Browsing by Subject "Communication Studies"

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Baseball in the Black Public Sphere: Curt Flood and the disappearance of race.
(2010-09) Khan, Abraham
At the end of the 1969 Major League Baseball season, the St. Louis Cardinals traded their all-star centerfielder, Curt Flood, to the Philadelphia Phillies. Refusing the trade and seeking his unconditional release, Flood filed a lawsuit suit in federal court accusing baseball owners of exercising a collusive labor restriction - the "reserve clause" - in violation of federal antitrust statues. Flood's lawsuit was heard by the Supreme Court in 1972, and even though he lost, many observers have credited his case with transforming sport into its present form as high-salaried spectacle; Curt Flood inspired "free agency." In January 1970, weeks after filing suit, Flood appeared on national television and described himself as a "well-paid slave." At the time, some observers saw this as a fair analogy to his working conditions, and others saw it as an indecorous, racially motivated attack on the national pastime. With the remark, Flood initiated a public discussion of sport's labor practices that threatened not only baseball's sacrosanct pastoral image, but also its status, established through Jackie Robinson, as a cultural referent of racial progress. In the context of contemporary anxieties regarding the disappearance of the black activist athlete, Curt Flood is commended by many contemporary critics for having fought a lonely battle against the sports establishment. This nostalgic impulse, I assert, contains a paradox: Flood is martyred as the hero who made athletes rich, but it is the wealth of black athletes that is often blamed for their tragic disengagement from politics. By refusing to sell-out, Flood seems to have created a generation of sell-outs. This project investigates what many believe to be his only consistent source of support: the black press. In both Flood's historical moment and in the annals of public memory, Flood's blackness figures into his case prominently but ambivalently. As he is often remembered, Flood's racial experiences as a minor-leaguer in the south "sensitized" him to injustice which, in turn, motivated him to sacrifice his career in defense of a universal, "colorblind" principle. I argue that such a position overlooks the ways in which the protean appearance of Flood's racial identity helped the black press construct a liberal political imagination, one that is currently faced with a crisis of representation over the meaning of the activist-athlete. Unlike other athletes of his era taking principled stands on matters of racial justice, Curt Flood's challenge required the formation of an interracial coalition with white players. As such, the public discourse surrounding his case offered black newspapers the rhetorical resources necessary to elaborate the ostensibly universal premises of liberal integrationism. Consonant with the ways in which they awkwardly imagined their own institutional existence, black newspapers presented Flood as the black embodiment of a universal principle. In short, I argue that as sport and liberalism found convenient articulations in the black public sphere through Flood, the problem of race disappeared from view. Consequently, sport was preserved as a cultural space in which the success and wealth of black athletes indexed liberalism's progressive character.
Beyond the classroom: rhetorical constructions of "Service Learning".
(2009-08) Skillin, Kelley Marie
This study examines definitional controversies over the use of the term “service learning.” Using historical description and argument analysis, I examine formal and informal definitions of service learning from the inception of the term in 1969 to the present, and the arguments that are proposed for or against particular definitions. Studying how interlocutors use argumentation strategies for definitions, by definition, and about definitions can help explicate whose interests are served through service learning. Recognizing that all definitions are political and historically situated, I suggest a return to one of the philosophical roots of service learning – John Dewey’s philosophies on experience and education. Rather than approaching definitions as an argument about what service learning “is” or looking for an essence of service learning, I follow Edward Schiappa’s “pragmatic turn” of looking at which definitions of service learning ought to apply in particular contexts. This study concludes with an argument for multiple definitions of the term: service learning as philosophies about education, service learning as a program description, and service learning as a field of study. It is only when service learning advocates, practitioners, and scholars begin to critically reflect on their definitional disputes that the impacts of service learning will extend beyond the classroom.
Cindy Sheehan and the peace movement: networks of care and rhetorical exploits.
