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An Open Conversation: Deliberating Perceptions Of Power Through New Media, Abigail Barnes
An Open Conversation: Deliberating Perceptions Of Power Through New Media, Abigail Barnes
Dissertations
This research aims to investigate aims to critically assess how mediated participants utilize new media spheres deliberate upon perceptions of power through rhetorical criticism and critical discourse analysis. Since the conception of social media, users have utilized the platforms to network, negotiate, and dissent from controversies through mediated public deliberation. The present study aims to nuance how Habermas’ original conception of deliberative rhetoric has transformed through new media deliberation. To exemplify this change in deliberative rhetoric, the present study will also critically evaluate online social movements through the case study of the AOC Tik Tok Challenge, responses to online controversies …
Divided Discourse: Analyzing Abortion Rhetoric In The 2016 Presidential Debates, Ella Hayes
Divided Discourse: Analyzing Abortion Rhetoric In The 2016 Presidential Debates, Ella Hayes
Honors Theses
How did the party affiliation of the speaker affect the rhetoric used to talk about abortion in the 2016 American presidential election? Using computer-assisted qualitative analysis and coding for instances of framing, metaphors, and bridging rhetoric, I look at debate transcripts during the election cycle from the American Presidency Project, tracing both Democratic and Republican primaries into the general election. I argue that across all debates and speeches, Democrats invoke the“morality as empathy metaphor and the Nurturant Parent model in their arguments more than Republicans. In contrast, I argue that Republicans invoke the“morality as strength" metaphor and the Strict Father …
Development, Voice, And Vulnerability: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Policy-Making Discourse Regarding The Paris Agreement As An Organizational Response To Climate Change, David Almanza-Canas
Development, Voice, And Vulnerability: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Policy-Making Discourse Regarding The Paris Agreement As An Organizational Response To Climate Change, David Almanza-Canas
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
On December 12, 2015, the Paris Agreement was officially ratified by 196 sovereign entities. This treaty represents a global call to action to ameliorate the impact of human activities on our environment, and it creates a means of cooperation through financial support and transparent industrial practices with the goal of promoting accountability across the world. This treaty and the discourse surrounding it present fertile ground for the academic understanding of persuasive practices in policy-making. By examining the rhetorical implications of the Paris Agreement as a global policy, scholars can gain new insight about the communities represented in the conversation as …
Queer Crises: Movements From Queerness And Feelings Of White Religion In The United States, Austin Williams Miller
Queer Crises: Movements From Queerness And Feelings Of White Religion In The United States, Austin Williams Miller
Communication ETDs
Anchored by contemporary crises surrounding queer and trans people in the United States, I employ movements from queerness within an affective queer phenomenological framework to understand how arrangements of “white religion” (Schaefer, 2015, p. 63), a process whereby U.S. American Christian forms escape ideology into religious affective economies in the United States, relegate queer people “to the background… to sustain a certain direction” (Ahmed, 2006, p. 31). I assemble a queer rhetorical context analyzing white religious space in documentary film, secular sexual regulation through contemporary U.S. legal contexts around marriage, and settler colonial Christian nationalist political imaginations to critique how …
All Good Women Are Mothers: Exploring Gender Binaries In How I Met Your Mother, Jessica Marinho
All Good Women Are Mothers: Exploring Gender Binaries In How I Met Your Mother, Jessica Marinho
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
Television is thought to be a form of entertainment through its many genres from comedy to drama, however, it is more than a relaxing pastime. Television series construct messages that influence audiences to accept specific behaviors. In this thesis, I analyzed the portrayal of the two main female characters in the popular television series How I Met Your Mother (2005-2009) and I argued how their depiction served to represent childless women as unwomanly and mothers as the ideal woman.
