This thesis has focused on the rhetoric of polarization in the 1968 and 1972 Presidential campaigns as practiced by Governor George C, Wallace of Alabama The study has attempted to identify Wallace's major rhetorical problems in selected addresses in Ohio, Florida, and Michigan, The study focused on the major rhetorical strategies of subversion and purification that Wallace used to overcome his rhetorical problems and implement the rhetoric of polarization, Finally, the study attempted to evaluate the effectiveness of Wallace's rhetorical choices.

Presidential primary elections could demonstrate current developments in the American society and contribute to better understanding of general elections in November 2008. Therefore, after theoretical introduction about primary elections as process, I describe and compare standpoints of front-runners to the most debated issues (Hillary Rodham Clinton, John McCain and Barack Obama, then partially John Edwards, Rudolph Guiliani, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney). As a result, new trends in American political parties could be identified. Moreover, this analysis could forecast main tensions during the general presidential election in November. Apart from issues, this thesis deals with race and gender question and ageism and effects and success of using new communication channels in candidates' political campaigns.

"The US Presidential Nomination System and Its Evolution" Master's thesis focuses on political and historical aspects of presidential candidate selection system in the United States of America. Covering the past two and a half centuries of historical development in the first more historical part the final paper then continues with more political characters of the system. The first chapter is divided into four sections describing the evolution of the selection system since the very beginning of the US political history when the Constitution was adopted in 1780s over the establishment of national conventions and implementing primary elections around 1900 until the modern period of reform years in 1970s. The second chapter focuses on current selection system within the Democratic and the Republican Party while the last third chapter, being divided into three parts, describes three key primary elections of 20th and 21st century, respectively. The Democratic primaries of 1960 and a selection of J. F. Kennedy, the 1980 Republican primaries with Ronald Reagan as an unrivaled leader and the last Democratic primary elections of 2008 selecting Barack Obama a presidential candidate. In the conclusion the whole development is summarized and few ideas of future form of the system are provided.

The function of the mass media in the democratic process is crucial to an informed public and vital to a democratic system. One primary role of the media is that of gatekeeper between political candidates and the public. The influence the media has on the electorate is heightened during the primary process of presidential elections and even more so in the pre-primary season when a large majority of potential voters have yet to form opinions of candidates. The effects of the media in the pre-primary season of politics play out in significant relationships where media coverage results in measurable increases in campaign contributions to the candidates included in this research, while the tone of content has no measurable influence. Although models that tested the ability to predict success in primaries failed to reach statistically significant levels, the raw data show high correlations between media coverage and candidate success.

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As the 2008 presidential election nears, the Democrats get closer and closer to supporting one of two presidential nominees—a Black man or a White woman—both of whom represent demographic groups that have yet to be seen occupying the White House. This creates a unique opportunity for observing the process of transformation and the fluidity of one of some of our most fundamental concepts (i.e., `president' and `woman') through the print media. Therefore, this thesis examines the process of transformation by analyzing the role of Hillary Clinton's gender performances in TIME Magazine.This thesis examines Hillary Clinton's thirteen appearances on the cover of TIME and the corresponding articles, between 1992 and 2008. Through a qualitative content analysis, this analysis combines Judith Butler's theory of gender performitivity and the concept of subversion with more traditional conceptions of male and female gender roles, a in order to assess the subversive potential of Hillary Clinton's mediated gender performances. Specifically, this thesis addresses the following research questions:RQ 1: In what ways does Hillary simultaneously embody both male and femalegender performances?RQ 2: How do mediated gender performances differ from immediate gender performances?RQ 3: How do these performances work to produce her public identity?RQ 4: Do Hillary's gender performances subvert the heterosexual matrix? Or do they reinforce it?This analysis contributes to the theory of gender performance by demonstrating the potential for a methodological application based on the logical consequence of reconstructing gender—even if such reconstruction is based on false pretenses. Furthermore, it contributes to the communication discipline by offering practical guidelines for analyzing and predicting subversive potential. / Department of Communication Studies

