RT Article
T1 Religion in American Presidential Campaigns, 1952-2016: Applying a New Framework for Understanding Candidate Communication
JF Journal for the scientific study of religion
VO 58
IS 2
SP 398
OP 414
A1 Chapp, Christopher 1979-
A1 Coe, Kevin 198X-
A2 Coe, Kevin 198X-
LA English
YR 2019
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1669980839
AB The content and impact of religious communication in politics has been a topic of increasing public and scholarly interest in recent years. To provide a foundation for future research in this area, the present study theorizes five broad factors-historical trajectory, party expectations, audience religiosity, candidate attributes, and opponent strategy-that may help explain why political candidates use religious language. We employ this framework in a large-scale computer-assisted content analysis of U.S. presidential campaign speeches from 1952 to 2016. Findings reveal that the Reagan shift observed in prior research was driven specifically by God language, that the "God gap" between Democrats and Republicans is modest and topic-specific, and that audience characteristics are crucial in explaining candidates' religious communication.
K1 God gap
K1 campaign communication
K1 narrowcasting
K1 Politics
K1 Religious Communication
DO 10.1111/jssr.12590