College

Democrats and
College
Republicans
By: Lennon Terry, Michael Desantis, & Evan Harakas
https://youtu.be/0
1Dn53H2ZLw?t=70
What is a Discourse
Community?
- A discourse community is a community where the members are
working together for one common goal. Examples of discourse
communities can be found in all sorts of places

- Examples: Restaurant, classroom, followers of a religion within a

specific church
Our Community
- The community we observed for this project was the debate club:
College Democrats and the College Republicans

- We attended the prep meetings for the College Democrats and the
College Republicans; as well as the Debate between the two clubs. Both
clubs are apart of an organization called The Young Americans for
Liberty
College Democrats

- The College Democrats are a club dedicated to

expressing democratic values and ideas through debates,
guest speakers, and social events.
College Republicans

- College Republicans is a club devoted to discussing and spreading

Republican values and ideas through the use of social events, debates,
guest speakers, and other activities.
Goals of College Democrats

- Together as a community they are all working towards the goal of

spreading democratic beliefs and values through various events.

- Discuss and offer perspective of political issues from a Democratic

standpoint
College Democrats Meeting

- The College Democrats prep meeting was a meeting designated to

gather their groups notes in preparation for the debate against the
College Republicans which would be held later that week.
College Democrats Meeting
- We noticed quite a few things at this meeting:
Meeting was very informal, and unstructured; however, there were moments when the group
seemed to collect themselves

The group discussed foreign policy, criminal justice, and environmental policies

Club president was the leader and the debaters are the experts

Generally a practice debate

Goals of College
Republicans
- Goals involve spreading Republican beliefs as a community through
numerous events

- Express political issues from a Republican perspective

College Republicans
Meeting

- The College Republicans prep meeting was a meeting designated to

gather their groups notes in preparation for the debate against the
College Democrats, which would be held later that week.
College Republicans
Meeting
- Meeting to prepare for debate

- Casual / relaxed environment

- Debaters had notes and would practice discussing issues

- Leader of the group would counter each debater's argument as if in an

actual debate
Goals of Debate

- Both parties want to express political opinions

- Compare and contrast each others views on specific issues like gun control,
immigration, and other topics

- Share ideas
Debate
- One person led the debate with three people debating

- The debate was structured with a time period in which each person
debating spoke

- Both parties were respectful of each other

- Each person was passionate about the topic of the debate

- Both sides typically had opposing opinions; although, in some cases this
was not true

- The audience had input at the end through questioning the people
debating
How is this a Discourse Community?

- Both groups have a common set of goals

- Members communicate among each other through expressions of opinion

- Participatory mechanisms are required through each group member

- Various genres are used not only throughout the debate, but also other
club activities

- A specific lexis is used among both groups through certain terminology

- Levels of members are present at the meetings and the debate

Conclusion

- Both sides were similar even though they usually had opposing views
- Similarities:
- Goals
- Ways of expression
- Activities participated in
- Passionate of opinions
Problem Posing Questions

- Why are question not primarily asked by the audience?

- Why is there such a strict time constraint for each of the debaters to
speak?

- Why are the Republicans so secretive of their notes before debating?

- Why are news outlets so bias towards one opinion and less factual?

- Why were the Democrats so quick to discredit certain news outlets?

- During the College Democrats meeting, why were certain people sitting in
groups?