Anotated Bibliography

Lela Ali

English 1102

Annotated Bibliography

Brad Friedman. “Chaos on Bullshit Mountain.” Online video clip. The Deaily Show, 20. Sept. 2012. Web. 28. Nov. 2012.

            In this online video clip, John Stewart from The Daily Show comments on how Fox News reacts to the 47% statement that Romney makes during one of his speeches. Fox News is viewed as more conservative, while MSNBC and The Daily Show are viewed as liberal. Throughout the entire video clip, Stewart uses humor to criticize how Fox News attempts to inform the American Public that Romney’s intentions were good when speaking of the 47% of Americans. To insult the sympathy towards Romney, Stewart takes short clips from broadcasters on Fox News and comments on what was said.

            This video will be of some use to me when supporting my argument about the media’s influence on American voters. I could use this as an example to back up my point of the media’s bias towards a particular political party or the media’s main goal to make money. In this video for instance, the media is making money by using humor to refer to Romney’s speeches during the 2012 elections. I was also disappointed, however, to see that the amount of viewers watching this video was larger than any amount watching credible news channels. I could make this point when referring to a voter’s lack of attention. There are also links to various other videos that could assist with my argument.  

        

Goethals, George, and Michael Norton. “SPIN (AND PITCH) DOCTORS: Campaign Strategies in Televised Political Debates.” JSTOR.org. Vol 26, Nov.3. pp.227-248. Springer, 2004. Sep. Web. 15. Nov. 2012.

The Spin and Pitch Doctors article was written by George Goethals and Michael Norton.  This article introduces the question of how political campaigns correlate to the expectations and performances of political debates. It also includes what political debates can offer to the American voter.  Political debates are presented to be the most visible public test for political candidates. President Kennedy’s successful outcome because of the debates showed the importance of that first televised debate.  The debates between Al Gore and George W. Bush had around 46.6 million tuned in. This shows that political debates still remain one of the greatest televised programs.  With this amount of people watching, presidential campaigns play a role in developing expectations for the American voter. In the article, Goethals and Michael make a study showing that when the American voter has low expectations for a particular candidate, the candidate seems to perform very well reaching above the voter’s expectations and vice versa.

This is really helpful research because, this could still be observed in the 2012 elections. People’s expectations were not very high for Romney in the first debate and Romney performed very well. The same for Obama; people had very high expectations for his performance, but he did not meet their expectations for the first debate.  I am going to conclude that much of my research will probably be from this site because it is very broad concerning presidential debates. It also includes many aspects of presidential debates such as campaigns, voter’s expectations, and performance. It will definitely provide me with how presidential debates may impact a voter’s political ideology.  The writing is very well thought out and relatable to my knowledge of language. It also sites sources that were used in the writing, which may provide me with more research.

Gunzburger, Ron. “Politics1.” Gunzburger, 1997. Web. 16. Nov. 2012.

            This website basically provides information about most of the aspects concerning politics and elections in the United States. It includes information about the two main parties as well as all the third parties in the United States. Maps of the 2012 congressional and governor candidates in each state are included in the website as well. Each party’s main focus point is presented and what issues they felt were important during political debates. It is very helpful because it provides information about each existing political party in the United States. I feel that this website will help me the most in finding information on undecided voters as well as those who are followers of third parties. The website may be the main source of understanding how political debates can shape an undecided voter’s ideology. The search icon on the page can also link me to other web pages that could be of some use.

Jonathon Haidt. “The moral roots of liberals and conservatives.” Online video clip. TED, Sep. 2008. Web. 15. Nov. 2012.

In this video, Jonathon Haidt discusses the different moral roots of liberals and conservatives. It is very interesting because he also relates those morals to what kind of foods liberals and conservatives prefer. He also includes how a conservative and a liberal might react to looking at a sculpture revealing private body parts. The conservative might just walk by it really fast, while a democrat might look at it and acknowledge a “perfect human body.” Haidt also mentions the different issues that both may care for the most. For example, a conservative may care more for health care than the economy. Liberals may care more for human rights than Medicare. The video also covers how the American public views the concerns of the U.S. from the national circumstances instead of their own personal circumstance.

This video could be somewhat useful for my research because it is very important to understand the mindset of both Democrats and Republicans. The most helpful information is the issues concerning the American voter and how that could impact which political candidate they prefer. This source could be helpful in determining if political parties actually have any impact at all on political ideology since most voters have already established a specific mindset.

Wihbey, John. “Presidential debates and their effects: Research roundup.” Np, 16. Oct. 2012. Web. 16. Nov. 2012.

            This article was written by John Wihbey, who got most of his information from political scientists Thomas Patterson of Harvard’s Shorenstein Center. He really goes in depth with how political debates do not really have an effect on a voter’s ideology. He does include, however, that these debates are the greatest source for the public to understand the candidate. Whidbey also emphasizes that the debates are important in terms of persuasion especially to undecided voters. The first debate is the most important because it is held when voters have the least amount of knowledge at their disposal and when there are more undecided voters. The article also explains how the experience a voter has while watching a political debates is mostly determined based on their expectations of the debate.

This pertains much to my research because it explains how each voter could have different experiences during watching a debate because of their expectations or already made up ideologies. The information regarding a candidate’s ability to persuade in debate also goes along with my research because the outcome is the result of the performance of the candidate as well as the voter’s willingness to listen. This article also includes different sources I could link to in order to find more information.