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Articles 1 - 30 of 32
Full-Text Articles in Communication
Constitutive Rhetoric And Partisan Polarization In The 2016 Presidential Primary Debates, Joel Reed, Mitchell S. Mckinney
Constitutive Rhetoric And Partisan Polarization In The 2016 Presidential Primary Debates, Joel Reed, Mitchell S. Mckinney
Speaker & Gavel
For decades political scientists and communication scholars have grappled with the connection between political primaries and rising polarization. Despite significant scholarly attention to the connection between primaries and polarization, little attention has been afforded to the rhetoric of polarization in primary campaigns. Through the lens of constitutive rhetoric, we investigate the intersection of primary campaigns and polarization from a rhetorical perspective. We analyze the rhetoric of the 2016 presidential primary debates to understand how candidates drew on traditional and innovative strategies of rhetorical polarization in constituting party identity. We find that establishment candidates depended on in-group affirmation and out-group subversion …
Power Grid Politics: Winter Storm Uri And Texas Governor Greg Abbott's Image Repair Discourse, Matthew Gerber, Breann Bates, Chloe Caballero, Adán De La Garza, Erica Kolson
Power Grid Politics: Winter Storm Uri And Texas Governor Greg Abbott's Image Repair Discourse, Matthew Gerber, Breann Bates, Chloe Caballero, Adán De La Garza, Erica Kolson
Speaker & Gavel
Winter storm Uri hit the state of Texas on February 14, 2021. Bringing record amounts of snow, ice, and prolonged sub-zero temperatures, the storm caused widespread power outages which led to hundreds of deaths, and created a complex rhetorical situation for Governor Greg Abbott. This article examines the image repair discourse engaged in by Abbott, and ultimately concludes that his use of blame-shifting, corrective action, and defeasibility strategies were ultimately effective, but to varying degrees based on each respective strategy. We argue herein that Abbott’s strategy of shifting the blame for the debacle to ERCOT was his most effective tactic, …
Partisan Selective Exposure On Social Media During The 2020 Presidential Election, Grayce Lemon
Partisan Selective Exposure On Social Media During The 2020 Presidential Election, Grayce Lemon
Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal
This study examines selective exposure and selective avoidance on social media during the 2020 presidential election. 147 voters participated in the survey conducted using Qualtrics. The purpose of this study was to understand whether selective exposure and avoidance behaviors differed based on voting outcome (Trump or Biden), and to test whether political ideological polarization was reflected in news consumption through social media. Taken together, the results indicate that although both voting bases engaged in selective exposure and avoidance, the propensity was the same between Trump and Biden voters. Additionally, results confirm existing hypotheses that strength of political ideology positively correlates …
Partisan Selective Exposure On Social Media During The 2020 Presidential Election, Grayce Lemon
Partisan Selective Exposure On Social Media During The 2020 Presidential Election, Grayce Lemon
All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects
This study examines selective exposure and selective avoidance on social media during the 2020 presidential election. 147 voters participated in the survey conducted using Qualtrics. The purpose of this study was to understand whether selective exposure and avoidance behaviors differed based on voting outcome (Trump or Biden), and to test whether political ideological polarization was reflected in news consumption through social media. Taken together, the results indicate that although both voting bases engaged in selective exposure and avoidance, the propensity was the same between Trump and Biden voters. Additionally, results confirm existing hypotheses that the strength of political ideology positively …
Holy Alliance? Navigating Evangelical Political Identity In The Era Of Donald Trump, Anthony Comer
Holy Alliance? Navigating Evangelical Political Identity In The Era Of Donald Trump, Anthony Comer
All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects
Evangelical Christians have always had a complex relationship with political issues in the United States, especially with the rise of the Christian right in the 1980s. Pastors and church leaders function as crucial communicators of political values in a contemporary American context. Since 2017 the Trump presidency has provided a new set of issues to consider. With Festinger’s (1957) Cognitive Dissonance theory and Tajfel’s (1981) Social Identity theory as the foundation, this study examines how evangelical Christian pastors conceptualize their religious and political identities, how they communicate with their congregants about political issues and how they handle differences between their …
Framing The President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Participatory Quests, And The Rhetoric Of Possibility In World War Ii Propaganda, James Kimble Ph.D.
