Handout 1

If I have to think of writing on the Internet something that is not necessarily ‘derived from academic work’ what comes to mind are Instant messages, Chats, Personal Blogs. Advertisements, newspapers articles and some websites and blogs might have an academic support on the basis of their purpose. If I find the advertisement of a cosmetic on the Web I have to consider what there is behind it. First of all, the advertised product aims to a specific share of sales leads and it is put on the market after a in-depth market analysis and research. I think that nothing is done by chance, indeed there is always a market strategy or a clear purpose, even in a tabloid.
It is not easy to judge if the content of something found on the Web is reliable or not. There are for instance some well written tabloids that offer news that seem being true and having certain references. At first sight, readers can be deceived by the big amount of information found on the Internet. However, there are some aspects to take into account such as who is the author. Only using “Google” it is easy to find if the information has been written by an expert or an anonymous. Anyway, also articles published by specialists can be worthless and without reliability. Therefore, a second step to see if the source found is trustworthy is to check where it was published. Did it appear on a academic journal, on a scientific website or newspaper? Then, when was it published? This is an important question in order to see if the information is updated. Finally, it is of significance to find the purpose of the information found. On the basis of these four questions it becomes easier to judge reliable or not the content of an information.
In spite this, there is another aspect to consider that is the concept of “scholarly”. Not all information on the Web are scholar even if written and published by learned persons.
Scholarly journals always cite their sources in the form of footnotes or bibliographies. The affiliations of authors is written at the bottom of the first page and the language is that of the discipline covered. The main purpose of scholarly journals is to report an original research or study and to make it available. An example of scholarly journal is the “American Economic Review”.
However, there are also substantive news periodicals and the "Economist” is an example. The aim of these kind of periodicals is that of bring updated information to a broad audience. The language fits for any educated audience and sometimes they cite also sources. Furthermore, there are popular periodicals such as “Vogue”, where they rarely cite sources. The language is very simple and it aims to a minimal education level. The content is very poor and their purpose is to sell products. Finally, there are sensational periodicals such as the “Weekly Worlds News”. They appear with the newspaper format and the language used is very elementary and the main purpose is to arouse curiosity.
I found these information on this Website.

Task:

1) Surfing the Internet I found a really interesting book “Political Persuaders”, written by By Dan D. Nimmo, scholar and teacher, who worked hard in the field of political communication, leaving a legacy of fifty years of scholarships and giving the basis of how to study political communication. He wrote this book, which is considered the ur-text of political communication.
The Author collaborated with the Research Center of the University of Missouri at Columbia, with Roy Pfautch of Civic Service, with Michael W. Mansfield, who shared with him information about public relations in Texas and with James L. Rose, who gave a detailed description about vote delivery in local and state wide elections. Important was also the support of Peter Grenquist and Roger Emblen of Prentice- Hall and Mrs. Janet Hughes for her editorial assistance.

3) The purpose of this book was of bringing together the results of individual campaign and campaigning techniques. The impact of mass media in political campaign. What affected the changing of elections in 1970s .

4) This research book was published in 1970 by Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. The work originated around 1964-1969, when Lyndon Johnson won elections (1964), Martin Luther King and R.F. Kennedy were assassinated (1968), Richard Nixon remerged in Republican Politics.

5) “Political Persuaders” was first of all a case study research on specific presidential, state-wide and local campaigns. References appear in footnotes. Moreover, it was a national wide and state-wide opinion surveys of voting behaviour and media exposure. What is more, there are references of experimental findings about the impact of political communications on attitude change and perceptual shifts. Some of these findings are based on interviews carried out by Professor Dan Nimmo in 1967-1969. The assertions based on these interviews have no references in order to protect the informants’ anonymity. Summing up, this research was both a quantitative and a qualitative study.

6)In my view, it was small scale, as Mr. Dan Nimmo was the first, who studied the impact of mass-media in political campaign and how these new means of communication affected negatively the system of political elections. The author didn’t research using the Internet, as the book was published in 1970, but using the Research Center of the University of Missouri at Columbia, the Civic Center and collaborating with researchers, who shared with him information about public relation in Texas and information about vote delivery in local and state wide elections.

8) The findings were about the impact of political communications on attitude change and perception shifts. Some of these findings are based on interviews carried out in 1967-69.

9) A conclusion drawn in the book was that “campaign technology is a threat to the democratic system”. I think it is true as the use of mass media was useful for political campaigns but they were ill-used. If I think to the Italian elections, mass-media have overused and Politicians have shown to be more interested on gaining power and fame instead of devoting themselves to the welfare state. Indeed, mass-media has progressively led to a decline in values in the democratic system and I strongly believe, it is necessary to check and supervise their use.



In order to answer the questions of e-tivity 6 I read in-depth the preface and the introduction of the Transaction Edition of "Political Persuaders". Unfortunately, I didn’t found suitable answers to points 2/7/10. Some weeks ago we studied how to find out if an information is reliable or not, using some questions I found again in this week task. Anyway, those listed in e-tivity 6 are more detailed, as this time we had to test with more accuracy, if academic researches are well-written and contain all information we need. Not all academic researches are up-dated and comprehensive. Some are not thorough and are in somehow a repetition of former studies. The book I choose was the ur-research in the field of political communication and I would like to cite what David L. Swanson -Professor of Speech Communication and Associate Provost of the University of Illinois- wrote in Memoriam of Prof. Nimmo: “In his work, Dan steadily expanded the field’s understanding of political communication and of how it could be productively studied. With each new contribution, he showed how political communication in whatever form derived from and expressed essential features of the human condition; he demonstrated how application of concepts from other fields bring to light important features of political communication that others had not noticed; and he showed in every work the great importance of grounding contemporary studies in a thorough knowledge of relevant social, political, intellectual, and literary history” ( Article: "Dan Nimmo’s Legacy to Political Communication").


In conclusion, I decided to keep track of the sources I found using Delicious and I must admit that answer to the list of questions helped me to read more critically every kind of research article I find.



To decide if claims are reliable ask yourself:

• Are the credentials of the author verifiable? (e.g. are they affiliated with a university or established
research organization or government department?) Mr. Dan was a scholar and a teacher and to support its credential I found this article written in his Memoriam.
• What methods were used to gather and analyse the data? Interviews, study researches, surveys and experimental findings.
• Can the ‘facts’ be checked? Facts can be checked on the basis of historical events that affected the publication of “Political Persuaders”. Everything is explained in the Introduction to The Transaction Edition. Anyway, what Prof. Dan studied was carried on afterwards by other students, professors and researchers.
• How do the claims made compare with other research on this topic? Prof. Dan was the first one who started researching new campaign technologies, campaign management, the new uses of voter research, the tactics of persuading voters in the new campaign environment, and the effects of new modes of campaign persuasion. After his publications his students and colleagues required to carry on his studies in order to find how the field of political communication developed and changed.

To recognise assumptions, ask yourself:

• Who is the audience for this text (article/book etc.)? Expert audience.
• Is the motivation for the writing clear? Yes, the writer wanted to stress how impact of mass media affected political campaigns.
• Have assumptions been clearly stated? I believe the author tried to describe clearly what his intent was. Indeed, he collected material through study researches, experimental findings, interviews and surveys, in order to be as much effective as possible.
• Has the author ignored some other possible points of view? If so, why do you think they have? I think the author was exhaustive and he didn’t ignored anything. Indeed, he was the first researcher, who tried to deal with this topic. After the publication of “Political Persuaders” lots of researchers started to develop and to study in more detail this subject matter.