The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication

The scholarly field of political communication emerged in the first half of the twentieth century, amidst the turmoil of two world wars and the emergence of film, radio, and-eventually-television. As a subject of inquiry, political communication is interdisciplinary by its very nature, bridging rhetoric, public opinion, political behavior, political psychology, journalism, media studies, and telecommunications.

In The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication, Kate Kenski and Kathleen Hall Jamieson bring together a diverse cast of leading scholars in the field, including some of its founders. Both definitive and foundational, the book covers a vast range of topics, including political advertising, agenda setting, framing, social media, and the functions of the press in a democratic system. The essays in this volume demonstrate that political communication is a hybrid field with complex ancestry, permeable boundaries, and interests that overlap with the related fields of political sociology, public opinion, rhetoric, neuroscience, and media psychology.

A major addition to Oxford's handbook series, this is an indispensable reference for scholars and students interested in the study of how, why, when, and with what effect humans make sense of symbolic exchanges about sharing and shared power. The sixty-two chapters in The Oxford Handbook of Political Communication not only offer an overview of past scholarship; they also reflect on its relevance in a changing media landscape and set the agenda for future research in virtually every aspect of the discipline.

Kate Kenski (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) is an Associate Professor of Communication and Government & Public Policy at the University of Arizona where she teaches political communication, public opinion, and research methods.
Kathleen Hall Jamieson (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania and Director of its Annenberg Public Policy Center.