(2010-07) Pason, Amy
Cindy Sheehan became the "face" of the peace movement during the Iraq War by camping outside of President Bush's Crawford Ranch in August 2005. This project explores the possibilities for resistance in the first US war of the Internet Age, specifically analyzing Sheehan's rhetorical acts (an open letter, camping, and her autobiography). Utilizing Galloway's and Thacker's network theory as social ontology and heuristic, resistance is defined through the concept of exploit, where, like computer viruses, movements use rhetorical forms to exploit norms of dominant systems to gain access, "recode" norms, or disrupt systems. Movements, employing distributed structures, work to "write code" or build new systems through a politics of the act. Sheehan's work is an extension of other women's peace movements that have employed networks and rhetorical acts to exploit otherwise exclusionary publics or build new systems. Tracing historical practices of rhetorical forms for their exploitive possibilities, Sheehan's rhetoric is analyzed against State constituted norms post-9/11, and following Butler and Faludi, I argue dominant discourse constructed norms of heightened patriotism, traditional gender (mother) roles, and fear after 9/11. Although Sheehan's open letter on the internet did not constitute a public tribunal as other women's letters, Sheehan's Camp Casey, initiated by the question of "What noble cause?," spoke through post-9/11 norms while developing a peace movement network constituted through an ethics of care. Camp Casey posed a threat to State order by building a new system operating under care protocols that shifted power away from the State. Resistance and possibility for social change are rooted in changing affective relations, and Sheehan was attacked by Right-wing networks to question her motives and undermine care protocols. Sheehan uses her autobiography to combat the netwar waged by the Right in an attempt to maintain the peace movement. The current peace movement was strongest during Camp Casey where it fully utilized a distributed form, was constituted through an ethics of care, and gained popular support against a sovereign unable to respond or care for the public. Movements should consciously employ network logics, and understand affective dimensions of social change.
Dependency, Conflict, and Gender: The Use of Communication Technologies in Romantic Relationships of College Students
(2014-10-02) Smith, Laura Marie;
The purpose of this study was to investigate how romantic, heterosexual relationships of college students are being affected by the use of communication technologies such as texting, social media, and phone calls. A mixed method approach was used combining a survey and interviews. The survey sampled about 70 undergraduates in heterosexual, romantic relationships and asked questions about their technology-use and its impact on their relationships. Four couples were interviewed separately using the same questions. Specifically, this study asked if students feel that the success of their relationships is dependent on the use of communication technologies, if technology is related to conflict in their relationships, and if there are any significant differences each sex’s perceptions of the technologies. Both the survey and interviews indicated that the success of relationships is dependent on the use of technology and that there is a strong relationship between conflict in romantic relationships and the use of communication technologies. Also, males and females do not perceive the effects of technology on their relationships differently. Ideally, this study will aid in the advancement of future media effects research, assist social scientists and therapists in properly assessing romantic couples, and lead to the creation of new technology that can more effectively serve the needs of modern romantic couples.
Developing a practical parenting workshop : a case study in family sexual communication .
(2012-05) Croatt, Heidi S.
This dissertation discusses the development and assessment of a parent intervention and training program. Out of concern for the sexual health of adolescents in the United States, both parents and researchers have called for programs assisting parents in the sexual education of their children. Encouraging sexual communication and increasing the number of families who feel confident engaging in this type of communication are essential in promoting sexually healthy behaviors and reducing the number of young people engaged in risky behaviors. There is a clear need for parenting programs that focus on this topic. The project discussed in this dissertation was developed with this need in mind. A parenting program called Beyond Birds and Bees was developed to help parents communicate about sex with their children in a way that is consistent with their family values and with research on parent-child sexual communication. This program was then assessed by the program developer and participants. The goal of developing this program was to utilize existing research and put forth a practical application of what researchers already know - children who talk with their parents about sex are more likely to make sexually healthy decisions. Programs like this are important in advancing our understanding of the practical dimension of facilitating family sexual communication. It is hoped that this program encourages other researchers to think about ways to apply the research in applied communication.