Framing The President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Participatory Quests, And The Rhetoric Of Possibility In World War Ii Propaganda, James Kimble Ph.D.
Speaker & Gavel
This essay examines The Life of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a comic book distributed internationally by the Office of War Information (OWI) in late 1942, as a creative form of international propaganda. Drawing from existing research in comic scholarship, narrative theory, and visual inquiry, this case study suggests that OWI’s booklet represented a fusion of verbal and visual appeals, which together worked to produce a potent depiction of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s character traits and exceptionality. The analysis concludes that this depiction ultimately presented the president as the protagonist of a romantic quest narrative, one that actively invited foreign readers to …
Recasting The Founding Fathers: The Tea Party Movement, Neoliberalism, And American Myth, Calvin Coker
Recasting The Founding Fathers: The Tea Party Movement, Neoliberalism, And American Myth, Calvin Coker
Speaker & Gavel
This article analyzes representative texts from the Tea Party Movement (TPM), a conservative American political movement, to demonstrate the TPM uses the myth of the Founding Fathers as an argumentative strategy to craft and justify a sanitary neoliberal political project. The necessity of such of a project lies in the underlying democratic crisis of neoliberalism, a crisis navigated by the TPM through strategic use of political myth. Neoliberal policies require, in many instances, democratic consent, though those policies often serve to disenfranchise many of the groups supporting them. This essay argues the TPM uses myth for the purpose of creating …
Meta-Analysis Of Research On The Functional Theory Of Political Campaign Discourse, William L. Benoit
Meta-Analysis Of Research On The Functional Theory Of Political Campaign Discourse, William L. Benoit
Speaker & Gavel
Functional Theory has been applied to a variety of election campaign messages, including candidacy announcement speeches; TV spots; debates; direct mail brochures; candidate webpages; nomination acceptance addresses; vice presidential debates; senate, gubernatorial, and mayoral debates; senate, gubernatorial, and house TV spots; and debates and TV spots from other countries. This approach argues that election messages address one of three functions (acclaims, attacks, defenses) and one of two topics (policy, character). This study reports a meta-analysis of several Functional Theory predictions: acclaims are more common than attacks (defenses are consistently the least common function and were not tested here); policy is …
Coverage Of The 2008 Presidential Primary Campaign By Males, Females, And Mixed Journalist Groups, Sheri Whalen
Coverage Of The 2008 Presidential Primary Campaign By Males, Females, And Mixed Journalist Groups, Sheri Whalen
Speaker & Gavel
This study examines the trait, issue and tone coverage of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign by male, female and groups of male and female journalists in newspapers, newsmagazines and Sunday morning political television shows. Results indicate that the media focused more on traits than issues during the campaign. However, female and groups of male and female newspaper journalists focused more on issues than traits. All three journalist groups gave Hillary Clinton more negative than positive coverage and Barack Obama more positive than negative coverage. Female and groups of male and female …
Motivated Reasoning And Viewers' Reactions To The First 2012 Presidential Debate, Jeffrey W. Jarman
Motivated Reasoning And Viewers' Reactions To The First 2012 Presidential Debate, Jeffrey W. Jarman
Speaker & Gavel
General election presidential debates are highly argumentative encounters filled with evidence, argument, and refutation. While the candidates come to the debates armed with evidence and arguments in support of their positions, it is unclear how the audience interprets the information. This paper reports the findings from a study of the first presidential debate in 2012. Participants evaluated the strength of arguments made by Obama and Romney, as well as which candidate won each segment of the debate. The study confirms that viewers do not dispassionately evaluate the debate, but instead are driven by partisan interests that lead them to find …
A Functional Analysis Of 2013 Mayoral Campaign Web Pages, Mark Glantz, Jeffrey Delbert, Corey Davis
A Functional Analysis Of 2013 Mayoral Campaign Web Pages, Mark Glantz, Jeffrey Delbert, Corey Davis
Speaker & Gavel
