Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois

Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois present opposing representations of the diametrically opposed philosophies that came to define African-American culture in the United States during the upheaval of Reconstruction. Washington, in his autobiography Up From Slavery, advocates a sweeping reconciliation between former slaves and their former owners, believing that the most accessible path to securing rights for his people is paved with acquiescence and cooperation, rather than by forcible assertion. Du Bois, meanwhile, in The Souls of Black Folk, advocates an approach premised on the attainment of political power, an insistence on civil rights and, perhaps most importantly, the pursuit of higher education by young black men. Though both authors appear to strive for similar goals in their work, namely, the shedding of the last remnants of slavery from African-American culture, they are in strident opposition when it comes to the most productive means of achieving that goal. These sharply divergent opinions between two men with relatively similar backgrounds are indicative of the growing divide that faced a people struggling to establish an identity following generations of systematic oppression.

Washington's philosophy regarding race relations was fully enunciated during a famous speech given at the Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition in 1895, in which he called on Blacks to join the workforce in whichever capacity was offered to them by White manufacturing interests while also accepting institutionalized segregation. Although many people, both black and white, were swept up in the initial groundswell of support for Washington's "Atlanta Compromise," it was left to leaders like Du Bois to take him to task for essentially trading basic civil rights for low-level opportunity and protection from violence. Du Bois attempts to represent the other, disproportionate aspect of African-American culture at the time that clamored for actual equality, despite the costs. He recognizes the immense importance that racial tensions will play in the upcoming years; proclaiming "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line" (Du Bois 40) while attempting to carefully play upon them to achieve his own goals. While recognizing that, in the short-term, compromise may be an attractive option, especially in the face of murderous lynch-mobs and corrupt local governments, Du Bois declared defiantly that he was unwilling to concede the future equality of his people. He held true to the conviction that although it would be very difficult, the only method of ensuring true equality among the races was the immediate procurement of the means necessary to achieve it. For Du Bois, political power and representation, civil rights, and higher education are absolutely necessary for a people struggling to shed the lasting bonds of slavery. While recognizing Washington's earnestness to accommodate and the apparent sincerity of his efforts, Du Bois deftly illustrates the inherent dangers in willfully discarding any opportunity for advancement, whether for the individual or for the race itself.

With the clear vision afforded by hindsight, it is clear today that Washington's unbounded optimism as to the accepting nature of white America was entirely unfounded. Though he stated that "no race that has anything to contribute to the markets of the world is long in any degree ostracized" (Washington 223), it would be another 70 years before the subject of true African-American equality was broached. His advocacy of voluntary servitude as a path to cultural acceptance undoubtedly played a role in this lengthy delay of the deliverance of civil rights. Du Bois would be proud, one can assume, that the final drive to secure equality was founded upon an insistence on equal political power and opportunity for higher education. Both authors came to represent a competing aspect of a diverging culture; however, we are glad today that the proponents of empowerment and equality won out over those who preferred subservience in exchange for protection.

3.) For a period spanning four tragic decades in Tuskegee, Alabama, the United States Public Health Service engaged in a clinical study of syphilis and the disease's effects when left untreated. Beginning in 1932, scientists working under the auspices of the federal government enrolled a total of 600 men, all of whom were poor sharecroppers of African-American descent, in a clinical trial designed to monitor syphilitic patients throughout the length of their illnesses. The trial's predominantly impoverished and illiterate subjects were provided free government health care, complimentary meals, and even burial insurance in exchange for their participation in the study. None of the trial's 600 participants, 399 of which were diagnosed with syphilis while the remaining 201 formed the disease-free control group, were informed that the study was focused on venereal disease and the men only enrolled in the study under the false premise of curing the affliction known colloquially as "bad blood." The doctor's supervising the Tuskegee Experiments never informed their subjects when they tested positive for syphilis, presenting grave ethical concerns for all involved. The participants of the study were not offered any treatment for the disease's symptoms throughout the 40-year trial, and even after penicillin was established as a common cure for syphilis in 1943, subjects were denied treatment specifically to preserve the clinicians' ability to monitor how syphilis ravages the human body when left untreated. At the time of the study's abrupt conclusion in 1972, 28 men had died of syphilis, 100 others had perished due to syphilis related complications, over 40 of the subject's wives had been infected and 19 children were exposed to the disease at birth.

