Digital Commons Network^™

Legitimation Strategies Of Electoral Authoritarian Regimes: A Comparative Study Of Bangladesh, Hungary, And Turkey, Md. Sohel Rana

Theses and Dissertations

The world we live in is increasingly becoming authoritarian. Although the majority of the world’s states are now ruled by authoritarian regimes, there is no clear scholarly consensus on how the rising authoritarian regimes legitimize their rule to stay in power. This thesis investigates the central research question: how do electoral authoritarian regimes legitimize their rule? The conventional literature broadly offers two key institutional legitimization strategies of authoritarian regimes: procedural and performance. However, it has largely overlooked non-institutional or ideological legitimization strategy. This thesis addresses this gap and offers a comprehensive theoretical framework by combining both institutional and non-institutional features. …

But At What Cost? A Rhetorical Analysis Of Capitalism, Whiteness, And Their Intersection In Boots Riley's 2018 Sorry To Bother You, Kara A. Brummel

Theses and Dissertations

This study expands upon previous analyses of Boots Riley’s 2018 film satire, Sorry to Bother You. Gramscian concepts are applied as a theoretical framework to analyze the representations of capitalism, Whiteness, and how these systems of power intersect and reinforce one another in modern US culture. The research aims to understand the film’s messages about the mutual influence of material and ideological conditions. The film is analyzed for portrayals of capitalism, Whiteness, and Gramscian concepts by evaluating the plot, themes and tones, visual details, character portrayals, and dialogue. Results indicated that critiques of capitalism and Whiteness are present in the …

“When Two Elephants Fight, It’S The Ground That Suffers ”: A Neo- Marxist Rhetorical Deconstruction Of The United States’ Rhetoric Of Power In Resistance To United Nations Treaties, Divine Narkotey Aboagye

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I present a Gramscian rhetorical reading of American antagonism to the International Criminal Court, a crucial agency of the UN. I probed the rhetoric of power in resistance concerning the discourse of international treaties by showing how both the United States and the United Nations have become global hegemons. From the foregoing, I uncover American resistance to the constitutive force of United Nations treaties by paying attention to post-Cold War American presidents. By using a neo-Marxist lens and analyzing a key foreign policy accord – the International Criminal Court – that spans the presidencies of Clinton, Bush, …

“The Testing Served Its Purpose ”: High-Stakes Testing As A Method Of Categorization And Control In Young Adult Dystopian Novels, Rebecca Lorenzo

Theses and Dissertations

In “‘The Testing Served its Purpose’: High-Stakes Testing as a Method of Categorization and Control in Young Adult Dystopian Novels,” I examine representations of high-stakes testing in the Divergent, Legend, and Testing trilogies using educational, cultural studies, and dystopian/utopian scholarship. In chapters one and two, I examine each society’s system of high-stakes testing and the ideological indoctrination and physical repression used by those in power to maintain control of the citizenry, respectively. In the third chapter, I analyze the ways in which the state’s indoctrination, coupled with an exaggerated focus on the success or failure of specific individuals, creates competition …

From Ideology To Ideologue: How The Mormon Church Utilizes The Ideograph To Interpellate Identity, Alexander Ewers

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to form a more thorough understanding of how a prominent U.S. religion has utilized internally-generated media to interpellate its preferred identity onto members. Specifically, this research investigated how the ideograph was utilized as a tool for interpellation in the context of Mormonism. To do this, an ideological criticism of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Ensign magazine was conducted. A single ideology was found: The ideology of the perfect order. Constitutive ideographs of this ideology were also discovered. In connection to the use of gender, sex, and sexuality language to express the perfect order ideology, …

Ideographs And American Mass Media: Understanding The Narrative On The Israel-Palestine Conflict And Its Influence On Publics, Savanna Lynn Fowler

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the American mass media's narrative on the Israel-Palestine conflict to understand the power of ideographs and their influence on specific publics. I focus on two popular ideographs in mass media reporting,and, in order to examine how these ideographs are utilized to construct a narrative for the media's publics, the political ideologies they represent, the agendas they further, and the consequences their narrow use has on developing counterpublics and emerging alternative narratives around the conflict. I focus my attention on the mass media's coverage of a sixteen day Israeli shelling in Gaza and how public consent is acquired …

Acceptance, Rejection, Or Somewhere In-Between: Family Communication Regarding Interracial Relationships, Lisa Martin

Theses and Dissertations

The assumption that interracial families are neither as strong nor stable as same-race families is slowly becoming an archaic opinion. While it is difficult for some to admit that some mindsets are strongly rooted in prejudice, research shows that people are capable of changing. This study specifically seeks to explore the dynamics of family communication regarding interracial marriages. The findings spotlight those individuals who are actively working to alter misconceptions through their own interracial family.

Political Third Parties' Representation In"The Big Three": 24-Hour Cable News Networks' Ideological Construction Of The American Political Duopoly, William Breault

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis conducts content and functional analyses to investigate the amount and functions of third-party mentions in 24-hour cable news networks. Additionally, this thesis applies framing tactics, ideographs, and other rhetorical theory to examine strategies utilized to ideologically construct cognitions regarding the current American political duopoly.

Why Do Teachers Hate Ai N'T? Eighteenth-Century Ideologies And Attitudes In Twenty-First-Century Classrooms, Robin Elise Halsey

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the impact of various historical events on the development of the English language and its grammar. Specifically, this project highlights how the ideologies about language held by eighteenth-century grammar-writers have influenced the pedagogical approach of teachers of English, persisting into the twenty-first century. Further, the rationale behind these language ideologies is explored in order to gain important insights into the seemingly prescriptive nature of the majority of grammar texts produced in the eighteenth century and beyond.

The origins of four particular points of grammar and usage that are commonly attacked by teachers, grammarians, and others are examined. …