Political Communication :: Library Resources for Communication Studies

Library Resources for Communication Studies

Political Communication

Introduction

This guide serves as a list of primary resources for faculty, students, and librarians looking for materials in the area of political communications. Political communications is an interdisciplinary field that includes the following subject areas: communication, history, journalism, mass communication, political science, psychology and sociology.

Suggested Subject Keywords

Campaign Management
Communication and Political aspects
Communication and Politics
Journalism and Political aspects
Mass Media and Political aspects
Advertising, Political
Political Campaign Communication
Political Campaigns
Political Communication
Political Information
Political News
Political Polls
Political Oratory
Press and Politics
Public Opinion
Rhetoric and Political Aspects
Telecommunication and Political aspects

^ top of page ^

Reference Materials

American Political Dictionary, 9th edition, by Jack C. Plano and Milton Greenberg. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, 1993. ISBN 0155002813

Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Political Institutions, edited by Vernon Bogdanor. New York, NY: Blackwell Reference, 1987. ISBN 0631138412

Dictionary of 20th Century World Politics, by Jay M. Shafritz, Phil Williams and Ronald S. Calinger. New York, NY : H. Holt, 1993. ISBN 0805019766

Dictionary of Political Analysis, by Jack C. Plano, Robert E. Riggs and Helenan Robin. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1982. ISBN 0874363314

Encyclopedia of Communication and Information, edited by Jorge Reina Schement. New York, NY: Macmillan Reference USA, 2002. ISBN 0028653866

Encyclopedia of Presidential Campaigns, Slogans, Issues, and Platforms, by Robert North Roberts and Scott Hammond. Westport, CT : Greenwood Press, 2004. ISBN 0313319731

Encyclopedia of Propaganda, edited by Robert Cole. New York, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1998. ISBN 0765680092

Encyclopedia of Television News, edited by Michael D. Murray. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1999. ISBN 1573561088

Handbook of Political Communication Research, by Lynda Lee Kaid. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004. ISBN 0805837744

Handbook of Political Communication, by Dan D. Nimmo and Keith R. Sanders. Beverly Hills, CA : Sage, 1981. ISBN 0803917147

Political Campaign Communication: a bibliography and guide to the literature, 1973-1982, by Lynda Lee Kaid and Anne Johnston Wadsworth. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1985. ISBN 0810817640

Political Commentators in the United States in the 20th Century: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook, by Dan Nimmo and Chevelle Newsome. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. ISBN 0313295859

^ top of page ^

Periodical Databases/Indexes

Icon Key: = Paid access = Free access = Available electronically = Available in print

Best Bets:

CommAbstracts Paid Access Available electronically
Produced by CIOS, ComAbstracts is a database of article abstracts, books, bibliographic records, and other sources of relevance to researchers, scholars, and students interested in fields related to communication studies. Expanded and updated throughout the year, with some coverage back to early 1970’s.
Vendor site: http://www.cios.org/www/abstract.htm

Communication Abstracts Paid Access Available electronically
Produced by CSA, Communication Abstracts indexes and abstracts communication-related publications. Updated bi-monthly and including materials published since 1977, the database covers articles, reports, papers, and books. Coverage includes not only communication literature but also literature in film studies, the role of technology in human communications, risk communication, crisis communication, political communication and public opinion.
Vendor site: http://www.csa.com/

Communication & Mass Media Complete Paid Access Available electronically
This database originated with the acquisition and subsequent merging of two popular databases in the fields of communication and mass media studies: CommSearch (formerly produced by the National Communication Association), and Mass Media Articles Index (formerly produced by Pennsylvania State University). Provides indexing and select full text covering various aspects of communication and mass media. Some coverage from as far back as the early decades of the 20th century.
Vendor site: http://www.ebsco.com/home/

Additional Useful Databases:

Gallup Brain Paid Access Available electronically
The Gallup Brain is a searchable, living record of more than 60 years of public opinion. Inside, you'll find answers to more than 125,000 questions, and responses from more than 3.5 million people interviewed by The Gallup Poll since 1935. This poll database also houses current Gallup Poll News Service articles that feature the latest in-depth poll analyses and replicas of news stories and press releases linked to the surveys.
Vendor site: http://brain.gallup.com/

