Managing the Press [electronic resource] : Origins of the Media Presidency, 1897-1933

Managing the Press re-examines the emergence of the twentieth century media President, whose authority to govern depends largely on his ability to generate public support by appealing to the citizenry through the news media. From 1897 to 1933, White House successes and failures with the press established a foundation for modern executive leadership and helped to shape patterns of media practices and technologies through which Americans have viewed the presidency during most of the twentieth century. Author Stephen Ponder shows how these findings suggest a new context for contemporary questions about mediated public opinion and the foundations of presidential power, the challenge to the presidency by an increasingly adversarial press, the emergence of 'new media' formats and technologies, and the shaping of presidential leadership for the twenty-first century. Managing the Press explores the rise of the media presidency through the lens of the late-twentieth century, when the relationship between the President and the press is relevant to more important issues than ever before in the context of American politics.

re-examines The Emergence Of The Twentieth Century Media President, Whose Authority To Govern Depends Largely On His Ability To Generate Public Support By Appealing To The Citizenry Through The News Media.

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this Examination Of The Origins Of The Media Presidency Provides A Useful And Balanced Explanation Of How The Presidency--with The Help Of New Media--grabbed Center Stage In The American Political Drama. Focusing On The Formative Years 1897-1933, Ponder (journalism, Univ. Of Oregon) Demonstrates How Presidents, Through Trial And Error, Developed Strategies For Attracting Media Attention (and With It, Power) Away From Congress. By Attracting The Focus Of The Media, Presidents Were Able To Shift The Balance Of Power In Favor Of The Presidency. Because Of The President's Demonstrated Ability To Upstage Congress, The New Media Were Used To Place The President At Center Stage Both Politically And Symbolically. Thorough And Readable, This Work Is Indispensable For Those Wishing To Understand How The Symbiotic (if Often Strained) Relationship Between The Media And The Presidency Has Developed Over Time.--michael A. Genovese, Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles

Front Matter ....Pages i-xix McKinley and the First White House Press Corps (Stephen Ponder)....Pages 1-15 Theodore Roosevelt: Publicity! Publicity! Publicity! (Stephen Ponder)....Pages 17-34 The White House and the First “Press Bureaus” (Stephen Ponder)....Pages 35-48 Taft: Avoiding the Press (Stephen Ponder)....Pages 49-61 The Consequences of “Nonpublicity” (Stephen Ponder)....Pages 63-75 Wilson: Centralizing Executive Information (Stephen Ponder)....Pages 77-90 Presidential Propaganda in World War I (Stephen Ponder)....Pages 91-107 Harding and Coolidge: Emergence of the Media Presidency (Stephen Ponder)....Pages 109-125 Herbert Hoover and Cabinet Publicity in the 1920s (Stephen Ponder)....Pages 127-140 Hoover: The Press and Presidential Failure (Stephen Ponder)....Pages 141-155 Conclusion: The Media Presidency (Stephen Ponder)....Pages 157-165 Back Matter ....Pages 167-233 Managing the Press re-examines the emergence of the twentieth-century media President, whose authority to govern depends largely on his ability to generate public support by appealing to the citizenry through the news media. From 1897 to 1933, White House successes and failures with the press established a foundation for modern executive leadership and helped to shape patterns of media practices and technologies through which Americans have viewed the presidency during most of the twentieth century. Stephen Ponder shows how these findings suggest a new context for such issues as mediated public opinion and the foundations of presidential power, the challenge to the presidency by an increasingly adversarial press, the emergence of "new media" formats and technologies, and the shaping of twenty-first century presidential leadership.