Voting alone: the decline of bodily mass communication and public sensationalism in presidential elections

Abstract

The congregational crowd was a powerful mode of political communication in the nineteenth-century US until banished by the imposition of literate modes on popular electoral politics by Progressive reformers. We examine its major channels of expression, bodily mass communication and public sensationalism, within a framework of class-based struggle, observing that the practice of live bodily assembly created broad points of entry into political life, socialized the young, and successfully conveyed the importance of voting. A text-based normative model of the informed deliberative voter, we argue, offers too narrow a conception of participation compared to a more spaciously conceived democratic community.

Keywords:

• Democracy
• Civic Participation
• Bodily Communication
• Class Struggle
• Public Assembly
• Voting

Notes

Carolyn Marvin is Frances Yates Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. Peter Simonson is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh. Correspondence to: Carolyn Marvin, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 3620 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6220, USA. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter Simonson

Carolyn Marvin is Frances Yates Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. Peter Simonson is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh. Correspondence to: Carolyn Marvin, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 3620 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6220, USA. Email: [email protected]