Disciplined by democracy: moral framing and the rhetoric of Red Letter Christians.
(2010-03) Boerboom, Samuel Isaac
In this dissertation I study both the textual reception and rhetorical production strategies of the Red Letter Christians, a discourse community whose identity is linked to these very same strategies. I contend that the Red Letter Christians engage in biblical reading strategies that make them distinct from other politically liberal or progressive religious groups. The Red Letter Christians employ a moral frame based on their particular reading of the Bible. Embedded in the notion of "conservative radicalism," such a moral frame asserts a dedication to timeless principles and truths authenticated by the gospel accounts of Jesus while it simultaneously upholds a passionate defense of social justice and the activist need to engage in political action in the present. Such a moral frame is biconceptual, expressing both conservative and progressive dimensions of moral social action. Due to the biconceptuality of the Red Letter Christian moral frame, Red Letter Christians often stress the importance of humility and non-partisan dialogue. Critics of the Red Letter Christians from both the political left and the right argue that such discourse is often incomprehensible and obfuscates the political positions the group defends in their rhetoric. I assert that in spite of their common reception as a religiously liberal group, the Red Letter Christians offer a model of discourse that at its best authenticates and otherwise justifies a model of post-partisan discourse that re-imagines religion's role in public political discourse.
From Insane to Ludicrous: Electric Cars, Environmental Communication, and Cultural Distinction
(2016) Petrov, Samuel;
With electric vehicles on the verge of receiving widespread adoption in the coming decades, this thesis explores cultural distinctions created by electric car companies and their owners. The findings detail exactly how environmental communication strategies are utilized by two specific electric vehicle manufacturers—Nissan and Tesla—and how each company’s strategy segments audiences based on taste, style, and preference. Textual analyses of recent video, billboard, and social media ads from each company highlight the ways in which Nissan and Tesla are nuanced and discerning in identifying with their respective target audiences. For both companies, conspicuous conservation—an appeal to consumers who wish to flaunt their wealth through a public display of environmental concern—is manifested, but in ways that match their class demographics. Nissan targets the middle class while Tesla targets the upper middle and upper classes. Examining these distinctions not only provides insight into early adopters of electric vehicles but also suggests that advertisers use environmental communication differently based on class.
Hobo orator union: the free speech fights of the Industrial Workers of the World, 1909-1916.
(2009-07) May, Matthew S.
From 1909 to 1916 thousands of hobos joined the Industrial Workers of the World and participated in major fights for free speech in several dozen cities in the American west. During this period, the union organized over two dozen confrontations with municipal authorities to challenge repressive speaking laws which they considered to be de facto injunctions against public organizing. The myriad tactics involved in the free speech fights transformed over time to meet the new challenges presented by various forces of repression; but the fights were always anchored in the practice of violating repressive ordinances by speaking on a soapbox. Many of the participants were arrested and barricaded in the bastilles of the American west. Some were beaten, publicly humiliated, killed, or eventually deported. This dissertation explores how the performance of soapbox oratory composed waged and unwaged workers as a class. The study is organized chronologically by date according to the major free speech fights in Spokane, Fresno, San Diego, and Everett. I argue that the hobo orators of the free speech fights demonstrate the significance of the oratorical as a revolutionary practice of class composition. In this regard, the dissertation seeks to reveal lessons about the possibilities of revolutionary unionism today.
The migrating state: Mexico, migrants, and transnational governance.
