Politicking and Emergent Media looks at four presidential campaigns in the United States during the long 1890s (1888-1900) and the ways in which Republicans and Democrats mobilized a wide variety of media forms in their efforts to achieve electoral victory. The 1890s was a pivotal era in which new means of audio and visual inscription were first deployed. Newspapers remained the dominant media, and Democrats had gained sufficient advantage in 1884 to put Grover Cleveland in the White House. In 1888 Republicans responded by strengthening their media arm with a variety of tactics, using the ster ... More

Politicking and Emergent Media looks at four presidential campaigns in the United States during the long 1890s (1888-1900) and the ways in which Republicans and Democrats mobilized a wide variety of media forms in their efforts to achieve electoral victory. The 1890s was a pivotal era in which new means of audio and visual inscription were first deployed. Newspapers remained the dominant media, and Democrats had gained sufficient advantage in 1884 to put Grover Cleveland in the White House. In 1888 Republicans responded by strengthening their media arm with a variety of tactics, using the stereopticon, a modernized magic lantern, to deliver popular illustrated lectures on the protective tariff which helped Republican candidate Benjamin Harrison defeat Cleveland--though Harrison lost the rematch four years later. Efforts to regain a media advantage continued in 1896 as Republicans embraced motion pictures, the phonograph and telephone to further William McKinley’s campaign for president. When the traditionally Democratic press rejected “Free Silver” candidate William Jennings Bryan, McKinley’s victory was assured. As the United States became a world power in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War, audio-visual media promoted American Imperialism, the “paramount issue” of the 1900 election, as McKinley won a second term.