Media Relations and the Modern First Lady: From Jacqueline Kennedy to Melania Trump (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020)

Describe the focus of your book.

The book looks at how media relations strategies of U.S. first ladies have evolved over the years with a focus on how the relationship between presidential spouses, their staffs, and journalists can shape press coverage. I was fortunate to assemble an amazing team of contributors, including some of the most prominent first ladies scholars. Their chapters examine the media relations of first ladies from Jacqueline Kennedy, who was the first to have a staff member (Pamela Turnure) with the title “press secretary,” to Melania Trump.

Each chapter analyzes the relationship between their first lady and the media, the role played by her press secretary and communications staff in cultivating this relationship, examples of the first lady’s media coverage, and an assessment of how successful the first lady and her staff were in communicating their message through the media to the public. The book also includes a chapter by Maurine Beasley that provides an overview of how presidential wives handled the media before the role of first lady press secretary formalized. My introduction establishes the framework for the collection while Alison Novak’s conclusion summarizes the keys to successful media relations.

How did you come across this subject? Why did it interest you?

My primary research focus has been on media coverage of presidential spouses. My first book, First Ladies and the Fourth Estate: Press Framing of Presidential Wives (2008), looked at newspaper and magazine coverage of 20^th century first ladies from a feminist rhetorical perspective, which merged my professional background as a journalist with my academic training as a media historian and rhetorical critic. When I teach my Political Communication course at Quinnipiac University, I do so from a strategic communication perspective. This book project brought together my research and teaching interests, offering me a chance to explore how the strategic communication tactics of first ladies and their staffs impacted their media coverage.

I was also inspired by the memoir of Lady Bird Johnson’s press secretary, Liz Carpenter. I think Ruffles and Flourishes is one of the best books about the inner workings of a presidential administration. Carpenter and Johnson set the standard for first lady press relations. They recognized that establishing a good working relationship with reporters would result in largely positive media coverage. While I’ve written about Johnson’s media relations, there’s very little scholarship on other first ladies. So, this book was an attempt to fill that gap in the literature.   

What archives or research materials did you use? 

The contributors based their analyses of each first lady’s communication strategy on a variety of sources. The presidential libraries were tremendous resources. Some of the archival documents examined included press releases, speech texts, press conference transcripts, memoranda, and notes detailing how the first lady and her staff handled various events and topics. Meanwhile, the oral histories and memoirs of first ladies and their press secretaries detailed how these women assessed their media relations efforts and the resulting press coverage, while books by White House reporters offered journalists’ perspectives on covering first ladies. For some of the chapters, authors interviewed former White House staffers and reporters. I was fortunate to have a few contributors with first-hand experience working with Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, and Nancy Reagan. Examples of media coverage – newspaper and magazine articles, transcripts, and video footage of first lady media appearances – were also examined. Finally, these primary sources were supported with information from books and articles that provided additional insight into the relationship between first ladies, their staffs, and members of the media. I was incredibly impressed with the amount of research we managed to pack into this book.

How does your book relate to journalism history? How is it relevant to the present?

I think public relations history is an important part of journalism history, but it’s often treated as its own specialty area. We need more studies that examine the interplay between PR practitioners, journalists, and public figures. In this project, we argue that there is a lot we can learn about media relations, rhetorical strategies, message construction, and image management from looking the communication tactics of first ladies and their press secretaries. There are also interesting gender dynamics to be explored, including the relationships between first ladies, their press secretaries (all but one was female), and the reporters (historically women) who cover the East Wing and how media coverage of presidential spouses highlights shifting social views on gender roles. Finally, first lady media relations reflect how political figures, public relations practitioners, and media professionals have responded to changes in the media industry, including the emergence of new communication outlets reaching audiences interested in politics. For example, Shaniece Bickham’s chapter examines how Michelle Obama and her team leveraged television appearances and social media to control their messaging, which was a very effective strategy.

What advice do you have for other historians that are working on or starting book projects?

My biggest takeaway from this project is that you don’t always need to do it all yourself. While our quantitative colleagues are used to working in teams, we historians tend to toil alone in the archives. I initially wanted to do this as a solo authored book but I knew I didn’t have the time or resources to do the research necessary. So, I shifted to the idea of an edited collection, which ended up being the best decision. My contributors brought such an incredible wealth of knowledge, experience, and passion to each of their chapters. It would have taken me years to compile the impressive amount of research my team was able to do in less than a year. I also enjoyed being an editor and working with each of the authors to shape their chapters. It was a different challenge from being an author, leaving me with a greater respect for scholars willing to lead a project from start to finish. The book is still my vision, but it was truly a team effort and a much better product than if I’d written it on my own. Since completing this project, I’ve done two co-authored chapters and I’m currently working on a third. In the past I was always hesitant to write with someone else, but thanks to the book project, I’ve learned how rewarding collaboration can be.