CLASSROOM: "Persuasion and the Presidential Campaign" - Activity

Hi ACME friends.

I trust everyone has had a fine summer.

Here's a suggested opening few weeks media/communications class activity.

Download and print out Barack Obama's presidential acceptance speech.

After teaching students to identify the language of persuasion, assign each of them a 1-2 paragraphs of the speech, and make a list of Obama's use of persuasive language - we have a list of more than 24 techniques at the web site available in a free downloadable two page format.

Discuss your findings together.

To explore epistemological differences in the terms of the way different media presents the same speech in different contexts, listen and watch some or all of the speech, as well. YouTube is handy for this, as are other Web 2.0 platforms.

Wash, rinse, and repeat with McCain's speech (assuming hurricanes don't cancel it.)

What can we learn?

Happy election season,

Rob