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Full-Text Articles in Speech and Rhetorical Studies
A New Test Of Issue Ownership Theory: U.S. Senate Campaign Debates, John C. Davis
A New Test Of Issue Ownership Theory: U.S. Senate Campaign Debates, John C. Davis
Speaker & Gavel
This study tests issue ownership theory on U.S. Senate debates. Issue ownership theory states that each of the two major American parties possess issues which the public perceive to be best handled by one party over another. Republicans are thought to be better at handling problems concerning national defense, foreign policy, and taxes. Democrats are believed to be better at addressing issues such as education, health care, and the environment. This study hypothesizes that, due to unique characteristics regarding the office being sought, U.S. Senate candidates from both major parties do not adhere to previously recognized patterns of issue ownership …
Issue Debates: Notecards In Extemporaneous Speaking, Joseph Kennedy, Jonathan Carter
Issue Debates: Notecards In Extemporaneous Speaking, Joseph Kennedy, Jonathan Carter
Speaker & Gavel
Editor's Note: We are trying to bring debatable issues in the community to the forefront. Important contemporary issues are discussed at national tournaments, national conventions, and even at the average weekend tournament. But rarely are these issues written about in our journals. To foster those discussions, and in an effort to document some of the history of intercollegiate forensics, we will have an “Issue Debate” in each issue of Speaker & Gavel. For this issue, two well-known and successful coaches (and top-notch extempers in their day) debate the issue of note card use in extemporaneous speaking. We have seen this …
Kritiking As Agrumentative Praxis, Joseph P. Zompetti, Brian Lain
Kritiking As Agrumentative Praxis, Joseph P. Zompetti, Brian Lain
Speaker & Gavel
Controversies in the realm of academic debate are often assessed with the standards used for other social science confrontations. The notion of paradigms, introduced by Thomas Kuhn (1970) to describe scientific revolutions, provides a starting point for analyzing the current conflict over kritiking. Despite this, previous discussions concerning the so-called “kritik” have focused mainly on whether it should be considered a legitimate argument form in contemporary policy debate (Berube, 1996; Katsulas, 1996/1997; Morris, 1996/1997). In this way, these discussions have become embroiled in a back-and-forth squabbling. Overcoming the tendency to steadfastly proclaim the legitimacy/illegitimacy of kritiks as an argument form …
Newspaper Coverage Of U.S. Senate Debates, William L. Benoit, Corey Davis
Newspaper Coverage Of U.S. Senate Debates, William L. Benoit, Corey Davis
Speaker & Gavel
Political debates are important message forms, capable of informing and in-fluencing voters. However, news coverage of debates informs and influences both those who watch, and those who do not watch, the debates. This study compared the content (functions and topics) of 10 U.S. Senate debates from 1998-2004 with the content of newspaper articles about those particular debates. Newspaper coverage of debates was significantly more negative than the debates themselves, reporting a higher percentage of attacks and a smaller percentage of acclaims than the candidates employed. The newspaper articles also stressed character more, and policy less, than the candidates. This journalistic …
Revisiting Cicero In Higher Education Cultivating Citizenship Skills Through Collegiate Debate Programs, Annette Holba
Revisiting Cicero In Higher Education Cultivating Citizenship Skills Through Collegiate Debate Programs, Annette Holba
Speaker & Gavel
Higher education is in the midst of a paradigm shift from the Professing Paradigm to the Learning Paradigm approach in pedagogical strategies. The Learning Paradigm privileges a co-producing of learning between the student and the teacher. This essay argues that collegiate debate programs can be one example of the Learning Paradigm engagement that also helps to cultivate the Greek and Roman ideal of citizenship in students. Ciceronian rhetorical theory explains how citizenship skills are developed through collegiate debate practices.
Critiquing Debate, James P. Dimock
Critiquing Debate, James P. Dimock
Speaker & Gavel
Debaters enjoy debating more than debate itself. The closer one gets to be-coming ―"an old debater" (a category to which I will inevitably have to resign myself sooner or later), the more likely we are to find ourselves debating on the side of ―"the way debate used to be" or ―"the way debate is supposed to be." I don‘t malign this seemly inevitable progression or even my place in it. I think the tendency to re-examine ourselves says something about our activity. I enter this debate about debate, I think I should begin by defining my side of the flow, …
Creating Sites For Reasonable Discourse Stasis In Public Deliberation, Aaron Dimock
Creating Sites For Reasonable Discourse Stasis In Public Deliberation, Aaron Dimock
Speaker & Gavel
This paper presents an analysis of stasis as a means for creating common ground between conflicting parties and a guide to judgment in public deliberation. Craig‘s (1989) approach to communication as a ―practical discipline‖ provides the theoretical justification for research that examines the practical communication problems society faces. This paper examines public discourse in the form of arguments before local deliberative bodies, where people are attempting to influence the judgment of the board and the public. Using the methods of a rhetorically informed discourse analysis (see Tracy, 2001 & 2002), this paper examines the formulation, presentation, and reaction to arguments …