Influence and persuasion

Select one of the following U.S. presidential or vice presidential debates as the focus of your assignment:

• Barack Obama and John McCain: September 26, 2008
• Access the media link related to your chosen presidential or vice-presidential debate in the Learning Resources to view the debate. (You are not required to watch the entire debate.) Access the associated transcript for reference in citing examples from the debate.
• Review the Week 4 reading in the text, paying particular attention to the relevant information in Chapter 8. For example, note core characteristics and biases of persuaders.

By Day 7

Submit a 3- to 5-page paper that addresses the following:

• Describe examples from the debate that exemplify the core characteristics of the debaters.
• Explain the role of context in the debate.
• Describe the debaters’ biases.
• Explain the impact of the debaters’ social attractiveness on your analysis.
• Based on your analysis, rate each participant on a scale of 1–5; 1 for not credible and 5 for highly credible. Support your rating with information from the Week 4 Learning Resources and the specific debate.
• Evaluate your biases for or against each candidate, and explain how they informed your rating of the person.