Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons^™

Inaugural Address: The Use Of Rhetoric To Speak To Our Needs, Jessica Christiansen

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Comedy In Unfunny Times: News Parody And Carnival After 9/11, Paul Achter

Rhetoric and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Comedy has a special role in helping societies manage crisis moments, and the U.S. media paid considerable attention to the proper role of comedy in public culture after the 9/11 tragedies. As has been well documented, many popular U.S. comic voices were paralyzed in trying to respond to 9/11 or disciplined by audiences when they did. Starting with these obstacles in mind, this essay analyzes early comic responses to 9/11, and particularly those of the print and online news parody The Onion, as an example of how “fake” news discourse could surmount the rhetorical chill that fell over public …

Gloria Steinem, "Testimony Before Senate Hearings On The Equal Rights Amendment" (6 May 1970), Jill M. Weber

Communication Studies Faculty Scholarship

In her testimony before the Senate ERA hearings, Gloria Steinem refuted sex‐based myths about women and championed the ERA. Situating the ERA within the larger civil rights movement, Steinem called on Congress to acknowledge women's oppression as a serious political issue. She also worked to make women's rights issues more appealing to a mainstream audience by talking about the ERA's benefits for men and women and by emphasizing the democratic principles it embodied.

Minister Louis Farrakhan, "Million Man March" (16 October 1995), Jill M. Weber

Communication Studies Faculty Scholarship

An examination of Louis Farrakhan's controversial speech at the Million Man March in October, 1995.

Drawing On The Words Of Others At Public Hearings: Zoning, Wal-Mart, And The Threat To The Aquifer, Richard Buttny, Jodi R. Cohen

Communication and Rhetorical Studies - All Scholarship

This study examines two public hearings on a zoning proposal that would allow the construction of a Super Wal-Mart Center on a field over the town’s aquifer. Many citizens speak out against the zoning change because of the risk to drinking water, as well as other issues. Citizens face the speaker’s problem of how to make their presentations convincing, given the technical matters involved and the fact that Town Board members have likely already heard about these issues. Some speakers draw on the words of others in their presentations. Using another ’s words allows the speaker to cite an authoritative …

Conceptualizing And Measuring White House Staff Influence On Presidential Rhetoric, Justin Vaughn, José Villalobos

Selected Works Temporary Series

Scholars have debated extensively the impact of presidential rhetoric on public opinion and congressional behavior, but have largely ignored the determinants of what the president actually says. This inattention is partly the result of the difficulty of acquiring systematic observations of presidential speech crafting. We devise a method of quantifying White House staff influence over the composition of rhetoric that captures the multistage negotiations between the president's speechwriters and his policy advisors and provides a framework for future studies on the determinants of presidential rhetoric. We employ our method to study influence over the writing of President George H. W. …

William Jefferson Clinton, "Racism In The United States" (16 October 1995), Jill M. Weber

Communication Studies Faculty Scholarship

In "Racism in the United States," President Bill Clinton acknowledged racial differences and called upon Americans to "clean our house of racism." Maintaining that the discussion of differences was the first step in alleviating racial tension, Clinton made dialogue a centerpiece of his race initiative. Clinton's approach to civil rights and his emphasis on dialogue marked an important step in the ongoing debates over civil rights in America by illustrating a president's role in shaping such debates.

Conceptualizing And Measuring White House Staff Influence On Presidential Rhetoric, Justin Vaughn, José Villalobos

Departmental Papers (PS)

Scholars have debated extensively the impact of presidential rhetoric on public opinion and congressional behavior, but have largely ignored the determinants of what the president actually says. This inattention is partly the result of the difficulty of acquiring systematic observations of presidential speech crafting. We devise a method of quantifying White House staff influence over the composition of rhetoric that captures the multistage negotiations between the president's speechwriters and his policy advisors and provides a framework for future studies on the determinants of presidential rhetoric. We employ our method to study influence over the writing of President George H. W. …

Content And Form In Public Address : An Analysis Of The Relative Influences Of The Major Components Of Speech Upon The Listener, Karen Beatie Olson

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

A speech; whether prepared or impromptu, ought to be a communicative process. For a speech when defined as "discourse delivered to an audience,"(1) is a communicative process by which information may be given and received. Inherent in the phrase "given and received" is the assumption that the speaker anticipates that his listener will understand and respond, and that the speech will be understood as it was intended.

The difficulty present in this "intent - response" theory is the problem of insuring that the listener will understand enough to respond to what the speaker has said. In an effort to ensure …

A Rhetorical Study Of The Public Speaking Of Eric A. Johnston During His Presidency Of The United States Chamber Of Commerce., James Julius Stansell

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.