Understanding the Unprecedented 2016 Campaign 9 In light of the criticisms about the media’s coverage of the 2016 presidential campaign, Daniela V. Dimitrova and Kimberly Nelson investigate “Fact-Checking and the 2016 Presidential Election: News Media’s Attempts to Correct Mis- leading Information from the Debates” in Chapter 7. Through a content analysis of articles from three national newspapers, they examined 231 fact- checking statements to determine how the news media performed their watch- dog role according to established criteria after each of the three presidential debates. In addition to reporting the results of their study, the authors make suggestions on how journalists can improve their fact-checking function espe- cially in today’s polarized political environment. Part One concludes with an analysis of the rhetorical functions of comedic political impersonation in Chapter 8, “ ‘I’m About to Be President We’re All Going to Die’: Baldwin, Trump, and the Rhetorical Power of Comedic Presi- dential Impersonation.” Authors Will Howell and Trevor Parry-Giles trace the developments in comedic presidential impersonation from 1928 to 2017— including the 2016 presidential campaign, election, and new administration, during which actor Alec Baldwin portrayed Trump in a record 15 of the 18 episodes of Saturday Night Live that ran in the final four weeks of the campaign through his first 100 days as president. Their analysis suggests a new func- tion for comedic presidential impersonations. Part Two—Campaign Communication—features eight studies that examine not only the communication strategies of Clinton and Trump but also Michelle Obama and female and male candidates running for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2016. Five of these chapters examine presidential can- didate communication during the primary and presidential debates as well as in their campaign speeches, interviews, and tweets. One chapter analyzes former First Lady Obama’s speeches at three Democratic National Conven- tions. Two chapters examine political tele vi sion ads: one looking at their effects during late-night comedy tele vi sion shows and the other focusing on their con- tent in mixed-gender U.S. House races. In Chapter 9, “Processing the Political: Presidential Primary Debate ‘Live- Tweeting’ as Information Processing,” Josh C. Bramlett, Mitchell S. McKinney, and Benjamin R. Warner explore presidential primary debate social watching behaviors through a content analysis of college students’ tweets and their responses to pre- and post-debate surveys. Their goal was to explore how view- ers acquire issue knowledge from debates, as well as the relationship between political attitudes and social watching behaviors in a real-time setting. Their study provides an in-depth examination of tweet content to more fully explore message processing, including issue/image focus, positive/negative assessment, and agreement/disagreement with candidate issue positions. In Chapter 10, “Donald Trump and the Rejection of the Norms of Ameri- can Politics and Rhetoric,” Robert C. Rowland argues that Trump’s campaign is best understood within the rhetorical frameworks of “nationalistic pop u lism”