areas for theorizing about political communication are the examination of civic engagement and international comparative work (given that much of political communication has been done in the United States). Computer-Mediated Communication Theories of computer-mediated communication or CMC emerged as a direct response to the rapid emergence of novel mediating communication technologies in the form of computers. CMC scholars inquire as to what may be lost and what may be gained when we shift many of our formerly unmediated and entrained practices (that is, activities that were necessarily conducted in a synchronized, ordered, dependent fashion) into mediated and disentrained modes. For example, a discussion that once required a meeting can now be an e-mail thread, an appointment confirmation that once involved a live phone call can now be a click on a text message, a collaborative writing project that once required an elaborate plan for drafting, circulating, and annotating can now take place in a shared document. CMC theories fall into three categories: cues-filtered-out theories, experiential/perceptual theories, and adaptation to/exploitation of media. Cues-filtered-out theories have often treated face-to-face interaction as the gold standard against which mediated communication should be compared, and includes such theories as social presence theory, media richness theory, and the Social Identity model of Deindividuation Effects (SIDE). Experiential/perceptual theories are concerned with how individuals perceive the capacity of technologies, such as whether the technology creates psychological closeness (electronic propinquity theory). Adaptation/exploitation theories consider how people may creatively expand or make use of the limitations in CMC systems, including social information processing theory (SIP) and the idea of the hyperpersonal (when people make use of the limitations of the mediated channel to create a selective view of themselves with their communication partner, developing an impression that exceeds reality). Theoretical work from Joseph Walther has been highly influential in the development of CMC. Theories in this area often examine the limitations and capabilities of new technologies, taking up an 'affordances' perspective inquiring what the technology may "request, demand, encourage, discourage, refuse, and allow." Recently the theoretical and empirical focus of CMC has shifted more explicitly away from the 'C' (i.e. Computer) and toward the 'M' (i.e. Mediation). Rhetoric and Speech Theories in rhetoric and speech are often concerned with discourse as an art, including practical consideration of the power of words and our ability to improve our skills through practice. Rhetorical theories provide a way of analyzing speeches when read