Twenty-five students recruited from a course in mass media and public opinion conducted telephone interviews with 162 residents of central Florida to assess their knowledge of the official dropping of Senator Eagleton as Senator McGovern's running mate in 1972. The broadcast media and television in particular served as a primary information…

One frequently encounters innuendoes, charges, allegations, threats, and rationales of conspiracy in studying the role of rhetoric in social movements. While "full discussion of competing ideas," holds high repute, "people meeting to plot some action," is disreputable and under some conditions illegal. This paper focuses on existing definitions of…

Previous studies conclude that the assassination attempt on George C. Wallace was a news event of high, but not maximum, importance, implying that the majority of respondents in any sample would report first learning of the attack via mass media sources. The authors interviewed 144 persons in Ann Arbor, Michigan, regarding their awareness of the…

This student published, quarterly journal is a forum for student thought on contemporary issues in rhetoric and communication. This issue focuses on the "Political Rhetoric of Our Times." The articles in this issue focus on the following topics: application of fantasy themes to individual role identification in the small group setting;…

There are three senses in which all persuasion is political: (1) persuasion seeks to restructure the organization of power; (2) persuasion itself is an exercise of power; and (3) all morally significant human conduct includes political dimensions. The comprehension of political events in dramatic terms is the burden of the author's thesis in this…

Assuming that pacifist and ROTC allegiances are associated with differing basic orientations toward mankind and differing preferences for resolution of international conflict, the Worldmindedness Scale and the peace proposal preference procedures (developed by cooperating participants in the international survey "Images of the Year 2000") were…

The purpose of this book is to define characteristics of rhetorical discourse, explain man's capacity to influence and be influenced, and describe the purposes and processes of rhetorical criticism. Representative speech texts, with critiques, are included on the following contemporary topics: withdrawal from Vietnam (Richard M. Nixon);…

Over the last 20 years, a successful election campaign has come to depend in large part on successful use of the broadcast media. As a result, media experts are part of most politicians' teams, and their strategies help determine the results of the election. Usually, themes or "images" are more important than issues. The techniques of mass…

THIS INVESTIGATION WAS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE DATA ABOUT THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL-POLITICAL ACTION LEADERS AT ONE UNIVERSITY AND TO COMPARE THOSE CHARACTERISTICS WITH OTHER TYPES OR CATEGORIES OF STUDENT LEADERS. NINE RESEARCH HYPOTHESES IN NULL FORM WERE FORMULATED TO FACILITATE STATISTICAL TREATMENT OF THE DATA. FROM A TOTAL OF 559 ELECTED…

Factor analysis of Rubin and Peplau's belief in a Just World scale yielded three factors. The factors were named Deservingness, Denial of injustice, and Evaluate and act justly. Just World scores were generally unrelated to demographic data (such as socio-economic class, age, sex, family size, grade point average) among the undergraduate subjects.…

The author examines the consequences of women's participation in politics. Sex differences in participation and social attitudes are compared, and the political impact of the views of women Democrats and Republicans are discussed. (Author/RM)

The significance of the Spanish cultural impact on the eastern seaboard of North America from the 16th to the 18th century is reported, with emphasis on Spanish literature. The reactions of the colonial public, and political attitudes of great public figures of the time, concerning Spanish colonial activities are described. (MS)

Persons from high-ranked colleges are found to be consistently more liberal than those from low and unranked institutions. Most variance in attitudes by education lies between three major educational strata rather than within college educated group. (Author/AM)

A study to determine the reason(s) for the change to the left of political attitudes of students between their freshman and senior years found that the role of the professor and other factors cannot be totally discounted, but that fellow students probably played the greatest role. (Author/EB)

A random sample of 600 New York City residents were interviewed by telephone in 1977 to determine the extent to which Blacks and Whites are divided over the issues of preferential treatment, racial quotas, and busing for the purpose of achieving school desegregation. (Author/MC)