American Politics Commons^™

"It's Important To Just Have Your Voice Heard": Young Voters Changing Perceptions Of Political Efficacy [Poster], Christopher Matthew Merck

Research in the Capitol

Youth voter turnout in Iowa spiked in the 2018 midterm election. This paper attempts to figure out why. By replicating a 2004 study examining the voting behavior of young Iowans during the 2002 midterms, my study identified significant shifts in how young voters think and communicate about voting. After conducting 37 open-ended interviews with 18-24-year-olds, I found that although young people identified many of the same concerns in 2018 as they had in 2002, they were far more likely to vote. Respondents were more likely to identify the consummatory effects of voting, which in turn led to an increase in …

Spa 2201hs Spanish For Heritage Speakers (Syllabus_Fall 2019), David Sánchez-Jiménez

Open Educational Resources

SPA 2201HS Spanish for Heritage Speakers is an intermediate course intended for students who were immersed in or exposed to the language while growing up, but who have received little or no formal instruction in Spanish. Strengthens students’ competence in the oral and written standard varieties of Spanish by building on their previous knowledge to expand their vocabulary, strengthen their command of grammar, and achieve more confidence and fluency in speaking and writing while learning about the diversity of the Hispanic cultures. The skills acquired in this course will help reinforce students’ bilingual abilities and cultural competence.

A Roundtable For Victoria M. Grieve, Little Cold Warriors: American Childhood In The 1950s, Thomas Field Jr., Julia L. Mickenberg, Lori Clune, Mary Brennan, Donna Alvah, Victoria M. Grieve

Publications

Dr. Thomas Field introduces a roundtable discussion of Victoria M. Grieve's Little Cold Warriors: American Childhood in the 1950s, providing a synopsis of reviewer critiques before the reviewers expand on their views and the author responds.

“The Glory Of Each Generation Is To Set Its Own Precedent”: Belva Lockwood And The Rhetorical Construction Of Female Presidential Plausibility, Emily B. Paup

Strategic Communication Studies Faculty Publications

This study seeks to understand the rhetorical tactics of Belva Bennett Lockwood, the first woman to run a campaign for U.S. President. Lockwood attempted to make a female presidential candidacy seem plausible by framing her actions as culturally expected, befitting for a woman, and prototypical for future female politicians. Through her use of rhetorical eikos, she seemed to suggest that female political leadership was not just probable but needed in the political culture of the time. A close reading of her campaign speeches and writings reveals the potential of eikotic logos to present a female presidential candidacy as innate, and …

The Visual Presidency Of Donald Trump's First Hundred Days: Political Image Making And Digital Media, Ryan T. Strand

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

From frequent scrum photos of the president holding up signed executive orders in the Oval Office to images of the president energetically sitting behind the wheel of a Mack truck parked outside his back door, like previous administrations, visuals have been central to Donald Trump's presidency. This chapter analyzes the visuals on White House social media accounts (i.e., Twitter and Facebook) in Trump's first 100 days office and explores how his administration used visuals as an essential vehicle for storytelling, image building, and persuading. Building on previous research on the communicative functions of visual symbols in politics, the chapter finds …

Make The Inaugural Great Again: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Donald J. Trump’S Inaugural Address, Danielle F. Dickerson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I utilized three distinct theories (ideographs, dramatism, and the bully pulpit) to rhetorically analyze and assess President Trump’s 2017 inaugural address. Ultimately, I analyzed whether Trump deviated from Campbell and Jamieson’s (1985) presidential inaugural expectations. While the presidential inaugural address was the only text analyzed, implications were drawn from Trump’s rhetoric leading up to and within the inaugural. This thesis also analyzed Trump’s rhetoric through social media, specifically Twitter, and looked at the context surrounding the inaugural. I suggest, through my research, that Trump does deviate from the traditional framework of the inaugural address, and ultimately modernized …

Partisan Targets Of Media Fact-Checking: Examining President Obama And The 113th Congress, Stephen J. Farnsworth, S Robert Lichter

Political Science & International Affairs Articles

An analysis of statements by President Obama and by Democratic and Republican members of Congress selected for analysis by PolitiFact.com and Washington Post Fact Checker reveals that PolitiFact was more likely to find greater deceit in Republican rhetoric and that the Fact Checker was more negative overall in its assessments. Legislators who had more than one statement analyzed during the study period were disproportionally likely to be influential members of the House or Senate leadership or likely 2016 presidential candidates. The lawmakers selected for greater scrutiny were also more likely to be more ideologically extreme than the median members of …

