Inside the Presidential Speechwriting Process

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-57
Author(s):  
Ken Collier
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
White House ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Presidential Speeches ◽  
Franklin Roosevelt

This paper incorporates content analysis of 495 drafts of 70 presidential speeches gathered from the archives of all ten presidencies from Franklin Roosevelt to George H.W. Bush to measure the changes to drafts of presidential speeches as they move through the White House speech drafting and review process. Studying the fluctuations in rhetorical scores demonstrates the degree to which forces within the presidency present different approaches to the rhetorical strategies of the White House. While the fluctuations revealed by content analysis may not tell us precisely about the motives of those within the process, they reveal significant differences in the approach of various staff members and help scholar better understand the inner workings behind the rhetoric of the bully pulpit.

Content Analysis as Rhetorical EEG of the Presidency

2014 ◽  
pp. 182-201
Author(s):  
Ken Collier
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Ionic Current ◽  
Voltage Fluctuations ◽  
Mental Processes ◽  
White House ◽  
Presidential Speeches ◽  
Current Flows ◽  
Franklin Roosevelt ◽  
The Brain

Electroencephalography (EEG) tracks voltage fluctuations resulting from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain by recording electrical activity along the scalp to reveal what regions of the brain are involved in different mental processes. This chapter demonstrates how DICTION can be used to measure the fluctuations in the rhetoric in drafts of presidential speeches as they move through the White House speech drafting and review process. This chapter incorporates rhetorical analysis of 494 drafts of 67 presidential speeches gathered from the archives of administrations from Franklin Roosevelt to George H.W. Bush. Like the EEG, looking at the fluctuations in rhetorical scores may not reveal exactly what the thoughts are in the process, but it can reveal how a speech’s language changes over the course of the speechwriting process and help us unravel the mysteries of the inner-workings of this vital institution.

Does Performing Other Audit Tasks Affect Going-Concern Judgments?

1999 ◽  
Vol 74 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen E. Rau ◽  
Donald V. Moser
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Review Process ◽  
Negative Information ◽  
The Other ◽  
Positive Information ◽  
Going Concern ◽  
Staff Members

This study examines whether personally performing other audit tasks can bias supervising seniors' going-concern judgments. During an audit, the senior performs some audit tasks him/herself and delegates other tasks to staff members. When personally performing an audit task, the senior would focus on the evidence related to that task. We predict that such evidence will have greater influence on the senior's subsequent going-concern judgment. The results of our experiment are consistent with our predictions. When provided with an identical set of information, seniors who performed another audit task for which the underlying facts of the case reflected positively (negatively) on the company's viability, subsequently made going-concern judgments that were relatively more positive (negative). Our results also demonstrate that the well-documented tendency of auditors to attend more to negative information does not always dominate auditors' information processing. Subjects who performed the task for which the underlying facts reflected positively on the company's viability directed their attention to such positive information and, consequently, both their memory and judgments were more positive than those of subjects in the other conditions. Recent findings indicating that biases in seniors' going-concern judgments may not be fully offset in the review process are discussed along with other potential implications of our results.

scholarly journals A Content Analysis of Blog Posts on Angry Library Patrons

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Iris Marigold Operario
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Problem Library ◽  
Library Staff ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Blog Posts

<p>Research Problem: This exploratory study looks into what is written in blogs regarding angry library patrons. It aims to provide insight on angry library patrons by identifying the themes/issues in the blog posts, the reasons for anger of the library patrons, and to describe the characteristics of the blog post authors. Methodology: A qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the blog posts. The blog search engine Google Blogs was used to search for the relevant blog posts. A sample of 92 individual and organisational blog posts were read and analysed. Results: Three main themes emerged in the analysis of the blog posts: 1) the causes of anger which can either be library-related or due to other patrons; 2) how anger was displayed; and 3) the sentiments of the library staff members towards angry patrons. The blog authors mostly come from North America and have a library background. Implications: Analysing these blog posts provides further insight into angry library patrons which might not otherwise be found in existing anger studies in a library setting and problem library patron research. Uncovering what is said in the blogosphere about angry library patrons will give a picture of a wide range of anger issues which may be relevant for library staff members as they try to better understand angry library patrons. While this study was not able to retrieve as much blog posts from an angry library patron’s perspective as originally planned, a study noting the key difference of opinions between angry library patrons and library staff members could be investigated in the future</p>

Questioning the president: Examining gender in the White House press corps

Journalism ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 519-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey Meeks
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Potential Influence ◽  
President Obama ◽  
Women Journalists ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
White House ◽  
Press Corps ◽  
Before And After

In 2014, President Barack Obama made history by only calling upon women journalists during a domestic news conference with the White House press corps. To capitalize on and examine this critical first in journalism, this study analyzed the potential influence of a journalist’s gender in White House press corps news conferences with President Obama a year before and a year after the all-female conference. The content analysis examined what political issues journalists emphasized in presidential news conferences and whether these issue emphases varied (a) by journalists’ gender and (b) before and after the all-female conference. Results revealed that, to some extent, men and women emphasized different issues. Furthermore, there were marked shifts after the all-female conference. First, women were called upon more often. Second, women emphasized several issues more than men. In particular, women became predominant on questions dealing with so-called ‘masculine’ or ‘hard news’ issues, for example, macroeconomics and foreign trade. This work suggests that gender, in all of its permutations – be it the journalist’s gender, the gendering of issues, or the gendering of occupational spaces – matters and may affect journalists’ lines of questioning.