This study adopts The Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse to content analyze political campaign web pages produced by mayoral candidates in six large American cities in 2013. Specifically, this analysis examines online campaign communication from Boston, Charlotte, Detroit, Houston, New York, and Seattle. Results of this analysis found that mayoral candidates used their websites to acclaim themselves more often than to attack their opponents or defend themselves against previous attacks. Additionally, these web pages addressed policy topics more often than they spoke about character concerns. The data also reveals important differences between the way incumbents and challengers use their …
Points Of Stasis In The 1960 And 2000 Presidential Debates, Kevin Stein
Points Of Stasis In The 1960 And 2000 Presidential Debates, Kevin Stein
Speaker & Gavel
The clash component of a presidential debate sets it apart from other types of campaign messages because the candidates are faced with a potential for “imminent rebuttal” not found in other types of messages, such as television spots or stump speeches. This study is a rhetorical analysis of the 1960 and 2000 presidential debates and attempts to identify the specific points of stasis (clash) where two arguments meet. These points of stasis are labeled in the classic rhetorical theory literature as conjectural, qualitative, definitional, and translative. The study tests the application of these categories as a precursor to future research …
To Answer, Or Not To Answer - That Is The Question Of The Hour: Image Restoration Strategies And Media Coverage Of Past Drug Use Questions In The Presidential Campaigns Of Bill Clinton And George W. Bush, Shari Veil
Speaker & Gavel
This study analyzed the relationship between image restoration strategies and media coverage, specifically, the image restoration strategies utilized by Bill Clinton in 1992 and George W. Bush in 1999 in response to questions of past drug use and the ensuing media coverage during the respective campaigns. A literature review of political apologia and image restoration strategies is presented, followed by potential explanations for the extensive media coverage of the drug issue. Articles published in 7 newspapers during the respective political campaigns were retrieved and textually analyzed to determine the candidates’ image restoration strategies. The reported presidential comments were then critically …
Third Party Candidates In Political Debates: Muted Groups Struggling To Express Themselves, Carolyn Prentice
Third Party Candidates In Political Debates: Muted Groups Struggling To Express Themselves, Carolyn Prentice
Speaker & Gavel
With the rise of a multitude of political parties, some campaign debate organizers are beginning to include third party candidates in their public debates. However, these third party candidates have been ignored in campaign debate literature. This study analyzed the transcripts of three campaign debates that included third party candidates, using muted group theory to understand the impact of third party candidates in campaign debates. The analysis demonstrates that third party candidates experience the communication obstacles of muted groups.
Since World War II, party affiliation among U.S. voters and straight-ticket voting has been on the decline (Miller & Shanks, 1996). …
A Functional Analysis Of French And South Korean Political Leaders' Debates, Yun Son Choi, William L. Benoit
A Functional Analysis Of French And South Korean Political Leaders' Debates, Yun Son Choi, William L. Benoit
Speaker & Gavel
This study reports two replications of research employing the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse, analyzing political leaders‘ debates from one European and one Asian country. French political debates from 1988 and 1995 and South Korean debates from 1997 and 2002 were content analyzed using the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse. Acclaims were the most common function, followed by attacks and then defenses, in both French and South Korean debates. Policy was discussed more often than character in French and South Korean debates. In France, but not in South Korea, incumbent party candidates acclaimed significantly more and attacked less …
Because I Said So: A Functional Theory Analysis Of Evidence In Political Tv Spots, Jayne R. Henson, William L. Benoit
Because I Said So: A Functional Theory Analysis Of Evidence In Political Tv Spots, Jayne R. Henson, William L. Benoit
Speaker & Gavel
This study examines presidential general election television advertising (1952-2004), primary advertising (1952-2008), and non-presidential advertising from 2002 (gubernatorial, U.S. Senate, U.S. House) to understand the use of evidence (statements for which sources are provided) in such campaign messages. 8% of the themes in these spots were supported by evidence (that is, identified a source for a claim). However, the longitudinal presidential data suggests that evidence in advertising was rare until the 1990s, when Bill Clinton in particular employed a great deal of evidence in his spots. Although the appeals across all ads were mainly positive (70% of the themes in …
