Read more
Edwin Diamond and Stephen Bates reveal the backstage stories of the 1988 presidential campaign - the Ailes-Atwater media mastery, the Dukakis team's babel of TV voices, Willie Horton's transformation from convict to celebrity.
List of contents
Part 1 The new media age: morning again and the morning after. Part 2 1952-1992: the radio age and the birth of spots; Ike, BBD & O, USP, and TV; checkers; the rise of living-room politics; Kennedy, Kennedy, Ken-ne-dy; the new advertising - soft sell arrives; Daisy and the dirty pictures in the public mind; high-tech politics; the new Nixon and the old Humphrey; Tanya talks, Watergate walks; bright songs and blue jeans - the life-style campaign; from the Soviet threat to the Horton threat. Part 3 Styles: the man on the white horse, and other tales of media techniques. Part 4 Effects: it was the truck - judging the effects of polispots; the trouble with spots.
About the author
Edwin Diamond was Professor of Journalism at New York University, where he directed the News Study Group, and was media columnist for New York magazine. Stephen Bates, a lawyer, is a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. He is the author of If No News, Send Rumors: Anecdotes of American Journalism.
Summary
Edwin Diamond and Stephen Bates reveal the backstage stories of the 1988 presidential campaign - the Ailes-Atwater media mastery, the Dukakis team's babel of TV voices, Willie Horton's transformation from convict to celebrity.