(2010-03) Mackey, Paul Michael
Since the late 1980s, the Mexican government has been developing a program to assist and defend Mexican migrants that live north of Mexico's territorial borders. Unprecedented in scope and scale, the program has attempted to cultivate in migrants affinity for the Mexican homeland and strengthen the transnational social and economic ties that link migrants to Mexico. This project argues that Mexico's program of "acercamiento" with migrant communities is inextricably linked to Mexico's adoption of neoliberal governing rationalities, and that the government has deployed migration policy as a vehicle for reinventing the reason of state in Mexico. While engaging contemporary issues in political geography and globalization studies, this project explores the rhetorical dimensions of Mexico's outreach to migrants, including rhetoric's pivotal role in rescaling the institution of the Mexican state, in reimagining the governing relationship between the state and migratory subjects, and in disembedding concepts such as sovereignty, nation, and citizenship from their entrenchment in national territory and rearticulating them to transnational migrant flows.
Mixing business with pleasure: the impact of blended relationships on emotion work in organizations.
(2011-03) Fitzpatrick-Timm, Stacy Lynn
The current study examined status-different blended relationships in the workplace. Relational Framing Theory was applied as a means of understanding the two primary functions of workplace blended relationships. Two hundred and twenty-four subjects, employed both full and part time, were asked to complete an online survey about their experience and management of emotional stress during a conflict with a superior. Results indicated that employees maintained four types of blended relationships in the workplace. Furthermore, intensity of emotional stress experienced during conflict and the preferred emotion work strategy in response to this stress was dependent upon the type of blended relationship maintained. This study provides insight into how employees view their blended relationships and how work and social functions of workplace relationships are managed.
NFL Films and the re-production of Pro Football
(2010-07) Johnson, Thomas C
The choreographed work of NFL Films in their first documentary, They Call It Pro Football (1966), offers a fitting case study in which to examine the construction and promotion of pro football in the 1960s. Using techniques of textual analysis and social/cultural historiography, I investigate the representational dynamics of pro football in this film. In order to explicate the ideological, sociological, historical, and cultural significance of the film before, during, and after its release, I describe the emergence in the twentieth century of pro football and television, proffer the view that televisual texts perform cultural and political work and are open to multitudinous readings, apply the theory that gender is socially constructed and performed, and draw upon the concept of “emotional branding.”
Perilous pop: ragtime, jazz and progressive social thought in the early 20th Century Press, 1900-1930.
(2009-11) Marchiselli, Chani
This dissertation is a discursive history of the early twentieth century music controversy as it appeared in the popular press and as it articulated the assumptions and contradictions of progressive social thought. Through close textual analysis, the author illustrates the ways in which musical spaces, musical sounds, and dance practices, operated as the fulcrum for debates about how to reconstitute an "ideal" public in the wake of industrial modernity. For some progressives, the popularization of syncopated pop music signaled the dangerous public incursion of black and working-class cultures, and immigrant groups. For others, ragtime and jazz threatened to dismantle the aesthetic hierarchies to which the project of political "progress" had been hitched. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that progressive social reformers, in an effort to create a public culture that more closely resembled the bourgeois ideals of the liberal tradition, used the newly prolific print media as a vehicle through which to counter the pervasive influence of ragtime and jazz music and dance.
The politics of ethical witnessing: the participatory networks of 9/11 Media Culture
(2010-09) Wessels, Emanuelle
This dissertation examines the politics of ethical witnessing in three genres of convergent media that overtly or allegorically address the events of September 11th. These include a conspiracy theory documentary, the Hollywood monster movie Cloverfield, and the documentary film Control Room. Using a combination of psychoanalytic film and political theory, ethical philosophy, and scholarship on mediated networks and media convergence; I argue, through these case studies, that the ways in which films today interact with participatory media such as websites and video playlists carry particular implications for the ethical and political aspects of how spectators are positioned to watch, interact with, and "talk back" to the media they consume.
