Third International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

This research analyzes the political impact of direct mail (DM) that has been overshadowed by mass media. The idea of DM was based on personalization and intimacy, which derived from an advertising strategy of direct marketing in the midcentury. DM differed from broadcast in that, instead of circulating same information to the mass, it sent personalized messages to prospective supporters according to a huge body of personal information recorded by computers. My presentation examines how DM influenced grassroots activism, investigating the Barry Goldwater campaign’s fundraising in the 1964 presidential election. In the 1960s when liberals dominated mass media, conservatives employed the new medium on behalf of Goldwater. Although Goldwater was overwhelmingly defeated in the race, his campaign achieved the first successful DM solicitation, collecting money from a great number of small contributors. While previous scholars of the conservative movement have explored the mobilization of conservatives in Sunbelt suburbs, I will excavate 1960s “big data” politics on Madison Avenue, which transformed “grassroots” movement from face-to-face interactions toward loose networks of various individuals. This historical research is an attempt to look at how the new communication technology affected political participation during the late twentieth century.