Throughout this semester in political communication 420 I have learned a vast amount of information about how our political system functions and how citizens are engaged with politics in general. Unfortunately, I believe our political system is declining because fewer citizens are participating in political elections. It is important to all Americans that we began to change the way in which we convey information at interpersonal, public, and cultural levels, so that there will be more civic engagement throughout America. In this paper I will discuss three ways that we can improve the political information that is presented to the public so that they will participate more actively in our political elections. I will discuss how improved interpersonal education, better public political rhetoric, and better use of technology available to our ever changing culture will help to create a more politically engaged society in America.

The first idea we must understand in order for politicians to communicate with the public better is the fact that more American citizens need to be educated on how our political system functions. I believe that the main reason that today’s American citizens do not participate in the political election is due to the fact that they simply do not understand how our political system functions. According to Hollihan “Governments establish curriculum standards with an eye towards teaching students to be loyal and patriotic citizens” (Hollihan Pg. 60). I also agree with Hollihan on this idea and believe that our government is using our schools to brain wash kids instead of teaching them about the true political system of the United States. I believe that we need to start teaching kids about politics at a younger age and find the funding in our school systems to create specific programs that focus directly on political education. If more Americans truly understand the political system and how it functions, than I feel their will likely be a large increase in the number of people that participate in the elections. Better interpersonal communication will be necessary to help teach our children, young adults, and adults about politics. I believe that more education about politics will also give the younger generation the confidence to participate in future elections. This is incredibly important because statistics have shown that many young people today are not engaging in politics at all and they are the ones who will be directly affected by these political decisions in the future. According Hollihan “Low rates of voting and political campaign participation by young people suggest that civics education is not meeting its goal of increasing political interests and efficacy” (Hollihan pg. 61). Although I would began focusing on this young demographic, I also believe that many adults in America today are uneducated when it comes to politics, which is incredibly bad because they are blindly casting their votes based of information that they herd on the television or other media sources. I believe that our government is content with the way our political system functions currently because the more uneducated people are the easier it is to persuade them to vote. So I believe it is up to the American people to fight for this change and create new education programs for kids and adults alike. Smaller classrooms and better interpersonal communication about politics between teachers and students is the drastic change that we need. This will not only make Americans more confident when it comes time to vote but it will also allow for the change that they want instead of the change that others feel is best for America.

The next idea that I would like to discuss is the use of political rhetoric in public political campaigns. Political leaders have been using rhetoric for centuries to persuade the public and convince them that they are the best political candidate for that specific job. Unfortunately, many of these politicians have mislead these voters in the past with their use of rhetoric and as a result of this “ many Americans have become inclined to see politics as a game in which candidates on both sides are insincere and will do whatever it takes to win” (Hollihan Pg.277). It is not that the political rhetoric these politicians are using is bad, but rather the fact that they have consistently not stuck to their word on creating specific policies and following through with the initial ideas. This has created a lot of cynicism with American voters and has left them with the choice to vote for the candidate that they actually believe will follow through with their initial promises. A recent poll “For example, reported that just 16% of voters today believe that federal government today reflects the will of the American people. These figures reflect a sharp decline from the 1990's when more than 30% of Americans believed that the federal government reflected the will of the people” ( Hollihan Pg. 277). Politicians in today’s society are using political rhetoric to convince their public audiences that they are going to do certain things when they are elected but often fail to follow through when they do end up getting elected, this is what is leading the American people to no longer believe in the candidates and the political rhetoric they speak. I believe that through education and regulation, this misuse of political rhetoric can be stopped. If the American public were more educated than they would not be persuaded by this political rhetoric as easily and I believe that they would be able to make better political decisions as a whole.

The third and final issue that I would like to discuss is how better use of technology in our culture would allow American citizens to participate more actively in our political system. There is no doubt that the advances in technology over the last decades have changed the ways in which we receive and view political information. Many of today’s Americans use technologies like the internet and television to find political information and cast their votes. This has changed from past cultures that did not have this advanced technology to find information. The problem with this is that they are often times using unreliable sources to find their information and form their opinions on who would be the best political official for the job. Many of today’s Americans are also having a hard time filtering through the vast amount of political information that is thrown at them every day during a political election. Along with this new technology, our cultures have shifted and so many ads and television advertisements have made it difficult to filter through all the information that is presented to us on a daily basis. According to Hollihan “The internet permits candidates and their campaigns to respond very quickly to events and to the messages circulated by their opponents” (Hollihan Pg. 201).I believe that if we were somehow able to regulate this information that is presented through our technology, than it might make more Americans more confident and help them to find the will to participate politically more. Some regulations that I have come up with to change this problem are only allowing political candidates a certain amount of time to advertise in the election period. This would keep the American public from being overwhelmed and allow them to truly think about their vote before they cast it. This law would not pertain to the internet, so if citizens wanted to search for more political information before casting their vote then they would be able to do so. I also believe that this regulation would help to reduce the amount of bad political rhetoric that politicians often use to persuade their audiences. With a limited amount of advertising political candidates would have to be more concise with their rhetoric, which intern would limit the amount of persuasion they would have over the American public. Another idea that I came up with to improve citizen engagement would be to use technology to improve the quality of information presented. According to Hollihan “internet technology can be used in a positive way by having meet ups. The purpose of a meet up is very simple. Rather than using the web to bring people together in both virtual communities and in actual physical meetings” (Hollihan Pg. 205).

Overall, I believe that an increase in political education, regulation on political rhetoric presented to the public, and better use of technology within our different cultures will all help to get or American public to become more engaged in our political system. These ideas are a little bit out their but I believe it is a change that could truly alter our political system and the amount of public participation when it comes to politics as a whole.


Work Cited
Hollihan, Thomas A. Uncivil Wars: Political Campaigns in the Media Age. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2009. Print.