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Democracy amid Crises: Polarization, Pandemic, Protests, and Persuasion

Online ISBN:
9780197644737
Print ISBN:
9780197644690
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

Democracy amid Crises: Polarization, Pandemic, Protests, and Persuasion

Kathleen Hall Jamieson,
Kathleen Hall Jamieson
Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication & Director, Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania
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Matthew Levendusky,
Matthew Levendusky
Professor of Political Science & Stephen and Mary Baran Chair in the Institutions of Democracy, Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania
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Josh Pasek,
Josh Pasek
Associate Professor of Communication & Media and Political Science, University of Michigan
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R. Lance Holbert,
R. Lance Holbert
Professor of Communication and Social Influence, Temple University
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Andrew Renninger,
Andrew Renninger
Research Coordinator, Wharton GIS Lab, University of Pennsylvania
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Yotam Ophir,
Yotam Ophir
Assistant Professor of Communication, University at Buffalo, State University of New York
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Dror Walter,
Dror Walter
Assistant Professor of Digital Communication, Georgia State University
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Bruce Hardy,
Bruce Hardy
Associate Professor of Communication and Social Influence, Temple University
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Kate Kenski,
Kate Kenski
Professor of Communication, University of Arizona
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Ken Winneg,
Ken Winneg
Managing Director of Survey Research, Annenberg Public Policy Center
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... more
Published online:
23 March 2023
Published in print:
16 February 2023
Online ISBN:
9780197644737
Print ISBN:
9780197644690
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

Among the more fraught election years in recent history, 2020 transpired amid four interlaced crises: the COVID-19 pandemic, an economic recession and uneven recovery, a racial reckoning, and a crisis of democratic legitimacy that culminated in the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and widespread belief among Republicans that the election had been stolen from Donald Trump. Democracy amid Crises explains how these forces and the media messaging through which they were filtered shaped the election and post-election dialogue, as well as voter perceptions of both, with worrisome potential consequences for democracy. The book spotlights not one but several electorates, each embedded in a distinctive informational environment. The four crises affected these electorates differently, partly because the unique constellations of media in which they were advertently and inadvertently enmeshed contained dissimilar messages from the campaigns and other sources of influence. Awash in distinctive message streams, the various electorates adopted divergent perspectives on the crises, candidates, and state of the country. As a result, understanding voting behavior and attitudes about the events that followed requires an analysis of both the distinctive electorates and the informational environments that enveloped them. Importantly, our findings raise fundamental questions about the nation’s future, occasioned by the contest over whether the 2020 presidential election was fairly and freely decided and by worrisome responses to the reality that the country’s citizenry is becoming more multiracial, multiethnic, and, on matters religious, agnostic.

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