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Ronald Hrebenar Addresses Austrian Political Communication Experts

Amerika Haus
Vienna, January 18, 2008

Remarks by Cultural Attaché Katherine Perez, U.S. Embassy Vienna

On January 18, 2008, Professor Ronald Hrebenar, a specialist in U.S. politics and Fulbrighter at the University of Vienna, briefed participants in the post-graduate Master of Science Program in Political Communication of Donau University Krems on their topic. After an introduction by Cultural Affairs Officer Katherine Perez, Prof. Hrebenar delivered a lively PowerPoint presentation, in the course of which he used examples from an impressive collection of U.S. political TV commercials from the past 50 years to illustrate his points. Analyzing each clipping, he pointed out how skillful campaign strategists manage to exploit sentiments and elicit emotions among their viewers, citing techniques such as the use of sound, animation, and name recognition, among others.


F.l.t.r.: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Peter Filzmaier, Donau-Universität Krems; Prof. Ronald Hrebenar; Cultural Attaché Katherine Perez, U.S. Embassy Vienna, giving her welcoming remarks	Fulbright-Vienna University Distinguished Chair in the Social Sciences and Humanities Prof. Ronald Hrebenar


The speaker and his audience

Remarks by Cultural Attaché Katherine Perez

Professor Hrebenar, Professor Filzmaier, Mr. Plaikner, Ladies and Gentlemen!

It is a pleasure to welcome you to our program space "America Haus." My name is Katherine Perez, and I am the Assistant Public Affairs Officer at the Embassy. I know this has been a busy day for you already, but let me assure you that you could not have picked a better speaker for a final talk on a Friday evening than Professor Hrebenar.

But before I introduce Professor Hrebenar to you, let me take a few moments to talk about us and our work. At the Public Affairs Section of the Embassy, we are responsible for any kind of information about the United States that comes out of the Embassy. We work with the media, with universities and schools, with cultural institutions, we conduct academic and non-academic exchange programs, and we invite U.S. experts to address our local audiences about topical issues. Finally, we do a lot of background work for the Ambassador.

Needless to say, there is hardly any issue that attracts more interest these days than the upcoming U.S. presidential elections. You are lucky, because with Professor Filzmaier, a long-time friend of the Embassy I may say, you have one of the, if not the most competent and knowledgeable Austrian expert about U.S. elections for a teacher. To use a soccer term - as is popular these days - with Professors Filzmaier and Hrebenar we are having a veritable "dream team" of experts on U.S. elections at our Amerika Haus tonight.

Now let me say a few words about our speaker: Dr. Ronald J. Hrebenar is currently the Fulbright-University of Vienna Distinguished Chair in the Social Sciences and Humanities. In his regular incarnation, he is Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah. Professor Hrebenar has written numerous books and articles and topics of interest groups, lobbying, political parties and elections in the United States and Japan and is currently working on a few more, I understand. When Professor Hrebenar gave a talk about the U.S. elections here at our Amerika Haus this past November, he attracted an audience of more than 200. He will speak again on January 25, and I understand that we are booked solid for this event, as well. Thank you again, Professor Hrebenar, for sharing your time, knowledge and expertise with us so generously. We greatly appreciate your contribution in the spirit of the Fulbright program.

Before I close, let me thank you, Professor Filzmaier, for bringing your class to our Amerika. We hope to keep you all in our circles also in the future. Thank you all, and enjoy the evening.