COMM 101 Assignment for Monday:
Expand the SJT issue maps that you have already posted. The points on the line can consist of (but are not limited to) the following types:
1) Federal legislation (passed, failed, or proposed). 2) Federal Court decisions and Constitutional principles. 3) Political action committees or special interest organizations. 4) Attitudes, beliefs, and opinions shared by a number of people.
Of these, 5-10 should be items of legislation (passed, failed, or proposed). And you should end up with at least 10-15 points or "hash marks" (more is fine).
Use Thomas and Google to find legislation. Instructions are here. You might also find legislation, as well as the three other types of information above, in the following three locations:
1) Online daily newspapers and broadcast media websites, such as the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, and MSNBC.
2) Web news aggregators such as Goggle News, and blog news aggregators/search engines such as Technorati, Blogdex, Daypop, and Popdex.
3) Websites of political action committees, special interest groups, think tanks, and public policy organizations. For example, the NAACP, ACLU, NRA, NOW, PETA, and NRLC.
4) Websites of political news magazines, journals, and current affairs, such as NRO, New Yorker, Harpers, TNR, The Nation, and The Atlantic.
Finally, perform an audience analysis. Call the office of the congressperson who represents your group's legislator's home district. Tell them you are a Denison student doing a homework assignment on analyzing audiences. Ask for any information they would be kind enough to share. Here are some websites that might also help: National Election Studies, Pew Research Center, Percept, Zogby, and Gallup.
From what you can ascertain about your audience, plot their likely latitudes of acceptance, rejection, and indifference.