Rushed to Judgment

This book systematically examines the manner and extent to which listening to talk radio results in persuasion. The focus is on the medium's ringleader—Rush Limbaugh—the talk show host with the largest audience by far.

Convenient, entertaining, and provocative, talk radio today is unapologetically ideological. Focusing on Rush Limbaugh—the medium's most influential talk show—Rushed to Judgment systematically examines the politics of persuasion at play on our nation's radio airwaves and asks a series of important questions. Does listening to talk radio change the way people think about politics, or are listeners' attitudes a function of the self-selecting nature of the audience? Does talk radio enhance understanding of public issues or serve as a breeding ground for misunderstanding? Can talk radio serve as an agent of deliberative democracy, spurring Americans to open, public debate? Or will talk radio only aggravate the divisive partisanship many Americans decry in poll after poll? The time is ripe to evaluate the effects of a medium whose influence has yet to be fully reckoned with.

David Barker is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Prof. Barker has published several articles on talk radio in the Journal of Politics, Social Science Quarterly, and Political Communication.

C. Richard Hofstetter:
The volume exemplifies both rigorous and creative sciences. It is appropriate for many political communication and behavior university classes.

David C. Barker:
the volume is useful not only for those who study media effects, but also for those who work in the area of political persuasion.

Bridget Griffin-Foley:
[An] important and quite ground-breaking study of American conservative call-in talk radio.

Christopher H. Sterling:
[A] welcome addition to the growing shelf of scholarly works on radio broadcasting... well documented... offers useful research paths for others to follow.