Hillary Clinton in the News: Gender and Authenticity in American Politics - Hardcover

Parry-Giles, Shawn J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0252038215 ISBN 13: 9780252038211

Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 2014

Synopsis

The charge of inauthenticity has trailed Hillary Clinton from the moment she entered the national spotlight and stood in front of television cameras. Hillary Clinton in the News: Gender and Authenticity in American Politics shows how the U.S. news media created their own news frames of Clinton's political authenticity and image-making, from her participation in Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign through her own 2008 presidential bid.

Using theories of nationalism, feminism, and authenticity, Parry-Giles tracks the evolving ways the major networks and cable news programs framed Clinton's image as she assumed roles ranging from surrogate campaigner, legislative advocate, and financial investor to international emissary, scorned wife, and political candidate.  This study magnifies how the coverage that preceded Clinton's entry into electoral politics was grounded in her earliest presence in the national spotlight, and in long-standing nationalistic beliefs about the boundaries of authentic womanhood and first lady comportment. Once Clinton dared to cross those gender boundaries and vie for office in her own right, the news exuded a rhetoric of sexual violence. These portrayals served as a warning to other women who dared to enter the political arena and violate the protocols of authentic womanhood.

About this title

Book Description:

How the media helped construct political gender norms—and critiqued Hillary Clinton for violating them

About the Author:

Shawn J. Parry-Giles is a professor of communication and director of the Center for Political Communication and Civic Leadership at the University of Maryland and the coauthor of The Prime-Time Presidency: The West Wing and U.S. Nationalism. 

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Illinois Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0252038215
• ISBN 13: 9780252038211
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272