Dirty Politics: Deception, Distraction, and Democracy

by Kathleen Hall Jamieson

Book Overview

Americans in recent years have become thoroughly disenchanted with our political campaigns, especially with campaign advertising and speeches. Each year, as November approaches, we are bombarded with visceral appeals that bypass substance, that drape candidates in the American flag but tell us nothing about what they'll do if elected, that flood us with images of PT-109 or Willie Horton, while significant issues--such as Kennedy's Addison's Disease...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195078543
• ISBN13: 9780195078541
• Release Date: September 1992
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Jamieson lets readers in on the dirty side of democracy

Campaigning strategy has become the first and foremost informational tool citizens use to evaluate the political arena of today's democratic society. The problem that arises through this medium is that what the public see's, hears, and witnesses is not always factual. Campaign analyst Kathleen Hall Jamieson, presents a book in which this such topic is addressed. Arguing for fair, accurate, contextual, comparative, and engaged campaign discourse; Jamieson explains to her readers the proper way in which to objectively evaluate bias political paraphernalia. She provides insight in how to listen, read and watch political campaigns without becoming what she calls a "Pack Rat." According to Jamieson, "What is shown is not necessarily what is seen. What is said is not always what is heard."(Page 9) By reading this book carefully, one becomes familiar with how to evaluate a politician's agenda and how to successfully walk away with the `facts'. Jamieson sets her book up in four themes. First she talks about attack in political campaigning, past and present. She then goes on to discuss news broad cast and advertisement, continuing with news coverage of campaigning. She finalizes her thoughts by discussing the norms of discourse. By carefully calling to attention the usage of political sloganeering, manipulative television representation, and false `facts' to create a political figure; Jamieson exposes it all in Dirty Politics.

Engaging Arguments

As a professor of communication, I have enthusiastically used Kathleen Hall Jamieson's Dirty Politics as a text that makes sense of so much of what we see in nationally televised politics. Students invariably come away from reading Jamieson with a much deeper apprecation for politics--and what ails it. The strength of this text is in the attention to detail; specifically, Jamieson grounds her study in focus group research. And in those instances where she doesn't utilize such research, her readings of various televisual advertising is usually nuanced and insightful. The one drawback to the text, one that Jamieson would perhaps actually endorse, is its elitism; that is, only certain sorts of elites watch the Lehrer News Hour (to which she contributes frequently), and have the educational skills to do the hard work of argument, engagement and debate that she so heartily endorses. Politics isn't a spectator sport; in this text, Jamieson encourages us to get up off the couch and actually engage--and thereby hold candidates accountable for the discourse of Democracy.