Message Control: How News Is Made on the Presidential Campaign Trail

Message Control-a look at what shapes the news from the presidential campaign trail-comes out of the author’s experience traveling with campaigns, interviews with other journalists who have covered campaigns from the road, and research on campaign news. Elizabeth Skewes, a journalism professor and former reporter, investigates journalists’ beliefs and the role those beliefs play in the election process, as well as how the routines of campaign reporting affect news coverage. While Skewes does find that journalists make an effort to inform the voting decisions of their readers by giving them a sense of context for each campaign and each candidate’s character, she also shows that journalists remain wary of staff manipulation and are constrained by pack journalism, press pools, and life in the bubble. From on-the-trail perspectives to media theory explanations, Message Control begins to answer the question of why political coverage focuses on personalities and peccadilloes when studies show the public wants less of this and more discussion of political issues.