An great email conversation between Steven Johnson and Farhad Manjoo in Slate Magazine. Johnson argues that many of Manjoo’s examples are dependent not on media fragmentation but “on old-style, top-down media distribution.”
You need not take extensive notes, but do note places in the conversation where you see examples of either classical or Rogerian argument. On Friday, we’ll discuss the relative effectiveness of each.
The following guide from rhetoric scholar Don Lazere might be helpful to you as you examine sources for your next major essay. In what I consider quite balanced fashion, he describes where various media sources fall on the liberal-conservative continuum, offers a checklist for uncovering bias, and provides an easy-to-understand glossary of political terms that describes the goals and rhetorical patterns of both left and right.
Groseclose and Miyo’s original study.
Media Matters’ critique.
And some selective perception in action, reported by NPR’s ombudsman: “Between June 9 and Oct. 19, 2008 my office received 282 emails specifically accusing NPR of favoring Obama and 252 emails accusing NPR of favoring McCain. Hundreds more insist the network is either too conservative or too liberal in general, and the writers allege specific bias with particular stories.”
Colbert’s original truthiness segment.
See Raskin’s original VNRs and SMTs here, courtesy the Center for Media and Democracy’s prwatch.org.
Everything I needed to know, I learned from Saturday morning cartoons. Schoolhouse Rock’s Constitution Preamble. See any theories of persuasion at work here?
Sources for today:
Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, “What Americans Know”
Kull, Ramsay, and Lewis, “Misperceptions, the Media and the Iraq War,” Political Science Quarterly
Narrative paradigm: Bush clearing brush | Nicholas Kristof, “The Body Count at Home”
Social judgment theory: Media Curves, Responses to Obama’s education speech
Cognitive Dissonance: “Mike Castle Gets Obama Birth Certificate Earful”
John Mackey, “The Whole Foods Alternative to Obama Care”
Jack Bernard, “Beware Health Industrial Complex”
National Review Online editorial, “Born in the U.S.A.”
James Lewis, “Obama’s Birth Debate: It’s About Loyalty”
As promised, a few links. When examining any polling data, employ a healthy skepticism. Has the news source reporting the poll interpreted the data accurately and fairly? Was the poll rigorously conducted? Is its methodology available? What is the reputation of the polling firm? The poll sponsor? (And how can you find out?) Might the poll have been affected by the wording of the questions or certain rhetorical constraints and contingencies?
Washington Times, “Poll Finds Doubts on Obama’s Birth”
NBC Washington, “53 Percent of Likely Va. Voters Think Obama Was Born in US”
Fayetteville Flyer, “Less Than Half of Arkansans Think Obama is a US Citizen”
Washington Independent, “How Many Southern Whites Believe Obama Was Born in America?”
Sources for the above:
Public Policy Poling, Virginia survey | Arkansas survey | “A Deeper Look at the Birthers”
The Daily Kos/Research 2000 Poll that started it all. [Daily Kos is a liberal webforum, Research 2000 a non-partisan polling company. But don't take my word for it; trust but verify.]
Some reactions here and here from Free Republic, a conservative webforum.
In light of the TDR debate, some of you might find the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life’s “US Religious Landscape Survey” worthwhile. “Based on interviews with more than 35,000 American adults, this extensive survey…details the religious makeup, religious beliefs and practices as well as social and political attitudes of the American public.” I’m going to make the argument from authority here, but the Pew Forum is as good as it gets in providing non-partisan information on American religious beliefs; the whole website is worth exploring.