The Presidential Concession Speech: How Candidates Manage Defeat in an Era of Growing Partisan Polarization
(2018) Hegland, Austin;
Commonly explored in the discipline of political science, partisan polarization is an inherently discursive phenomenon that is ripe for rhetorical analysis. This study investigates how political candidates manage the polarization surrounding the electoral process by focusing on the concession speech, which is a ritualistic and highly emotional rhetorical event. Specifically, I examine two contrastive cases of speeches delivered in low and high polarization contexts: respectively, the concession speech of Walter Mondale (1984) and that of Hillary Clinton (2016). In this essay, I show how Mondale, engages in image-maintaining rhetoric while Clinton removes herself from the context and makes numerous appeals to her supporters to uphold their partisan movement, even as both candidates cope with the challenges of polarization. My rhetorical analysis reveals that each speech acts as a unique model for managing polarization, in addition to reaffirming the the role of the concession speech as a genre with major significance in the electoral process.
Redefining citizenship: lessons from environmental theory, practice, and rhetoric
(2011-06) Prody, Jessica Mary
Redefining U.S. citizenship for our current global sociopolitical context is necessary. Drawing on environmental theory and practice, I argue for a community-building project that encourages citizenship built on forethought and emphasizes participatory justice, an inclusive notion of security, and sustainable intergenerational justice. The theoretical claims of the project are supported by six case studies that use textual analysis to examine how social movement and governmental discourse has paired environmental concerns and citizenship. These case studies demonstrate and need for and challenges of constructing a citizenship around the above principles. Throughout the project I illustrate the need for global and local consideration of citizenly issues and highlight the tension between urging immediate action on environmental problems and the need for action to be undertaken in a way that addresses philosophical questions of justice, fairness, sustainability, and democratic participation.
Rescuing men: the new television masculinity in Rescue Me, Nip/Tuck, The Shield, Boston Legal, & Dexter
(2009-11) Nettleton, Pamela Hill
A distinctive television genre has emerged in the shadow of 9/11: the male-centered drama. The Shield (FX), Nip/Tuck (FX), Dexter (Showtime), Rescue Me (FX), and Boston Legal (ABC) feature a distinctive discourse about the experience of modern American manhood that departs from previous programming in its reflection of post-backlash feminism and post-9/11 masculinity. The "masculinity crisis" in these dramas is a narrative shift away from earlier masculinity crises blamed on various social changes and then-emerging feminism. In the wake of 9/11, male-centered cable dramas offer what was previously infrequently seen on television: intense and intimate engagement with men's anxieties, failures, and contradictions, amid sometimes regressive gender politics. As the Twin Towers collapsed, so did swaggering American heroism; the male archetype was quickly reconfigured to allow for heroes who are uncertain and flawed. Gone is the cock-sure Cold War "rescuer" (Dragnet) who never questioned himself or his country and always had all the answers, replaced by the deeply anxious "rescuers" (Rescue Me) who struggles with fractured family relationships and is haunted by victims they could not save. The new television masculinity is part reinscription of patriarchy, deceptively cloaked in feminist-friendly behaviors. It is also part resistance to patriarchy, and an attempt to grapple directly with what it means to be masculine, inventing a myriad of possibilities rather than reverting to a single, hegemonic icon. Both parts merit uncloaking and thoughtful, probing criticism. The critical and commercial success of these dramas signals that these narratives emerging at this time reflect important cultural shifts that resonate powerfully with critics and audiences. This study considers what is at stake in the issues raised in these dramas, what makes them emerge in popular culture at this point in time, and what kinds of cultural and social work is being done by these mediated images.
