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COM 4300 Topic in Journalism POLS 4490 Special Topics Political Communication in American Elections 

E-Portfolio Assignment

Due: Monday, April 25, 2016 (5pm)

Score: 10% of student’s final grade

Richard McLaughlin.

 

This e-portfolio assignment is a “capstone” summary reflection of the student’s coursework and experiences. To satisfy this requirement, on the class blog, students should:

1.  Identify and discuss the significance of three key concepts you learned this semester.

The most important thing I learned is confirmation bias. This is when people actively seek out information that suits their own opinions and prejudices, if you look at how people seem to become more set in their ways and opinions it makes a lot of sense.. The second things I learned which would seem basic is political communication. Which is simply any communication that occurs regarding politics. But it’s something much more, it’s a definition that’s also an open ended question. Depending on who you ask the definition would be restricted to televised debates or could include relatives and friends discussing who they are voting for. I also learned objectivity which is the opposite of Gonzo Journalism (the best translation of what that means is outlaw investigative spy type journalism. Objectivity is more than refraining form putting your own opinion into a paper, its about providing facts that back up your statements.

Describe each of the journalism and research projects you worked on this semester, including a specific description of your role in each:

My role for the content analysis was writing about Sanders appeal to young people vs. Ted Cruz.

For my news story I went to the Bernie sanders rally and gathered interest from his supporters and also talked to one of his advisors. I later wrote about those interviews and how those interviews shaped my perception.

During the second news story I did a horrible job. I’ll admit it. I got greedy, tried to get a presidential candidate to answer a question that I was very concerned about and wanted to post on my blog the YouTube channel I’m working on. I allowed my priorities to be divided and for emotion to cloud my judgment. The only interview I got besides that of a cameraman were of very low quality.

For the second content analysis I got an interview with Dr. Swent. I did an interview and later collected note for Parker and Gabe when they did their interview with him although it wasn’t needed I am still glad I did it. I also contributed my own writing to the paper.

During the third content analysis I got coded the democrats for the fact sheet. I also gave the speech for my group which was quite an experience, usually you have other group members to back you up if you stumble, being their, alone, and a little bit panicked was a good experience in thinking on my feet.

2.  Upload at least one visual from the course projects (photos, audio/video from interviews, charts from content analysis/field research projects, etc.) with a description:

I was unable to do this. My phone doesn’t work well and I couldn’t afford to rent a camera. The few picture I took were of poor quality. If I learned something from this exsperience it was that I need to brush up on my photography skills because they are poor.

3.  Discuss and elaborate on how you did or did not successfully accomplish each of the four expressed learning objectives (listed below) for the course. 

•        Demonstrating the ability to produce high quality research projects relating to political communication in American elections:

I hit and missed on this subject, I’ve never done research projects of this nature despite being a college graduate. I’m proud of my work on the Sanders project but feel I did a mediocre job on other projects.

•        Accurately describing and providing critical perspectives on the intersection between political communication and American elections:

I believe I did this quite well. What I’m most proud of is when I provided that intersection in mentioning how reality TV and pop culture conditioned us from birth for the Trump candidacy.

•        Producing high quality political journalism on the theme of American elections:

I believe I did this effectively though not as well as a I could have. Part of the problem is I began to hate the subject, not politics, not issues but the election, delegates, power, elites, media, it seemed so soulless that I started to have trouble looking at the paper I was writing thinking about how I would like to write about how I actually felt. But that’s not what journalism is about, or at least not what objective journalism is about. I remember when a group member told me I couldn’t say that politicians are dishonest by nature, apparently a common belief most Americans have is illegitimate.

 

 

•        Respectfully observing American political communication processes in practice:

I failed at this, I fell flat on my face doing this. And I’m quite proud of it. It made me realize that journalism or at least this type of journalism is not for me. I want to do investigative journalism where I am more a soldier on a mission. I want there to be meaning to what I do, I want to enemy to fight and a cause to believe in. I know one of the things that led to fissures in my team was when I tried to confront Kasich about his support to Ukrainian militia groups. This is not the actions of an objective journalism, this is the action of someone who is acting more as an agent provocateur.

