Date of Award

Summer 1953

Document Type

Thesis - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication

First Advisor

Hellman, Hugo

Second Advisor

Sokolnicki, Alfred

Third Advisor

Staudacher, Joseph

Abstract

This thesis proposes to examine some radio oratory which became eminently fruitful over the years between 1931 and 1948. It will discuss the techniques which the speaker employed to gain, hold, and activate a group of listeners estimated at twenty million per week. For the purposes of this study, seventy-six addresses from three volumes of the speaker's printed sermons have been analyzed: They cover the beginning (1931), the middle (1941), and the near-end (1948) of his broadcast activities. For the sake of convenience these have been designated as Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3. These materials were compared with the standards set up by such specialists in the speech field as Oliver, Baird, Duffey, Reu, Borden, Phelps, and others. The three-fold aim of this work included: 1. An analysis of the format, to see how the speaker coped with audience fatigue; 2. An analysis of content, to discover what techniques he used to hold attention and interest; 3. An attempt to find the cue to his motivations.

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