LexisNexis Academic Paid Access Available electronically
Provides more than 9.5 million full-text documents from over 18,300 sources, including newspapers, wire services, magazines, company profiles and financial reports, government transcripts, trade journals and academic and legal databases. Updated with full-text documents from general interest wire services, newspapers, and magazines from around the world. Updated daily, coverage varies by source (some as early as the 1970s and includes general news topics; foreign language news; company, industry, and market news; legal news; general health topics; accounting/tax info; government topics.
Vendor site: http://www.lexis-nexis.com/default.asp

PAIS Paid Access Available electronically Available in print
Indexes journal articles, books, statistics, yearbooks, directories, conference proceedings, pamphlets, reports, government documents, and microfiche covering the full range of political, social, and public policy issues. Includes research in economics, political and social issues, business, finance, law, international trade and relations, public administration, government, political science, and potential legislation. Coverage is 1972-present. No full text available.
Vendor site: http://www.pais.org/

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts Paid Access Available electronically
Produced by CSA, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts provides citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including political communication and public opinion. Updated monthly and includes materials published since 1975.
Vendor site: http://www.csa.com/

^ top of page ^

Web Sites

American National Election Studies
http://www.electionstudies.org
The mission of the American National Election Studies (NES) is to produce high quality data on voting, public opinion, and political participation that serve the research needs of social scientists, teachers, students, policy makers and journalists concerned with the theoretical and empirical foundations of mass politics in a democratic society.

American Presidency Project
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/index_docs.php
The American Presidency Project provides access to the Public Papers of the presidents, inaugural addresses, Saturday Radio addresses, Fireside Chats, Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speeches, presidential candidate debates and more. The archives currently contain over 52,000 documents related to the study of the American Presidency. The web site includes a searchable database.

Commission on Presidential Debates
http://www.debates.org/index.html
The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) was established in 1987. Its primary purpose is to sponsor and produce debates for the United States presidential and vice presidential candidates and to undertake research and educational activities relating to the debates. The organization sponsored all the presidential debates in 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000. The site includes historical material beginning with the debate between Lincoln and Douglas.

Gallup Organization
http://www.gallup.com/
Provides recent Gallup Poll results and information on the Gallup organization.

HarpWeek.com
http://elections.harpweek.com/
HarpWeek features political cartoons from leading journals and the Library of Congress Collection of American Political Prints, 1766-1876. It provides explanations of the historical context and images of each cartoon, campaign overviews, biographical sketches, a review of the era’s major issues, and other valuable information.

Living Room Candidate: A History of Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2004
http://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us/index.php
Created by The American Museum of the Moving Image, the exhibit features more than 200 of the most memorable and historically significant presidential commercials from every presidential campaign year since 1952, and includes historical background, and results from each election. The Living Room Candidate demonstrates how advertising techniques and styles have evolved over the years, even as basic strategy has remained the same.

National Political Index
http://www.politicalindex.com/
A web site which provides an index of political information for voters, political activists, political consultants, lobbyists, politicians, academicians, and media editors with a wide range of products, information, services, simulations, games, and polling in an interactive communications environment. This site indexes and links to "3500 political web sites" and "200 political science departments" as well as many other topics.

Political Advertising Articles and Resources
http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/pol_ads.html
A collection of articles about political advertising

PoliticalInformation.com
http://www.politicalinformation.com/
This search engine searches thousands of websites for information on politics, policy and political news.

PollingReport.com
http://www.pollingreport.com/
PollingReport.com is an independent, nonpartisan resource on trends in American public opinion

SpeakOut.com
http://www.speakout.com/index.html
SpeakOut.com is an online opinion research company that promotes active participation with interactive polls and presents news and information. The site takes traditional market research and political polls and put them online while inviting the public to tell politicians, political parties, corporations, marketers and special interest groups how they feel and why.