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The study of political communication is an old and diverse field, and the media has been proven to have an effect on their readers. The narratives that they create in their reporting can be as damning as they can be auspicious. Therefore, the study of media and how they frame certain events is as important as it has ever been. The democratic primaries in 2016 were certainly an interesting event. Hillary Clinton, the apparent nominee of the party, faced off against Bernie Sanders, who, in America, is something as unusual as a democratic socialist. How were these two polar opposites framed? To find out, a framing analysis was made on New York Times and Washington Post, two of the largest newspapers in the US. The analysis was built around four “events” that were deemed important in the election. 195 articles were analyzed. The methods that were used were both quantitative and qualitative, and the theories of framing (how the media depicts the election) and agenda-setting (what the media deems to be important) were applied. The results showed that the two newspapers did not differentiate all that much from each other, except for a few percent in certain aspects. All in all, the narrative was obvious. Clinton was the candidate that would go on to win the nomination. She was also the most suitable candidate. Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, was framed as the loser and as unsuitable. Though he was consistently framed as having more integrity than his opponent. Clinton was also the candidate that had the biggest focus on her. This was true for all of the events, and in both newspapers. The implications of the study are twofold. First, Sanders was consistently painted in a negative light, which created an undesirable narrative and gave him negative momentum. Secondly, the virtual duplication of the narratives in New York Times and Washington Post suggests that there was some kind of consensus. Either Clinton really was the obvious nominee for the party, or the media hampered Sanders chances to clinch the nomination by depicting him in a negative manner.

La présente étude examine comment les organisations de lutte pour les droits civiques que sont la Rainbow Push Coalition, la NAACP et la National Urban League ont contribué à l’élection du 44e président des États-Unis, Barack Obama. Elle établit dans un premier temps comment la participation du Révérend Jesse Jackson aux élections de 1984 et 1988 a contribué à l’émergence du processus démocratique à l’origine de l’élection de Barack Obama, premier président américain issu de la communauté africaine américaine. Dans un second temps, elle met en évidence comment l’action transformative du mouvement des droits civiques ayant conduit à la promulgation du Voting Rights Act de 1965 par le président Lyndon B. Johnson, sous l’impulsion du Dr Martin Luther King, mais aussi de Roy Wilkins et Whitney Young contribua à l’élection de Barack Obama en 2008. En analysant la participation de Jesse Jackson aux élections présidentielles américaines, notre objectif est de montrer comment il est parvenu à faire changer les règles de nomination des candidats issus des minorités au sein du parti démocrate. Elle a permis de montrer comment Obama en fut le bénéficiaire en devenant d’abord le nominé du parti démocrate, puis le président des États-Unis. D’où notre analyse du processus électoral de 2008. L’étude fait ainsi un tour d’horizon des désaccords qui ont surgi lors de l’élection présidentielle de 2008, entre Hillary Clinton et Barack Obama d’une part, puis entre ce dernier et John McCain d’autre part. Elle examine, par ailleurs, dans une perspective sociologique, les conflits qui se sont succédés au sein de la communauté africaine américaine, notamment entre certains dirigeants africains américains et Obama avant et pendant l’élection présidentielle de 2008, relatifs aux valeurs familiales, à l’incident racial des “Six de Jena” ou encore à la participation de Barack Obama à l’élection présidentielle. La question relative à la notion d’une Amérique post-raciale qui se présenta suite à l’élection d’Obama sera également abordée. Elle démontre comment son élection n’a malheureusement pas pu changer les mentalités des Américains au sujet de la question raciale de manière radicale et combien le racisme demeure une question fondamentale, majeure aux États-Unis au 21e siècle. Enfin, l’étude examine la collaboration post-électorale entre les organisations de lutte pour les droits civiques et l’administration Obama. / This dissertation discusses how Black Civil Rights Organizations such as the NAACP, the National Urban League and the Rainbow Push Coalition paved the way for the election of the 44th US President, Barack Obama. It specifically establishes a direct link connecting the 1965 Voting Rights Act victory won under the leadership of Dr Martin Luther King, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young along with the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 presidential bids, showing from a historical approach how the Civil Rights Movement contributed to the election of the first African-American US President. By examining Reverend Jesse Jackson’s two presidential bids, this dissertation aims at demonstrating how he made it easier and more accessible for Barack Obama to become the Democratic Party nominee ultimately elected to the US Presidency. The dissertation further examines the electoral process through which Obama ascended to the Land’s Highest Office. In that regard, it revisits crucial hostilities that occurred during the 2008 presidential election within the Democratic Party between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. By the same token, it looks back on upheavals that broke out between Obama and Senator John McCain during the general election. The dissertation discusses from a sociological viewpoint disputes over leadership within the black community among African-American leaders and Barack Obama prior to, and during the 2008 presidential election. These clashes were notably related to family values, Obama’s 2008 presidential bid, and the Jena Six racial incident. This dissertation, further, addresses issues of America being a post-racial nation pointing out how the election of the first African-American President failed in fundamentally shifting Americans’ view on race relations and how racism is still a relevant issue in twenty-first century America while examining from another standpoint the relationship between the Obama Administration and the aforementioned Black Civil Rights Organizations