Communications Studies & Modern Languages hosts Election Events Panel

With Election Day only weeks away, voters must untangle complicated political messages.

On Thursday, Oct. 10 at 2 p.m., students filled the UC Indian Room for the “Election Events Panel: What Are They Saying? Analyzing Communication in a Political World” event. The panel covered myriad topics, centralizing around an analysis of political communication in the modern age.

Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Eric Bain-Selbo hosted the panel, which featured commentary from professor and Chair of the Department of Communications Studies and Modern Languages Dr. Lesli K. Pace, as well as communication studies & modern languages associate professor Dr. Kevin Musgrave.

Political messaging encompasses a variety of media, including news, social media and Internet content. As individuals are bombarded with political information, deconstructing these messages becomes a challenge of its own. Dr. Musgrave explains what these messages indicate.

“These are highly strategic, highly-curated, very intentional messages that are being crafted. So when you turn on the television, you watch a debate, or when you see a commercial, or when you even see a still image circulate, these things are very much strategic and intentional in the way that they're presented,” Dr. Musgrave said.

While two opposing political campaigns may use the same communication strategies, they are not always used to the same effect. Musgrave said there are deep ethical implications about how these strategies are utilized. He added that, regardless of partisanship, political speech has real-world consequences.

These political messages have a direct impact on society’s function. Dr. Pace said that every dimension of these messages holds meaning, from their actual content to the simple fact that they exist in the first place. Because political messages are so highly constructed, this raises the question of why they hold so much weight and how they influence culture.

“Political discourses have significant repercussions in the way that culture is, and much of the way that those messages are constructed are very intentional,” Dr. Pace said. “They're designed with goals in mind, and as rhetoricians, we look at what those messages are doing, how they're doing it, and why it matters that that messaging is in the public sphere at all, just in general. Why does it matter that those discourses are a part of the way we move through the world?”

Bain-Selbo, Dr. Musgrave and Dr. Pace planned the Election Events Panel with students in mind. Knowing that 2024 is an election year, Bain-Selbo felt an obligation to provide political education to students who seek it.

“We have some responsibility to provide educational opportunities related to things happening in the world around us. And so that really spurred us on to sort of create this series of panels or discussions about different topics,” Bain-Selbo said.

The Election Events Panel is just one instance of a series of election year events at SEMO. There will be another chance to learn more about politics coming after the election. On Thursday, Nov. 21 at 2 p.m., the Political Science, Philosophy & Religion department will host “The Importance of Democracy: Now What?” in the UC Heritage Room.