Texas A&M Program in Presidential Rhetoric
http://comm.tamu.edu/pres/index.html
The Program is devoted to research on all aspects of the presidency that involve the use of language and symbols to influence public beliefs, attitudes, values, or actions. Scholars affiliated with the program are interested in such direct sources of rhetorical influence as presidential speeches, campaign debates, press conferences, news interviews, and political advertising. Researchers also explore presidential speechwriting, the White House Office of Communications, the structural relationships between the press and the president, the use of rhetoric to move policy, and the symbolic attempts by citizens' groups, government, media and other interested parties to shape perceptions of the president's character and policies. The archive contains complete texts of important Presidential speeches that may be downloaded

University of Iowa Department of Communication Studies Political Communication and Campaign 2004
http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/polcomm.html
Offers links to organizations, research centers, political parties, news organizations, and public opinion reporting.

^ top of page ^

Associations & Organizations

American Political Science Association (APSA), Political Communication Section
http://www.apsanet.org/~polcomm/
The American Political Science Association, founded in 1903, is the leading professional organization for the study of political science and serves more than 15,000 members in over 80 countries. APSA has 37 sections representing the different aspects of political science. The purpose of the Political Communication Section is to foster the study of political communications within the discipline of political science including research on mass media, telecommunications policy, new media technologies, and the process of communicating and understanding.

International Association for Media Communication Research (IAMCR), Political Communication Research Section
http://iamcr.org/
IAMCR is the largest international professional organization in the field of communication research. Established in 1957, the Association now has over 2300 members in some 70 countries. IAMCR’s purpose is to provide a forum for researchers, practitioners and policy makers in the communications field. Much of the activity of IAMCR is carried out in its various sections and working groups.

International Communication Association (ICA), Political Communication Division
http://www.icahdq.org/
ICA is an academic association for scholars interested in the study, teaching, and application of all aspects of human and mediated communication. ICA began more than 50 years ago as a small association of U.S. researchers and is now an international association with more than 3,500 members in 65 countries. ICA's principal areas of concern are represented by 19 Divisions and Interest Groups. The Political Communication Division regularly publishes the Political Communication Review and the Political Communication Newsletter.

National Communication Association (NCA), Political Communication Division
http://www.natcom.org/
NCA is an organization for educators, practitioners and students whose purpose is to promote study, criticism, research, teaching of the principles of communication. NCA is the oldest and largest national organization to promote communication scholarship and education. One of 56 units, the Political Communication Division provides a forum for members interested in issues related to political communications.

^ top of page ^

Journals & Trade Publications

Note: For title changes consult a serials directory such as Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory.

American Journal of Political Science ISSN 0092-5853
Academic/Scholarly. Blackwell Publishing. 1950-current
Presents research in all major areas of political science including American politics, public policy, international relations, comparative politics, political methodology, and political theory.

American Journalism Review ISSN 1067-8654
Consumer. American Journalism Review. 1993-current
Examines print, broadcast and online journalism issues covers all aspects of print, television, radio and online media and examines how the media cover specific stories and broader coverage trends.

American Political Science Review ISSN 0003-0554
Academic/Scholarly. Cambridge University Press. 1906-current
Publishes scholarly articles in all areas of political science including: political theory, American politics, public policy, public administration, comparative politics, and international relations.

American Politics Research ISSN 1532-673X
Academic/Scholarly. Sage. 2001-current
Promotes basic research in all areas of American political behavior and government from local and state to regional and national. Includes research in the area of public opinion.

Campaigns & Elections ISSN 0197-0771
Trade. Campaigns & Elections. 1980-current
Provides up to date campaign information, the latest news about political consultants and the business and trends in the industry.

Communication Research ISSN 0093-6502
Academic/Scholarly. Sage. 1974-current
Communication Research publishes articles that explore the processes and consequences of communication in a broad range of societal systems including the mass media and politics.

Journal of Communication ISSN 0021-9916
Academic/Scholarly. Oxford University Press. 1951-current
Publishes articles that examine a broad range of issues in communication theory, research, practice and policy.

Journal of Politics ISSN 0022-3816
Academic/Scholarly. Blackwell Publishing, Inc. 1939-current
Covers American, comparative and international political science.

Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly ISSN 1077-6990
Academic/Scholarly. AEJMC. 1995-current
In addition to articles in the broader area of mass communication, the journal includes articles on print and broadcast coverage of politics.

Political Communication: an international journal ISSN 1058-4609
Academic/Scholarly. Taylor & Francis. 1975-current
Examines the roles of governmental, intergovernmental, and nongovernmental organizations as political communicators..

Public Opinion Quarterly ISSN 0033-326X
Academic/Scholarly. Oxford University Press. 1937-current
Publishes theoretical contributions to opinion and communication research, analyses of current public opinion, and investigations of methodological issues involved in survey validity including questionnaire construction, interviewing and interviewers, sampling strategy, and mode of administration.

Quarterly Journal of Speech ISSN 0033-5630
Academic/Scholarly. Routledge. 1915-current
QJS presents research that is designed to further understanding of the processes of human communication, particularly in its rhetorical and cultural dimensions. Articles cover theory and criticism of situated discourse in its various forms and venues, including the oral and written, public and private, direct and mediated, historical and contemporary.

Rhetoric and Public Affairs ISSN 1534-5238
Academic/Scholarly. Michigan State University Press. 1998-current
An interdisciplinary journal devoted to the history, theory, and criticism of public discourse. The journal explores the traditional arenas of rhetorical investigation, including executive leadership, diplomacy, political campaigns, judicial and legislative deliberations, and public policy debate.

^ top of page ^

Collections of Speeches available on the WWW

American Rhetoric
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/
Includes hundreds of speeches from history, movies, politics and culture

History Channel’s archive of political speeches
http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/
Drawn from the most famous broadcasts and recordings of the twentieth century, the History Channel’s web site includes hundreds of speeches in the areas of arts, entertainment and culture, war and diplomacy, science and technology, politics and government.

Library of Congress, American Memory Collection
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html
Includes over 500 historical speeches.

Public Papers of the Presidents
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/pubpapers/search.html
This web site includes papers and speeches of the President of the United States that were issued by the Office of the Press Secretary since the administration of President George Bush (1992).

Wake Forest University’s Political Speeches
http://www.wfu.edu/~louden/Political%20Communication/Class%20Information/SPEECHES.html
Wake Forest University’s web site provides links to political speeches including presidential speeches, convention speeches, political debates, individual presidential sites, specific genre speech sites, and miscellaneous speeches.

^ top of page ^

Research Centers

The Annenberg Public Policy Center - The University of Pennsylvania
http://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/
Established in 1994, the Annenberg Public Policy Center conducts and disseminates research, hosts lectures and conferences, and convenes roundtable discussions that highlight the intersection of media, communication, and public policy. The Center conducts ongoing evaluations of the quality of contemporary political discourse, including political campaigns, advertising, and speeches. Each election year, the Center assesses the quality of information available to the electorate. Other research conducted by the Center has examined media coverage of terrorism, political talk radio, and discursive practice on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.

The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard University
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/presspol/index.htm
The Shorenstein Center is dedicated to exploring the intersection of press, politics and public policy in theory and practice. The Center has emerged as a major source for research on U.S. campaigns and elections, journalism and public policy, international news, and race, gender and the press. It is a widely respected convener of journalists, scholars and political activists working to help the press improve its role in democracy.

Pew Research Center for People and the Press
http://people-press.org/
The Center is an independent opinion research group that studies attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues. They regularly conduct national surveys that measure public attentiveness to major news stories, and conduct polls that chart trends in values and fundamental political and social attitudes. All current survey results are made available free of charge.

Roper Center for Public Opinion Research
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/
Roper CenterRoper Center is the largest library of public opinion data in the world. The Center's purpose is to serve as a forum for ideas on the media and public policy through public opinion research. Survey data housed in the Center's extensive archive are made accessible to academic and policy researchers, the press, business, and others who are interested in poll findings. All current survey results are made available free of charge.

^ top of page ^

About this site | Electronic Resources in Communication Studies Committee | EBSS | ACRL
Send questions, comments, or suggestions about this site to e-resources@listserv.uiuc.edu

Content by: Lisa Romero
Created: July 2004
Electronic Resources in Communication Studies Committee Member List