Political communication has its roots to the earliest classical studies of Aristotle and Plato, modern political communication research is very much an interdisciplinary field of study, drawing on concepts from communication, political science, journalism, sociology, psychology, history, rhetoric, and other fields. In their seminal Handbook of Political Communication, Nimmo and Sanders (1981) traced the development of the field as an academic discipline in the latter half of the 20th century, and other scholars have described the breadth and scope of political communication (Kaid, 1996; Swanson & Nimmo, 1990). There have been advanced many definitions of political communication but none has gained universal acceptance. Perhaps the best is t...