Persuasive Attacks on Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Primary investigates the nature of persuasive attacks on Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential primary campaign. It begins by extending the Theory of Persuasive Attack to include attacks on character as well as attacks on actions. William L. Benoit & Mark J. Glantz use topical analysis to understand humor (late night television jokes; video from SNL, Colbert, and Oliver; articles in The Onion, and political cartoons) and Republican “establishment” attacks from Mitt Romney and the National Review. Quantitative content analysis examines attacks in primary debates and primary TV spots. The book concludes with criticisms found on social media platforms and TV talk shows.

This edited collection explores a wide range of communication elements and themes, representing a variety of topics and methodologies. It focuses broadly on the role and function of communication within the context of the 2016 United States presidential election, with chapters devoted to topics including an overview of the election from a communication perspective, the nominations, strategies of campaign visits, the impact of gender in the campaign, the impact of WikiLeaks, front page election coverage, messaging and performance of third-party candidates, Trump’s campaign announcement address, and Clinton’s concession speech. This is an eclectic collection that makes a significant contribution to current understandings of the various roles of communication in the historic presidential election of 2016.

This book examines perhaps the most contentious election in modern US history—the 2016 United States presidential election. It is unique in its discussion of a wide range of issues affecting the news media coverage of the election, coming from an equally diverse range of intellectual perspectives including the rhetorical, social-scientific, communication studies, and media studies. With eleven chapters grounded in hard evidence and communication theory, The 2016 American Presidential Campaign and the News: Implications for American Democracy and the Republic examines significant topics such as fake news, media construction of Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s campaign personalities, media bias, visual meme depictions of the candidates, identity politics in the news, Trump’s Twitter use, entertainment news, and social media as news. These chapters individually and collectively provide a direct commentary on the implications of the 2016 campaign news coverage for the future of the American Republic and political communication in the media.

In our constantly plugged-in and connected world, image is everything. People, groups, organizations, and countries frequently come under suspicion of wrongdoing and sometimes require defense. Accounts, Excuses, and Apologies describes the image-repair strategies that may be used to help defuse these threats. The Third Edition of this classic book builds on theories for rehabilitating a damaged reputation by adding two new forms of denial: straw denial (appearing to deny an accusation by sidestepping it) and deflecting attention (trying to get the audience to focus on something other than the accusations against you). Five contexts for image repair are examined: corporate, political, sports/entertainment, international, and third party (when one person or organization tries to repair the image of another). The book’s case studies include current instances of reputation repair, including Vladimir Putin on Ukraine and President Joe Biden on Afghanistan; Southwest Airlines on flight cancellations; Kobe Bryant on accusations of rape; and Donald Trump on the January 6 hearings.

A Rhetoric of Divisive Partisanship: The 2016 American Presidential Campaign Discourse of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump examines the campaign speeches of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump as they targeted members of the American public that were ideologically different but equally emotionally vulnerable. Each appealed to marginalized segments of the electorate, groups at opposite ends of the political spectrum, joined through a shared distrust and fear of politics instead of political or even party affiliation. Both Sanders and Trump polarized and reinforced their respective bases as “outsiders.” Both relied on anti-establishment arguments and discussions grounded in personal attacks against “enemies” during which they joined their target audiences as marginalized outsiders united through a desire to overthrow the status quo and re-claim America. The book expands on previous ideas about dialogue and political talk and asserts that rather than serving as a model of civic and civil discourse, the rhetoric of Sanders and Trump was reactionary and divisive, begun with different intentions and producing different results.

In a world of global communication, where each one’s life depends increasingly on signs, language and communication, understanding how we relate and opening ourselves to otherness, to differences in all their forms and aspects is becoming more and more relevant. Today, we often understand the differences in terms of adversity or opposition and forget the value of the similarities. Semiotic approaches can provide a critical point of view and a more general reflection that can redefine some aspects of the discussion about the nature of these semiotic categories, differences and similarities. The dichotomy differences – similarities is fundamental to understanding the meaning-making mechanisms in language (De Saussure, 1966; Deleuze, 1995), as well as in other sign systems (Ponzio, 1995; Sebeok & Danesi, 2000). Meaning always appears in the “play of differences” (Derrida, 1978) and similarities. Therefore, the phenomena of similarities and differences must be considered complementary (Marcus, 2011). This book addresses and offers new perspectives for analyzing and understanding sensitive topics in the world of global communication (humanities education, responsive understanding of otherness, digital culture and new media power).

The Monstrous Discourse in the Donald Trump Campaign: Implications for National Discourse provides a lens through which to explore the implications of the monster metaphor as applied to Trump during the 2016 presidential election. Analyzing the overt and buried usages of the monster metaphor in the media’s and Trump’s discourse, as well as the structure of the monster narrative generally, offers connections between the metaphor and the actions incited by its narrative. This book explores the ways in which this language also serves as a metaphor to understand the ecology of Trump’s candidacy and the polarized responses drawn by his campaign, and considers its troubling implications for the future direction of national discourse.