Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A World Grappling With Pope Francis: Laudato Si' And The Contested Frames Of A Secular-Minded Church, Joseph R. Blaney

Faculty Publications - Communications

Pope Francis has been misunderstood by liberals and conservatives alike, confusing an emphasized pastoral tone and approach for theological departure. This confusion is exacerbated in the United States where the faithful are tempted to understand and evaluate pastoral figures in terms of secular political ideologies. This study extends Blaney’s (2017) media framing study of news coverage of cardinalate appointments by examining commentary about the papal encyclical Laudato Si’ found among readers of the National Catholic Register, the National Catholic Reporter, and The New York Times. Thematic analyses affirm that the faithful of the U.S. church succumb to the same secular …

Collaboration In The Technical Communication Classroom: Negotiating Team Contracts In A Pwi, Alyssa Herman

Theses and Dissertations

As TPC teacher-scholars, we must acknowledge the overwhelming Whiteness of our field and the racism, ableism, and sexism inherent in our institutions. We must actively work toward inclusivity and socially just collaborations in our classrooms by encouraging dominant-identified students to confront their privileges and implicit biases in order to better engage with historically marginalized students. With that said, this thesis examines how teacher-scholars might take up a cultural-rhetorical approach to teaching TPC and how we might negotiate team contracts in PWIs. Firmly situated within the social justice turn, Herman draws from both feminist disability theory and critical race theory to …

“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, …

Toward A Theory Of Procedural Rhetorical Systems: Demonstrations Of Player Agency In Uptake Of Rules In Video Games, Sydney A. Klem

Theses and Dissertations

This paper expands Ian Bogost’s (2007) procedural rhetoric by broadening the rhetorical view of games to encompass the arguments that they make not just about the material, but about themselves. The theory of procedural rhetorical systems (PRSes) views game systems as arguing toward how players should be following their rules, and like in any form of rhetoric, players possess agency in how they take up these arguments and how closely they follow rules. To demonstrate this, this paper analyzes a specific game, the 1996 platformer Super Mario 64, alongside various digital artifacts demonstrating how players have taken it up, including …

Inked Bodies, Blank Pages; A Study Of Amazigh Tattooing, Hannah Mesouani

Theses and Dissertations

The tradition of Moroccan Amazigh tattooing reflects the values and lived experiences of the communities that partake in this sacred practice. Adorning their fellow women with symbols of protection, tribe alliances and fertility, Amazigh women display their core values on face and body that come to represent their community. The power of these images and the women that wear them have stood the test of time, even in a newly male-dominated, Islamic Morocco that frowns upon body modification and promotes a nationalism that leaves little room for Amazigh tradition. In a corner of the world where literacy rates are low, …

"We Need To Stop Temporarily Caring: "Pulse, Spoken Word Poetry, And Audience Counter-Narrative Creation, Hannah G. Trew

Theses and Dissertations

On June 12, 2016, 49 people were killed, and 53 people were injured in a shooting at Pulse, a popular gay club in Orlando, Florida. The Pulse Nightclub shooting was the deadliest mass shooting in the United States at that time and the deadliest violent act against the LGBTQ+ community in the United States (Hancock & Haldeman, 2017; Jackson, 2017; Walter, Billard, & Murphy, 2017). The media were divided in labeling the shooting a terrorist attack or a hate crime, creating a master narrative surrounding the shooting. However, LGBTQ+ spoken word poets rejected the media’s storylines, developing counter-narratives, and instead …

#Digitalactivism: Examining #Yesallwomen And Teaching Social Media Activism In Technical Communication, Karishma Verma

Theses and Dissertations

In May 2014, 22-year-old Elliot Rodger killed six people and injured fourteen others near

the University of California campus in Santa Barbara. A “hatred of women” was cited as the

reason for his crimes. This incident inspired the hashtag movement #YesAllWomen on social

media. Users shared examples of how although “not all men” engage in violent behaviors that

Rodger exhibited, all women go through their lives fearing. This thesis uses a technofeminist

framework to examine how the #YesAllWomen movement functioned as an online social

movement on Twitter to encourage conversation as well as promote change. I also discuss how

technical …

Enabling Pain, Enabling Insight: Opening Up Possibilities For Chronic Pain In Disability Rhetoric And Rhetoric And Composition, Hilary Selznick

Theses and Dissertations

In the dissertation “Enabling Pain, Enabling Insight: Opening up Possibilities for Chronic Pain in Disability Rhetoric and Rhetoric and Composition,” Hilary Selznick argues that pain is rhetorical, accessible, and communicable to those without the lived experience of chronic pain. Additionally, she argues for the necessity of considering chronic pain as a disability and not merely as a symptom of a disability. In order to make these arguments possible, Selznick crafts a political-relational-rhetorical methodology that challenges restrictive models of disability and theoretical and commonplace assumptions that pain is resistant to language. Specifically, Selznick’s methodology, which combines disability scholar and activist Alison …

Good Game Well Played: An Esports Documentary, Gabriella Clare Devia-Allen

Theses and Dissertations

This film explores the operations and cultural practices of the esports community with an emphasis on Twitch as the dominant community platform. Explored sub-communities include Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Duelyst, and League of Legends. A focus on Duelyst allows us to explore the characteristics of an accessible esports culture while also referencing League of Legends and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive offers an objective look at two of the industry’s most developed esports scenes. This documentary tracks the production of broadcast content, the lifestyles of professional players, and the narratives of the industry’s most involved employees. In doing so, the research draws conclusions …