This is why I am not pursuing this career, the career of a mainstream journalist covering politics as either a local or national level, I give up this dream, .. We certainly need people to be objective journalism but I will never be one of them. I want a life that gives me meaning where I’m not just trying to get to the center of power, I want a job where I actively try to shape the world into a better place. I still have political opinions but currently I want nothing to do with America’s political system. my dream know is to find a job where I feel fulfilled, where I feel I am making a difference.

 

Political Communications Portfolio

            This semester in Political Communication in American Elections has taught me much about how politics is dominated by how you communicate. I have learned much about specific concepts within political communication, such as narrative, which is when a candidate’s campaign or the media present information in an easy to follow story. Often candidates place the people they are talking to directly in their campaign narrative to help galvanize support. Media outlets use narrative to present the news in a format that is easy to understand. Another concept from political communications is framing. This is used by the media, as it is how they present their story or narrative. There are primarily four different types of frames, horse-race, conflict, issues, and candidate attributes, which dictate how the media outlet presents their stories. Finally, the concept of confirmation bias primarily revolves around consumers of the news media. It speaks of consumers who seek out information that validates their already held opinions while ignoring outlets that disagree with them.

            For the first project, Content Analysis 1, we looked at how campaign websites used positive and negative imagery and wording to see how candidates from different parties communicated. I helped with coding on Christie’s website and I helped write the report. For News Report 1 and 2 we attended campaign events and wrote about them. I took video for our group. For our Field Study Project we looked at how Bernie Sanders uses rhetoric to mobilize his supporters. I studied video of the event and wrote about how he placed his supporters in the middle of his campaign narrative in order to make their support of him more personal. For News Report 3 we wrote about the state of the Republican Primary after Georgia voted. I helped write and conducted a voter interview. Finally, for Content Analysis 2 we looked at how different news websites framed their stories. I helped write the report.

Excerpt from Content Analysis 1 showing analysis of the imagery and wording used.

            I think, for the most part, the four course goals were achieved. Both the Content Analyses helped meet the first course goal of producing projects related to political communication. The Content Analyses and the Field Research Project helped give us a better view of how politics and communication work off each other. Our News Stories helped give us real experience producing political journalism, and all the hands on work we did attending events helped shape a respectful relationship with American politics.

Growth, Exposure, and My Experience in Political Communications

This class has been challenging to say the least but I've thoroughly enjoyed it to the fullest.  I done things in this class that I thought I would never do and I learned a few things as well.  I want to first say thank you to Dr. DeWitt and Dr. Azriel for being knowledgeable and helpful instructors throughout the semester.  This class was a success and it served as an eye opener to me understanding the game of politics.  Thank you.

I was into politics a little before I changed my major.  The more classes I took dealing with policy and government, the more the subject peaked my interest.  Understanding the game of politics does not mean watching CNN or Fox News all day everyday.  You have to study the subject of politics and everything it entails to gain a better knowledge of how it works. 

Three Key Concepts

The three concepts that were interesting to me would be gatekeeping, narrative, and framing. 
Gatekeeping is defined as any person (or group) who has control over what material reaches the public.  The media is very powerful and there is a mass amount of information that does not reach the American people for various reasons.  The American public see and hear what the media wants us to see and hear so it is up to the individual to seek out and find the truth by conducting his/her own research based off of their beliefs and what is being put out by the media.  Candidates like Donald Trump received heavy media coverage daily because he was a popular, successful, billionaire businessman that was very controversial.  Meanwhile, in the same party, you saw less and less coverage of Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul because they were not as popular among the American voters. 
Narrative pertains to each candidate seeking to promote a "cohesive and coherent story" that calls on dramatic devices raises problems and offers a resolution.  Trump want to build a wall because illegal immigrants are in this country receiving benefits some Americans cannot receive.  He feels that illegal immigrants are getting all the jobs, committing acts of violence and smuggling drugs for the drug cartels.  He feeds on the fears of American people by demonizing Latin American population.  Another example, he want to block Muslims from coming in the country because they are all part of ISIS or Al Qaeda.  Once again he demonizes over 1billion people who practice the Islamic faith over the acts of a few. 
Framing is made up of four components.  Horse race deals with who winning in the polls.  Who winning delegates.  Conflict deals with two or more candidates or political parties that are in conflict with one another (Example: Trump v Cruz/Clinton v Sanders).  Issues deals with news content that highlights issue positions or public policy proposals of the candidates or parties (Example: Bernie Sanders wants the rich to pay their fair share in taxes.  He believes there should be free healthcare and free college education).  Candidate attributes is news content that emphasizes the candidates' personal qualities and deficiencies, including the candidate's character, experience, demeanor, and skills.  Donald Trump incites violence and preaches hate, so people view him a rich, racist bigot who feeds off the fear of the American people. 