While the Tuskegee Experiment officially came to a conclusion in 1972, after a whistleblower's overtures to the press resulted in the program's termination, its legacy lives on today in the form of lasting social, racial and medical ramifications. The racially biased motivations of the Tuskegee doctors, who identified the 600 African-American sharecroppers as especially susceptible to the government's use of misinformation and coercion, are repeatedly made evident throughout the study's tenure. Perhaps the most egregious of the injustices foisted upon Tuskegee's 600 victims was the U.S. Public Health Service's conscious decision to deny them access to penicillin after it was discovered to cure syphilis in 1943. The prevailing racial prejudices of the era, which viewed African-Americans as inherently inferior to Caucasians, undoubtedly inspired the Tuskegee doctors' stated rationale for willfully allowing their patients to languish and die of a preventable disease. In their official account of the experiment, researchers stated with frighteningly clinical detachment that "Negro" patients were considered expendable because "such individuals seemed to offer an unusual opportunity to study the untreated syphilitic patients from the beginning of the disease to the death of the infected person. An opportunity was also offered to compare the syphilitic process uninfluenced by modern treatment, with the results attained when treatment had been given" (Vonderlehr 261).

The tragedy of the Tuskegee Experiments also had serious ethical implications for the field of medical research, which underwent substantial reforms in the years following 1972. One of the most important concepts to emerge in the wake of Tuskegee is that of informed consent, an ideal which holds that doctors have ethical and moral obligation to fully inform their subjects of a study's parameters, including inherent risks and dangers, before commencing with any human-based research. While obtaining full consent from properly informed subjects was a practiced research method prior to Tuskegee, informed consent became federally mandated law in 1973, after the full complicity of doctors and government officials participating in Tuskegee was finally revealed. The federal government created the Office for Human Research Protections specifically to prevent another case of medically mandated mass murder from ever again occurring on American soil.

4.) Political Communication - Old and New Media Relationships

Michael Gurevitch, Stephen Coleman and Jay G. Blumler

This article examines ways in which television has impacted the political landscape, while also considering the extent to which new media forms like the Internet have displaced television and transformed the realm of political communications. The authors suggest that the relationship between television and politics, which peaked in the 1960s, is still prevalent during the digital era but is now facing increased pressures which reduce the significance of the broadcast-based mode of political communication.

The "Americanization" of Political Communication: A Critique

Ralph Negrine and Stylianos Papathanassopoulos

This article analyzes the concept that political and campaign communication has undergone an "Americanization." By starting with the existing literature on the United States' development of political communication practices and their implementation by foreign political systems, the article then examines the relevancy of the apparent convergence of methods and the ramifications for future models of political communication.

The Ethics of Political Communication

Manuel Pares I Maicas

This article explores the role of ethics in journalism when applied specifically to the notion of ethical political communication. The article analyzes the primary aspects of the political communication process from an ethical vantage point. The article concludes that a link between ethics and politics is difficult to attain and that political communication is not directed by ethical concerns.

Political Communication as an Instrument of Foreign Policy

W. Phillips Davison

This article ascertains the predominant public view of political communication as an instrument of foreign policy, and compares these attitudes with the methods of foreign propaganda that are advocated by social science studies. It is concluded that a dearth of widely held comprehension of the abilities and aspects of propaganda has complicated its use as an effective foreign policy instrument.

Contemporary Political Communications: Audiences, Politicians and the Media in International Research

Sally Young, Saskia Bourne and Stephanie Younane

This article investigates the rapid expansion of research focusing on political communication, differentiating between quantitative and utilitarian studies to encompass a wide variety of research questions and theoretical frameworks. The article seeks to chart and analyze data pertaining to technological advancement in an age of globalized political communication through interconnected media.

Political Communication and Social Theory

Darren G. Lilleker

This article examines the concept of the crisis debate in the context of political communication as an established method of justifying public disengagement from electoral politics in recognized, stable democracies. The authors establish the crisis debate theory as a commonly occurring phenomenon and explore its causes through a detailed analysis of British politics.

Managing Political Communications

H Krause Hansen, R Langer and D. Salskov-Iversen

This article investigates the attitudes which support the rise of political communication as a disparate 'governmental domain' by examining the dispersion, local adaptation and conversion of the administrative concepts of image building in public organizations. The article concludes that a link exists between image management and identity within the realm of managerial methodology.

Interactivity and Political Attitude Formation: A Mediation Model of Online Information Processing

Erik Bucy

This article examines the advent of interactivity as the central focus of studies concerning political communication and information technology. The author attempts to locate interactivity within the context of interface features and user perceptions, by testing the mediation model of online information processing. The article concludes that Internet self-efficacy was among many significant moderators in the relationship between interactivity and political communication.

Strategic Diversion in Political Communication

Roger Larocca

This article explores the ways in which an educated advisor can utilize selective revelation of certain information to alter the agenda of decision makers. The author concludes that an advisor is apt to use diversion when the decision maker is limited in the ranger of his or her actions by institutional, time, or resource constraints.

