Verbal Style and the Presidency: A Computer-Based Analysis (Human Communication Research Series)

Hart, Roderick P.

Academic Pr

In our television age, we may believe that politics has become more immediate, even more personal. After all, the drama of debates, Congressional hearings, and summit meetings unfolds before us as we lounge comfortably in our living rooms. And with call-in shows where the "average citizen" can offer opinions as Al Gore and Ross Perot slug it out over NAFTA, we may even think that we are more a part of the political process than ever before. But as Roderick P. Hart reveals in this fascinating new book, while television may make us feel informed and clever about contemporary politics, it is actually distracting us from the realities of political power in American life. In Seducing America, Hart offers a strikingly new interpretation of how television has changed us as citizens and as voters. While other researchers have examined the ways in which television has influenced politics--as in the use of negative campaigning--this book focuses on the changes television has made in how we feel toward the whole process. Despite ubiquitous political talk shows, Ross Perot's infomercials, and Jerry Brown's 800 number, voter turnout decreases at an alarming rate and studies show that Americans are more disillusioned with politics than ever before. Hart shows that television's seeming empowerment of viewers is spurious, and it is from this false sense of intimacy that our distrust and disillusionment spring. Television flatters viewers by making us feel close to our leaders, when we are, in fact, far removed. It makes us feel informed (when we are not), feel busy (when we are politically inactive), and feel clever (when we adopt the cool cynicism of political insiders). Most of all, it makes us feel important by substituting symbolic victories and media access for real, substantive power. While television stirs in us strong emotional responses to political issues, we remain unsatisfied. Why? And, more important, what can we do to stem voter apathy and dissatisfaction? With its fresh and incisive examination of television's role in American politics, this book offers some important--and often surprising--answers to these questions. What we need, argues Hart, is a New Puritanism. As an antidote to the disillusioning electronic world we now inhabit, Hart advocates a return to the values of our ancestors, a rediscovered understanding that duty, community, and hope--not television's wry uncertainties--offer the keys to political wisdom. A penetrating and witty analysis that shifts the focus from the public arena to the private home, Seducing America shows that much of the blame for our political dissatisfaction rests not with the spin doctors, journalists, and politicians, but with ourselves. It is a book that all Americans should read before the next election year begins.

Seducing America: How Television Charms the Modern Voter

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Oxford University Press

The Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal in the United States, but that statement does not hold true for words. Some words carry more weight than others--they seem to work harder, get more done, and demand more respect.Political Keywords: Using Language that Uses Us looks at eight dominant words that are crucial to American political discourse, and how they have been employed during the last fifty years. Based on an analysis of eleven separate studies of political language, Political Keywords helps readers to understand what these terms mean and how they are used. For example, the book tracks whatpolitics now means to modern commentators, how schoolteacher impress certain values upon the nation's children by invoking the office of thepresident, and why an innocent word like government sometimes makes people so upset. It details how thepeople are referenced in political talk and how the media portray themselves. The book also considers the work done by politicalparties, political promises, and political consultants because, together, they shed special light on modern elections. Combining social science with subtle forms of cultural interpretation,Political Keywords: Using Language that Uses Us provides a fresh look at both American politics and American language. It is an ideal text for undergraduate and graduate courses in political communication, political language, political campaigns, media and politics, political psychology, public opinion, rhetorical criticism, contemporary public address, and presidential rhetoric.

Political Keywords: Using Language that Uses Us

Jarvis, Sharon E.

Jennings, William P.

Smith-Howell, Deborah

The Declaration of Independence states that all men are created equal in the United States, but that statement does not hold true for words. Some words carry more weight than others--they seem to work harder, get more done, and demand more respect. Political Keywords: Using Language that Uses Us looks at eight dominant words that are crucial to American political discourse, and how they have been employed during the last fifty years. Based on an analysis of eleven separate studies of political language, Political Keywords helps readers to understand what these terms mean and how they are used. For example, the book tracks what politics now means to modern commentators, how schoolteacher impress certain values upon the nation's children by invoking the office of the president, and why an innocent word like government sometimes makes people so upset. It details how the people are referenced in political talk and how the media portray themselves. The book also considers the work done by political parties, political promises, and political consultants because, together, they shed special light on modern elections. Combining social science with subtle forms of cultural interpretation, Political Keywords: Using Language that Uses Us provides a fresh look at both American politics and American language. It is an ideal text for undergraduate and graduate courses in political communication, political language, political campaigns, media and politics, political psychology, public opinion, rhetorical criticism, contemporary public address, and presidential rhetoric.