All of these concepts helped me to understand politics in regards to how the whole operation works.
Working in groups was nothing new but I enjoyed it.  There were some ups and downs but overall I learned a valuable lesson that communication was key.  Without it, there would be chaos. 

News Stories and Content Analysis

Content Analysis #1
The first group assignment I worked on was pleasant.  I was a little lost but I got a refresher in research and findings.  We did our research on comparing and contrasting Hillary Clinton's page with Carly Fiorina's page.  I was in charge of gathering data and findings.   My classmates helped and everyone did their part.  The communication was great and we got a 92 for our grade.

 
News Story #1 & 2
I did not contribute because those assignments were handled by the journalism majors that were in my second group.  I'm not afraid to admit that communication was a problem and there was conflict within the group.  I learned a valuable lesson that when you are participating in group projects communication is essential to the success your group achieves.  I would have liked to help and I did a poor job in my efforts on editing or giving feedback on the stories. 

The highlight of my semester was attending the Bernie Sanders rally held at one of the most prestigious HBCUs in the nation, Morehouse College.  The school is located in the heart of downtown Atlanta along with neighboring Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College.  People from all walks of life were in attendance.  Atlanta's own Killer Mike, who is a surrogate of the Vermont Senator spoke at the rally. Actress Jasmine Guy who was a star in the 90's hit college show "A Different World" was there showing support for Sanders. 

 

 

 

 

 Going to the rally was a new experience for me considering this was my first one.  From being patted down by U.S. Secret Service agents to seeing State Senators up on stage, it was all too surreal for me.  The crowd chanting "Bernie...Bernie...Bernie" had me pumped up and excited.  I had a lot of footage from that event.  My group also went out and interviewed people and it was great seeing people being passionate about a candidate that they believe in.  We did a trial interview because we were nervous and we did the actual interview.  I tried several videos but they would not download.  That does not take away from my experience and because I took this course I was able to witness an event of this magnitude. 

Content Analysis #3
In my last group my we had to pick news stories on each candidate and we used a excel spreadsheet to tally up the point for each story using the concept of framing.  Each news story received points if it involved horse-race, conflict, issues, or attributes pertaining to the candidate.  Another classmate and I had to do 25 stories a piece.  We tallied up our numbers and submitted them to be analyzed by our third group member.  We used teamwork and we communicated thoroughly and we received a 83 for our grade. 

Overall, this class help me understand politics better and help educate others who do not understand the language behind what's being said.  Although I did not participate in the journalism part that much, I feel that I am capable of producing high quality research projects relating to political communications in American elections.  I observed, noted, and recorded the event in which I attended recording some valuable footage of a popular candidate and some of the celebrities that support him.  This class was filled with wonderful experiences and if I could do it all over again, I would do a better job the second time around. 

 

E-Portfolio; concluding a semester of political communication

I feel confident in saying that out of my six classes this semester, this one was my favorite. It was an incredibly engaging class and my knowledge of political communication & American elections has certainly skyrocketed. Not only would I like to thank my professors for their guidance throughout the semester, I would also like to thank my classmates for making this one of the most memorable classes during my stay at Kennesaw State University.

1. Identify and discuss the significance of three key concepts you learned this semester.

Concept #1:

Being that the majority of assignments in this class involved collaborating with two or three group members, I learned in this class is to…

 a.)   Be responsible and accountable for your role in an assignment.

 b.)   Be prepared to tackle the entire workload by yourself if necessary.

     Although I may just seem like a student taking out my frustration in dealing with group members that attribute minimal content and effort to a project, upon reflection, I believe that these experiences have better prepared me for life outside of college. With full confidence, I feel one hundred percent comfortable in putting “works well with others” on my resume. Not only should this let employers know that I’m able to get along with the vast majority of differing personalities, but also that I’m able to step up in times of crisis and manage the chaos of a project that is going down hill.

