Kevin Coe

Newspaper Attention to Major Presidential Addresses: A Reexamination of Conceptualizations, Predictors, and Effects

The relationship between presidents, press, and the public has long been of interest to scholars. This study provides insight into that relationship by adding to Coe and Neumanns (2011) conceptualization of “major presidential addresses” a new criterion: newspaper attention. Via nearly 2,000 New York Times articles focusing on 418 presidential speeches between 1933 and 2013, we track newspaper attention to major addresses to answer three questions: 1) How can focusing on newspaper attention refine the conceptualization of major addresses? 2) What predicts newspaper attention to major addresses? 3) Do major addresses, and the corresponding newspaper attention, matter for presidential approval?

Incivility and Political Identity on the Internet: Intergroup Factors as Predictors of Incivility in Discussions of News Online

Although incivility is an increasing concern among scholars and the public, explanations for this phenomenon sometimes overlook the role of computer-mediated communication. Drawing from the social identity model of deindividuation effects (SIDE), we consider incivility as a form of identity performance occurring in the visually anonymous contexts that are typical online. Specifically, we examine partisan political identities and intergroup factors as predictors of incivility in a newspaper discussion forum. Contrary to expectations, conservatives were less likely to be uncivil as the proportion of ingroup members (i.e., other conservatives) in the discussion increased and less sensitive to incivility directed at outgroup members (i.e., liberals) than were nonconservatives. Audience members had more extreme evaluations of uncivil comments made by partisans than nonpartisans.

Political Pilgrimages: American Presidents and Religious Communities, 1933–2012

From extended religious journeys to brief family vacations, pilgrimages can be powerful cultural experiences. This chapter focuses on what we call “political pilgrimages,” moments when a political leader takes a trip to give a speech to a distinctly religious audience or at a site imbued with religious meaning. Drawing upon concepts from our book, The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America, we develop a framework for understanding political pilgrimages and their importance in American politics. We track the contours of these pilgrimages across thirteen U.S. presidencies over eight decades. Three questions guide our analysis: To what extent do presidents engage in political pilgrimages? Where do presidents go when undertaking political pilgrimages? How do presidents talk about God and faith when undertaking political pilgrimages? Our analysis reveals that pilgrimages have become increasingly common over time, and that presidents vary widely in the extent to which they engage in them. Barack Obama broke with tradition to make far fewer pilgrimages than did his immediate predecessors. We also find that the typical presidential pilgrimage is to speak to a religious organization or meeting, rather than at a church, religious school, or foreign site. When speaking domestically, pilgrimage locations are remarkably limited. Many occur in Washington, DC, with the rest typically targeting a few very populous states. Presidents vary in the extent to which they talk about God and faith during their pilgrimages. Some variation is dependent on the site presidents are visiting, with pilgrimages to religious organizations and churches garnering more religious language than visits to religious schools and foreign sites. Recent presidents have been especially likely to invoke God and faith during their pilgrimages, a trend that corresponds to the heightened influence of Christian conservatives in the American political environment.

Old and New Forms of Racial Bias in Mediated Sports Commentary: The Case of the National Football League Draft

Applying Social Identity Theory and Linguistic Intergroup Bias to the analysis of mediated sports commentary, this study examines racial bias surrounding the National Football League draft. A content analysis of 41 mock drafts—amounting to more than 1,300 descriptions of individual athletes—revealed significant differences in how commentators discussed White and non-White athletes. In particular, commentators more often described White athletes and in-group athletes in terms of mental traits, but described non-White athletes and out-group athletes in terms of physical traits. Additionally, in-group athletes were talked about in more abstract terms, consistent with Linguistic Intergroup Bias.

