Kevin Coe
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About Kevin
Coe is an expert in American political discourse whose body of research focuses on presidents and news media. He has conducted numerous studies uncovering over-time changes in how presidents address the public and work to get their messages transmitted in news coverage. This research has especially focused on changes in the presidency amid new contexts and on how presidents talk about issues of identity.
Contributions
Why – And How – Modern American Politicians Talk about God and Religion
In the News
Publications
Demonstrates that the last three presidents have been much more likely than their predecessors to link Christianity to other faiths and to nonbelievers, but have deemphasized linkages between Christianity and America’s heritage
Demonstrates that the rationales for war circulating in television news during the Iraq War had only a limited impact on public support for the war.
Shows that all modern presidents have relied on six primary rationales for war, but that their emphasis on these rationales varies considerably. Argues that this variation is caused more by wartime circumstances than by a president’s individual characteristics.
Tracks the political use of religion across the past eight decades, showing a massive and enduring increase since the early 1980s.