Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

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The theory of motivated reasoning predicts that partisan cues in the media will affect political attitudes, by encouraging individuals to align their views with those of their party's elites. The effect has primarily been tested by looking at issues which have pre-established partisan positions (e.g. immigration reform, gay rights, etc.). This study looks at the effects of partisan cues in the media on attitudes toward a non-partisan issue, the NSA's collection of American's meta-data. Additionally, the study extends research on partisan cues by exploring the moderating role of an individual's political communication network and, specifically, exposure to cross-cutting political communication. Findings are mixed: although there was no main effect of exposure to partisan cues in general, strong partisans were more affected by exposure to partisan cues than weak partisans. Additionally, although frequency of political discussion was not found to moderate the effect of partisan cues, individuals with high exposure to cross-cutting communication were significantly less affected by partisan cues than those with low exposure to cross-cutting communication. Limitations, implications, and future directions are discussed.

This study offers a mythical examination of the addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt during his first two terms of presidency. The direction of the study is to determine the use of the hero persona in Roosevelt's goal of gaining an unprecedented third-term presidential reelection.The study overviews the historic American public attitude toward the concept of a president being elected for a third consecutive term. Close attention is given to the fears of Americans during the late thirties generated from both the Great Depression and the current war in Europe and Asia. Drawing upon comments from various authorities and particularly those of Roosevelt's 1940 election opponent Wendal Willkie, the study establishes that many Americans were afraid that a third-term election would give Roosevelt too much power, and that many compared this power to/ dictatorships like those in Italy and Nazi Germany.-.Examination of numerous addresses by Roosevelt before the 1940 election reveals that FDR established a dramatistic rhetorical framework in which he cast a variety of players including the American people, Congress, the financial leaders of the Nation, foreign countries and dictatorships. These were cast as villains, victims and heroes.Two of the victims were democracy and the American Dream, both being threatened from without and from within America. The study looks at ways Roosevelt cast himself in this drama as the hero and defender of these two myths. / Department of Speech Communication

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Texas, Dec., 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Three sound bites, Whatever it takes (55 seconds), Safer, Stronger (30 seconds), and War on Terror (30 seconds), of President George W. Bush during the presidential election of 2004 will be explored and unpacked.

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This study examined the ideograph of <collateral damage> through an analysis of the Bush Administration's rhetoric as well as visual photographs of Iraqi civilian deaths. The project argues that the psycho-dynamic rhetoric of the Bush Administration during a time of visual censorship lead to the dehumanization of Iraqi civilian deaths during the War in Iraq. The method consisted of a textual analysis of the Bush Administration's rhetoric and continued with a content analysis of news media's photographs. The author argues that critics gain a deeper understanding of the disappearing dead phenomenon of Iraqi civilians by examining ideographic fragments of psycho-dynamic rhetoric.

The advent of the Internet has increased access to information and impacted many aspects of life, including politics. The present study utilized Pew Internet & American Life survey data from the November 2008 presidential election time period to investigate the degree to which political blog reading predicted online political discussion, online political participation, whether or not a person voted, and voting choice, over and above the predication that could be explained by demographic measures of age, education level, gender, income, marital status, race/ethnicity, and region. Ordinary least squares hierarchical regression revealed that political blog reading was positively and statistically significantly related to online political discussion and online political participation. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis indicated that the odds of a political blog reader voting were 1.98 the odds of a nonreader voting, but vote choice was not predicted by reading political blogs. These results are interpreted within the uses and gratifications framework and the understanding that blogs add an interpersonal communication aspect to a mass medium. As more people use blogs and the nature of the blog-reading audience shifts, continuing to track and describe the blog audience with valid measures will be important for researchers and practitioners alike. Subsequent potential effects of political blog reading on engagement, discussion, and participation will be important to understand as these effects could impact the political landscape of this country and, therefore, the world.