This study examines the value of school board experience as a political apprenticeship for a group of 10 politicians in Canada who went on to successful careers in the House of Commons or the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. Structured indepth interviews focused on the study's principal concerns: political socialization, political…

Some might perceive a contradiction-in-terms in the claim that an appointment to the United States Supreme Court demands, or even permits, a political campaign. However, where there is a choice--a judgment identifying the preference for one proposition, or one person, over another--there is politics, there is rhetoric, and there is an ethical…

Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," published in 1776, was a significant rhetorical event, having a polarizing effect on a situation marked by confusion and conflicting loyalties, in which prevailing views favored reconciliation of the American colonies with England. Paine's rhetoric intensified the conflict, forcing a cognitive restructuring…

This paper describes briefly the path of political socialization research over the past 40 years; discusses "Project Citizen," a civics program for adolescent students, and the implications of recent research on it; and comments on the current state of political socialization research. Contains 12 references. (BT)

This conference paper asserts that there are four faces to the stories of people's lives: (1) a personal face; (2) a political face; (3) a historical face; and (4) a sacred face. The study explains how each of these faces interacts in society and is used to analyze and to teach multicultural literary works as archetypal stories from the…

After seeing a keen interest stimulated by a residential course of political training, the executive of the Youth Movement (Democrazia Cristiana) in the province of Reggio Emilia (Italy) decided to abandon the traditional training methodology, which consisted of one or two residential courses evey year on current political issues on the party's…

The relationships among mass media, interpersonal communication, and voting behavior were explored in a two-stage panel study of 141 respondents during a 1974 Illinois congressional election. Analyses of perceived exposures to mass media and to interpersonal communication were interpreted as supporting Rogers and Shoemakers' (1971)…

Noting that one's intellectual experiences presage one's later political commitments, this address explores the political commitments students make when they decide to major in communication studies. (PD)

Literature on the hidden curriculum suggests an essential meaning behind either "unintended consequences" or "latent functions" of formal curricula, but this claim is largely unfounded. Four major perspectives underpin studies in this area: functionalism, Marxism, humanitarianism, and existentialism. This paper demonstrates how…

An investigation of a cognitive-perceptual model to measure adolescents' feelings of political alienation is reported. The model hypothesizes that fundamental to the political alienation process is a feared actual or potential loss of freedom; this process is called psychological reactance. The sample consisted of 460 senior high school students…

The political myth of a nation substantially influences the way people behave, the goals to which they aspire, and the rationale upon which common actions are taken and through which rhetorical identification can be achieved. Myth is the image at the center of a culture that is the ideal of the culture's excellence. Myths are not accurate…

Adult education in Sweden is closely interrelated with the prevailing ideology in that society. The predominant ideology in Sweden consists of firm and active commitment to lifelong learning, achieving the 'learned society', socioeconomic and political democracy, full employment, individual growth and dignity, and overall egalitarianism. Welfare,…

In academia, theorists in rhetoric are interested in viewing how race, gender, and class come into play in the language of literature. The same might be done with popular science texts. A rhetorical analysis of "Sperm Wars," a popular science article published in "Discover" magazine, suggests that cultural assumptions inform…

This study, part of a larger research project on political socialization in Europe, examines the role of educational materials in informing individuals in the Netherlands about the political system of the European Community. The report covers five topics: (1) educational materials; (2) educational materials in an ends-means model of formal…

Communication scholars traditionally have assumed that children have only limited exposure to politically relevant information. This study attempts to assess the validity of this assumption by comparing the content of two sources generally available to United States school children: The "Weekly Reader" and television news. For two…