MoveOn: The Rhetoric of Polarization

Abstract

The media environment has changed dramatically since King and Anderson (1971) first articulated their conceptualization of the rhetoric of polarization. With the advent of the user friendly World Wide Web in the 1990s came a new interactive form of media that is now used as a tool by politicians and activists. According to Chadwick, one group that has been successful in creating a network of citizens by using the internet has been MoveOn.org. This paper examines how MoveOn.org has used the rhetoric of polarization within its member emails to create feelings of solidarity amongst themselves and opposition to a common foe.