Academic Bulletin Freshman Tutorials - 2012-13 - 12 FT 12

Sara Drury, Department of Rhetoric
If you study political communication, every fall is filled with excitement as you turn on your television, open your newspaper, refresh your news feed, and check your Facebook or Twitter account. In this tutorial, we will explore, analyze, and evaluate the political rhetoric of the 2012 campaign at the local, state, and national levels. We will consider a variety of questions, including: How might we characterize the rhetoric of a particular candidate? What are the persuasive strategies of a candidate? Was a particular candidate’s message or advertisement effective? What are the effects of political debates on campaigns? Has the rhetoric of political campaigns changed in the new millennium? How do news-comedy shows, such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, impact national presidential campaigns? How much impact do the “talking heads” on CNN, Fox News, and other news networks have on national campaigns? What about the effects of social media? Students will address these questions and more, and have the opportunity to create their own political rhetoric on Campaign 2012 through writing assignments, including course papers, a course blog, and social media. Over the semester, as a class we will follow the 2012 Presidential campaign and students will each select a local or congressional campaign and serve as a reporter on that campaign to the class.