The rhetoric of Red Power and the American Indian occupation of Alcatraz Island (1969-1971)
(2009-06) Kelly, Casey Ryan
Beginning with Congressional efforts to terminate the sovereignty of federally-recognized tribes in 1953, the federal government's final efforts to assimilate American Indians parodoxically created the conditions for an urban pan-Indian movement for self-determination. Cities such as San Francisco swelled with alienated and militant young Indians seeking to reestablish a sense of place and community. On 20 November, 1969 a group calling themselves the Indians of All Tribes seized and occupied Alcatraz Island in the name of "all tribes." The 19-month long occupation grew into the crucible of contemporary American Indian activism, symbolizing a larger project of reclaiming a homeland for the indigenous peoples of North America. The occupation is referred to by many as the foundation of the concept of Red Power: a militant language, or way of speaking, that channels the American Indian community's intellectual and rhetorical power into the creation of a homeland. This project examines the rhetoric of the Indians of All Tribes to explain the features, tropes, symbols, utterances, and performances which constitute Red Power. Starting with the emergence of self-determination in separatist American Indian literary, underground press, and the speeches and minutes of emergent radical protest organizations, this project historicizes the concept of Red Power that informed the occupant's rhetorical and material practices. This dissertation examines the rhetoric of the Indians of All Tribes to demonstrate the ways in which the group's militant demands, radical interpretation of American history, and defense of traditional Indian practices constructed and affirmed a positive collective identity for many alienated and disempowered Indians grappling with the intersectional experience between urban and reservation life.
Ronald Reagan and the resurgence of the puritan covenantal tradition: the “City on a Hill” and a reorientation of the people of the United States into an “Economy of Grace”
(2012-07) Kunde, Margaret H.
When the Puritans first settled in New England on the "city on a hill," they used covenantal thought as a framework by which to understand their social, economic, political, and spiritual obligations and relationships. This project explores how President Ronald Reagan also rhetorically managed covenantal ideas, or used covenantal form, during the 1980s to morally legitimate his economic policies of limited government, lower taxes, and reductions in welfare spending. I argue that he grounded his policies in an "economy of grace," which gave the people of the United States the freedom to fulfill their covenantal obligations in a self-serving manner and the faith that God would ultimately protect them from economic disaster.
Social Media: Current Trends Among Children and Their Parents and Implications Regarding Interpersonal Communication
(2011-07-19) Simonpietri, Stacie
Social media is an ever-evolving form of technological communication that affects different generations in different ways. As modern children have grown up with social technologies integrated into their daily lives, parents have been left in the midst of a generational gap. Recent studies have shown that older generations are now greatly increasing their social media use, in an effort to, among other reasons, connect with their “digitized” children. Children’s current social media trends indicate slightly slowing growth of new social media users among youth. Both parents and children view modern social media as having both positive and negative consequences, and largely maintain that face-to-face communication is more desirable than communicating through social media. This study examines social media and parent-child communication in the context of Instructional-Affective Communication Theory and Media Richness theory, and presents findings of an originally conducted survey to examine the trends in social media use among children and their parents and what these trends imply regarding interpersonal communication.
Sovereign Language: The Rhetoric of the Terror War Presidents
(2017-08) Hiland, Alexander
In the years following the September 11 attacks Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama expanded the power of the presidency to pursue the terror wars. This project explains how this was accomplished by performing a rhetorical criticism of the signing statements, executive orders, and presidential policy directives issued by both of the terror war Presidents. Drawing on insights from scholarship on the rhetorical presidency this project argues that the expansion of presidential powers is best understood as an attempt to incorporate the practices of public address into the exercise of personal power by the President. The implications of this tactic are manifest in the policies produced to pursue the terror wars, including enhanced interrogation, indefinite detention, continuous undeclared wars, mass surveillance, as well as other abuses of human dignity. The powers afforded to the terror war Presidents to pursue these policies have had a detrimental impact not only on the Constitution, but on the democratic practices of the United States. This project argues that the only hope for substantive change will be a fundamental change between the presidency and the public. The presentation will focus on the use of signing statements by both President George W. Bush and Obama to defend and end the practice of indefinite detention. Against legislative efforts to oppose both Presidents by Congress, both Presidents asserted the primacy of the presidency in determining how detained persons ought to be treated and how the terror wars would be fought. Although there are important policy differences between these two Presidents, they shared a commitment to defending the power of the presidency that caused both to circumvent the dictates of Congress. This example represents a microcosm of the broader trends in the presidency during the terror wars toward affording the presidency a sovereign position to unilaterally dictate policy for the country.

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