Although Democrat Jimmy Carter and Republican Ronald Reagan appealed to many of the same basic American values in the 1980 presidential campaign debate, there were some subtle but major differences in their value appeals. Other than attempting to convince his audience that his policies had been and would be successful and that Reagan's policies…

Based on data gathered in a larger study of audience response to the debates held during the 1976 campaign for the presidency of the United States, a study examined the validity of uses and gratifications measures and explored how these measures were affected by differing levels of audience media activity. The data was drawn from telephone…

The 14 articles in this journal issue focus on the role of forensics in the eighties. Among the topics discussed in the articles are the following: (1) the survival of forensics, (2) intercollegiate debate, (3) accountability, and (4) intercollegiate forensics. In addition, several articles provide predictions and projections for the future of…

A humanistic approach to debate coaching enhances the ideal of free thought by opposing any censorship of ideas, promoting a wide variety of perspectives on human experience, and encouraging independent, critical thinking and problem solving. This is opposed to traditional authoritarian models in which the teacher is the powerful decision maker…

Both balance and reinforcement theories were used in an examination of the perceptual distortion of height among 146 college debaters. Balance theory predicted that losers would distort winners' heights upward; reinforcement theory predicted that winners would distort losers' heights upward. The results confirmed both predictions. The possibility…

The usefulness of presidential debates to the electorate and to the total political system is evaluated in this paper. The paper first reports the results of opinion polls concerning the value of the 1976 debates and cites studies showing the types of information that people obtained from watching the debates. It then considers whether voters'…

Since high school forensics workshops play an important role in the total educational forensics scene, forensics directors and administrators should examine and evaluate their schools' workshops in the light of the changes which should be made. In order to do this, a student-centered philosophical base should be established and four external and…

In order to answer questions about current debate ethics--as compared with the ethics of 1964--and to arrive at a contemporary viewpoint of ethical practices, a questionnaire was sent to forensics directors at 1440 colleges and universities and 376 high school directors. A list of fifty debate practices was compiled, thirty-five from the 1964…

Entires listed in this selected bibliography were published in 1973 and should be of interest to students of public address. Items are listed under five major categories: (1) bibliography; (2) criticism: oratory; (3) argumentation: logic: debate; (4) practitioners and theorists--general (American, international); and (5) religious communication…

The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the trends in higher education and the eventual and inevitable effects on forensics. The analysis of the problem is intended to define the issues, provide a preliminary response to recent occurrences in education, and decide what regional and national forensic associations can do. The paper concludes…

This packet of 10 microfiche (a total of 960 pages) contains resource materials concerning the 1974-75 National High School Debate issue, political reform. The majority of these items consist of material from United States Congressional activity (e.g., reports from several Senate and House committees, a statement by Birch Bayh on direct popular…

Although texts on debate and argumentation deal with accepted forms of evidence, reasoning, and logical methods of proof, they do not cover adequately the "undefined" forms of proof. Criteria of evidence found in forensic literature are not always followed strictly by judges, in courtroom or classroom. Many debate judges allow imprecise, vague, or…

Debate can contribute to the solution of some of the problems of higher education but will thrive only to the extent that it can make a contribution to the greatest number of students and to society. Two areas that need improvement are topic selection and strategies of the negative team. Associations and national honorary societies schould promote…

The author describes the program which permitted six out of seven candidates for the May 1972 senatorial primary in North Carolina to appear free on educational television. Each candidate was given one hour for his program, with the first thirty minutes spent in a presentation of his own choosing and the last half hour devoted to questioning by a…

This curriculum guide is a result of a graduate seminar in improvement of speech instruction given in 1971 at the University of Nebraska (Omaha). It is designed primarily for a full-year high school course, but individual sections can be used for a semester course or units. The aim of the curriculum is to integrate new approaches in communication…