Jeffrey Jarman Ph.D., Dr.

Overview

Dr. Jarman is a Teaching Professor and the former Director of the Elliott School of Communication. He teaches courses in the strategic communication emphasis area, including Comm 535 (Communication Analysis and Criticism), 313 (Argumentation and Advocacy), and various 660 seminars in political and legal communication.

His primary research interest is in the influence of political information on the creation of an informed public sphere, including topics such as evidence, argumentation, political debates, and fact checking. Dr. Jarman serves as a litigation consultant where he supports trial attorneys with case strategy, witness preparation, community attitude surveys, and mock trial research. From 1999 to 2022, Dr. Jarman authored the annual overview of the new high school debate topic used by thousands of high school debaters around the nation.

Jarman is the former director of the Wichita State’s competitive debate team, serving from 1996 to 2018.

Jarman grew up in Wichita and enjoys living in his home town. He is married to Jan, an attorney for the City of Wichita. They have two daughters. 

Education

Ph.D., Communication Studies, University of Kansas, 1998

M.A., Communication Studies, University of Kansas, 1995

B.S., Political Science, Missouri State University, 1993

Classes taught

• COMM 313 Argumentation & Advocacy
• COMM 535 Communication Analysis & Criticism
• COMM 660A/860N Political Communication
• COMM 660 BC, Communication and Persuasion in the Courtroom
• COMM 803 Empirical/Quantitative Research Methodology in Communication

Academic Interests and Expertise

• Political debates
• Persuasion
• Political communication
• Legal communication
• Competitive academic debate

Areas of Research Interest

• Presidential debates
• Fact-checking
• Motivated reasoning in political and legal contexts
• Annual high school debate resolution

Areas of Teaching Interest

• Legal communication
• Political communication
• Persuasion
• Communication strategy

Publications

Selected Recent publications

Jarman, J.W. (accepted). Evasiveness is in the eye of the beholder: Motivated reasoning and evaluation of questions and answers in Supreme Court nomination hearings. Contemporary Argumentation & Debate.

Munday, M.W. & Jarman, J.W. (2022). Annual discussion and debate sourcebook. Policy Debate Quarterly, 96 (3), 1-78.

Jarman, J.W. (2021). Large and small: Motivated interpretations of statistical evidence. In D. Hample (Ed.), Local Theories of Argument (pp. 524-531). New York: Routledge.

Jarman, J.W. (2019). Is fact-checking biased? A computerized content analysis. In C. Winkler (Ed.), Networking Argument (pp. 459-465). New York: Routledge.

Jarman, J.W. (2019). It wasn’t even close: Viewers’ thoughts about the first 2012 presidential debate. In E. Hinck (Ed.), Televised Presidential Debates in a Changing Media Environment, Volume 1: The candidates make their case (pp. 165-184). Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

Jarman, J.W. (2018). Fact-checking and the liberal public sphere: Can argument be recovered? In R. Lake (ed.), Recovering Argument (pp. 125-130). New York: Routledge.

Areas of Service

President, Faculty Senate, 2019-2020