Concept #2:

I thoroughly enjoyed the in-depth conversations that we had in class that pertained to how to best gather information from a political event for a newsworthy story. From this class, I learned to…

     a.) Approach writing a story from multiple angles; political figures, reporters & voters.

     b.) Diversify your content as much as possible and look for what people are trying to hide.

     Instead of simply writing about an event to have something to add to your portfolio, make it engaging and interactive. People don’t only care about what John Kasich thinks about student debt. Voters also take interest in seeing how an 85 year old war veteran and an 18 year old college student differ on how they view Kasich as a possible presidential candidate. Getting the opinions of people from different generations is a great way to cater your story to numerous people. When reporting about a political event, sometimes the things that the politicians didn’t say out weigh the importance of the things that they did say. I have learned to make note of everything that takes place at an event; big or small. How does Bernie Sanders use body language to enhance his rhetoric? Are there more Caucasian or people of color in attendance? Did voters’ opinions about a politician change after the event had concluded? The moral of the story is, you can never gather too much initial information.

Concept #3:

Pealing apart the rhetoric of presidential candidates and being able to truly understand what they’re saying was something that I learned from this class. In regards to politics, never just take someone’s word for it; fact check, fact check, fact check. Not only that, but reporters should be encouraged to dive deeper into the story. Are Hillary Clinton’s views on boarder control different from those that she advertised in 2008? How does Donald Trump use his rhetoric to minimally illustrate and describe his policies on nearly every issue and still capture the majority of votes from the Republican Party? Why and how do presidential candidates avoid questions that they don’t have a confident answer for? Behind the welcoming smile, three figure salary and 400 thread count suit, politicians are just like the average American voter. Yet, the majority of their rhetoric encompasses vocabulary that confuses some, if not most, uneducated voters.

2. Describe each of the journalism and research projects you worked on this semester, including a specific description of your role in each.

Content Analysis #1:

The purpose of this assignment was to see how drastically the political campaign efforts of Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz vary. Primarily, my group researched both candidates’ political campaign and career consistency, the rhetoric on their respective websites, how involved they are with social media as well as where, geographically, they appear to have the greatest amount of support and popularity. My roles for this assignment included performing an in-depth analysis of Ted Cruz’s official campaign website, https://ww.tedcruz.org/, as well as drafting and editing the final document. Our research showed that there was in fact a significant difference between Clinton and Cruz in nearly all of the areas that we focused on.

News Story #1:

For this project, my group had selected to attend and report about the Bernie Sanders rally at Morehouse College. For starters, when attending any type of event that is bound to attract hundreds if not thousands of people, reporters need to make sure that they arrive on time; and by on time, I mean at least an hour early. This was the first political rally that I had ever attended. It was an exciting and engaging experience and I hope to attend more as the election season progresses. My roles for this project included documenting the rally by taking notes, photographing the event and drafting and editing nearly the entire finished article. The finished article was intended to be centered around how Sanders caters to Black and African American voters, given the location of his rally. However, with Sanders giving little attention to the issues directly facing these communities, the finished article was an overview of the rally that highlighted Sanders main speaking points.

News Story #2:

After finishing the first news story, myself and the members of my group had decided to attend and report on a John Kasich rally at Kennesaw State University. It was interesting to be able to attend both a republican Town Hall and a democratic rally in one semester. The environment was much more intimate at Kasich’s Town Hall when compared to Sanders’ rally. Kasich was very interactive with the audience and, for lack of a better phrase, appeared to be putting himself up on a pedestal in a sort of casual, family-man, religious sort of way. My roles for this assignment included taking thorough notes, photographing the event, interviewing people in attendance and collaborating with my group members to draft our final article. The angle of the story focused on how Kasich catered to voters as a concerned family man. Primarily, his Town Hall was centered around the national as well as student debt, his success as the governor of Ohio and reassuring voters that “every single person on this Earth is made special.”

