Explores the rhetorical nature of political cartoons by applying Kenneth Burke's concepts and terminology to this graphic art form. Examines (1) formal strategy of "perspective by incongruity," (2) burlesque attitude in political cartoons, and (3) fusion of form and attitude in the tropal principles of this graphic art. Draws from…

Uses President Bush's commencement speech to compare and contrast the "link and impact turnaround," an accepted form of argument in academic debate, with the "linguistic turnaround" as executed in political discourse. (NH)

Examines the work and the life of German public opinion expert Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann. Shows that the attitudes and analytic tools she forged during her youth and brought to bear in her work as a Nazi Collaborator and apologist shaped her later thinking, including her articulation of the "spiral of silence" model of mass communication…

A study compared the relative effects and functions of a live versus a televised presentation of a political message. Specifically, the study examined whether (1) the audience for a live political speech differed from the audience for a similar televised speech, (2) a live political speech produced more positive attitude change regarding the…

Elaborates a conceptualization of news as a discursive resource, and suggests a dialogical model for media-movement relationships. Describes how two "branches" of the United States women's movement understood news differently and developed different and specific strategies which are called "media pragmatism" and "media subversion." (SR)

Examines popular culture in terms of its position in social structures of power, looking at the Ivoirien music made popular by state television in Cote d'Ivoire. Focuses on Cote d'Ivoire's international singing star, Alpha Blondy, and how this singer and others negotiate the relationship between state television and the Ivoirien popular singer.…

This paper presents an examination of United States presidents' names as symbols. In developing the analysis, the paper: (1) reviews multiple perspectives which suggest that allusions to past presidents (such as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, or Franklin Roosevelt) are significant political symbols; (2) discusses how allusions to past…

Analyzes events surrounding the 1993 withdrawal of Zoe Baird as nominee for U.S. Attorney General. Indicates that, under certain conditions, when deliberation by surrogates (professional communicators) becomes unrepresentative of the general public's values, direct popular intervention may occur through alternative communication channels,…

Examines how texts are constrained by cultural forces in a critical analysis of the controversy regarding rap group Public Enemy's Professor Griff and his universalizing claims about Jews. Investigates the economic, political, and ideological mechanisms that encouraged the band to withdraw Griff's comments and replace it with a text more…

Analyzes Herbert C. Hoover's translation of the "De Re Metallica" in the context of the 1922 Mine Strikes. Claims Hoover's interest in Agricola's "intellectual achievements" may have been more than technical. Demonstrates how technical documents reflect political ideologies. (NH)

Finds that reasonably accurate predictions of election results can be made based on selected phonetic features in candidates' names. Discusses the emotive effect of speech sounds, distinguishes them from other types of meaning, surveys previous types of studies, describes the development of the author's analytical model and its attributes, and…

Conventional wisdom holds that the right-wing John Birch Society disintegrated during the late 1960s. An examination of the society's periodical readership indicates that it has, instead, expanded. Moreover, this expansion occurred during a period of ideological dissonance for the organization, a fact that undermines confidence in the explanation…

Analyzes newspaper accounts of the sociopolitical opposition encountered by the head of a state government agency forced to publicly apologize after attempting to control the external communication of an agency staff member with a reputation for organizational dissent. Discusses academic and applied implications of these findings for the emerging…

Argues that an adequate analysis of current political, economic, and cultural changes requires a firm grounding in political economy. Argues for a holistic approach to the study of culture and communication, an approach firmly rooted in political economy. (SR)

Describes reflective spectator judgment with respect to political judgment and rhetorical theory, and then proposes a method of stylistic analysis that may help to identify discursive features enabling reflective spectator judgment. Illustrates these discursive features (described as participatory forms) by performing a stylistic analysis of…