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In Editor's Foreword, Kathleen E. Kendall (State U of New York, Albany) provides an overview to this symposium addressing communication problems of presidential candidates, their handling, & theoretical explanations of these situations. In Presidential Concession Speeches: The Rhetoric of Defeat, Paul E. Corcoran (U of Adelaide, South Australia 5001) analyzes the elaborate rituals of defeated presidential candidates, 1952-1992. Consistent patterns of style, strategy, & content are found that utilize metaphors of game, sport, chivalry, & epic quest. Seen as a narrative of democratic action, it is symbolic of the public moral drama & thus involves complex spiritual concerns. In Managing Perceptions of Public Opinion: Candidates' and Journalists' Reactions to the 1992 Polls, Sandra Bauman (Northwestern U, Evanston, IL) & Susan Herbst report on an exploratory study of the discourse surrounding opinion polls. Based on an analysis of how presidential preference polls were reported in 5 major daily newspapers in the last 2 months of the 1992 campaign, it is argued that public actors including candidates & campaign professionals reify public opinion by using a variety of rhetorical techniques to shape the statistical discourse of the campaign. In Visible and Invisible Candidates: A Case Study in "Competing Logics" of Campaign Coverage, Joshua Meyrowitz (U of New Hampshire, Durham) presents an analysis of the patterns of coverage & noncoverage of Democratic candidate Larry Agran's 1992 presidential campaign. Three logics concerning how campaigns should be covered are identified. It is suggested that the largest gap between national journalistic logic & both local journalistic & public logics exists in the reporting of minor candidates at major events. It is concluded that Agran's exclusion from national press coverage was overdetermined, & that the gap between the logics needs to be addressed. Suggestions for additional research are provided. 116 References. D. Schwartz

"Der Beitrag exploriert den Begriff des News Management als strategische Option der politischen Öffentlichkeitsarbeit von Regierungen in modernen Massendemokratien. Was ist News Management? Welchen Stellenwert hat News Management im politischen Prozeß? Wie ist News Management institutionell verankert und wie variieren die Stile des News Management in unterschiedlichen Ländern? Die Annahme der Autorin ist, daß die Stile des News Management von einer Reihe von Kontextfaktoren abhängen, die im politischen System, dem Mediensystem und der Medienkultur verankert sind. Der Beitrag analysiert die Ausprägungen des News Management von Regierungen auf der Basis einer Typologie von Mazzoleni für die USA, Großbritannien und Deutschland. Durch den Vergleich läßt sich zeigen, daß die Typen und das Handlungsrepertoire der Informationspolitik nach strukturellen und normativen Kontexten des Regierungssystems und des Mediensystems variieren. In den USA herrscht ein medienorientierter Stil von News Management vor, der durch die Kontextfaktoren eines präsidentiellen Regierungssystems, einer fast vollständig kommerzialisierten Medienlandschaft sowie der Philosphie des 'adversarial journalism' zu begründen ist. Demgegenüber dominieren in Großbritannien und Deutschland politische Stile des News Management, die mit den Kontextfaktoren eines parlamentarischen Regierungssystems und einer starken Rolle politischer Parteien sowie mit der Existenz einer politischen Presse und eines öffentlich-rechtlichen Rundfunks in Zusammenhang gebracht werden können." (Autorenreferat)

Tactics by which individuals withhold information from inquisitive others were explored by inducing individuals to achieve varying goals in conversational encounters. Persons were told to reveal as little as they could about themselves (low revealers), as much as they could about themselves (high revealers), or to have a typical conversation (normals). These individuals were paired in conversation with persons told to find out as much as they could about their conversational partner (high seekers). Information-quality, self-presentation, conversational-management, behavioral, content-focus, and utterance-form tactics were explored. Information-quality and content-focus tactics are the most important tactics for evasion plans, whereas pausal phenomena seem to be indicative of on-line planning of evasiveness. Implications for the study of the negativity effect and disclosure research are discussed.