Welcome to the Spring, 2003 Issue

It has certainly been an eventful spring. At the APSA meeting last September, several scholars informally discussed what live war coverage by reporters with satellite phones might be like and the implications of such coverage for press freedom and for national security. Today, the coverage is a reality. As of this writing, twelve journalists have died along with more than 100 U.S. and British soldiers and thousands of Iraqis. Iraq, meanwhile, threatens the United States not with military defeat but with “another Vietnam.” This issue, then, is published under circumstances quite different from those under which it was designed. Yet the gap between our planning and our posting reminds us that despite our fascination with the live living-room-war, important developments continue in other aspects of political communication as well.

Christina Holtz-Bacha, the president of ICA’s political communication division, reminds us of the importance of comparative work in the discipline. Her article on recent changes in the ways that the private lives of politicians become public issues in Germany reveals interesting parallels to current practice in the United States but significant differences as well. European legal protections for privacy and differing attitudes toward press freedoms, as well as the backstage relationships between politicians and journalists, add a distinctive twist to German media’s coverage and German politicians’ strategic use of “private life.”

Since our last issue was posted, the major news networks have re-organized their exit polling operations under the guidance of the venerable Warren Mitofsky and Joe Lenski. We thought this moment of transition was an excellent opportunity to ask some public opinion scholars about the future of exit polls, including their role in democratic discourse, their use and abuse by media and politicians, and the challenges facing the new team of exit pollers. Michael Delli Carpini, Gerald Kosicki, and Michael Traugott share their wisdom in a roundtable.

Our featured resource this issue is four collections of war-themed images from the Library of Congress’s On-Line Prints and Photographs collection. Photos from the Civil and Crimean Wars and propaganda posters from World War I and the Spanish Civil War are available on the web and provide a fascinating look at how war has been documented for and “sold” to the public.

A list of recent and forthcoming books includes several on media coverage of conflict and on political aspects of new media technologies.

This year, ICA made available paper abstracts for the 2003 meeting to be held next month. We supply the short abstracts for the themed panels that will round out the program in the political communication division.

While there are relatively few calls for papers over the coming few months, there are lots of relevant meetings. The upcoming deadline for Fulbright scholarships tops our list of funding opportunities.

Hope to see you in San Diego this May.

Jill Edy