The "Othering" Of America: How The Strategic Use Of Crisis And Ressentiment Succeeded In The Trump Era, Laura J. Franklin
The "Othering" Of America: How The Strategic Use Of Crisis And Ressentiment Succeeded In The Trump Era, Laura J. Franklin
Dissertations
The establishment of a crisis theme through public rhetoric often triggers widespread attention, resulting in public concern and media coverage of an issue that could potentially be overblown or deceptive. In right-wing political discourse, this crisis warning is typically delivered by a White male leader with ready access to the powerful news media. An “us versus them” theme often occurs. Within this mode of a hegemonic exclusion, a culture of immigrants or an American minority are often depicted, perhaps aggressively, as a threat: A threat used to motivate, enrage and create the frustrations inherent in ressentiment. This dissertation explores the …
Neil Postman's Loving Resistance Fighter: A Philosophy Of Communication In The Age Of Technopoly, Ryan Mccullough
Neil Postman's Loving Resistance Fighter: A Philosophy Of Communication In The Age Of Technopoly, Ryan Mccullough
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This project walks the work of Neil Postman (1931-2003) into the philosophy of communication. Traditional conceptions of Neil Postman’s body of work position his ideas within the traditions of media ecology, general semantics, or, more broadly, as a form of media studies and criticism. In addition, others label Postman’s work, especially in Technopoly (1992), as pessimistic, deterministic, and/or imbibed with Luddite tendencies. This project articulates a different view and contends that Postman’s scholarship, in particular his articulation of the loving resistance fighter in the final chapter of Technopoly, is committed to resisting the nefarious forces embedded in both technology …
The Myth Of Perfection: Charting The Rhetoric Of Veteran Disability For A Course To Stability, Nicholas Rader
The Myth Of Perfection: Charting The Rhetoric Of Veteran Disability For A Course To Stability, Nicholas Rader
All Dissertations
This dissertation rhetorically analyzes discrimination in Western institutional discourses and documentation procedures, such as architectural texts and procedures, through a historiographic lens. An analytical methodology will be offered to show how discrimination of intersectional bodies is historically informed and reaffirmed by the manipulation of Western myths and mythos. Specifically, by mapping navigational mathematics and cartographic methods over rhetorical, architectural, and historiographic theory, it will be shown how the manipulation of Western myths establishes and reifies patriarchal discrimination that eventually fissions into eugenicist logics in nineteenth and twentieth century France, England, and the United States. In modernity, the practice of manipulating …
The Solidarity Manifesto: A New Network For Future Change, Sofia Calicchio
The Solidarity Manifesto: A New Network For Future Change, Sofia Calicchio
Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations
Colonialism is a scheme of standpoint; colonizer versus colonized, West versus East, good versus bad. When put in the foreground, the value of what we see heavily relies on our perspective and knowledge. When learning to dissect, deconstruct, and decolonize spaces, we need to start utilizing decolonial thought as an historical tool rather than a true depiction of reality. Decolonizing spaces and recognizing Western colonization practices means challenging the normative structures in colonial history, thus breaking the cycle of oppression through building community and fostering solidarity. Drawing on theories exploring access to public spheres, representation, protection, permanence, cultural displacement and …
"Ok, Groomer" :(Post) Truth Rhetoric And Transphobia, Adit R. Selvaraj
"Ok, Groomer" :(Post) Truth Rhetoric And Transphobia, Adit R. Selvaraj
All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations
Paying attention to anti-LGBTQ rhetoric circulating on social media in Fall 2022, this thesis situates political rhetoric on Twitter, by analyzing the use of the hashtag #okgroomer. This hashtag, a corruption of the popular phrase “ok, boomer,” has been used to show contempt on social media by equating left-wing ideologies to pedophilia. Informed by gender critical theory, this work espouses the idea that #okgroomer is constructed as a post-truth ideal aided by the mythos that queer people are dangerous to children. To study #okgroomer, this thesis employs a critical technical discourse analysis informed by ecological scholarship to a case study …
Analyzing Media Representations Of Rape Investigations And Interrogating The Representation Of Victim Blaming And Rape Myths: A Feminist Rhetorical Critique On The Netflix Limited Series Unbelievable, Kelly N. Hutchison
University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations
The problematic portrayals of rape investigations in televised media reify a culture ofvictim blaming and perpetuate an ideology that is harmful to victims and survivors. This thesis utilizes a feminist rhetorical critique to analyze the gender and socioeconomic representations of rape victims and rape investigators, in the Netflix limit series Unbelievable, to understand the problems in their portrayals. In a world where individuals are consuming media constantly, it is important to be critical of media representations because even seemingly progressive media representations may perpetuate harmful stereotypes.