A Comparative Analysis of Political Communication Systems and Voter Turnout

Mijeong Baek

This article investigates the ways that political communication can affect international variances between voter turnout rates in democratic elections. The article attempts to gauge how the structure and methodology of conveying political messages affects the voter turnout rates of 74 different nations. The article concludes that reducing the cost of political communication, in the form of voting information for citizens, will invariably increase a country's voter turnout rates.

5.) The 1997 black comedy Wag the Dog, directed by Barry Levinson and written by David Mamet, was prescient in its prediction of an American political landscape dominated by each party's ability to successfully "spin" their message to the public. The film depicts the machinations of an administration engaging in a massive conspiracy to create a fictitious war, in an effort to distract the electorate from a looming sex scandal. Robert de Niro plays Conrad Brean, a Washington D.C. spin doctor expert in the art of crisis control who is contracted by a president recently accused of engaging an inappropriate relationship with an underage girl. Brean's personal motto is "to change the story, change the lead" and the political mercenary devises a plot to deceive the American public with a phony foreign conflict. In order to produce a modern, media friendly war which will captivate the public and deflect attention from the president's indiscretions, Brean hires Hollywood mogul Stanley Motss, who is played by Dustin Hoffman. Through a campaign which includes an official war logo, faux footage of "enemy" war crimes and even an anthem penned by Willie Nelson, Motts successfully engineers a media blitz which diverts voter scrutiny and propels the president to reelection. While employing a satirical tone which often borders on the absurd, Wag the Dog plays on the relative ignorance of late nineties audiences regarding political message control and media manipulation to emphasize its warnings.

While it may appear that Wag the Dog draws inspiration from the sex scandal which embroiled the latter years of the Clinton administration, in actuality the film was released nearly a month before Monica Lewinsky was thrust into the headlines. Many political theorists have drawn a connection between the message delivered in Wag the Dog and the Clinton administration's increased willingness to deploy the American military during the height of the Lewinsky scandal. With the national media was whipping itself into its usual ratings-fueled frenzy as the Lewinsky scandal and impeachment proceedings dragged on, President Clinton authorized the use of force in both Serbia and the Sudan, providing news outlets and reporters with an unassailable topic of conversation. Whether or not Clinton was directly inspired by Wag the Dog is of course highly debatable, it is clear that Levinson's film presents a highly cogent analysis of American sociopolitical tendencies. The voting public's tendency to align itself with a candidate who has proven themselves triumphant on the field of battle is one of the film's central themes, and indeed, public support for Republican led impeachment efforts waned in response to Clinton's perceived victories.

While the apparent relationship between President Clinton's military policy during time of scandal and the plot of Wag the Dog is a curious coincidence, the film was actually derived in part from the novel "American Hero" by Larry Beinhart. This controversial work theorized that President George H.W. Bush launched Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, a campaign which was highly successful both militarily and in terms of media delivery, to assure victory in his 1992 reelection bid. The concept of an easily misled media which forsakes its objectivity in times of war is highlighted throughout Wag the Dog, and the tendency of reporters to engage in cheerleading was demonstrated time and again during the Gulf War. Renowned film critic Roger Ebert was cognizant of this within his review of Wag the Dog, stating that while armed conflicts are often necessary and quite real, "the packaging of them is invariably shallow and unquestioning; like sportswriters, war correspondents abandon any pretense of objectivity and detachment, and cheerfully root for our side" (Ebert 1). The frightening import of a film like Wag the Dog is that, with today's continuous news cycle, the American political structure now produces elected officials who are unflinching in their willingness to exploit the media to control public opinion.

The conspiratorial tone imbued in Wag the Dog was echoed by the often nefarious actions of the second Bush administration, which utilized the partiality of certain media outlets to advance its platform to the point of perfection. Bush's use of patriotic iconography to garner undivided support following the tragedies of September 11th evokes the actions of the unnamed president in Wag the Dog. The Jessica Lynch incident during the Iraq War, in which the government falsified records and advanced a fantasy narrative of Lynch as a military hero to inspire public support, echoes one of the film's more jarring scenes. The Bush administration's attempts to fabricate a hero to popularize its war efforts is a near recreation of the "good ol' Shoe" character in the film, "who is allegedly rescued from the hands of the Albanians to be flown back for a hero's welcome" (Ebert 1). Although Wag the Dog was released in 1997, it appears that a political entity capable of mastering its message of media manipulation would not ascend to power until the year 2000, when Mr. Bush took office and immediately crafted his own policy of governance through alternative reality.

