Free (Kobo CA) Election Night: TV History 1948-2012 [Political Media Coverage Memoir]

[ATDrake]

Election Night: A Television History 1948-2012 by Stephen Battaglio is both a retrospective and a behind-the-scenes look at the personalities, politics, issues, and broadcast technology surrounding the US presidential elections and their coverage, providing personal anecdotes as well as factual backgrounders, free courtesy of publisher NBC Publishing, who are indeed related to the US network news channel.

This is really nifty, and loaded with lots of official press and behind-the-scenes photos and campaign posters/memorabilia in addition to the other interesting stuff.

If you have a supporting device/reader app, you might also want to pick up the enhanced sample chapters for the years 1960 and 2012, which are available in several stores, and provide extra video clips from contemporary broadcasts taken from the NBC archives which you might find of viewing interest.

Currently free for who knows how much longer @ Kobo (apparently only available to Canadians).

The enhanced bonus chapters are also available in the US & UK at least.

1960, contains video clips of the Kennedy vs Nixon debate and NBC News tallying up the vote results, etc. @ B&N (requires a NOOKcolor or NOOKTablet), iTunes (available to Canadians).

2012, some pre-voting analysis, and the post-voting reaction, etc. @ iTunes (available to Canadians)

And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) ebook thread of the day.

Enjoy!

Description
Election Night: A Television History by Stephen Battaglio is a fascinating and revealing look at the evolution of U.S. presidential election night broadcasts and how since 1948, this televised event galvanizes the nation.

It explores the technical advancements in vote counting, live coverage from the field, how the networks get polling information and call a state for a candidate and how the drama unfolds in the control room. Through the lens of NBC News, Election Night highlights significant commentary by legendary news figures such as Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, John Chancellor, Tom Brokaw, Tim Russert, and Brian Williams.

Drawing from the extensive archives of NBC News, Battaglio goes through every presidential race beginning with Truman vs. Dewey and covers all sixteen elections broadcasted since the dawn of television, including the 2012 re-election of President Barack Obama.

Filled with anecdotal stories about political campaigns and network coverage, Election Night provides a "behind-the-scenes" account by industry professionals and gives inside access to history in the making.

Photos are featured throughout as well as memorabilia from each political campaign.

The book features many of television's most memorable appearances by major political figures in U.S. history including Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, John McCain, and Barack Obama, among many others.

Election Night: A Television History is a must read for history buffs, political junkies, television enthusiasts and anyone interested in discovering how every four years our nation elects the President of the United States and how Americans watch it happen.