Examines predictive patterns of traditional and nontraditional media forms on people's campaign interest and participation, information processing strategies, knowledge of candidates' positions, perceived votes for candidates, and issue salience. Finds nontraditional media had greatest impact on labile characteristics and weakest impact on…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "In Need of Improvement:" New Alliance Brief Finds Flaws in NCLB's Design and Implementation for the…

Previous laboratory research has found that self-disclosure by a speaker identified as a political officeholder results in a decrease in persuasiveness, whereas similar disclosure by nonofficials increases persuasiveness. Two experiments were conducted to examine this effect further. In experiment 1, subjects were 75 male and 77 female…

This paper chronicles the life of Democratic Congressman "Tip" O'Neill, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977-1986. O'Neill's life is recounted, including: (1) encountering the patronage practice in Boston politics; (2) experiences in the Massachusetts legislature; (3) work with the Kennedy brothers and Lyndon Johnson;…

This paper discusses the results of a study that investigated whether there are any significant differences in political leadership potential and willingness to lead among three groups of Singapore students from the Gifted Education Program (GEP) (n=86), the best Express Stream class (n=74), and the weakest Express Stream class (n=61). Data were…

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) provided funding for local public television stations to broadcast political debates prior to the 1998 election; CPB commissioned research to determine how the programs aided viewers in the election process. Viewers of the public television station local debate night program found the program to be of…

To examine factors which influenced the media's agenda-building process during a primary election period in Mississippi, a study explored candidates' personal attributes, campaign resourcefulness, and media connectedness as important agenda-building variables. Candidates for Mississippi's United States House of Representatives seats in 1982 and…

Although the Nebraska gubernatorial race was the first statewide race in which both candidates were women, women's issues were seldom raised--even though both candidates thought the women's movement had helped to make their previous campaigns successful. Because each candidate opposed abortion, neither was endorsed by any of the major women's…

By reviewing personal correspondence, biographies, newspaper coverage of the 1940s, and interviews, this survey examines Wendell Willkie's relations with the press in general and with publishers John Cowles and Gardner (Mike) Cowles in particular. Divided into four parts, the survey begins with a review of the correspondence between Willkie and…

A national survey of daily newspaper editors was conducted in May 1986 for the purpose of determining editors' perceptions of religious broadcaster Pat Robertson. The study examined how well known Robertson is to editors, how they perceive him politically and personally, and why he is perceived by newspaper editors in the way that he is. A total…

Researchers often consider how personal attributes affect the data gathered, and how that effect can be eliminated, or at least minimalized. This question takes on added significance in the realm of politics. Numerous studies have examined the issue of interviewer/interviewee race. The results of these studies indicate that members of one race…

Michael Dukakis lost the presidential campaign debates of 1988 (or at least failed to capitalize as much as he might have) because he understood the debates to be genuine debates. Consequently, Dukakis acted as a debater generating an image of himself as a "benevolent technocrat," which was an error. It must be pointed out that the…

A study examined the effects of training in argumentation and of initial candidate preference on perceptions and evaluations of presidential candidate debates. Subjects, 490 undergraduate speech communication students, were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions--control (no training), criteria only, and criteria plus explanations for…

Concludes that newspaper endorsements have stronger effects than political party identification when available information about a candidate is minimal. (FL)

Describes the emotion of nostalgia and the strategies and functions of nostalgic rhetorical appeals in order to analyze Edward Kennedy's major policy address during the 1980 Democratic national convention. Suggests that Kennedy used nostalgic appeals to serve therapeutic and deliberative functions. (KEH)