Politics, Discourse, and American Society: New Agendas - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0742500713 ISBN 13: 9780742500716

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001

Synopsis

What is the purpose of public talk in a democratic society? Do the American people interact with their government in distinctive ways? Are the nation's mass media helpful or harmful to the democratic experience? In Politics, Discourse, and American Society, some of the nation's best young scholars take us beyond conventional perspectives to present original work on how politics is transacted in American society and how public communication affects those transactions. They also lay out directions for future research, thereby putting fresh ideas on the scholarly agenda. The authors ask whether the American president is genuinely powerful, if lawsuits have become a way of changing the nation's politics, whether public opinion polling is really objective, and whether politics can still be distinguished from pop culture.

About this title

About the Author:

Roderick P. Hart is Shivers Chair in Communication and professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin and director of the Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation. Bartholomew Sparrow is associate professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin.

Review:

Hart and Sparrow bring together some of the best young minds on political communication, resulting in a series of essays that are provocative and original in their insights. The authors challenge many aspects of conventional understanding and show how outlets from presidential town meetings to talk shows have important political ramifications. (Darrell M. West, Brown University)

This richly rewarding volume, authored by a bevy of promising young scholars, presents novel insights into the complex interplay of political discourse and cultural forces. It's fun to read, stimulating to ponder, and bound to spark fruitful new approaches to political communication research. (Doris Graber, University of Illinois at Chicago)

The contributors collectively reach beyond simple models of media effects. . . . These fresh perspectives on the complexity and significance of political communications offer much food for scholarly discussion. (CHOICE)

A splendid collection of diverse personal agendas. (Political Communication)

This is an edgy book, setting for itself the goals of understanding the political agendas of politicians, journalists, and citizen activists in a new century and of pushing fellow scholars into new conceptual territories. Both goals are fulfilled splendidly. (Bruce Gronbeck, University of Iowa)

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0742500713
• ISBN 13: 9780742500716
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 280
• Editor: Hart Roderick P., Sparrow Bartholomew