiments, and textual analysis and helps readers grasp the truly unique characteristics of this campaign that make it unlike any other in U.S. history. The chapters explain the underlying dynamics of this astonishing election by assessing the important role of both traditional and social media, the evolving (and potentially diminishing) influence of televised campaign advertisements, the various implications of three historic presidential debates, and the contextual significance of convention addresses. Readers will come away with an appreciation of the content and effects of the campaign communication and media coverage as well as the unique attributes of the electorate that ultimately selected Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States.

Benjamin R. Warner, PhD, is assistant professor of communication at the University of Missouri.
Dianne G. Bystrom, PhD, is director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University.
Mitchell S. McKinney, PhD, is professor of communication at the University of Missouri and currently serves as faculty fellow for academic personnel in the Office of the Provost.
Mary C. Banwart, PhD, is associate professor in the Communication Studies Department at the University of Kansas and director of the Institute for Leadership Studies.

Introduction Understanding the Unprecedented 2016 Campaign: Two Historical Candidacies Yield an Unexpected Result
Benjamin R. Warner and Dianne G. Bystrom
Part One Media Coverage
Chapter 1 Selective Exposure and Homophily During the 2016 Presidential Campaign
Natalie Jomini Stroud and Jessica R. Collier
Chapter 2 What Mobilizes Partisans? Exploring the Underlying Pathways Between Partisan Media and Political Participation
Heesook Choi, Benjamin R. Warner, and Freddie J. Jennings
Chapter 3 Media Event Influence in the 2016 Race: The Debates, Trump Groping Tape, and the Last-Minute FBI Announcement
Esther Thorson, Samuel M. Tham, Weiyue Chen, and Vamsi Kanuri
Chapter 4 The Rhetoric of Impossible Expectations: Media Coverage of Hillary Clinton's 2016 General Election Campaign
Kristina Horn Sheeler
Chapter 5 Depends on Who Is Asking: An Endorsement Experiment During the 2016 Presidential Election
Kalyca Becktel and Kaye D. Sweetser
Chapter 6 Attributions of Incivility in Presidential Campaign News
Ashley Muddiman
Chapter 7 Fact-Checking and the 2016 Presidential Election: News Media's Attempts to Correct Misleading Information from the Debates
Daniela V. Dimitrova and Kimberly Nelson
Chapter 8 "I'm About to Be President; We're All Going to Die": Baldwin, Trump, and the Rhetorical Power of Comedic Presidential Impersonation
Will Howell and Trevor Parry-Giles
Part Two Campaign Communication
Chapter 9 Processing the Political: Presidential Primary Debate "Live-Tweeting" as Information Processing
Josh C. Bramlett, Mitchell S. McKinney, and Benjamin R. Warner
Chapter 10 Donald Trump and the Rejection of the Norms of American Politics and Rhetoric
Robert C. Rowland
Chapter 11 "The Greatest Country on Earth": The Evolution of Michelle Obama's American Dream
Ryan Neville-Shepard and Meredith Neville-Shepard
Chapter 12 Loss of Faith: A Realignment of Religion on the Campaign Trail
Brian Kaylor
Chapter 13 Late Night with Donald Trump: An Exploration of the Combined Effects of Political Comedy and Political Advertising
Freddie J. Jennings, Calvin R. Coker, Josh C. Bramlett, Joel Lansing Reed, and Joshua P. Bolton
Chapter 14 Going on Defense: The Unprecedented Use of Defensive Appeals in 2016 U.S. Presidential Debates
Corey B. Davis
Chapter 15 Gender and Videostyle in 2016: Advertising in Mixed-Gender Races for the U.S. House
Kelly L. Winfrey and James M. Schnoebelen
Chapter 16 From Interactivity to Incitement: Ubiquitous Communication and Elite Calls for Participation
Joshua M. Scacco, Kevin Coe, and Delaney Harness
Part Three Communication Attitudes and Behaviors of the Electorate
Chapter 17 Corn Belt Controversy: Intraparty Divisions and Political Cynicism at the 2016 Iowa Caucuses
Joel Lansing Reed, Sopheak Hoeun, Josh C. Bramlett, Molly Greenwood, and Grace Hase
Chapter 18 Exploring and Explaining Communication, Knowledge, and Well-Being Sex Differences Related to the 2016 U.S. Presidential Primary Season
R. Lance Holbert, Esul Park, and Nicholas W. Robinson
Chapter 19 Gender and the Vote in the 2016 Presidential Election
Kate Kenski
Chapter 20 #election#elección: Latino Twitter Users and Reactions to Presidential Political Gaffes
Samantha Hernandez
Chapter 21 Analyzing Tweets About the 2016 U.S. Presidential "Blunder" Election
Michael W. Kearney
Chapter 22 Understanding the Authoritarian Voter in the 2016 Presidential Election
Sumana Chattopadhyay
Chapter 23 Social Dominance, Sexism, and the Lasting Effects on Political Communication from the 2016 Election
Mary C. Banwart and Michael W. Kearney
About the Editors and Contributors
Index