A Functional Analysis Of 2008 Presidential Primary Tv Spots, William L. Benoit, Leslie Rill
A Functional Analysis Of 2008 Presidential Primary Tv Spots, William L. Benoit, Leslie Rill
Speaker & Gavel
The 2008 presidential campaign was unusual for a number of reasons. For the first time since 1952, neither the President nor the Vice President contended for the Oval Office. This meant highly contested primaries in both major political parties. As the Democratic primary ground toward the end, the leading candidates were an African-American–Barack Obama–and a woman–Hillary Clinton. More money was raised and spent on the primary campaign than ever before. This means that the campaign messages in this election deserve scholarly attention. This study applies Benoit’s Functional Theory and Petrocik’s Issue Ownership Theory to primary campaign ads from both major …
When Water Works: A Case Study Of Campaign Tears And The 2008 Presidential Election, Ryan Neville-Shepard
When Water Works: A Case Study Of Campaign Tears And The 2008 Presidential Election, Ryan Neville-Shepard
Speaker & Gavel
Since the fall of Senator Ed Muskie in the 1972 Democratic primary there has been an unwritten rule that political candidates should avoid crying. However, four presidential candidates cried in ten separate incidents during the 2008 election cycle, with only three episodes receiving negative attention. Addressing this inconsistency in the “Muskie rule,” in this essay I argue the effect of crying on a political candidate’s image is not well understood. As such, this essay develops and applies a framework for comprehending when crying will likely trigger a public relations crisis, and when it might actually benefit a candidate.
A Functional Analysis Of 2008 General Election Presidential Tv Spots, William L. Benoit, Mark Glantz
A Functional Analysis Of 2008 General Election Presidential Tv Spots, William L. Benoit, Mark Glantz
Speaker & Gavel
This study performed content analysis on the general election TV spots from Democratic nominee Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain in the 2008 presidential campaign. There was no significant difference in function by incumbency, which is not surprising given that neither major party candidates was the sitting president or vice president. Unlike ads from previous years, these ads contained more attacks (65%) than acclaims (34%; and like earlier campaigns few defenses: 1%). These ads stressed policy (58%) more than character (42%). The Democratic candidate, as in previous elections, discussed policy more, and character less, than the Republican candidate. Both …
A Functional Analysis Of 2008 And 2012 Presidential Candidacy Announcement Speeches, William L. Benoit, Mark Glantz
A Functional Analysis Of 2008 And 2012 Presidential Candidacy Announcement Speeches, William L. Benoit, Mark Glantz
Speaker & Gavel
This study investigates messages in the surfacing phase of the presidential campaign, through a content analysis of presidential candidacy announcement speeches from the 2008 and 2012 elections. This study applied the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse to nine Democratic announcement speeches from 2008, 11 Republican announcement addresses from 2008, and 12 Republican announcement speeches from 2012. This work extends previous research on announcement speeches from 1960-2004 (Benoit, Henson, Whalen, & Pier, 2007). Overall, announcements from 2008 and 2012 used acclaims (75%) more than attacks (25%) or defenses (0.5%). The same announcements discussed policy more than character (58% to 42%); …
Obama Transforming: Using Functional Theory To Identify Transformational Leadership, Kristina Drumheller, Greg G. Armfield
Obama Transforming: Using Functional Theory To Identify Transformational Leadership, Kristina Drumheller, Greg G. Armfield
Speaker & Gavel
The 2008 presidential campaign convention speeches broke records as viewers flocked to the speeches by Obama, Palin, and McCain in numbers that rivaled American Idol ratings. Adapting functional theory (Benoit, 2007) to include transformational leadership characteristics (Bass & Avolio, 1990), President Obama‘s 2008 nomination acceptance speech was used test the adapting of functional theory for analyzing leadership claims. Secondary data were used as evidentiary support of Obama‘s efforts to make changes once in the White House. Results are discussed and framed within functional theory and transfor-mational leadership.