Talk This Way: The Ubiquitous Presidency and Expectations of Presidential Communication

The American presidency is evolving, and with it public expectations of how often and where the president should communicate. The rhetorical presidency, characterized by inclusive public appeals broadcast in a few media venues, has transitioned to a ubiquitous presidency wherein accessible, personal, and pluralistic communications are the norm. Despite these changes in communication style at the presidential level, scholars have yet to document formally how individuals’ expectations might be changing accordingly. Specifically, what do individuals expect of the frequency of and venues for presidential communication? We investigate established and emergent expectations of presidential communication via a field survey completed in the lead up to the 2016 Iowa Caucuses. The findings indicate that while expectations of presidential communication are shifting with executive behavior, beliefs remain moored to foundational notions of the informational, transparent, and dignified presidency. These shifts have democratic repercussions for the institutional presidency and for citizens.

When Social Media Become Hostile Media: An Experimental Examination of News Sharing, Partisanship, and Follower Count

This study examines whether the characteristics of those who share news articles on social media influence the hostile media effect. In an experiment, participants read a news article shared by 1 of 4 Twitter users, 2 (Republican vs. Democrat) × 2 (21 vs. 503,000 followers). Consistent with the hostile media effect, both Republicans and Democrats believed that a news article shared by a Twitter user from an opposing political party was more biased than one shared by a Twitter user from the same political party. As the Twitter account had more followers, however, this effect was more prominent among Republicans and less prominent among Democrats.

Presidential Communication in Tumultuous Times: Insights into Key Shifts, Normative Implications, and Research Opportunities

ABSTRACT Scholars have long been interested in the communication of America’s chief executive, but the context in which that communication takes place has undergone dramatic changes over the past several decades. Given this, the present review aims to provide a foundation for new thinking about presidential communication in the contemporary environment. We attend to presidential communication in transition—to the uncertain paths that scholars have walked as they have sought to make sense of executive communication practices in a time of dramatic change. Building from this review, we explore the normative implications for American democracy of this evolving context. We conclude by suggesting new intradisciplinary avenues for future research on presidential communication.

Education Coverage in Television News: A Typology and Analysis of 35 Years of Topics

News media play a significant role in the education policy arena, informing the public about pressing issues and influencing how such issues are prioritized and understood. For this reason, researchers are increasingly raising concerns about how much attention news media give to education, which topics are covered, and how topics are addressed. In this article, the authors advance this growing body of research through a quantitative content analysis of the topics in national television news coverage of pre-K–12 (early childhood through high school) education in the United States over the past 35 years. The authors present their typology of education topics, providing a foundation for future research in this area, and analyze major trends. This article also serves as an introduction to a new data set: 2,322 abstracts, representing all substantial education news coverage from the three major evening news networks, included as an online appendix.

Religious rhetoric meets the target audience: Narrowcasting faith in presidential elections

ABSTRACT Research documents politicians’ use of religious rhetoric and its effects on the public, but little work has investigated the considerations influencing the decision to use religious rhetoric in the first place. We theorize that politicians’ use of religious rhetoric is determined by four considerations: the alignment between the speaker’s and audience’s religiosity, the acceptability of the speaker’s denomination to the audience, the speaker’s religious history, and the speaker’s party. Using the 2012 presidential election as a test case, we pair county-level religion data with a content analysis of 264 stump speeches to examine how the religious aspects of candidate rhetoric changed depending on the religious contours of a community. The evidence provides insight into how and why candidates “narrowcast” faith.

Accruing Masculinity Capital: Dominant and Hegemonic Masculinities in the 2004 Political Conventions

Scholarship in political communication and gender studies notes that concepts of presidential leadership and masculinity are deeply entwined in one another. Work is needed, though, on how performances of masculinity allow for the accrual of what we call masculinity capital, a linguistic form of masculinity that seems to become particularly significant and useful during times of threat and crisis in the United States. With this in mind, we undertook a content analysis to examine speeches from the 2004 presidential conventions of the Republican and Democratic parties in order to see how masculinity was discursively constructed as well as strategically employed. Our analysis indicates that public constructions of dominant masculinity were used by both political parties in order to shape party identity, and that a construction of hegemonic masculinity, which emasculated opponents by connecting them to femininity, was used by the Republican Party.