Costas Panagopoulos - Rewiring Politics: Presidential Nominating Conventions in the Media Age

Presidential Nominating Conventions
in the Media Age

EDITED BY COSTAS PANAGOPOULOS

Published in cooperation with the Kevin P. Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs

Published by Louisiana State University Press
Copyright 2007 by Louisiana State University Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing

DESIGNER: Michelle A. Garrod
TYPEFACE: Adobe Caslon Pro, Univers
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rewiring politics : presidential nominating conventions in the media age / edited by Costas Panagopoulos.

p. cm. (media and public affairs)

Published in cooperation with the Kevin P. Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN -13: 978-0-8071-3206-7 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN -10: 0-8071-3206-3 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Political conventionsUnited States. 2. Nominations for officeUnited States. 3. PresidentsUnited StatesElection. 4. Mass mediaPolitical aspectsUnited States. I. Panagopoulos, Costas. II. Series.

JK2255.P33 2007

324.273 0156dc22

2006014073

The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

CHAPTER ONE
Introduction: Presidential Nominating Conventions in the Media Age
Costas Panagopoulos

CHAPTER TWO
Follow the Bouncing Ball: Assessing Convention Bumps, 19642004
Costas Panagopoulos

CHAPTER THREE
Conventions and Campaign Dynamics
Michael G. Hagen and Richard Johnston

CHAPTER FOUR
Party Profiles: National Convention Delegates
John C. Green and John S. Jackson

CHAPTER FIVE
The Utility of Party Conventions in an Era of Low Visibility and Campaign Finance Reform
J. Mark Wrighton

CHAPTER SIX
Nominating Conventions, Campaign Events, and Political Information
Costas Panagopoulos

CHAPTER SEVEN
Conventions for the Unconventional: Minor Party Conventions, 19922004
John C. Berg

CHAPTER EIGHT
Lights, Camera, Chaos? The Evolution of Convention Crises
R. Sam Garrett

CHAPTER NINE
Rewiring the Conventions (Again): The Internet and Innovation in Politics and Media
Michael Cornfield

CHAPTER TEN
Losing Control? The Rise of Cable News and Its Effect on Party Convention Coverage
Jonathan S. Morris and Peter L. Francia

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Mass Media and the Democratization of Presidential Nominating Conventions
Terri Susan Fine

CHAPTER TWELVE
The New Role of the Conventions as Political Rituals
Gerald M. Pomper

REWIRING POLITICS

Presidential Nominating Conventions in the Media Age

Costas Panagopoulos

Viewed as deliberative bodies, the national party conventions are an abominationhuge and disorderly assemblies of often inexperienced strangers faced with difficult and important decisions to make in a few days. But usually national conventions are not called upon to make decisions; most of the time they meet to legitimize and celebrate a decision that has already been made.

DONALD MATTHEWS, Presidential Nominations: Process and Outcomes (1974)

IT WAS ABOUT 6 A.M. on September 1, 2004, and I was on the tenth floor of Madison Square Garden in New York Citythe epicenter of the American media universe for the weekwaiting to begin an interview with a morning network news program about the Republican National Convention (RNC) that had convened its proceedings there the previous evening. The glass booth, one of dozens similarly transformed into mini television broadcast studios for the occasion, overlooked thousands of empty red, white, and blue chairs neatly arranged before a stage draped in patriotic colors. Outside, groggybut still angryanti-Bush protesters had started to assemble for what turned out to be another full day of anticlimactic demonstrations, while denizens of the 15,000-member press legion gathered inside to reflect on the convention activities. The usual suspects, experts and talking heads besides academic observers, were all there ready to do their part of the spin. (I passed former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, the previous evenings highly anticipated and highly energizing convention kick-off speaker, as I entered the booth.)

The reporter came in as I gazed at the ceiling where thousands of red, white, and blue balloons were being held captive by netting until their scheduled release on the final night of the convention following President Bushs acceptance speech. You know they raised the whole floor of Madison Square Garden by six inches to make the hall look more intimate on TV, the reporter told me. No, I didnt know, I answered, wondering how great the difference in viewers perceptions must need to be to offset the expense incurred by the RNC to create a more familial setting. Yup, well, these little details seem to be all that counts at these things these days, he continued. Surely, he couldnt be right, I hoped, but I said, It does seem that way, doesnt it? The social scientist in me wondered how much truth there was in his statement. But when he asked me on the air whether conventions still matter, I emphatically, almost impulsively, rattled off a half dozen reasons why I believed conventions remain an important part of the process of presidential selection in America.

To argue convincingly that national conventions matter in American politics today and to understand fully their relationship to contemporary presidential campaigns, it is necessary to trace the evolution of these quadrennial events and to dissect the developments that have essentially transformed the nature and role of conventions in modern campaigns. To be sure, national nominating conventions have undergone significant changes over the past few decades, developments influenced in large part by the growth in mass media. In a sense, changes in mass media created an impetusor a stimulusto which convention organizers have responded. Some of these changes have provided parties unprecedented opportunities to capitalize on conventions while others have presented considerable challenges. Faced with both opportunities and challenges over the past few decades, political parties have adapted conventions in an effort to maximize their goals, indicating at the very least that conventions must serve some meaningful purpose and offer parties even modest benefits. Perhaps the best evidence that conventions continue to matter is that they continue to exist, even in altered form. After all, why would rational political parties invest so heavily in events that are entirely useless and ineffectual? Nevertheless, the manner in which conventions have evolved within the context of new (and sometimes hostile) media environments, has generated important questions for political observers. The selections included in this volume describe and analyze many of these developments and aim to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of the complexities, realities, and implications associated with national nominating conventions in the media age. The discussion we advance is rooted in the following broad themes (or claims).