The C-SPAN Archives

Description

The C-SPAN Archives records, indexes, and preserves all C-SPAN programming for historical, educational, and research uses. Every C-SPAN program aired since 1987, from all House and Senate sessions in the US Congress, to hearings, presidential speeches, conventions, and campaign events, totaling over 200,000 hours, is contained in the video library and is immediately and freely accessible through the database and electronic archival systems developed and maintained by staff. Whereas C-SPAN is best known as a resource for political processes and policy information, the Archives also offers rich educational research and teaching opportunities. This book provides guidance and inspiration to scholars who may be interested in using the Archives to illuminate concepts and processes in varied communication and political science subfields using a range of methodologies for discovery, learning, and engagement. Applications described range from teaching rhetoric to enhancing TV audience's viewing experience. The book links to illustrative clips from the Archives to help readers appreciate the usability and richness of the source material and the pedagogical possibilities it offers. Many of the essays are authored by faculty connected with the Purdue University School of Communication, named after the founder of C-SPAN Brian Lamb.The book is divided into four parts: Part 1 consists of an overview of the C-SPAN Archives, the technology involved in establishing and updating its online presence, and the C-SPAN copyright and use policy. Featured are the ways in which the collection is indexed and tips on how individuals can find particular materials. This section provides an essential foundation for scholars' and practitioners' increased use of this valuable resource. Parts 2 and 3 contain case studies describing how scholars use the Archives in their research, teaching, and engagement activities. Some case studies were first presented during a preconference at the National Communication Association (NCA) convention in November 2013, while others have been invited or solicited through open calls. Part 4 explores future directions for C-SPAN Archive use as a window into American life and global politics.
Foreword

Preface

PART I Overview of C-SPAN and the C-SPAN Archives

Chapter 1 Introduction to C-SPAN, Its Mission, and Its Academic Commitment, by Susan Swain

Chapter 2 Introduction to the C-SPAN Video Library, by Robert X. Browning

Chapter 3 C-SPAN’s Origins and Place in History: Personal Commentary, by Brian Lamb

PART II Research Case Studies Using Rhetorical and Historical Lenses

Chapter 4 Preserving Black Political Agency in the Age of Obama: Utilizing the C-SPAN Video Archives in Rhetorical Scholarship, by Theon E. Hill

Chapter 5 Going Beyond the Headlines: The C-SPAN Archives, Grassroots ’84, and New Directions in American Political History, by Kathryn Cramer Brownell

Chapter 6 Deference in the District: An Analysis of Congressional Town Hall Meetings From the C-SPAN Video Library, by Colene J. Lind

PART III Research Case Studies Using Social Scientific Lenses

Chapter 7 Using the C-SPAN Archives to Enhance the Production and Dissemination of News, by Stephanie E. Bor

Chapter 8 Measuring Emotion in Public Figures Using the C-SPAN Archives, by Christopher Kowal

Chapter 9 A Social Practice Capital to Enhance the C-SPAN Archives to Support Public Affairs Programming, by Sorin Adam Matei

PART IV Teaching Case Studies

Chapter 10 Using the C-SPAN Archives to Teach Mass Communication Theory, by Glenn G. Sparks

Chapter 11 Teaching American Government Concepts Using C-SPAN, by Robert X. Browning

Chapter 12 Interactive Learning In and Out of the Classroom, by Robert X. Browning

Chapter 13 Designing and Teaching Multidisciplinary Project-Based Teams Using the C-SPAN Archives, by William Oakes, Carla Zoltowksi, and Patrice M. Buzzanell

PART V Future Possibilities

Chapter 14 Partisanship Without Alternatives: Keynote Reflections on C-SPAN and My Mother, by Roderick P. Hart

Chapter 15 Reflections on the Potential and Challenges of the C-SPAN Archives for Discovery, Learning, and Engagement, by Patrice M. Buzzanell