Of Language And Thought: American Political Discourse, Normative Reason, And Essentially Contested Concepts, Riley Clare Valentine
Of Language And Thought: American Political Discourse, Normative Reason, And Essentially Contested Concepts, Riley Clare Valentine
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
This dissertation analyzes progressive liberalism and neoliberalism as forms of normative reason that redefine specific political concepts, which are central to American liberalism – equality, liberty, the role of the State, and the pursuit of happiness. I contend that language is an important expression of normative reason. Language is how political reason and the norms accompanying it are expressed. I move through Presidents Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Barack Obama, exploring shifts in language and interpretations of political concepts through progressive liberal and neoliberal forms of normative reason. I argue that a tension emerges between progressive liberalism and neoliberalism, and a …
The Personal Is Still Political: An Analysis Of Jessica Valenti's Contemporary Feminine Style, Michala M. Zilkey
The Personal Is Still Political: An Analysis Of Jessica Valenti's Contemporary Feminine Style, Michala M. Zilkey
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
In 2016, Jessica Valenti’s memoir, Sex Object, was published. Sex Object describes Valenti’s experiences of sexualization and objectification in a personal and anecdotal format. The feminine style, a rhetorical style that bridges the divide between norms of femininity and expectations of public oration, has been heralded as essential for advancing the feminist movement. This thesis asks the question, to what extent does contemporary feminists’ rhetoric mirror and diverge from earlier iterations of the feminine style? I argue that Valenti’s employs a feminine style that utilizes relational norms and self-disclosure to illustrate the personal as political and the political as …
Vietnam Continued: The Battle For American Public Memory In Public School History Textbooks, Donnie Owens
Vietnam Continued: The Battle For American Public Memory In Public School History Textbooks, Donnie Owens
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
The question of “how do we actively remember the past?” can perhaps best describe the purpose of public memory studies. Acknowledging this question, I analyze popular public-school textbooks to assess the way in which educational literature constructs the public memory of the Vietnam War. In total, the narratives of the texts construct a public memory of Vietnam as a controversial conflict contained within a decade of American uncertainty. However, these narratives also take care to minimize or leave aside the details of Vietnam’s lasting impact and in favor of reaffirming American exceptionalism. Ultimately, this thesis finds that students who read …
Un-Earthing Popular Climate Narratives: Maintenance And Prophecy In Settler World, Hannah Oxford
Un-Earthing Popular Climate Narratives: Maintenance And Prophecy In Settler World, Hannah Oxford
Communication ETDs
Climate change is fundamentally rooted in facts such as rising global temperatures, carbon emissions, losses in biodiversity, etc. However new information about our changing world is translated and incorporated within the narratives we live by and give form to our personal and collective worlds. While climate change is scientific, our mitigation efforts are entirely storied. This thesis looks at popular climate narratives that frames climate change as an issue of Earthly mechanics fixable through innovative technology. The goal of this thesis is to understand the ways in which settler colonialism, as a communicable mechanism of cultural production, organizes this particular …
Princes, Moms, And Warriors: A Feminist Rhetorical Analysis Of Toxic Depictions In Film, Brittany Bahl
Princes, Moms, And Warriors: A Feminist Rhetorical Analysis Of Toxic Depictions In Film, Brittany Bahl
Masters Theses
Various forms of toxic rhetoric have been the subject of academic study for decades. Despite some advancements toward a more progressive society, toxic rhetorics have continued to persist within the United States, especially within entertainment media. Toxic rhetorics within film, in particular, have remained steadily prevalent and continue to strongly impact audiences and constructions of identity. This thesis utilizes primarily close reading and feminist rhetorical criticism to examine rhetorics of toxicity within three popular film franchises: (1) toxic masculinity in Coming to America (1988) and Coming 2 America (2021); (2) toxic femininity in Bad Moms; and (3) straightwashing as …
Zapatista Maya Literacies And Decolonial Civic Pedagogies, Juan Moisés García-Rentería
Zapatista Maya Literacies And Decolonial Civic Pedagogies, Juan Moisés García-Rentería
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
Zapatista Maya Literacies and Decolonial Civic Pedagogies evaluates an educational outreach project led by an Indigenous grass roots mobilization in the high plateau of central México, the Zapatista movement. Using retrospective narrative inquiry and theoretically informed perspectives, this dissertation shows that the program of the Zapatista escuelita, Spanish for “little school,” is rooted in the Maya educational paradigm of nojptesel-p’ijubtasel, a cultural and political process of socialization at the heart of contemporary Maya peasant families. The research focus of this study offers rhetoric, composition, and literacy studies two interrelated points of insight tied to the overall Maya conception of the …
A Feminist Rhetorical Analysis Of Queer Appropriation In Digital Spaces, Derek Bryant
