Press Room

Predictions and Reactions: President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address

January 23, 2014
Experts Available
Government, Political
Washington, DC  -  On the heels of a tumultuous start to his second term in office, how will President Barack Obama move beyond a year of budget battles, a government shutdown, growing distrust in the NSA, and the complicated rollout of the Affordable Care Act?  With rising income inequality, how will the President reassure Americans that the country is firmly on a path toward economic recovery?
 
Members of the National Communication Association who study political communication can provide insight into the following:
 
  • What will be the tone of the President’s speech?
  • What language/rhetorical style will the President use to reassure Americans?
  • Which issues will the President emphasize in his remarks, and in what priority order?
  • Post-speech analysis — what worked and what didn’t work?   
WHO:    

Mitchell S. McKinney, Ph.D.
Department of Communication, University of Missouri
Director, Political Communication Institute (pci.missouri.edu)
Dr. McKinney’s research interests include presidential debates, political campaigns, media and politics, and presidential rhetoric.

Mary Stuckey, Ph.D.
Department of Communication, Georgia State University
Dr. Stuckey’s research interests include presidential communication and rhetoric and national identity.

About the National Communication Association

The National Communication Association (NCA) advances Communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media, and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific, and aesthetic inquiry. NCA serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems. NCA supports inclusiveness and diversity among our faculties, within our membership, in the workplace, and in the classroom; NCA supports and promotes policies that fairly encourage this diversity and inclusion.

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