scholarly journals Using News Abstracts to Represent News Agendas

2005 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 434-446 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill A. Edy ◽  
Scott L. Althaus ◽  
Patricia F. Phalen
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Television News ◽  
Gulf War ◽  
Broadcast News ◽  
White House ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Emerging Topics

Many scholars rely upon the Vanderbilt Television News Index and Abstracts to represent the topics covered by network broadcast news. Earlier research has shown that the Abstracts do not adequately capture the evaluative tone of news, but the degree of topical correspondence between the abstracts and the full transcripts of newscasts has never been formally tested. This paper uses content analysis of transcripts of ABC's coverage of the 1991 Gulf War and the corresponding Vanderbilt Abstracts entries to assess the relationship between the topical content of newscasts and that of their abstracts. It demonstrates that under the right conditions, the topical content of news can be effectively represented in abstracts, but emerging topics and those not discussed by the White House are likely to be underrepresented in abstracts.

scholarly journals Economists and White House Decisions

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 65-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart E Eizenstat
Keyword(s):  
Interest Rates ◽  
Executive Director ◽  
High Growth ◽  
The United States ◽  
Price Stability ◽  
White House ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
The Government ◽  
Domestic Affairs ◽  
Double Digit

While I served in the White House, [as Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs and Policy and Executive Director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff from 1977–81], Ph.D. economists occupied the positions of Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Treasury, Director of the Council on Wage and Price Stability, the President's anti-inflation adviser, Chairman and Council Members of the Council of Economic Advisers, and many other senior positions throughout the government. Yet we presided over an economy with double-digit inflation and interest rates and a recession. Presidents of the United States and their White House Staff members expect economists to be omniscient prophets of the future course of the economy, unerring economic policy advisers, and teachers of the mysterious science of economics to often distracted pupils. They expect their economists to provide an economic blueprint for high growth, low inflation, and a guaranteed re-election—but without offending any important constituencies. What is the appropriate role for economists in the White House? What can they realistically be expected to do?

Legitimacy Under Institutional Change: How incumbents appropriate clean rhetoric for dirty technologies

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 395-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuli Patala ◽  
Ida Korpivaara ◽  
Anne Jalkala ◽  
Aino Kuitunen ◽  
Birthe Soppe
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Corporate Strategy ◽  
Rhetorical Strategies ◽  
Press Releases ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Technological Transition

How organizations legitimate their actions under conditions of institutional change is a central yet little understood question. To address this gap, this paper investigates how incumbent firms legitimate investments in both novel and conventional technologies during periods of institutional and technological transition. We examine the rhetorical strategies that energy incumbents employ to gain legitimacy for their investments in renewable (legitimacy-gaining or novel) and non-renewable (legitimacy-losing or conventional) technologies. Employing a mixed-method content analysis of 483 press releases on strategic energy investments, published by the world’s largest energy firms during the time period 2010 to 2015, we find that incumbents utilize two different types of hybrid rhetoric to justify their investments. For investments in non-renewables, incumbents use pragmatic blending, appropriating the clean rhetoric traditionally associated with challenger technologies and combining it with justifications highlighting performance-oriented outcomes. The rhetoric used for investments in renewables involves visionary blending, combining rhetoric related to corporate strategy with sustainability rhetoric. We furthermore argue that these hybrid rhetorical strategies are observed when the legitimacy trajectories of two technologies intersect. Our study contributes to the research on rhetorical institutionalism, incumbents’ role during institutional change, and technology legitimacy.

scholarly journals Iraq, 9/11, and the Mediated Presidency of George W. Bush

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 331-350
Author(s):  
Stephen Farnsworth ◽  
Robert S. Lichter
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
September 11 ◽  
Network News ◽  
Media Management ◽  
White House ◽  
The Media ◽  
Commander In Chief ◽  
Invasion Of Iraq

George W. Bush’s presidency has been marked by aggressive media management efforts that have generated mixed success. This article examines how Bush and his White House media team sought to manage the media largely by framing the president primarily as a wartime commander-in-chief. This article discusses the administration’s media strategies designed to secure more positive news coverage and employs a content analysis of network news coverage of Bush during key periods of his presidency to examine their effectiveness. The findings demonstrate that the White House enjoyed relatively positive news coverage in the months after September 11, 2001 and during the combat phase of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. At many other times during his presidency, though, the Bush tendency to over-promise led to highly critical news coverage. As the distance from 9/11 increased, the tone of coverage turned increasingly negative.

scholarly journals China’s images in the State of the Union Address, 1973-2020

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 585-603
Author(s):  
Mateus de Paula Rocha ◽  
Andrea Maria Narciso Rocha De Paula
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Us Foreign Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Sufficient Condition ◽  
External Shocks ◽  
White House ◽  
State Of The Union ◽  
Important Impact ◽  
Qualitative Changes

This paper discusses how China was represented in the State of The Union Address between 1973 and 2020. The hypothesis is that China’s image has undergone qualitative changes and that shifting the party in the White House is not a sufficient condition to transform this representation. It is employed the content analysis to map the frequency of the word ‘China’ and to analyze the discursive context of its apparition. The mentions are evaluated according to three variables: axiology (positive, negative, or mixed), discursive focus (direct or indirect), and frequency of mentions. Four discursive paradigms, or periods in which the image was qualitatively stable, are identified and discussed. The analysis showed that external shocks have an important impact on changing China’s image and that these representations usually signalize actual priorities of US foreign policy.

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