SocialJustice Jensen – Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies

The Media “Event” and Erasure of Dialogue: On Image- and Decision-Making in U.S. Elections

George H. Jensen | University of Arkansas at Little Rock

ORCiD ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7680-5508

___________________________________________

Publication: Social Justice Special Issue

Abstract | As new media emerge, especially social networking, the individual’s process of making political decisions will change. Despite early claims that social networking might usher in more participatory forms of democracy, the opposite may be true. This article analyzes the decision-making process of thirteen young, undecided voters in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election to understand how they are using social media to reach decisions. These young voters value an appearance of authenticity in political candidates, but they seem to resolve the “information overload” of news coverage and campaign advertising by focusing on a single random event rather than engaging in dialogue with others or by looking for consistency across events. An analysis of these young voters’ processes will demonstrate what is absent from their decisions, which they seem to have made in isolation—made, that is, without showing awareness or consideration of broader political/historical/rhetorical contexts. This leads us to ask, What kind of thinking—and, hence, what kind of decision-making—might have emerged had they engaged more actively in living, face-to-face democratic dialogue? As a corollary, the article raises a key question concerning the nation’s political process: In a media-saturated culture, how can we sustain a healthy dialogue about social justice?

Key words | Social Networking, Aristotle, Jean Baudrillard, Paradeigma, Rhetorical Example, Event, U.S. Presidential Elections, Hannah Arendt, Democratic Dialogue, Social Justice

George H. Jensen (ghjensen@ualr.edu; ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7680-5508) is Professor Emeritus, Department of Rhetoric and Writing, University of Arkansas Little Rock, USA. A pioneer in the development of personality theories of writing, he has written extensively on the application of Jungian personality types to the teaching of composition. His books include Personality and the Teaching of Composition (with John K. DiTiberio, 1989), Storytelling in Alcoholics Anonymous: A Rhetorical Analysis (2000), Identities Across Texts (2002), The Ethics of Creative Nonfiction (2024), and Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs Through It”: The Search for Beauty (with Heidi Skurat McCauley, 2024). He also publishes on Democratic Vistas on Substack.

MLA Citation for this Article:

Jensen, George H. “The Media “Event” and Erasure of Dialogue: On Image- and Decision-Making in U.S. Elections.” Language, Literature, and Interdisciplinary Studies, Social Justice Special Issue, 31 Dec. 2025, pp. 2.49–2.64, https://doi.org/10.71106/ZUTS5544.