They Spoke in Defense of Roy Moore: Networked Apologia and Media Ecosystems

Abstract:Alabama Judge Roy Moore's unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate demonstrates the importance of updating theories of political apologia to account for the role of partisan networks in the image repair process. Although Moore's defeat has been characterized as a triumph of decency, judging his campaign on partisan grounds reveals a different story. His apologia campaign, reinforced and circulated by important figures in conservative media and the Republican Party, undermined the allegations for voters and secured partisan unity. Although existing apologia scholarship focuses upon the rhetoric of the accused, assuming that rhetors transmit their image repair discourse directly to an audience, this analysis illustrates that a sustained campaign of networked apologia waged by a variety of high-profile surrogates from both politics and media may contribute to image repair in ways efforts from an individual rhetor cannot. By broadening the analytic focus to include media ecosystems, this case study of Moore's campaign illustrates that contemporary apologia can be a networked process.