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Abstract

This study asks the question, How does a politician alter their rhetoric when communicating to their audience throughout different media? There are two parts to this issue that must be discussed in order to better formulate the respective topic and results. The first of the two being, rhetoric, or how one formulates their words in a written or spoken context. The second being the use of media throughout a political campaign. As the age of the internet came about, there was a vast increase in how a political campaign can reach the audience of potential voters, which in turn adds to the phenomenon of altering rhetorical stances throughout different media platforms. The methods used in this study were a mixed-method approach including an interview with a Political Science Professor at Bowling Green State University, Dr. Melissa K. Miller, and an observational study created by the researcher of Ohio’s 61st district Democratic candidate for the Ohio House of Representatives, Adam Dudziak’s 2020 political campaign. The results for the interview showed that in order to not relay misinformation, Dr. Miller could not answer all the questions, but there were some positive correlations with the observational study and the answers provided by Dr. Miller, some of which included the increased use of emotional appeals in social media posts, as well as the broadening of stances/policies for a broader audience by politicians. Even though there are correlations and a preliminary answer has been synthesized – a political candidate consciously changes their rhetoric based on where their work is being placed to fit the needs of the audience – more studies must be done to form a concrete piece of evidence.

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