Newspaper Coverage Of The 2008 General Election Presidential Campaigns, William L. Benoit, Jayne R. Goode, Mark Glantz
Newspaper Coverage Of The 2008 General Election Presidential Campaigns, William L. Benoit, Jayne R. Goode, Mark Glantz
Speaker & Gavel
News coverage of political campaigns is very important to the political campaign process. Some voters pay little attention to debates or other sources of information about the candidates and their policies. The news is one important source of this information. Newspapers can also supplement and reinforce the information possessed by voters who do attend to campaign messages. This study content analyzed news coverage of the 2008 general election presidential campaign (New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today). Horse race coverage was most common topic (45%), followed by themes about character (32%), and policy (23%). The tone of newspaper coverage was …
A Functional Analysis Of 2008 And 2012 Presidential Nomination Acceptance Addresses, William L. Benoit
A Functional Analysis Of 2008 And 2012 Presidential Nomination Acceptance Addresses, William L. Benoit
Speaker & Gavel
This study investigates the presidential candidates’ nomination acceptance ad-dresses in 2008 and 2012. This study applied Benoit’s (2007) Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse to the four Acceptances (one from McCain, two from Obama, and one from Romney). Traditionally the conventions kick off the general election campaign and the nominees’ acceptance addresses are high-lights of these events. This work extends previous research on acceptance ad-dresses speeches from 1952-2004. The speeches in 2008 and 2012 used acclaims (73%) more than attacks (27%) or defenses (0.5%). Incumbents acclaimed more, and attacked less, than challengers, particularly when they discussed their records in office …
Survival Strategies In Solidly Partisan States An Analysis Of Centrist Appeals In 2012 U.S. Senate Debates, Matthew L. Spialek, Stevie M. Munz
Survival Strategies In Solidly Partisan States An Analysis Of Centrist Appeals In 2012 U.S. Senate Debates, Matthew L. Spialek, Stevie M. Munz
Speaker & Gavel
With the growing number of centrist senators diminishing on Capitol Hill, the next few election cycles will be crucial to the survival of this moderate group of lawmakers. Campaign debate scholars should investigate how vulnerable incumbents construct a centrist issue agenda and image to connect with voters in states ideologically incongruent with the incumbents’ parties. In doing so, debate scholars will also fill the lack of lower-level debate research. Utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods, this analysis examined the debate appeals of Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Scott Brown (R-MA). Findings suggest McCaskill’s issue agenda was congruent with a centrist …
News Coverage Of The 2008 Presidential Primaries, William L. Benoit, Corey Davis, Mark Glantz, Jayne R. Goode, Leslie Rill, Anji Phillips
News Coverage Of The 2008 Presidential Primaries, William L. Benoit, Corey Davis, Mark Glantz, Jayne R. Goode, Leslie Rill, Anji Phillips
Speaker & Gavel
President George W. Bush was completing his second (and final) term in office and Vice President Dick Cheney decided not to run for president. Thus, the 2008 American presidential primary is the first “open” campaign (with no sitting president or vice president competing) since 1952 with highly competitive primaries for both major political parties. This study uses content analysis to investigate news coverage (national newspapers, network television news, and local newspapers) of the 2008 American presidential primary campaign. Most themes in the news concerned the horse race (66%) with somewhat more emphasis on the candidates’ character (18%) than their policy …
God, Gays, And Voodoo: Voicing Blame After Katrina, Jefferson Walker
God, Gays, And Voodoo: Voicing Blame After Katrina, Jefferson Walker
Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal
Much of the public discourse following Hurricane Katrina’s devastating impact on Louisiana and much of the Gulf Coast in 2005 focused on placing blame. This paper focuses on those critics who stated that Hurricane Katrina was “God’s punishment” for people’s sins. Through a narrative analysis of texts surrounding Hurricane Katrina, I explicate the ways in which individuals argued about God’s judgment and punishment. I specifically turn my attention to three texts: First, a Repent America press release entitled “Hurricane Katrina Destroys New Orleans Days Before ‘Southern Decadence,’” second, a newsletter released by Rick Scarborough of Vision America, and third, Democratic …
"A Land Of Make Believe That Don’T Believe In Me": Dissent By Incongruity In Green Day’S "Jesus Of Suburbia", Jansen B. Werner
"A Land Of Make Believe That Don’T Believe In Me": Dissent By Incongruity In Green Day’S "Jesus Of Suburbia", Jansen B. Werner
Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal
Following the September 11 terrorist attacks there were increased demands in America for patriotism. This attitude of hyper-patriotism, in accordance with the Bush Administration’s appropriation of the American civil religion, precluded many discursive possibilities for dissent. Yet there were some who still utilized the available outlets of public discourse to dissent from Bush Administration policies. Green Day’s 2004 song, “Jesus of Suburbia,” is just such an exemplary dissent discourse. What follows is divided into four sections. First, I analyze the ideological circumstances which preceded the release of “Jesus of Suburbia.” Second, I reflect on the respective conceptual insights of Ivie’s …
Explaining The Revolution: Vernacular Discourse And The Tipping Point In America’S 2006 Midterm Election, Ryan Michael Shepard
Explaining The Revolution: Vernacular Discourse And The Tipping Point In America’S 2006 Midterm Election, Ryan Michael Shepard
Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal
The 2006 midterm election marked perhaps the first time that the American public held the Bush administration accountable for its controversial actions. Various explanations have been offered for the backlash, ranging from public concern about the war to disgust over sex scandals involving prominent conservatives. In this essay, through analysis of vernacular discourse appearing in letters to the editor from USA Today, I argue that the election results stemmed from Bush’s weakening credibility – in respect to the dimensions of honesty, competence, and moderation – which limited the effectiveness of his rhetoric that was so powerful since September 11th.
Paws, Pathos And Presidential Persuasion: Franklin Roosevelt’S "Fala Speech" As Precursor And Model For Richard Nixon's "Checkers Speech", John Llewellyn
Paws, Pathos And Presidential Persuasion: Franklin Roosevelt’S "Fala Speech" As Precursor And Model For Richard Nixon's "Checkers Speech", John Llewellyn
Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal
In autumn 1944 Franklin Roosevelt’s presidential campaign was losing momentum. Then, in Congressional debate, U. S. Representative Harold Knutson of Minnesota accused Roosevelt of extravagance, claiming he sent a Navy destroyer to the Aleutian Islands to retrieve his Scottish terrier. FDR parried these charges with "the Fala speech," a mocking and acerbic attack on Republicans ("No, not content with that, they now include my little dog, Fala") that reenergized his campaign. "The Fala speech" also indirectly rescued Richard Nixon. Under attack in the 1952 campaign, Nixon saved his vice presidential aspirations and political career with the "Checkers" address. However, the …
The Art Of "Jesse-Talk": Speechwriting For Governor Jesse Ventura, Kristine Bruss
The Art Of "Jesse-Talk": Speechwriting For Governor Jesse Ventura, Kristine Bruss
Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal
In 1998, former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura stunned the political world by winning the race for governor of Minnesota. As a candidate, Ventura created impressions of honesty with his straightforward, candid style; even his inaugural address was unscripted. As governor, however, Ventura came to rely on a team of speechwriters to help him meet his speaking demands. In this essay, I present an interview with one member of Ventura’s communications team, Steve LeBeau, who addresses the challenge of writing speeches for an unconventional client with a penchant for improvisation. As the essay reveals, LeBeau’s background in media and theater helped, …