Bordering Work In Contemporary Political Discourse: The Case Of The Us/Mexico Border Wall Proposal, Angela Garcia

Natural & Applied Sciences Faculty Publications

In this article, I use a critical discourse analytic approach to investigate how President Trump’s campaign goal to build a wall along the US/Mexico border has been discussed in United States political discourse. The data analyzed are 30 videotaped speeches and other public events which occurred between October 2016 and March 2018. These data are publicly available from the cable news channel C-SPAN’s online video archive. The analysis focuses on the communicative techniques and strategies used to persuade others and justify one’s position in the interactions and events studied. In this article, I show how the border wall proposal is …

Snapchat And Civic Engagement Among College Students, Laurie Rice, Kenneth Moffett

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

During the 2016 presidential election cycle, Clinton and Trump used Snapchat as one part of their overall voter outreach and engagement efforts. This portion of their campaign strategy was disproportionately targeted toward younger voters, since those between 18 and 25 comprise a vast portion of Snapchat’s user base. Did their efforts, those of political parties, or those of interest groups on Snapchat produce higher levels of civic engagement among college students? We utilize a survey that we conducted from a college campus in the Midwest in October 2016 to answer this question. Using a series of matching analyses, we discover …

Electoral Competitiveness And Social Media Strategies: Who Goes Negative When And Why?, Connor Brown

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Social media is becoming more integrated into every politician’s career. Previous research suggests that throughout an election a challenger is the one who is more likely to use negative campaigning while running for office. I analyze what strategies are being used by challengers and incumbent candidates while running for office. The data I use is provided by Zachary Auter and Jeffrey Fine (2016). Their data looks at both the 2010 election where we began to see politicians use Facebook ads in their campaigns. I find that a challenger is more likely to adopt negative messages while they are running and …

Rwu First Amendment Blog: David Logan's Blog: Recognizing The Free Press In The Crosshairs Across The Globe 12-12-2018, David A. Logan

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 94, No. 9 [10], Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news. This issue contains articles:

• Voter Guide – Patti Minter, Benjamin Lawson
• DeLetter, Emily. Construction of First-year Village Slated to Begin – Housing & Residence Life
• Austin, Emma. Will Local Voters Make Warren County Wet? – Alcohol
• Austin, Emma. Fraternity Member Brings Firearm to Float Site – Delta Tau Delta / Chi Omega
• Dobbs, Jack. Kentucky Museum Hosts Celebration of WKU Professors – Jim Wayne Miller, Mary Ellen Miller
• DeLetter, Emily. WKU to Host Annual International Education Week
• DeLetter, Emily. Kentucky Museum to Establish Youth Scholarship
• DeBerry, Kierra. Organizations Provide …

Local Vs. National: How Twitter Reflects News Coverage Of Colin Kaepernick Protests, Jared Paul Joseph

LSU Master's Theses

Local and national media dedicate different levels of coverage to issues depending on its relevancy to their audiences. This study uses news outlets’ social media activity to show that coverage discrepancies occurred with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s National Anthem protest. Because his protest reached national headlines, Kaepernick suffered the same fate of many protesting athletes in the past. This study will show how national media carried his story to national headlines and framed his protest negatively. The findings show that local media were the least active among the three media levels, local, regional and national, in covering the Kaepernick …

Applause, Laughter, Chants, And Cheers: An Analysis Of The Rhetorical Skill Of The “Great Communicator”, Reagan Gresham Dye

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study takes a content analytic approach to analyze the use of rhetorical devices in televised Republican National Convention (RNC) addresses by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan. By measuring rhetorical strategies and their relationship with the type, strength, synchrony, and duration of audience responses during the 1976, 1980, 1984, and 1992 RNCs, this study finds that Reagan had the ability to control speech factors to his advantage to promote positive audience response. This study finds that Reagan was adept at utilizing humor, external attacks, and advocating for his policy agenda in a way that elicited positive audience responses such as …

Tweets From The Bully Pulpit: President Trump’S Twitter Habits And His Popularity, Josh Pavek

Political Science Theses and Capstones

One way that a President can use their position to indirectly effect legislation is through the messaging they present to the public. This idea has been termed the Bully Pulpit by political scholars and we have seen multiple different strategies for using this power. President Trump has shown a disdain for traditional media environments, opting instead to use Twitter as his primary means of communicating with the public in combination with some traditional methods as well. Is Twitter an effective use of the presidential office and the Bully Pulpit? I examine the effectiveness of Trump's communication methods by comparing his …

