Since the publication of Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone, there has been a spirited, interdisciplinary debate over the causes of an apparent decline in citizen participation in civic affairs, especially among young people. Much of this debate has focused on institutional and sociological explanations, with scholars looking to political structures or demographic changes for explanations.

J. Michael Hogan takes a different approach. Documenting changes in the character and quality of our public discourse, Hogan brings a rhetorical perspective to questions of civic engagement and democratic deliberation. Reflecting on how the vibrant deliberative democracy of the Progressive Era gave way to an age of propaganda and “sound bites,” Hogan finds explanations in new media technologies and changing definitions of “responsible” and “eloquent” speech. From studies of how particular controversies have evolved over time, to more narrowly focused studies of specific speakers and debates, Hogan’s work emphasizes the importance of rhetorical education, open forums for public deliberation, and shared standards of ethical public speech to a healthy, sustainable deliberative democracy.

Hogan, J. Michael, ed. Rhetoric and Reform in the Progressive Era. Volume 6 of A Rhetorical History of the United States, 10 vols. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2003.
Hogan, J. Michael, ed. Rhetoric and Community: Studies in Unity and Fragmentation. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998.
Hogan, J. Michael. The Nuclear Freeze Campaign: Rhetoric and Foreign Policy in the Telepolitical Age. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1994.
Hogan, J. Michael. The Panama Canal in American Politics: Domestic Advocacy and the Evolution of Policy. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986.

Does Public Opinion Polling Undermine Democratic Deliberation?

Since the early 1980s, there has been a dramatic proliferation of public opinion polls sponsored by major news organizations and reported as “news” about public attitudes toward our political leaders and the issues of the day. According to polling’s defenders, this growth in polling has been a good thing for democracy. Polling, in their view, gives voice to the “will of the people” and holds our leaders accountable.

J. Michael Hogan takes a different view of the impact of polling on democratic deliberation and policy-making. Showing how polling often supplants substantive debate and creates illusory trends in public opinion, Hogan argues that media polling often distorts public opinion and undermines democratic deliberation. In short, the growth of media polling, according to Hogan, has been bad for democracy.

Hogan, J. Michael, with George C. Edwards III, Wynton C. Hall, Christine L. Harold, Gerard A. Hauser, Susan Herbst, Robert Y. Shapiro, and Ted J. Smith III. “Report of the National Task Force on the Presidency and Public Opinion.” In The Prospects of Presidential Rhetoric, ed. Martin J. Medhurst and James Aune. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2006. In press.
Hogan, J. Michael. “The Rhetoric of Presidential Approval: Media Polling and the White House Intern Scandal.” In Images, Scandal, and Communication Strategies of the Clinton Presidency, ed. Robert E. Denton, Jr. and Rachel L. Holloway, 271-98. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003.
Hogan, J. Michael. “The ‘Science’ of Cold War Strategy: Propaganda and Public Opinion in the Eisenhower Administration’s ‘War of Words.’” In Critical Reflections on the Cold War: Rhetoric and History, ed. Martin J. Medhurst and H.W. Brands, 134-68. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2000.
Hogan, J. Michael. “Public Opinion and Journalistic Voyeurism: The Lesson of the Clinton Apology.” American Communication Journal 2 (January 1999), n.p.
[Online Journal].
Hogan, J. Michael. “George Gallup and the Rhetoric of Scientific Democracy.” Communication Monographs 64 (June 1997): 161-79
Smith, Ted J., III and J. Michael Hogan. "Public Opinion and the Panama Canal Treaties of 1977." Public Opinion Quarterly 51 (Spring 1987): 5-30.
Hogan, J. Michael. "Public Opinion and American Foreign Policy: The Case of Illusory Support for the Panama Canal Treaties." Quarterly Journal of Speech 71 (August 1985): 302-17.
Hogan, J. Michael and Ted J. Smith, III. "Polling on the Issues: Public Opinion and the Nuclear Freeze." Public Opinion Quarterly 55 (Winter 1991): 534-69.

"Voices of Democracy"

As a historian of American public address, J. Michael Hogan has studied a wide variety of the most famous orators in history, ranging from alleged demagogues like Huey Long and George Wallace to presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, the only president ever to write scholarly books about oratory and debate in American politics.

As a free-range rhetorician, Rosa Eberly shares this interest in the U.S. oratorical tradition and sees rhetorical education as a means of reinventing that tradition for the 21st century. Eberly's scholarship focuses on classrooms and other protopublic spaces where student-citizens can learn together to engage in collaborative democratic practices.

In collaboration with colleagues from the University of Maryland and Baylor University, Hogan and Eberly are co-directors of a major new curricular initiative funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, "Voices of Democracy: The U.S. Oratory Project." Promoting the study of great speeches and debates in undergraduate classrooms throughout the humanities, "Voices of Democracy" aims to bring history to life for students and to cultivate an appreciation of the American tradition of democratic deliberation. By studying the speeches and debates that have helped shape the American democratic experience, students not only learn about the nation's history and civic traditions but also may become more critical consumers of public discourse and more engaged citizens themselves.

Voicesofdemocracy.com (Under construction).

Hogan, J. Michael. Woodrow Wilson's Western Tour: Rhetoric, Public Opinion, and the League of Nations. The Library of Presidential Oratory, General Editor, Martin J. Medhurst. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2006. In press.
Hogan, J. Michael and Glen Williams. "The Rusticity and Religiosity of Huey P. Long." Rhetoric and Public Affairs 7 (Summer 2004): 149-71.
Hogan, J. Michael. "Theodore Roosevelt and the Heroes of Panama." Presidential Studies Quarterly 19 (Winter 1989): 79-94.
Hogan, J. Michael. "Wallace and the Wallacites: A Reexamination." Southern Speech Communication Journal 50 (Fall 1984): 24-48.
Eberly, Rosa A., and Jeremy Cohen, eds. A Laboratory for Public Scholarship and Democracy. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2006.
Eberly, Rosa A. “Plato’s Shibboleth Delineations: Or, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Rhetoric.” Rhetorical Democracy: Discursive Practices of Civic Engagement. Eds. Gerard A. Hauser and Amy Grim. Mahweh, N.J.: Erlbaum, 2003. 45-52.
Eberly, Rosa A. Citizen Critics: Literary Public Spheres. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000.
Eberly, Rosa A. “The Anti-Logos Doughball: Teaching Deliberating Bodies the Practices of Participatory Democracy.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 5 (2002): 287- 300.
Eberly, Rosa A. “From Readers, Audiences, and Communities to Publics: Classrooms as Protopublic Spaces.” Rhetoric Review 18 (1999): 165-78.