Research Catalog

Title

Calling elections : the history of horse-race journalism / Thomas B. Littlewood.

Author

Littlewood, Thomas B.

Publication

Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press, c1998.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xi, 202 p.; 25 cm.

Summary

• Calling Elections: The History of Horse-Race Journalism is the story of the origins and evolution of the "horse-race" tradition of political journalism in the United States. Thomas B. Littlewood examines how the treatment of elections as sporting events has come to overshadow the reporting of the campaign as a forum for the discussion of ideas.
• He suggests reasons for the perception of presidential elections as spectator sport: the historical interconnections between gambling, politics, and the press; the infusion of sports language into political rhetoric; the government spoils system that gives individuals and businesses a financial stake in the status of the contest; the methodological development of "scientific" polling; the fiercely declared independence of many formerly partisan organizations; the perverse conviction of many journalists in the early 1900s that substantive politics was not interesting to news consumers and that partisan "speech" belonged in the paid advertising columns of the newspaper.
• Political scientists, journalists, sociologists, American Studies scholars, and all those interested in the past, and upcoming, presidential elections will find much to ponder in Calling Elections: The History of Horse-Race Journalism.

Subject

• Election forecasting > United States
• Journalism > Political aspects > United States
• Press and politics > United States

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-195) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

1. The Colonel and the Key Precincts -- 2. Old Hickory ... and a Passion for Numbers -- 3. Kicking All Politicians to the Devil -- 4. The Lightning and the Fire -- 5. The Unholy Alliance of the AP and Western Union -- 6. The Journalism of Magic Lanterns and Heavenly Hieroglyphics -- 7. Pack Journalism and the Modern Campaign -- 8. Politics as a Sporting Proposition -- 9. Political Speech at Space Rates -- 10. The Literary Digest and the Pundits: Straws in the Wind -- 11. You're on the Air -- 12. The Trials and Tribulations of George Gallup -- 13. The Conversion of the Alsop Brothers -- 14. The Story Is in the Numbers -- 15. Instincts and Impressions in the Land of Camelot -- 16. EVA and the Exit Polls.

ISBN

0268008337 (cloth : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^^98039984^

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library