References

Contributors

Index

Sujets

• Political Process
• Political Science
• Media

Informations

• Publié par: Purdue University Press
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2014
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781612493541
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE
C-SPAN
ARCHIVES
An Interdisciplinary Resource for Discovery, Learning, and Engagement
THE
C-SPAN
ARCHIVES
An Interdisciplinary Resource for Discovery, Learning, and Engagement
edited by ROBERT X. BROWNING
PURDUE UNIVERSITY PRESS, WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA
Copyright 2014 by Robert X. Browning. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The C-SPAN archives : an interdisciplinary resource for discovery, learning, and engagement / edited by Robert X. Browning.
   pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-55753-695-2 (paperback) — ISBN 978-1-61249-353-4 (epdf) — ISBN 978-1-61249-354-1 (epub) 1. C-SPAN (Television network)—Archives. 2. Public affairs television programs—United States—Archives. 3. United States—Politics and government—1977-1981. 4. United States—Politics and government—1981-1989. 5. United States—Politics and government—1989-1993. 6. United States—Politics and government—2001-2009. 7. United States—Politics and government—2009- I. Browning, Robert X, 1950- editor.
PN1992.92.C2C74 2014
384.55′5—dc23
2014021342
To David A. Caputo. Colleague. Mentor. Friend .
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
PREFACE
PART I Overview of C-SPAN and the C-SPAN Archives
CHAPTER 1
Introduction to C-SPAN, Its Mission, and Its Academic Commitment
Susan Swain
CHAPTER 2
Introduction to the C-SPAN Video Library
Robert X. Browning
CHAPTER 3
C-SPAN’s Origins and Place in History: Personal Commentary
Brian Lamb
PART II Research Case Studies Using Rhetorical and Historical Lenses
CHAPTER 4
Preserving Black Political Agency in the Age of Obama: Utilizing the C-SPAN Video Archives in Rhetorical Scholarship
Theon E. Hill
CHAPTER 5
Going Beyond the Headlines: The C-SPAN Archives, Grassroots ’84 , and New Directions in American Political History
Kathryn Cramer Brownell
CHAPTER 6
Deference in the District: An Analysis of Congressional Town Hall Meetings From the C-SPAN Video Library
Colene J. Lind
PART III Research Case Studies Using Social Scientific Lenses
CHAPTER 7
Using the C-SPAN Archives to Enhance the Production and Dissemination of News
Stephanie E. Bor
CHAPTER 8
Measuring Emotion in Public Figures Using the C-SPAN Archives
Christopher Kowal
CHAPTER 9
A Social Practice Capital to Enhance the C-SPAN Archives to Support Public Affairs Programming
Sorin Adam Matei
PART IV Teaching Case Studies
CHAPTER 10
Using the C-SPAN Archives to Teach Mass Communication Theory
Glenn G. Sparks
CHAPTER 11
Teaching American Government Concepts Using C-SPAN
Robert X. Browning
CHAPTER 12
Interactive Learning In and Out of the Classroom
Robert X. Browning
CHAPTER 13
Designing and Teaching Multidisciplinary Project-Based Teams Using the C-SPAN Archives
William Oakes, Carla Zoltowksi, Patrice M. Buzzanell
PART V Future Possibilities
CHAPTER 14
Partisanship Without Alternatives: Keynote Reflections on C-SPAN and My Mother
Roderick P. Hart
CHAPTER 15
Reflections on the Potential and Challenges of the C-SPAN Archives for Discovery, Learning, and Engagement
Patrice M. Buzzanell
REFERENCES
CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX
FOREWORD
I am pleased to have been given the opportunity to write the Foreword for this important volume exploring the rich resources of the C-SPAN Archives. As a former president of the National Communication Association (NCA), I am particularly pleased that the NCA provided the venue for the conference that was the impetus for this book. I believe both the conference and the book offer a compelling window into the valuable archive held by C-SPAN. And, as you read this volume, I think you will see how rich the C-SPAN Archives is, and how much promise it holds for future research and pedagogy.
This book clarifies how what’s been communicated via C-SPAN shapes further communication among people. It is extremely useful to read a volume that spans research endeavors and pedagogy as well as political issues, and, in addition, projects into people’s everyday lives. While any event, such as a presidential speech, for instance, has implications for all these arenas, this book is one of the few in my experience that focus on all these dimensions, explicitly showing how research, teaching, and practical application naturally intertwine. Further, the well-defined multidisciplinary focus of this book is an invaluable contribution. Universities currently focus on the importance of bringing a variety of disciplines together to think through seemingly intractable problems. This volume illustrates how different disciplines can illuminate the texts provided by the C-SPAN Archives. Engaged scholarship and partnerships between community and university personnel are often-invoked buzzwords in education today. But this volume makes these phrases come alive and embodies them with purpose, showing how the communication of political ideas permeates our experience and offers possibilities for edification and change.
