Sound-Bite Saboteurs: Public Discourse, Education, and the State of Democratic Deliberation

By Julie Drew, William Lyons, Lance Svehla

Argues that the reliance on sound bites in recent political discourse is harmful to the democratic process.

Sound-Bite Saboteurs examines the emergence of a multifaceted, multimedia culture that encourages the use of sound bites to silence one's opponents at the expense of democratic deliberation and debate. No simple partisan phenomenon or mere attempt to "spin" a particular issue, sound-bite sabotage is, the authors argue, a sophisticated and media-savvy effort by public and private elites to destroy the grounds of public discourse, higher education, and democratic argument. By displacing democratic debate with political spectacle, sound-bite saboteurs attempt to keep citizens more entertained but less informed, more cynical but less engaged, more adept as consumers but less adept as agents. In a broad-based and integrated analysis of this phenomenon, the authors argue that sound-bite sabotage can and must be resisted both within the classroom and beyond.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1438430426
• ISBN13: 9781438430423
• Release Date: March 2010
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 275 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary