Browsing by Subject "discourse"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    From the Victorian Internet to Section 230: Journalistic Discourse, Government Regulation, and New Communications Technology
    (2023) Aldridge , Kendal
    This study explores the role of mainstream media commentary in reflecting and shaping public opinion on the regulation of interactive communication online. It uses textual analysis to examine newspaper commentary on Section 230 leading up to the only two Supreme Court cases to challenge this controversial statute. The cases are ACLU v. Reno, argued in 1997, and Gonzalez v. Google, argued in 2023. This study analyzes six months of commentary, leading up to oral arguments in each case, from three major publications: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Widely considered the first draft of history, journalistic discourse offers insight into how public perception of online communication has shifted over time. A qualitative textual analysis of newspaper commentary focused on the Section 230 statute of the reformed 1934 Communications Act found three dominant themes: a collective recognition of content harms, polarization on content moderation policy, and an overall politicization of First Amendment jurisprudence. Debate over the decision to keep or revoke Section 230 touches each of these three themes. This study also situates the current debate over online communication into the long history of government regulation of new media technologies. From its regulation of the telegraph to the internet, U.S. telecommunications law remains the pre-eminent legal framework governing each iteration of communications technology. Revisiting this history is important to understanding modern debates around the sufficiency of this old law to govern new technology.
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    Hijacking Islam: An Analysis of Positive Representations of Islam and Muslims in the U.S.
    (2022-11) Mirzaei, Saeide
    In this dissertation, I analyze positive representations of Islam and Muslims in pre- and post-9/11 legal, political, and public discourses. I focus on the prisoners’ civil rights cases of the late 20th century, the 9/11 Commission Report, and the presidential discourse since Jimmy Carter as representative data. I argue that the attempt to distinguish Islam from “terrorism”—or other “violent ideologies”—has led to the formulation of discursive constructs that frame Islam as a corruptible religion that can be easily perverted, hijacked, and weaponized. This conceptualization of Islam legitimizes policing Muslim-presenting people and justifies dictating the true meaning of Islam to Muslims. I conclude that positive representations of Islam and Muslims undermine our efforts to counter Islamophobia because they create an illusion of acceptance for “good Islam” and obscure the underlying Islamophobic ideology that operates below the threshold of our notice.
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    Liberty, Guns, And Pocket Constitutions: Constructing A White Nation Through Legal Discourse In The Pacific Northwest
    (2022-04) Wright, Robin
    This dissertation investigates the mainstreaming of far-right politics by examining the production of a right-wing discourse focused on the radical defense of the U.S. Constitution in the Pacific Northwest. Despite its progressive image, The Pacific Northwest is a compelling site for analysis, as Euro-American settlers have long sought to render the region as a place reserved for white residents. Through a series of case studies exploring campaigns ranging from gun ownership to First Amendment rights, I argue that activists mobilize a conservative constitutional discourse to re-establish white territorial control at the local and regional level. Examining the circulation of this conservative constitutional discourse, I demonstrate the extent to which activists use constitutionally coded-appeals to position white able-bodied men as the legitimate representatives of “the people.” I show that in doing so, activists engage a constitutional discourse that reproduces the legal, political, and cultural conditions of possibility for white supremacist systems while disavowing an explicit logic of racial superiority. My research demonstrates how right-wing movements use a constitutional discourse to channel regional concerns about changing demographics and shifting representation into white nationalist demands. I thus contend that this constitutional discourse enables a paradoxical turn to extra-legal and sometimes violent actions, as right-wing activists disrupt and delegitimize state action while asserting their own popular authority as the sovereign. My dissertation makes an important contribution to geography, critical race studies, and legal studies by showing how a socio-spatial analysis of law must be mobilized in order to understand the shifting ideologies of race shaping contemporary right-wing movements.