A great deal of attention has been devoted to risk research. Sociologists in general have limited themselves to varying recognitions of a society at risk and have traced out the paths to disaster. The detailed research has yet to be undertaken. In Risk, now available in paperback, Niklas Luhmann develops a theoretical program for such research. His premise is that the concept of risk projects essential aspects of our description of the future onto the present. Risk is conceived as the possibility of triggering unexpected, unlikely, and detrimental consequences by means of a decision attributable to a decision maker.

Modern Rhetorical Criticism (3rd Edition)

Daughton, Suzanne M.

Literature & Fiction

Pearson

A comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the analysis of public rhetoric, this book illustrates for readers how to examine and interpret rhetorical situations, ideas, arguments, structure, and style. The book covers a wide range of critical techniques, from cultural and dramatistic analysis to feminist and Marxist approaches. A wealth of original criticism demonstrates how to analyze such diverse forms as junk mail, congressional debates, and traffic regulations, as well as literature.

Modern Rhetorical Criticism (2nd Edition)

Allyn&Bacon

Modern Rhetorical Criticism

A comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the analysis of public rhetoric, Modern Rhetorical Criticism teaches readers how to examine and interpret rhetorical situations, ideas, arguments, structure, and style. The text covers a wide range of critical techniques, from cultural and dramatistic analysis to feminist and Marxist approaches. A wealth of original criticism demonstrates how to analyze such diverse forms as junk mail, congressional debates, and traffic regulations, as well as literature. This long-awaited revision contains new coverage of mass media, feminist criticism, and European criticism.

It’s not what you say, but how you say it. Solving problems with words is the essence of politics, and finding the right words for the moment can make or break a politician’s career. Yet very little has been said in political science about the elusive element of tone.In Political Tone, Roderick P. Hart, Jay P. Childers, and Colene J. Lind analyze a range of texts—from speeches and debates to advertising and print and broadcast campaign coverage— using a sophisticated computer program, DICTION, that parses their content for semantic features like realism, commonality, and certainty, as well as references to religion, party, or patriotic terms. Beginning with a look at how societal forces like diversity and modernity manifest themselves as political tones in the contexts of particular leaders and events, the authors proceed to consider how individual leaders have used tone to convey their messages: How did Bill Clinton’s clever dexterity help him recover from the Monica Lewinsky scandal? How did Barack Obama draw on his experience as a talented community activist to overcome his inexperience as a national leader? And how does Sarah Palin’s wandering tone indicate that she trusts her listeners and is open to their ideas?By focusing not on the substance of political arguments but on how they were phrased, Political Tone provides powerful and unexpected insights into American politics.

Political Tone: How Leaders Talk and Why (Chicago Studies in American Politics)

Reference

Childers, Jay P.

Lind, Colene J.

Words, Language & Grammar

University of Chicago Press

It’s not what you say, but how you say it. Solving problems with words is the essence of politics, and finding the right words for the moment can make or break a politician’s career. Yet very little has been said in political science about the elusive element of tone. In Political Tone, Roderick P. Hart, Jay P. Childers, and Colene J. Lind analyze a range of texts—from speeches and debates to advertising and print and broadcast campaign coverage— using a sophisticated computer program, DICTION, that parses their content for semantic features like realism, commonality, and certainty, as well as references to religion, party, or patriotic terms. Beginning with a look at how societal forces like diversity and modernity manifest themselves as political tones in the contexts of particular leaders and events, the authors proceed to consider how individual leaders have used tone to convey their messages: How did Bill Clinton’s clever dexterity help him recover from the Monica Lewinsky scandal? How did Barack Obama draw on his experience as a talented community activist to overcome his inexperience as a national leader? And how does Sarah Palin’s wandering tone indicate that she trusts her listeners and is open to their ideas? By focusing not on the substance of political arguments but on how they were phrased, Political Tone provides powerful and unexpected insights into American politics.

The Sound of Leadership: Presidential Communication in the Modern Age

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hart, Roderick P.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hart, Roderick P.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hart, Roderick P.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Verbal Style and the Presidency: A Computer-Based Analysis (Human Communication Research Series)

Seducing America: How Television Charms the Modern Voter

Political Keywords: Using Language that Uses Us

Political Keywords: Using Language that Uses Us

Modern Rhetorical Criticism (3rd Edition)

Modern Rhetorical Criticism (2nd Edition)

Modern Rhetorical Criticism (3rd Edition)

Political Tone: How Leaders Talk and Why (Chicago Studies in American Politics)

Political Tone: How Leaders Talk and Why (Chicago Studies in American Politics)

The Sound of Leadership: Presidential Communication in the Modern Age