Field Research Project:

This was a fun assignment. The content of the final document included information and data from Bernie Sanders’ rally at Morehouse College and quite a lot of secondary research. The goal for my group was to shed light on how Sanders uses rhetoric to influence Black and African American voters as well as college students and millennial voters. My roles for this assignment included documenting the Sanders rally (notes & pictures), interviewing Bishop Nesby (a representative of the African American Male Initiative at KSU), researching Sanders’ past involvement with civil rights and drafting and editing my group’s final document. Our article showcased that, despite the criticism from Hillary Clinton, Sanders has been and continues to be active and supportive of this demographic. My interview with Nesby showed that the majority of Black and African American voters tend to vote democratic; “because the Democratic Party has a long standing stigma that they are ‘for the people’, unlike the GOP who caters more towards cooperate America.”

News Story #3:

For this assignment, my group collaborated together to write an article that focused on how the aftermath of Super Tuesday did not clarify that, at that point in time, there was a clear leader in the race for the Democratic nomination. Everyone in my group was able to successfully interview an individual for our article. For me, I was able to interview Professor of Political Science at Kennesaw State University Dr. Andrew Pieper. Dr. Pieper provided a lot of information and understanding of the political process that greatly aided us in drafting our final document. Being that quite a lot of delegates were up for grabs on Super Tuesday, I generated an infographic that illustrated the current delegate count for both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

Content Analysis #2:

Ah yes, the final group project! (To my group members, no hate; y’all did an awesome job!) For this project, my group decided to compare and contrast 50 news articles from the Los Angles Times and CNN that spanned a five-day period. I was tasked with reviewing and coding 25 articles from CNN and generating infographics that visually showcased our data. For both news outlets, our coding process was to categorize each article, based off of its contents, into the following categories:

1. horse race – news content that emphasizes the political or election process as a competition between candidates, including poll driven coverage, “race for delegates,” etc. 2. conflict – news content that focuses on how two or more candidates or political parties are in conflict with one another

3. issues – news content that highlights issue positions or public policy proposals of the candidates or parties

4. candidate attributes – news content that emphasizes the candidates’ personal qualities and deficiencies, including the candidate’s character, experience, demeanor, skills

3. Upload at least one visual from the course projects (photos, audio/video from interviews, charts from content analysis/field research projects, etc.) with a description.

News Story #1: Here’s a couple pictures that I took of Bernie Sanders and Killer Mike at Sanders’ Morehouse College rally. Perhaps if I had obtained a press pass, I would’ve been able to get closer!

News Story #2:

I was able to get up close and personal with John Kasich at his Town Hall at Kennesaw State University.

Field Research Project: Here are a couple photos that I took at the Sanders rally to use for this project.

News Story #3:

After conducting my interview with Dr. Andrew Pieper, he was kind enough to allow me to snap a quick picture of him. 

The infographic I created for this project is actually interactive. If you move the cursor over any state, it will show you how many delegates Sanders or Clinton acquired in that state.

Content Analysis #2:

To help illustrate the data that we gathered from coding 50 articles from the Los Angles Times and CNN, I created this infographic. Sorry for the poor quality photo, but you get the point!

4. Discuss and elaborate on how you did or did not successfully accomplish each of the four expressed learning objectives (listed below) for the course.

· Demonstrating the ability to produce high quality research projects relating to political communication in American elections

            -I feel as though I successfully accomplished this. For every project that required attendance at an event, I was able to attend every event, record detailed notes and take quality pictures. Through collaborating with my group project members to produce the best possible products, I believe that I have gained several new perspectives as to how to gather information, record results and style my writing to cater to a broader audience. Also, learning how to better establish a rubric in which to categorize things into a coding system is something that I walked away with from this class.

· Accurately describing and providing critical perspectives on the intersection between political communication and American elections

            -Grading my success with this learning objective, out of 10, I would give myself a 7.5-8. The stances that I took on a few assignments in this class could have had a stronger foundation. I could certainly expand my knowledge about previous American elections and how they have evolved over the years. The way in which I wrote my articles could have also provided a broader outlook for events that could plausibly occur in the near future.

· Producing high quality political journalism on the theme of American elections

            -I feel like I did a fairly good job at achieving this learning objective. From the start of the semester, not only did my grades improve, I feel as though my writing style and reporting abilities also improved. I’ve certainly taken a interest in the political reporting field of journalism and I could definitely see myself doing some freelance reporting about American elections once I graduate. I would label my journalism in this class to be that of high quality, rather, just quality journalism.