The Words Of War: A Content Analysis Of Republican Presidential Speeches From Dwight D. Eisenhower, Richard M. Nixon, George W. Bush, And Donald J. Trump, Patrick Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this analysis of public speeches from four American presidents from the Republican party, the ways in which those presidents discuss and position American defense activities and stances are examined, to track the progression from the 1960s to the present. Presidents from one party were chosen, who presided over a period of active armed conflict or cold war. The addresses analyzed comprised public addresses to Congress or the American people. The analysis groups recurring frames--conceptually developed based on framing and agenda setting theories--into thematic categories for each president. Some frames were more salient for certain presidents than for others. Other …

Political Journalists Tweet About The Final 2016 Presidential Debate, Hannah Hopper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Past research shows that journalists are gatekeepers to information the public seeks. Using the gatekeeping and agenda-setting theory, this study used a content analysis of tweets from political journalists during the final 2016 presidential debate to examine social media usage in efforts to convey information to followers and whether social media has allowed for journalists to present a more transparent view of candidates to the public. This study used feminist political theory to further analyze whether the tweets from political journalists portrayed Hillary Clinton, the female candidate, with stereotypical “female” traits, such as more emotional and more trustworthy. Applying these …

The Predictors Of Juvenile Recidivism: Testimonies Of Adult Students 18 Years And Older Exiting From Alternative Education, La Toshia Palmer

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive, qualitative study was to identify and describe the importance of the predictors of juvenile recidivism and the effectiveness of efforts to prevent/avoid juvenile recidivism as perceived by previously detained, arrested, convicted, and/or incarcerated adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education in Northern California. A second purpose was to explore the types of support provided by alternative schools and the perceived importance of the support to avoid recidivism according to adult students 18 years of age and older exiting from alternative education.

Methodology: This qualitative, descriptive research design identified …

Rwu First Amendment Blog: David Logan's Blog: Media Centralization Imperils Marketplace Of Ideas 04-05-2018, David A. Logan

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.

Ua12/2/2 2018 Talisman: Grit, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

2018 Talisman yearbook.

• Gibson, Helen. Grit
• Zambrano, Max. Cash Cows – Chaney’s Dairy Barn
• Holt, Delaney. A Quarry Story – White Stone Quarry, Caden Quarry
• McKee, Rylee. Beautiful Grit – BellaMoxi, Dance
• Voorhees, Jessica. Digging Deep – Jean-Luc Houle, Anthropology
• Lucas, Kaley. Black Mountain
• Edwards, Aly. Roots of Stigma – McKenna Vierstra, Jordan Frodge, Max Williams, Robin Farrell
• Eastham, Lillie. Grab ‘Em by the Ballot – Time’s Up Movement
• McCarthy, Hannah. Flesh Memories
• Barritt, Brooklyn. Making a Place at the Table – Dungeons & Dragons
• Gary, Summer. For Adoption: Unwanted Mutt
• Waters, Adrianna. For the Love of Creation – Art …

How Different Generations Perceive Political News, Elizabeth C. Hilfrank

Student Publications

The 2016 presidential election was one of the first elections to see new media play a large role. While also being the first presidential election many millennials could vote in, this research paper looks at how different generations used various news sources to receive political news in 2016. The paper is supported by a documentary video case-study of the author's close close family and friends' perception of political news in 2016.

Fake News, Political Narrative, & Social Media: A Structuration Approach, Adam M. Housh

Capstone Collection

This research aims to unveil a connection between fake news distribution, readership demand, and social media networks, in this case, Facebook. In this research, fake news is defined as “content that is deliberately false and published on websites that mimic traditional news websites (Johnson and Kelling 2017, p3)”. It is argued that fake news content is not produced at random, but is tailored to particular political demographics and narratives. Exposure to such media not only validates ideological positions, it polarizes political beliefs. Furthermore, Facebook not only acts as an effective distribution medium, but allows individual users to skip structural filters …

Murky Projects And Uneven Information Policies: A Case Study Of The Psychological Strategy Board And Cia, Susan Maret

Secrecy and Society

This case study discusses the Truman and Eisenhower administration's (1951-1953) short-lived Psychological Strategy Board (PSB). Through the lens of declassified documents, the article recounts the history and activities of the Board, including its relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and clandestine projects that involve human experimentation. Primary documents of the period suggest that institutional secrecy, coupled with inconsistent information policies, largely shielded CIA's BLUEBIRD, ARTICHOKE, and MKULTRA from the Board. This subject has not been previously reported in the research literature, and supplements existing historical understanding of the PSB's mission under the broad umbrella of psychological warfare.

