The Communication of Hate

Waltman (communication studies, U. of North Carolina) and Haas (speech communication, U. of Tennessee) explore the deployment and function of hate--understood as extreme negative feelings and beliefs held about a group or representative of that group because of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation--in language. They discuss the discursive nature and organization of contemporary hate groups in the United States, the deployment of message-induced heuristics in hate speech, the role of the Internet in radicalizing readers and promoting "Lone Wolf" terrorism, Nativist anti-immigrant discourse as a form of hate speech, the deployment of Nativism against Barack Obama by the presidential campaigns of Hillary Clinton and John McCain, and desired functions of anti-hate discourse. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Michael Waltman is Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina. His research examines the social and political uses of various forms of hate speech, including the role of hate speech in the production of ethnoviolence and hate crime. Dr. Waltman and his students conduct workshops with children in North Carolina communities that focus on the value and importance of respecting social differences.
John Haas is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Speech Communication at the University of Tennessee. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in organizational communication, interpersonal communication, and research methods. His work has appeared in American Behavioral Scientist, Management Communication Quarterly, The Journal of Business Communication, The International Journal of Personal Construct Psychology, Southern States Communication Journal, and Journalism Quarterly.