Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Controlling the Message in the Social Media Marketplace of Ideas / Victoria A. Farrar-Myers and Justin S. Vaughn -- Part 1: Elite Utilization -- 1. Strategic Communication in a Networked Age / Daniel Kreiss and Creighton Welch -- 2. Congressional Campaigns' Motivations for Social Media Adoption / Girish J. Gulati and Christine B. Williams -- 3. Surrogates or Competitors? Social Media Use by Independent Political Actors / Julia R. Azari and Benjamin A. Stewart -- 4. The Competition to Control Campaign Messages on YouTube / Robert J. Klotz -- Part 2: Message Control in the New Media Environment -- 5. Campaign News in the Time of Twitter / Regina G. Lawrence -- 6. New and Traditional Media Reportage on Electoral Campaign Controversies / Mike Gruszczynski -- 7. Traditional Media, Social Media, and Different Presidential Campaign Messages / Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha -- Part 3: Social Media's Impact on Campaign Politics -- 8. The Influence of User-Controlled Messages on Candidate Evaluations / Joshua Hawthorne and Benjamin R. Warner -- 9. Terms of Engagement: Online Political Participation and the Impact on Offline Political Participation / Meredith Conroy, Jessica T. Feezell, and Mario Guerrero -- 10. Is Laughter the Best Medicine for Politics? Commercial versus Noncommercial YouTube Videos / Todd L. Belt -- Part 4: Social Media and Civic Relations -- 11. Comment Forum Speech as a Mirror of Mainstream Discourse / Karen S. Hoffman -- 12. Sparking Debate: Campaigns, Social Media, and Political Incivility / Daniel J. Coffey, Michael Kohler, and Douglas M. Granger -- 13. Flaming and Blaming: The Political Effect of Internet News and Reader "Comments" / Brian R. Calfano -- Conclusion: Message Control at the Margins /Victoria A. Farrar-Myers and Justin S. Vaughn.