Gender and Candidate Communication:

A poll as recently as 2000 revealed that one third of the population thinks ''there are general characteristics about women that make them less qualified to serve as president''. As the public and the media rely on long-held stereotypes, female candidates must focus even harder on the way they want to define their own image through traditional mass media, such as television, and new forms, such as the internet.

VideoStyle, Webstyle, NewStyle digs deep into the campaigns of the last decade sifting through thousands of ads, websites, and newspaper articles to find out how successful candidates have been in breaking down these gender stereotypes. Among their findings are that female candidates dress more formally, smile more, act ''tougher'' when they can, and prefer scare tactics to aggressive attack ads.

This book also presents the most comprehensive, systematic method yet for identifying and understanding self-presentation strategies on the web. The internet may be the medium of the future, but Bystrom has found that coverage on the web tends to draw even more heavily on old stereotypes. No close observer of campaigns, gender, or the internet will be able to ignore their findings.

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Table of contents : Part 1: Women, Communication, and Politics 1. Women, Communication, and Politics: An introduction 2. VideoStyle, WebStyle, and NewsStyle: A framework for gendered analysis Part 2: Campaign Advertising: Gendered messages, gendered reactions 3. VideoStyle: Communication messages through campaign advertising 4. The Interaction of Electoral Status, Political Party, and VideoStyle 5. Case Study: Videostyles in the 2002 Kansas governor's race 6. Voter Reactions to Candidate VideoStyle Part 3: Candidate Web Sites: Gendered messages, reactions, and applications 7. WebStyle: Communication messages through candidate websites 8. Case Study: Webstyles in a North Carolina U.S. Senate and Montana gubernatorial race 9. Voter Reactions to Candidate WebStyle Part 4: Media Coverage of Candidates: Gendered messages, gendered reactions 10. NewsStyle: Media coverage of candidate presentation 11. Case Study: NewsStyles in the 2000 New York U.S. Senate campaign 12. Gendered Reactions to Media Coverage Part 5: Gender and Political Communication in Future Campaigns 13. Gendered Political Campaign Communication: Implications for the future Notes