Date of Award

Spring 2026

Thesis Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Honors Bachelor of Arts

Department

Critical Media and Cultural Studies

Sponsor

Dr. Steven Schoen

Committee Member

Dr. Tahmina Rahman

Committee Member

Dr. Patrick Rickert

Abstract

This thesis examines how presidential campaign advertisements construct and reshape the American Dream. Drawing on Jim Cullen’s understanding of the Dream as a flexible and evolving concept and media ecology scholarship, particularly Neil Postman’s writing on television and public discourse, the project analyzes selected campaign ads from 1964 to 2024 provided by The Living Room Candidate. Through close readings of these advertisements, this project finds that the American Dream is actively reconstructed by presidential campaigns as an ideal that must be protected, extended, or restored. The analysis pays attention to how television and visual media structure these messages through pacing, imagery, narration, editing choices, and emotional appeal. Campaign ads not only shape how viewers understand individual candidates, but also how they imagine the ideal American life, ideas of national belonging, and their personal relationship to the Dream.

Rights Holder

Amit Sewnauth

Download

Share

COinS