· Respectfully observing American political communication processes in practice

            -I regularly follow news outlets like CNN, FOX News and the AJC. I understand that they all have their own unique ways of reporting “the facts”. However, after taking this class and learning more about political campaign and media biases, I now approach the way in which I gather my news differently. For instance, if I find an interesting article on CNN’s website, I won’t just simply read it; I’ll analyze it and pick apart the story. Once I think that I’ve critiqued the story enough to understand exactly why CNN chose to report it, I’ll then research to see if any other news outlets have reported the same story and do the exact same process with them. After comparing and contrasting two separate news stories about the same person or event in question, I’ll then decide for myself…

            1.) Which news outlets were bias in how they reported the story?

            2.) How accurately did they report the truth? Was there any made up information?

            3.) Did the news outlets exhaust their sources to cover the story in the best possible way?

E-portfolio

I know I was probably the LAST person to register for this class. Add/Drop ended on a Sunday I believe and I picked up the class the last day of Add/Drop. Well with that being said, I didn't really understand what the class was going to be about. I knew Dr. Azriel was a communications professor but that all I knew. When I checked my class list I saw about 6 names registered so I kind of got scared not knowing what I got myself into.  Come to find out, I really enjoyed this class this semester. It was a lot due with my other classes but the work was actually fun.

The Three concepts I learned...

First, this class really helped me identify Political Communication. It was weird because on my D2L it says something like "Special Topics" but I simply just called the class Political Communication. Political communication really came together when we were going to different rallies, comparing candidates, and writing papers on interviews and the information we collected.  The concept of Political communication helped me pay more attention to not just numbers of votes but candidates communications either it was via social media, email, stickers, t-shirts and slogans.

Second, framing was another huge concept I learned in this class. Honestly speaking, I did not know what framing was when it came to this class. Being able to identify in certain media outlets was interesting to me. Now I it is hard to read an article without identifying in what way is the media portraying candidates or influencing readers.

Last, narrative was another concept I learned this year. Narratives are not just books, candidates well a story through their campaign. Candidates have a story to tell, a story we listen to. It goes beyond what we learned in middle and high school (lol).

Journalism and Research Project...

The first content analysis was difficult for me. My group and I did research and analyze Dr. Ben Carson and Dr. Rand Paul. We decided to use these two candidates because they had many things in common. Both candidates are in the medical field, both are family men, and they are both running for office. The content analysis became difficult for me because I some how had to find my political side and incorporate it into a research paper. We created a google doc and everyone researched and added things in different paragraphs in order to make a full paper. The second content analysis was a bit easier. coding was something different for me as well. Thank God each group had at least on journalism student or one political science student. I used MSNBC and pulled out 25 articles that dealt with the campaign. After we got that part done, it was time to out it together. I did the findings section and basically described what our researched showed. I analyze two articles and the type of frame that was used in each article.

The news paper story was not hard to do.  I took pictures and wrote down quotes from Bernie Sanders rally and incorporated them into the news story. The second news article I was not able to attend so I just help edit the news article. The third news story was about the presidential candidate.  I interviewed a student voter and wrote out the summary of the interview that way it was easier to put it together. 

I demonstrated the ability to produce high quality research projects relating to political communication once information was gathered and analyzed. Conducting interviews, researching candidates not only what they have done now but also what they have done in the past, and by attending events creating the research.  The articles that was given to us to read online help direct my definition of political communication. It was easier to understand what readers would look for when writing about candidates and the elections. As a journalist student bringing out my political side held me back a few times. At times, I probably felt the pressure due to lack of politics. It was hard to keep up with the election results, the candidates, and campaign rallies.  I don’t think I did the best on accurately describing and providing critical perspectives on the intersection between political communication and American elections because a lot of the assignments I did, I did it for a grade. I did not really focus on comparing and contrasting the both. But looking back, remembering everything I did in the class helps me put that objective together.  I believe that when it came to my journalism side I was able to accurately produce a high quality theme on American elections. 

Journalism is something that I knew and very familiar with. It was much easier to put things together when it was time to take pictures and conduct interviews. I may not have focused completely on comparing political communication and American elections but I know this class allowed me to enjoy political science a lot more than before.  I was able to carefully observe American political communication processes in practice without having any political science experience. The class gave me a lot of experience and helped me out of my comfort zone. I’m glad I took the class. The class gave me the opportunity to go to a rally which is probably the most memorable thing about the class!