Rushed to Judgment: Talk Radio, Persuasion, and American Political Behavior

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Convenient, entertaining, and provocative, talk radio today is unapologetically ideological. Focusing on Rush Limbaugh -the medium´s most influential talk show -Rushed to Judgment systematically examines the politics of persuasion at play on our nation's radio airwaves and asks a series of important questions. Does listening to talk radio change the way people think about politics, or are listeners´ attitudes a function of the self-selecting nature of the audience? Does talk radio enhance understanding of public issues or serve as a breeding ground for misunderstanding? Can talk radio serve as an agent of deliberative democracy, spurring Americans to open, public debate? Or will talk radio only aggravate the divisive partisanship many Americans decry in poll after poll? The time is ripe to evaluate the effects of a medium whose influence has yet to be fully reckoned with.

SYNOPSIS

Noting that Rush Limbaugh's "impervious immunity to truth in broadcasting" piqued his interest in talk radio's political effects, Barker (U. of Pittsburgh) presents a value heresthetic model for assessing this medium as a vehicle for political persuasion. In contrast to traditional models focusing on direct information/ misinformation, heresthetic models analyze how media messages take advantage of a receiver's ambivalence toward an issue through framing and priming of the salience of considerations. Exposing undergraduates to Limbaugh messages, even those hostile to such, supported his hypotheses that framing issues in a way that encourages thinking in one value dimension over another can shape different policy preferences, and that such appeals can be even more persuasive than standard rhetorical ones. Appends Limbaugh quotes used as experimental stimuli. Annotation c. Book News, Inc.,Portland, OR

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