Mosh the Polls: Youth Voters, Popular Culture, and the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election

We are seeking contributions for an edited book that will examine the role of popular culture in mobilizing youth voters during the 2004 US Presidential Election. Before the election, critics had routinely decried the relative lack of participation among young people eligible to vote. Yet throughout the 2004 campaign season, drawing from the realm of popular culture, various celebrities, political personalities, and sponsoring organizations used new methods to engage potential youth voters in political discourse and drive them to the polls. At the same time, spurning traditional news coverage, many of these 18-30 year olds increasingly turned to alternative sources for information, including rock concerts, talk and comedy shows, Hollywood releases, and commercials that mimicked the production values of MTV videos. The essays in this book will attempt to describe and analyze several implications of this changing political media landscape and provide insight into political phenomena that are bound to get only more complex.

A guiding assumption the text will take is that the meanings generated through political discourse are ultimately developed through the transaction of the producers of political texts and the users of those texts as they form interpretations within the context of various cultural influences. Consequently, the book will look both at recent popular culture texts that allow the possibility of multiple readings and at the young citizens who interact with these expressions from various subject positions and social settings. We invite submissions that collectively implement diverse methodological approaches (textual analysis, qualitative and quantitative audience studies, content analysis, archival research, etc.); cut across various disciplines, including media studies, cultural studies, political science/communication, and sociology; and present findings using a variety of theoretical frameworks.

Topics that could be considered include:

• Howard Dean and the Internet
• Clear Channel and political biases
• Fictional formats (West Wing, etc.) and political discourse
• Popular music and audience reception
• Popular culture events (“Rap the Vote,” “Citizen Change,” etc.)
• Religious popular culture campaigns (Christian rock and rap concerts, etc.)
• Etc.

Submissions should be 20-30 pages (5000-7500 words) in length and follow the guidelines of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), 5th ed. Also include a 150-word abstract. Send an e-copy, as well a hard copies to each of the following two editors: