What Does "Change" Mean?
January 25, 2008
Thomas Hollihan, professor of communication at the USC Annenberg School, says that “change” is a wondrous term, as it can mean different things for different people.
“For Democrats, ‘change’ refers to the war in Iraq, the Supreme Court, economics. For Republicans, it’s about the deficit and our culture,” Hollihan says. “The term fits for both because it is so elastic.”
Hollihan is the author of Uncivil Wars: Political Campaigns in a Media Age and The 1980 Presidential Debates.
Contact him at (213) 740-3947, (213) 392-2234 or hollihan@usc.edu.
Psychologist Jerald Jellison of the USC College has been writing about change and people’s responses to it for 15 years. His latest book, Managing the Dynamics of Change, was published last year.
“Change has a lot of cachet,” Jellison says. “The Democrats are using ‘change’ as a code word, while the Republicans don’t highlight change at all.”
Contact him at (858) 720-8207 or jellison@usc.edu.