The Year in C-SPAN Archives Research

"Robert Browning's annual C-SPAN research series has become a veritable scholarly institution. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the C-SPAN Video Library, and this volume's incredible array of research projects drawn from it demonstrates its importance for our understanding of public life. In the chapters collected here, scholars analyze everything from congressional debates over mental health and law enforcement to speeches from the campaign trail in 2016. In doing so, the scholarship in this volume sheds light on elite rhetoric and the claims that ground policymaking and the search for public legitimacy. As importantly, this volume sets a research agenda for the future in demonstrating the varied methodological approaches and substantive objects of interest that this invaluable archive supports. As this volume makes clear, research using the C-SPAN Archives is particularly important at a time marked by declining trust in political institutions and elected representatives." —Daniel Kreiss

"This volume clearly demonstrates the value and versatility of the C-SPAN Video Library. From comparisons of Trump's speeches and tweets to analyses of congressional debates on law enforcement, the chapters in this volume highlight the array of methodological and theoretical approaches that can leverage the Archives to answer our most pressing research questions. In addition to answering the valuable questions posed, the studies in this volume serve as excellent models for future research by demonstrating numerous innovative research designs that can be built around the Archives' content. The volume brings together work from several disciplines to provide key insights into what we can learn from careful analyses of elite rhetoric, narrative, and debate." —Johanna Dunaway