This book features chapter topics as widely disparate as a rhetorical analysis of black political agency in the age of Barack Obama’s presidency, and an essay illustrating ways to use the C-SPAN Archives to teach mass communication theory. Through this diversity, the book illustrates the richness and depth of the C-SPAN Archives for scholars, teachers, and citizens. To have access to the raw data of nearly 30 years of the political history of the United States allows for research and teaching uses limited only by our imaginations. The variety of scholarship demonstrated within this volume is exciting and thought provoking. It provides a window into the C-SPAN Archives and a window into our political and mediated lives. It allows us to focus on the big picture and to drill down to specifics. It provides us with a beginning, and a promise that there is much more to follow. I, for one, am thrilled with this book, and the prospect of more to follow. I invite you to enjoy the range and depth of what is contained in this volume. It will be an exciting read, inspiring you to think about politics, communication, and life in our contemporary world in many different ways. I cannot think of a better use of our time and energy.
Lynn H. Turner, Past-President, National Communication Association
PREFACE
T he impetus for this edited collection actually began many years ago. As a Purdue University alum, Brian Lamb encouraged the university to set up an archive for the C-SPAN programming at his alma mater; Robert Browning set up the technological systems to digitize these materials into the C-SPAN Video Library (also known as the C-SPAN Archives) to provide free access worldwide; and Howard Sypher and Irwin (Bud) Weiser, as head of the Department of Communication and dean of the College of Liberal Arts, respectively, envisioned and started to talk about naming a school in honor of Brian Lamb. To celebrate these events, several faculty—Patrice Buzzanell, Glenn Sparks, Robert Browning, and Steve Wilson, then interim head of the Department of Communication—met to talk about ways to highlight the possibilities that came with the naming of a Lamb school at Purdue.
These conversations converged into a vision for creating awareness and encouraging use of the C-SPAN Archives. This vision was designed to further the C-SPAN Archives’ use not only for engaged scholarship and teaching in communication, political science, and other disciplines but also for tracing U.S. governmental discourses, policies, and major political-economic and social events by anyone interested in these facets of American life. Put differently, the vision involved the creation of greater connections within communication and across disciplines by focusing on the C-SPAN Archives, not solely as historical and political materials, but also as a window into the everyday issues and opportunities that shape (and are shaped by) contemporary life for citizens of the United States and the globe.
Some of the challenges in achieving this vision included finding venues in which researchers, teachers, media specialists, archivists and librarians, and nonacademic parties could interact meaningfully in ways that would be precise enough to be productive for scholarly audiences and conversational enough to appeal to broader groups. In addition, there needed to be a sustainable system for achieving multiple goals. The approach to these issues involved a two-part strategy. The first part necessitated establishing an annual conference and distinguished lecture that would promote use of the C-SPAN Archives and provide the bases for different kinds of outputs, such as this book. The second part was finding a publisher that would enable free online access to the book and online materials after a year and that would sign on for a series of edited collections that could begin with this sourcebook and evolve into different and more complex outputs as the C-SPAN Archives became more prominent in discovery, learning, and engagement, as well as popular use.
These aspects came together in the fall of 2013 when Patrice, Robert, and Glenn co-organized a daylong National Communication Association (NCA) Preconference in Washington, DC, at the C-SPAN headquarters and Purdue University Press agreed to publish the proceedings. The preconference and