A Feminist Rhetorical Analysis Of Queer Appropriation In Digital Spaces, Derek Bryant
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
Appropriation is an invariable part of the way in which people communicate. In order to better understand what appropriation is and how appropriation functions communicatively, this research defines what appropriation is from a rhetorical perspective. As the world becomes more interconnected through the use of popular social media platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, the popularity of appropriation only continues to grow. This research focuses on popular examples of how queer culture is appropriated and used within mainstream culture by straight individuals as a way for to gain financial and social capital. Keywords: Appropriation, pop culture, digital spaces, TikTok, YouTube, …
The Effect Of Rhetoric On Progressive Health Care Reform Policies’ Public Perception, Megan Geher
The Effect Of Rhetoric On Progressive Health Care Reform Policies’ Public Perception, Megan Geher
Honors Theses
Health care is one of the most contentious issues in United States politics today, and there are a variety of reform plans on the table. In order for these reform plans to be politically feasible, it is fundamental that the rhetorical framing strategies utilized are done so with caution. In this paper, I seek to understand to what extent rhetorical framing plays a role in how Americans perceive progressive health care reform plans. While there are many factors that go into public support of policies, rhetoric is one factor that cannot be ignored, as it has shown to have significant …
Rhetoric Of Surrogacy: Re-Considering Agency Through Embodied Performance, Ann Kitalong-Will
Rhetoric Of Surrogacy: Re-Considering Agency Through Embodied Performance, Ann Kitalong-Will
Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports
Surrogacy as a medical practice goes back, in a practical sense, to 1988, when the court case, “In the Matter of Baby M, A Pseudonym for an Actual Person,” was tried in the Supreme Court of New Jersey. At the heart of the issue, was the question of who Baby M’s legally-recognized mother was in the relationship between the contracting parents and the woman who gestated and gave birth to Baby M. Using this case as a jumping off point, this dissertation traces a history of surrogacy as a global industry. This project explores rhetorical agency in the embodied performance …
They Say, We Say: A Standpoint Analysis Of Stay-At-Home Mothers’ Engagement With Public Discourse, Ayesha Tanzila
They Say, We Say: A Standpoint Analysis Of Stay-At-Home Mothers’ Engagement With Public Discourse, Ayesha Tanzila
All Theses
The purpose of this research was to study stay-at-home mothers’ engagement with the prevailing discourse surrounding them. Staying home and engaging in "invisible and unpaid" labor has led this group of mothers to be out of public sight and somewhat voiceless. Thus, public discourse about SAHMs without significant input by SAHMs has resulted in a monolithic and static identity. Using standpoint analysis as the theoretical framework and textual analysis as the methodology, I have analyzed opinion pieces written by SAHMs, published on popular magazine portals, and on their blogs, through which they attempt to navigate this public depiction of themselves. …
The Future Is Full Of Monsters: Queer Survival One Click At A Twine, 'Aolani N. Robinson
The Future Is Full Of Monsters: Queer Survival One Click At A Twine, 'Aolani N. Robinson
All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations
Spurred by a desire to explore queer rhetoric through interactive forms of media, this project analyzed the game-making program Twine to uncover how independent queer creators use the tool to explore queer survival against time, capitalism, and constrained identities. A more accessible platform than other game-making tools, Twine’s unique interactivity puts the ability to make interactive games and stories into the hands of indie marginalized creators who are often overlooked in both mainstream gaming and queer rhetorics (Anthropy, 2012). Thus, this thesis contributes to queer rhetoric, game studies, and trans rhetorics by exploring the strategies indie Twine creators use in …
Media Frames And Abortion Issue Polarization, Shianne Galuska
Media Frames And Abortion Issue Polarization, Shianne Galuska
Master's Theses
The abortion issue is one of the most polarizing topics within the public and media sphere. How the media chooses to frame the abortion debate may influence public opinion and individual reactions. Specifically, articles that use incongruent abortion frames (pro-life/pro-abortion & anti-abortion/pro-choice) may be contributing to an ingroup versus outgroup mentality by highlighting who is the ingroup and who is the outgroup, thus generating moral disgust and polarization (characterized by anger, bias, and activism) amongst those with opposing views. This study sought to answer whether presenting individuals with an incongruent abortion frame increases anger, bias, and activism (polarization), as well …
'Why Do They Make Her Wear That?': A Rhetorical Analysis Of Ramy Youssef: Feelings, Rania Zaied
'Why Do They Make Her Wear That?': A Rhetorical Analysis Of Ramy Youssef: Feelings, Rania Zaied
Masters Theses, 2020-current
Muslims have often been portrayed in the media, as violent, barbaric, terrorists, and powerless victims, along with many other misconceptions of negative and stereotypical images. Ramy Youssef: Feelings (2019), is an hour-long stand-up comedy special presented by comic Ramy Youssef, who is a Muslim millennial Egyptian-American man. By conducting a rhetorical analysis of the special, this research combines the method of Critical Rhetoric with two of Lowery and Renegar’s (2016) three frameworks, those being Bicultural Otherness and Self and Culture Deprecating Humor, to analyze Youssef’s comedy special Feelings (2019). This research delineates how the media influences the rhetoric of Muslim …