It’S Like Déjà Vu All Over Again: Seismic Changes In The American Experiment, David King

Bridge/Work

“I’ve never seen anything like this.” “Is this the end of the country?”

In 2016, it seemed that both of those statements, or something similar, was on the tongues of nearly every American. No matter who you supported, there seemed to be something entirely new about the election cycle that the nation found itself in. There is no doubt that for this generation, the 2016 election is a watershed moment for the United States. For the U.S., however, watershed moments in democracy are not the exception but the rule. To fully understand how our democracy transitions, one must return to …

The Potential Electoral Influence Of Internet Memes, Sierra K. Hatfield

Oswald Research and Creativity Competition

The rising popularity of social media has affected the communication methods of political candidates within the United States. Given the online presence of candidates in recent years, this paper argues that it’s time to consider internet memes – one of the many facets most commonly found on social media – as political rhetoric. This paper seeks to discern which components of an internet meme are most effective in persuading a young voter, using a visually rhetorical approach to understand which characteristics make it most effective. The study also seeks to find which demographics are most likely to be influenced, using …

Presidential Campaign Talk: Question-Answering In ‘Neutral Informational Interviews’, Angela Cora Garcia

Natural & Applied Sciences Faculty Publications

This article is a dual-case analysis of presidential campaign interviews conducted with former President George HW Bush when he was campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, and former President William J. Clinton when he was campaigning for the presidency in 1991. Both interviews were conducted at high schools in New Hampshire and are publicly available on the C-SPAN website. The purpose of this analysis is to investigate how the success or failure of political campaigns may be tied to candidates’ interactional competence and pragmatic skills. This will be done through an examination of the strengths and weaknesses of …

In Media Res, Christopher Andrew Sisk

Theses and Dissertations

We are inundated by a constant feed of media that responds and adapts in real time to the impulses of our psyches and the dimensions of our devices. Beneath the surface, this stream of information is directed by hidden, automated controls and steered by political agendas. The transmission of information has evolved into a spiral of entropy, and the boundaries between author, content, platform, and receiver have blurred. This reductive space of responsive media is a catalyst for immense political and cultural change, causing us to question our notions of authority, truth, and reality.

Fake News: Agenda Setting And Gatekeeping In The Media, Chelsea Sydnor

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This piece will examine the ideas of agenda setting and gatekeeping theories, as well as how they affect modern media coverage. Agenda setting theory is the idea that the media sets the agenda by selecting the topics that it covers. Gatekeeping refers to the idea that too many events occur for the media to cover all of them, so it must therefore choose which ones to specifically cover. It will review multiple studies and events in which the theories have played a part in the outcome. Particularly, it will analyze how campaign coverage has been found to influence voters in …

Residential Solar In Washington State, Sam Pfeifer

All Master's Theses

Electricity generated through residential solar provides a low carbon source of electricity. However, diffusion of residential solar remains low across the United States. Growing this diffusion takes an understanding of localized uptake trends, which can focus policy and business efforts to help increase residential solar market penetration. This is the first research to investigate residential solar uptake in Washington State and to examine environmental education as a potential driver of residential solar uptake. Through a snapshot analysis which considers environmental, economic, education, and cultural variables the present research fills this gap. Triangulated results include mapping of variables, ordinary-least squares multiple …

Beyond Big Bird, Binders, And Bayonets: Humor And Visibility Among Connected Viewers Of The 2012 Us Presidential Debates, Kevin Driscoll, Alex Leavitt, Kristen L. Guth, François Bar, Aalok Mehta

Communication Faculty Publications

During the 2012 US presidential debates, more than five million connected viewers turned to social media to respond to the broadcast and talk politics with one another. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study examines the prevalence of humor and its relationship to visibility among connected viewers live-tweeting the debates. Based on a content analysis of tweets and accounts, we estimate that approximately one-fifth of the messages sent during the debates consisted of strictly humorous content. Using retweet frequency as a proxy for visibility, we found a positive relationship between the use of humor and the visibility of individual tweets. Not …