Real-Life Communication
It's election time! You're the political strategist for Linda Bjornsen
and the True Team party. You've organized press conferences for her, coached
her for the national debates and written direct-mail flyers, TV commercials
and radio ads for her.
Tonight, you've arranged for her to speak to
EnviroTalk, a powerful environmental group within the country. What is Linda
Bjornsen going to communicate to this audience, and what message will this
send to voters at large?
"Communication skills are so important," says
Carol Pennington. She is a campaign manager and political strategist in Ohio.
Political strategists need to be able to coordinate media events, write press
releases and manage people. "You need to be really skillful in dealing with
people."
Listed below are issues from Linda Bjornsen's party platform.
If elected, she would try to bring in each of these initiatives:
- Cut the country's debt load by $3 billion over the next five years
- Set up a compensation program for farmers to leave fallow fields that
border on sensitive marshlands and wildlife habitats
- Increase funding to health-care programs by $40 million per
year
- Introduce endangered species legislation
- Introduce a national child-care program
- Increase the personal income tax exemption by $4,000
- Increase penalties for industrial polluters
- Increase funding for public transportation
All these issues are too much to talk about in one night. If Bjornsen
is addressing an environmental group, which issues do you think she should
address to this audience?
To make sure that Bjornsen agrees with you
before you write her speech, explain your choices.