New Security Challenges: The Framing of Terrorist Threat in Election Campaigns (completed)

New Security Challenges: The Framing of Terrorist Threat in Election Campaigns (completed)

Investigators

  • Dr Sarah Oates (PI)
  • Kate Smith
  • Mike Berry (RA)

This project investigates the framing of terrorist threat in election campaigns in the United States, Russia and Great Britain. The research has been conducted under two grants from the New Security Challenges Programme of the British Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Grants

The Framing of Terrorist Threat in U.S. and Russian Elections, October 2003-October 2005

Collection of main evening news during Russian Duma and presidential campaigns as well as for U.S. general presidential election in 2004. Collection of political advertising in both countries. Focus groups after presidential elections in both countries to gauge reactions to attempts at 'framing' terrorism and security issues. Work in the United States was completed in conjunction with research partners including Prof. Lynda Lee Kaid (University of Florida), Monica Postelnicu (University of Florida), Dr Andrew Paul Williams (Virginia Tech), Dr John Tedesco (Virginia Tech) and Dr Mitchell McKinney (University of Missouri).

The Framing of Terrorist Threat in British Elections, 2005-2007

Co-principal is Ms. Kate Smith (Abertay). Work ongoing and has included the collection of  BBC and ITV nightly news during the British 2005 parliamentary campaign and  17 focus groups after the elections to discuss terrorism, elections and the media. Many of the focus groups were held in London just after the July  7 bombings and provide insight into how some groups -- including socially excluded individuals -- reacted to the events and media coverage of the bombings. The research assistant for this grant is Dr Mike Berry at the University of Glasgow.

Publications

Citizen or Comrade?: Terrorist Threat in Election Campaigns in Russia and the U.S. (with Monica Postelnicu). Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association Meeting, Washington, D.C., September 2005.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail: The Role of Terrorist Threat in Russian Election Campaigns. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association Meeting, Chicago, September 2004. 

Security, Terrorism and the U.K. July 2005. Chatham House Briefing Paper.

Media, Civil Society, and the Failure of the Fourth Estate in Russia. 2005. In Alfred B. Evans Jr., Laura A. Henry and Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom (eds), Russian Civil Society: A Critical Assessment. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe Inc. ISBN 0765615215

Post-Soviet Political Style: Parties, Television and Voters. 2004. In Geir Flikke (ed.)  The Uncertainties of Putin’s Democracy (Oslo: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs 2004), pp. 109-128, ISBN 8270021008

Television and Elections in Russia 2006. London: RoutledgeCurzon. ISBN 0415381347.

A Spiral of Post-Soviet Cynicism: The First Decade of Political Advertising in Russia. 2006. In Lynda Lee Kaid and Christina Holtz-Bacha (eds) Handbook of International Political Advertising. London: SAGE.

Media and Politics 2008. Sage

For more information on the New Security Challenges Programme, please visit the programme's website at the University of Birmingham (UK).