The Byline Of Europe: An Examination Of Foreign Correspondents' Reporting From 1930 To 1941, Kerry J. Garvey

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on two of the largest foreign correspondents’ networks the one of the Chicago Tribune and New York Times- in prewar Europe and especially in Germany, thus providing a wider perspective on the foreign correspondents’ role in news reporting and, more importantly, how their reporting appeared in the published newspaper. It provides a new, broader perspective on how foreign news reporting portrayed European events to the American public. It describes the correspondents’ role in publishing articles over three time periods- 1930 to 1933, 1933-1939, and 1939 to 1941. Reporting and consequently the published paper depended on the correspondents’ …

Mass Media’S Cultivation Effect On Islamic, Muslim, And Qur’Anic Prejudice, Shanna J. Carlson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the power of the mass media’s ability to cultivate reality in terms of the threat of Islam. A rhetorical analysis of the messages portrayed by the mass media is then compared to the findings of the study. While the study did not find any significant correlation between consumption of media and fear of Muslims, the Qur’an, or Islam, it did find a strong negative correlation between inter-group contact and salience of stereotypes.

Hillman College Is A Different World From Where You Come From: A Thematic Analysis Of Relationships In A Different World, Natilie Williams

Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on the identity and relationships portrayed in the television series, A Different World. Although the popular series ended in 1993, this show continues to resonate with the African-American community. Specifically, Ron, D. Wayne, and Whitley are the primary characters of focus. Ron and D. Wayne maintain a brotherhood, while Whitley and D. Wayne maintain a romantic relationship. Both of these relationships include implicit expectations, illustrate varying levels of reciprocity, and provide identity-shaping communicative feedback.

Doctor Who And The Creation Of A Non-Gendered Hero Archetype, Alessandra J. Pelusi

Theses and Dissertations

This project investigates the ways in which the television program Doctor Who creates a new, non-gendered hero archetype.

Gettin' Weird Together: The Performance Of Identity And Community Through Cultural Artifacts Of Electronic Dance Music Culture, Andrew Matthew Wagner

Theses and Dissertations

The growing popularity of Electronic Dance Music (EDM) on nearly every continent has given rise to the transition of EDM music from underground raves to large scale, multiple-day music festivals. Attendance at EDM events, whether at concerts or festivals, is primarily dominated by today's youth generation. The number of youth attending these events continues to grow as elements of EDM are being mixed into other mainstream music genres. This increase in the popularity of EDM has been an area of research interest in the past decades for a variety of disciplines, such as psychology, sociology, marketing, and tourism. The present …

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.

To Thine Own Self Be Cruel: An Analysis Of The Use Of Self-Deprecating Humor As A Rhetorical Strategy By Figures In Positions Of Authority, Brian Sorenson

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the use of self-deprecating humor as a rhetorical strategy by figures in positions of authority. A close textual analysis is performed on eight White House Correspondents' Dinner speeches by U.S. presidents. Two speeches are analyzed from each of the four chosen presidents. The presidents whose respective uses of self-deprecating humor will be analyzed are Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

Crime And Poverty In Detroit: A Cross-Referential Critical Analysis Of Ideographs And Framing, Jacob Jerome Nickell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how the relationship between crime and poverty is rhetorically constructed within the news media. To this end, I investigate the content of twelve news articles, published online, that offered coverage of crime in the city of Detroit, Michigan. I employ three methods in my criticism of these texts: ideographic analysis, critical framing analysis, and an approach that considers ideographs and framings elements to be rhetorical constructions that function together. In each phase of my analysis, I developed ideological themes from concepts emerging from the texts. I then approached my discussion of these findings from a perspective of …

Fashioning A Rhetoric Of Style: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Urban Street Style Representations In New York City, Amber Pineda

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how urban street styles are used rhetorically within local boroughs in New York City as a form of resistance to the dominant fashion industry that dictates what is "in fashion" through media. A total of fifteen video blogs developed by The New York Times were analyzed, each containing a representation of one of the five boroughs of New York City: Staten Island, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, and Queens. The analysis identified themes of a rhetoric of style, consisting of primacy of text, imaginary communities, aesthetic rationales, market contexts, and stylistic homologies. These themes were then analyzed by drawing …

Restoring The Juridical Image: Apologia For Ex Corde Ecclesiae, Joseph R. Blaney

Faculty Publications - Communications

Image restoration theory is used to discover that Holy Cross Father James Tunstead Burthchaell's defense of the Papal Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae was ineffective. Although he used attacks on accusers appropriately, his strategies of denial and transcendence were in conflict. He also failed to adequately address the accusation that the nature of American college charters make the American bishops' application of the document impossible. Finally, though perhaps through no fault of his own, he was "preaching to the choir. " The study sheds further light on the role of transcendence in religious image repair.

The Persuasive Defense Of Jesus In The Gospel According To John, Joseph R. Blaney, William L. Benoit

Faculty Publications - Communications

Image restoration strategies are reviewed and then applied to Jesus' discourse in the Gospel according to St. John. Brief reviews of verbal attacks on Jesus are given, followed by descriptions of the defense strategies he employed to deal with the accusations. Jesus primarily engaged in denial and transcendence. Some charges were so serious that they required unequivocal denial. However, it should not be surprising that Jesus also used transcendence given his desire to advance a more spiritual order of religious practice.