Customer Reviews

Dirty Politics: Deception, Distraction, and Democracy

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As a professor of communication, I have enthusiastically used Kathleen Hall Jamieson's Dirty Politics as a text that makes sense of so much of what we see in nationally televised politics. Students invariably come away from reading Jamieson with a much deeper apprecation for politics--and what ails it. The strength of this text is in the attention to detail; specifically, Jamieson grounds her study in focus group research. And in those instances where she doesn't utilize such research, her readings of various televisual advertising is usually nuanced and insightful. The one drawback to the text, one that Jamieson would perhaps actually endorse, is its elitism; that is, only certain sorts of elites watch the Lehrer News Hour (to which she contributes frequently), and have the educational skills to do the hard work of argument, engagement and debate that she so heartily endorses. Politics isn't a spectator sport; in this text, Jamieson encourages us to get up off the couch and actually engage--and thereby hold candidates accountable for the discourse of Democracy.

Campaigning strategy has become the first and foremost informational tool citizens use to evaluate the political arena of today's democratic society. The problem that arises through this medium is that what the public see's, hears, and witnesses is not always factual. Campaign analyst Kathleen Hall Jamieson, presents a book in which this such topic is addressed. Arguing for fair, accurate, contextual, comparative, and engaged campaign discourse; Jamieson explains to her readers the proper way in which to objectively evaluate bias political paraphernalia. She provides insight in how to listen, read and watch political campaigns without becoming what she calls a "Pack Rat." According to Jamieson, "What is shown is not necessarily what is seen. What is said is not always what is heard."(Page 9) By reading this book carefully, one becomes familiar with how to evaluate a politician's agenda and how to successfully walk away with the `facts'. Jamieson sets her book up in four themes. First she talks about attack in political campaigning, past and present. She then goes on to discuss news broad cast and advertisement, continuing with news coverage of campaigning. She finalizes her thoughts by discussing the norms of discourse. By carefully calling to attention the usage of political sloganeering, manipulative television representation, and false `facts' to create a political figure; Jamieson exposes it all in Dirty Politics.

This book is not of a scholarly quality. It is an attempt to illustrate what occurs in politics, but it is written at the level of a more popular work. What does this mean? Well, it means that there are more than a few good anecdotes in the book, but nothing all that insightful or anything that could be called a theory. This same information could be gleaned from a month of watching Meet the Press, or some such show. So, if you are a joe sixpack, it might inform your thinking, but if you are anyone beyond that it will primarily entertain you.

I had to buy this book for a class, maybe thats why it left such a bad after taste, but I didnt enjoy it. It seemed politically left leaning, for however unbiased it claimed to be. However, maybe that was just my professor's spin on it.

Upon entering 1oth grade Honors Government and Economy, I was forced to read this book to enhance my summer project. Throughout reading this book I came to the conclusion that this was a poorly written book. Although Kathleen Hall Jamieson's book contains good thoughts, she uses an over-exceedingly amount of adjectives in the process of communicating her philosophies. However, despite my distaste for her writing, Kathleen Hall Jamieson's book, "Dirty Politics", contains valuable information and is a decent book for someone who enjoys researching the medias' influence on presidential campaigns.