Accessibility in the Basic Course: A Case for Retaining Pandemic Technology

This piece focuses on the potential of technologies adopted during the COVID-19 crisis to enhance accessibility for students with disabilities in the basic course. The pandemic disrupted traditional modes of teaching and learning and required basic course instructors to seek out technologies that could help meet the goals of a traditional classroom experience. This piece suggests that this spirit of flexibility with technology should be retained in traditional classrooms going forward, as it can benefit students with disabilities. First, Universal Design for Learning is discussed, including its emphasis on providing multiple options for learning and the guidelines it presents for creating more accessible classrooms. Then, discussion turns to two examples of technologies utilized during the pandemic that could be retained and deployed to offer a variety of learning options for students. Such options increase accessibility and benefit all students

A Functional Analysis of Televised U.S. Senate and Gubernatorial Campaign Debates

This study extended previous research on the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse to investigate the nature of 21 U.S. Senate campaign debates and 15 gubernatorial debates from 1994 to 2006. Acclaims were more common than attacks or defenses in Senate (56%, 30%, 14%) and gubernatorial (68%, 30%, 2%) debates. Challengers attacked more and acclaimed less than incumbents in both groups of debates. Senate and gubernatorial incumbents used past deeds much more to acclaim than attack; challengers were prone to use past deeds to attack more than acclaim. There was no consistent effect of political party on functions of debates. The candidates focused more attention on policy than character in Senate (70%, 30%) and gubernatorial debates (73%, 27%). There was no difference in topics stressed by Democrats and Republicans, or incumbents and challengers, in either set of debates. These results are generally consistent with the findings from prior analyses of presidential debate

Determinants of Issue Emphasis in Gubernatorial and Senate Debates

This study employs computer content analysis to investigate the issue emphasis of political campaign debates. Issue Ownership Theory (Petrocik, 1996) posits that each political party “owns” a set of issues, which means that a majority of the public believes that one party is better able to handle that issue than the other party. He predicts that political candidates will emphasize the issues owned by their own party. This study applies computer content analysis to 12 gubernatorial and 12 senatorial debates. The results confirm the predictions of issue ownership theory: Candidates discussed the issues owned by their political party more, and issues owned by the opposing party less, than their opponents

Functional Federalism and Issue Emphasis in Political Television Spots

Peterson’s (1995) theory of Functional Federalism recognizes that political offices at different levels of government have different responsibilities, so that senators are more likely to emphasize national issues than governors. This theory was tested and extended. First, 1651 political television spots from 2002 and 2004 gubernatorial, US Senate, and US House races were subjected to computer content analysis. As predicted, gubernatorial spots emphasized local issues (54%) more than national ones (46%) whereas House and Senate spots stressed national issues (63%, 64%) over local ones (37%, 36%). Second, we extended Functional Federalism by arguing that presidential TV spots should stress national issues even more than spots for the Senate and House. Then 687 presidential television spots (1980-2004) and 526 congressional spots (1980-2002) were also content analyzed. Both sets of ads emphasized national issues more than local issues; however, presidential ads stressed national issues (66%) even more than congressional ads (56%). These data support and extend the theory of functional federalism

The Effects of Using Peer Workshops on Speech Quality, Public Speaking Anxiety, and Classroom Climate

This field experiment answered the call to explore alternative pedagogies in communication by testing the use of structured peer workshops in public speaking courses. Peer workshops use systematic and structured peer feedback to assist students in improving their speeches. While strong theoretical reasons for using workshops have been advanced, and evidence from other disciplines suggest that they are effective, no research has specifically examined their use in public speaking. Results of our study show that peer workshops are a viable pedagogical option because they improve students’ speech grades, reduce public speaking anxiety, and improve perceptions of classroom climate. When comparing the use of workshops at two different universities, however, we observed inconsistent results which could be attributed to how workshops were integrated and supported

Patriots Underground, Online: a Rhetorical Study of the Militia Movement\u27s Use of the American Revolution

Citizen militias rose to the forefront of public attention in 1995, after investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing revealed that the accused were inspired by militia literature. This study examines the rhetoric of the militia movement, particularly its use of the political myth of the American Revolution. A study of militia movement web pages reveals that militia rhetors reinterpret the myth of the American Revolution in two stages: first, the federal current government oppresses its citizens, an activity which robs the government of its legitimacy; and second, the Founders believed that an illegitimate government should be abolished. Using rhetorical strategies like vagueness, reliance on outside authority, and citation of examples, the militia movement rhetors hope to persuade readers to resist a government that takes advantage of its citizens. In this way, militia rhetors can continue to love their country while fearing their government

Playing nice: modeling civility in online political discussions

This article explores a way to promote civility in online political discussions through modeling behaviors. An online experiment (N = 130) was conducted to investigate the influence of civil and uncivil political discourse on participants\u27 mode of discussion and participatory intentions. Results show that those who were exposed to civil discussion demonstrated a civil mode of discourse in their own comments and reported a higher level of willingness to participate in discussions, compared to those who were exposed to uncivil discussion. This study illuminates the possibility that civil participants may have more control over the online environment than they think

Is Civility Contagious? Examining the Impact of Modeling in Online Political Discussions

This study examines a way to promote civility in online political discussions through modeling discursive cues. An online experiment (N = 321) was conducted to investigate the impact of civil and uncivil discursive cues on participants’ mode of discussion. Results show that participants who were exposed to civil cues were more likely to engage in civil discourse themselves, stay on-topic, and offer additional perspectives in their comments. We also found that metacommunication (i.e., talking about the tone of discussion) engendered more metacommunication. This study illustrates the impact of modeling discursive cues and illuminates the possibility that participants in online discussion can improve their discursive environment

Issue Ownership in Congressional Campaign Television Spots

This study investigated issue ownership patterns in 602 U.S. House and Senate Democratic and Republican political campaign television advertisements from 1980–2000. First, the themes in these ads were about equally split between policy and character (unlike presidential TV spots from the same time period, which are roughly two-thirds policy and one-third character). Candidates from each political party addressed their own party\u27s issues more than issues owned by the other party. However, unlike presidential spots, congressional ads discussed Democratic issues more than Republican issues (59% to 41%). Although candidates from both political parties discussed their own issues more, winners tended to discuss issues from the other party more than losers. There was no difference in issue ownership emphasis between the House and Senate ads in this sample

A Functional Analysis of the 1988 Bush-Dukakis Presidential Debates

This study applies the Functional Theory of Political Campaign Discourse to the 1988 presidential debates between George Bush and Michael Dukakis. It challenges the notion that this campaign was mostly negative: The candidates relied more heavily on acclaims (59%) than on attacks (33%) or defenses (8%). The incumbent party candidate, Bush, devoted more discourse to acclaiming (62%) than the challenger (56%). The challenger attacked more (39%) than the incumbent (25%), which refutes the idea that Bush was more aggressive. Bush, who was subjected to more attacks, had more defenses (12% to 5%). Despite the belief that modern campaigns are devoid of substance, these debates stressed policy about twice as much as character