Voices Of The Say Her Name Campaign: Theorizing An Activist Rhetoric Of Blame, Alisa Davis
Voices Of The Say Her Name Campaign: Theorizing An Activist Rhetoric Of Blame, Alisa Davis
Theses and Dissertations
There is a lack of research in communication scholarship that analyzes how Black women employ blame from their unique standpoint. To combat this, this thesis analyzes the Say Her Name Campaign to demonstrate the ways Black women employ an activist rhetoric of blame that deconstructs their historical erasure in the discourse about antiblack police violence. Drawing upon Black feminist scholarship and epideictic rhetoric, I argue that an activist rhetoric of blame, used by Black women, dramatically puts on display the life of individuals who have experienced injustices and exposes blameworthy misogynoir attitudes in order to criticize the inherent flaws within …
¿Y Los Condones? The Rhetoric Of Birth Control In The Latinx Community Of The United States, Carey Vanessa Cuevas
¿Y Los Condones? The Rhetoric Of Birth Control In The Latinx Community Of The United States, Carey Vanessa Cuevas
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
This project aims to explore the current rhetorical strategies used in framing reproductive technologies and how these frameworks influence the sexual health outcomes of Latinx communities. Despite the wealth of information made available to individuals in order to make more informed choices regarding their sexual health, literature supports that Latinx communities are at a perpetually higher risk for poor sexual health outcomes. Additionally, other influences such as mass media, culture, and legislation play roles in how this community engages around birth control and safe sex practices. This project seeks to investigate how entities utilize language in discourse over birth control …
The Rhetorical Mediator: Understanding Agency In Indigenous Translation And Interpretation Through Indigenous Approaches To Ux, Nora Karina Rivera
The Rhetorical Mediator: Understanding Agency In Indigenous Translation And Interpretation Through Indigenous Approaches To Ux, Nora Karina Rivera
Open Access Theses & Dissertations
In 2018, I became involved in a collaborative community-based project to co-organize an event with the purpose of collecting resources to help in the professionalization efforts of Indigenous translators and interpreters. Drawing on Indigenous and decolonial theories, this interdisciplinary study examines the work done during this event through a user experience (UX) research lens that analyzes the various ways in which Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) and Translation and Interpreting Studies (TIS) can better support Indigenous language practices. The colonization of the Americas brought a layer of issues that continue to affect the way in which Indigenous communities conduct their …
The Reagan Administration And The Aids Epidemic: The Relationship Between Rhetoric And Marginalization, Leah Pimm
Honors Theses
The use of rhetoric can be a powerful tool to persuade individuals. Politicians are no stranger to using this tool and often employ it when speaking to their constituents. One politician who utilized his own forms of rhetoric is former President Ronald Reagan. Reagan used rhetoric to discuss major issues with the American public, including the AIDS epidemic. This thesis analyzes Reagan and his administration’s use of rhetoric regarding the AIDS epidemic in order to answer the research question: How did the Reagan administration’s use of rhetoric further marginalize the risk groups associated with the AIDS epidemic? Although previous literature …
Snake Mind, Wolf Body, Panther Courage: Jojo Rabbit As A Critique Of Hegemonic Masculinity, Christian W. Lippert
Snake Mind, Wolf Body, Panther Courage: Jojo Rabbit As A Critique Of Hegemonic Masculinity, Christian W. Lippert
All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023
In 2019, the movie Jojo Rabbit (Waititi, 2019) was released to theaters. Because the film uses comedy and satire to tell a story about Jojo, a young Nazi who has Hitler as an imaginary friend, it received mix reviews. This analysis focuses on how the movie sheds light on the negative influence of hegemonic masculinity. Hegemonic masculinity refers to the messages and actions that place men above women or types of masculinity above femininity and other masculinities. Jojo’s desire to be a Nazi is deeply connected to his desire to be man. This analysis examines how hegemonic masculinity a) can …
Intimate Rhetorics Of Networked Motherhood, Katie Nelson
Intimate Rhetorics Of Networked Motherhood, Katie Nelson
LSU Doctoral Dissertations
Fundamentally pregnant bodies are understood, similarly to women’s bodies, as necessitating discipline. However, new networked forums have emerged where pregnancy is understood as affirming and having the capacity to challenge a silenced subject position. Using three case studies, the #IHadAMiscarriage Instagram page, the #TakeBackPostpartum Instagram page, and mediatized discourses surrounding Kylie Jenner’s pregnancy, this dissertation writes intimate publicity into these mediatized transgressions of pregnancy and postpartum. I argue discourses about pregnancy and postpartum in these networked spaces constitute intimate publics through the cultivation of shared affected investments and divestments in embodied experiences. These investments in the embodied experiences are crafted …