6.) In the tumultuous first years of President Barack Obama's current term in office, the confluence of popular dissatisfaction with governmental performance and policy and the devastating impact of economic recession resulted in the birth of a new national political movement known as the Tea Party. Reportedly taking their inspiration from the revolutionary act of protest against undue taxation which was the Boston Tea Party, this upstart third party initially developed as a grassroots effort decrying federal spending programs such as the so-called "banking bailouts" and the "stimulus package." The moniker Tea Party is also said to be an acronym for proponent's rallying cry of "Taxed Enough Already," and indeed its member's utter opposition to new taxes in any form have proved to be the lynchpin of the group's political platform.

Major figures within the Tea Party movement invariably lean to the right of even highly conservative Republican politicians, espousing highly divisive views on issues like gun control and abortion. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has become a Tea Party icon as a result of her continued opposition to the Obama administration's every position. Congresswoman Michele Bachman (R-Mn.), herself a controversial figure known for expressing conservative ideals bordering on the extreme, has also aligned herself with the Tea Party. Other major players within national Tea Party movement include Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), FOX News television personality Glenn Beck, and 2012 presidential hopeful Herman Cain.

The Tea Party movement began with local protests held around the country and quickly coalesced into a functioning political entity, culminating in the 2010 national Tea Party Express rally Washington D.C. The rapid amalgamation of scattered protest groups into a coherent political force changed the American political landscape by introducing a viable third party, and the success of Tea Party endorsed candidates in the 2010 elections signaled the group's ascendency to the forefront of the national scene. Despite the astonishing rate at which the Tea Party's message seemed to resonate during its formation, the group has increasingly been relegated to the fringe of American politics due to the bellicosity of its members and the vitriolic rage imbued in their message. Another factor limiting the Tea Party's overall appeal to mainstream voters is the group's inability to expand its message beyond its base, and indeed "a recent New York Times/CBS News poll found that tea-party supporters are disproportionately older, richer, better-educated, white males" (White 1). While ostensibly remaining an anti-tax entity opposed to government expansion at taxpayer expense, the Tea Party is now defined largely by its insistence on clinging to irrelevant issues such as the President's birth certificate and other political nonstarters.

7.) The election of Barack Obama, an African-American man, to serve as the 42nd President of the United States was a watershed moment in terms of the role race plays in today's political realm. After over two centuries of successive rule by White men, this nation had finally turned the proverbial corner and had accepted the inherent equality of different races and cultures. While prior generations of American voters had relegated Blacks, as well as other ethnicities such as Latinos and Asian-Americans, to the outskirts of the political domain, the interconnected and modern society we enjoy today had collectively chosen a minority to serve as this nation's leader. It was widely believed that the "Age of Obama" would usher in a progressive wave of racial equality in American politics, with the playing field finally being leveled to better reflect the composition of the nation's society at large.

Unfortunately, the unbridled optimism which swept the electorate during the fall of 2008 has been subsequently obscured by the willingness of right-wing groups and conservative leaders to demonize President Obama with racially charged appeals to their voting base. The so-called "birther" movement, which doggedly pursued the release of the President's long-form birth certificate, undoubtedly relies on racial prejudice to fuel its proponent's distrust of Mr. Obama's citizenship. This supposition is confirmed by the fact that, while he too was borne outside of the continental United States, Senator John McCain, a Caucasian, was never subjected any major scrutiny regarding his American bona fides. Nationally televised protests of the Obama Administration's policy agenda have featured signs depicting the President as a wild monkey or adorned with "African warrior" garb, both images having long carried connotations of racial bigotry against African-Americans. Former President Jimmy Carter has been outspoken in his dismay at the regression of American political discourse, expressing his belief that "an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man" (Crowley and Hornick 2). While much progress has been made in American politics since the era of literacy tests and gerrymandering, race is still a highly combustible issue which exerts great impact on the result of elections from the municipal level to the White House.

8.) In a nation which famously proclaimed its political structure free of religious influence, through the separation of church and state enunciated in the Constitution, politics and religion in modern America are subtly intertwined. While the Founders' collective intent to rid this country's governmental policy of religious bias has been honored, issues of personal faith and the lack thereof have still managed to encroach on America's political discourse. Although no official mandate exists which requires a politician to believe in God, modern legislators, mayors, governors and other elected representatives are invariably expected to align themselves with the prevailing Judeo-Christian worldview. There exists a uniquely American sense of sentimentality towards religion when it is used in connection with appeals to patriotism. The fact that every President has used the phrase "God bless America" to conclude national addresses speaks to the latent desire held by even the most secular of Americans to hear expressions of faith by their leaders.