News & Notes
Elite
Interviewing Short Course
Political Sociology Roundtables at Anaheim
News
On the Internet
Newspaper Archive and Data on the 1992 Presidential Election Available
An extensive collection of U.S. newspapers and data on coverage of the 1992 presidential election is available for donation to a researcher or archive.
Erik A. Devereux, executive director of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management in Washington, D.C., will donate the research materials for the cost of moving the entire collection to a new location.
It includes hard copies of 25 major U.S. newspapers for the period February to November 1992, along with a substantial quantitative data set of coverage of the New Hampshire, Super Tuesday, and California presidential primaries.
The materials represent part of a research project begun at Carnegie Mellon University, where Devereux was collecting detailed information on newspaper layout.
The newspapers include coverage of Hurricane Andrew, the Los Angeles riots, and the entirety of the Perot campaign. Additional research materials include detailed summaries of economic indicators for the year 1992. The main data set is in Microsoft Access format.
Please note that the newspapers will not be preserved after December 2001.
The collection occupies approximately 80 book-sized boxes. Interested persons are asked to write to Erik A. Devereux at P.O. Box 18766, Washington, D.C. 20036, phone (202) 261-5788, or fax 202.223.1149.
Elite interviewing
short course
The Political Organizations and Parties section of the APSA is planning a short course on elite interviewing for the upcoming APSA meetings in San Francisco.
According to executive board member and course organizer Beth L. Leech of Rutgers University, "Although interview data have provided the backbone of many of the most important works in political science, very few graduate programs provide any training or guidance about how to conduct interviews, especially with elite subjects."
The course will provide an afternoon of advice and pointers from experienced interviewers in the discipline, who study congress, public policy, comparative politics, and the courts, as well as political organizations and parties.
Graduate students may apply for a stipend. The deadline for applications is May 15. Write to Diana Dwyre, Department of Political Science, California State University-Chico, Chico, CA 95929, or call (530) 898-6041.
Political Sociology Roundtables in Anaheim
Should political communication researchers have roundtable discussions at APSA each year?
That's the custom at the American Sociological Association, which meets this year in Anaheim, Calif., August 18 - 21.
The Political Sociology section each year organizes several roundtable sessions, two-hour discussions where, according to Pamela Oliver of the University of Wisconsin, "researchers can participate in meaningful dialogue with others who have similar research interests."
The Political Sociology section will hold several panels of interest to political communication researchers: In Search of Civil Society: Theories, Approaches, Sites, chaired by Paul Lichterman of the University of Wisconsin, and Politics, Crime, and Criminal Justice, chaired by David Jacobs of Ohio State University. They are scheduled on Monday and Tuesday, August 20-21.
For more information, call Pamela E. Oliver at (608) 262-6829.
Presidential Debates On Line includes a history of televised debates, the first televised presidential debate, TV debates from 1960 through 1996, the impact of TV on the political process, and curriculum resources.
Coverage of the recent controversy within the APSA, "Political Scientists Are in a Revolution" appeared in the New York Times, Nov. 4, 2000, and is available to registered on-line users.