History Commons^™

Toward Truth And Reconciliation: Public Memory, Philosophical Pairs, And The Edmund Pettus Bridge, Allyson K. Hayden

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis connects the rhetoric of Bryan Stevenson which advances truth and reconciliation for racial healing in the United States to a case study of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. I examine common cultural invocations of the bridge that support the persistence of a blurry public memory that occludes visibility of its original memorial dedication to a known white supremacist and instead celebrates it as a landmark of the civil rights movement. I also analyze arguments for both changing and keeping the name of the bridge that occurred between 2015-2020, illustrating ways in which Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca’s philosophical …

Historical Trauma: Literary And Testimonial Responses To Hiroshima, Mariam Ghonim

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of trauma is controversial in literature. While one may be able to come up with ways to describe trauma in fiction, representing historical trauma is a hard task for writers. Some argue that trauma can not be described through those who did not experience it, while others claim that, provided some elements are added, one can represent trauma to the reader. This thesis focuses on twentieth-century historical traumas related to a nuclear catastrophe and explores the different literary and testimonial responses to the catastrophic man-made event of Hiroshima (1945). In this thesis, Kathleen Burkinshaw’s historical fiction The Last …

Meaning Making Over A Lifetime: A Case Study Of Pat Boone, Samuel Wisneski

Theses and Dissertations

In the mid-1950s, Pat Boone was one of the most popular singers in America. Several years later, Boone’s mass appeal as a star had begun to diminish and he was left without an obvious fanbase. Yet, today 60 years later, Boone is the star of several television ads, has appeared on one of the biggest shows on television, and has recently had a song explode to over five million views on social media. In order for Boone to achieve the continued fame he enjoys today, Boone has shapeshifted his celebrity to cater to receptive audiences. Using Boone as a case …

Digital Mediation Of Dissent: The Stories Of Unveiled Women From Turkey, Atinc Gurcay

Theses and Dissertations

This research project studies the digital mediation of the politics of communication and everyday life by examining the tweets of Turkish women who voiced their dissent regarding veiling practices during the #10YearChallenge trend in 2019. Like so many places, the question of veiling is central to the politicization of women's bodies in Turkey. The politicization of women’s bodies, in turn, is central to competing secular and conservative visions of the modern Turkish nation-state. By examining the digital dissent in relation to these competing national projects, I map the historical context of modernization and its impact on the contemporary discussion of …

The Business Of The Girl: Celebrity And The Professionalization Of Girlhood In Early Twenty-First Century Media Culture, Jessica Elizabeth Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

The achieving “can-do” girl, who thrives in her personal, academic, and aspirational endeavors, emerged in response to self-help crisis literature of the 1990s urging mothers to manage their daughters’ low self-esteem. However, even as media industries have adopted the successful girl subject in popular film, television, and digital marketing campaigns, public conversations of tween and teenage girls still identify rising levels of anxiety and self-doubt that diminish girls’ confidence well into adulthood. Responding to what critics call the “confidence gap,” girl culture of the twenty-first century has organized itself around the affordances of social media and digital celebrity in the …

Culture And Code: The Evolution Of Digital Architecture And The Formation Of Networked Publics, Geoffrey Gimse

Theses and Dissertations

Culture and Code traces the construction of the modern idea of the Internet and offers a potential glimpse of how that idea may change in the near future. Developed through a theoretical framework that links Sheila Jasanoff and Sang-Hyun Kim’s theory of the sociotechnical imaginary to broader theories on publics and counterpublics, Culture and Code offers a way to reframe the evolution of Internet technology and its culture as an enmeshed part of larger socio-political shifts within society. In traveling the history of the modern Internet as detailed in its technical documentation, legal documents, user created content, and popular media …

Consuming Digital Debris In The Plasticene, Stephen R. Parks

Theses and Dissertations

Claims of customization and control by socio-technical industries are altering the role of consumer and producer. These narratives are often misleading attempts to engage consumers with new forms of technology. By addressing capitalist intent, material, and the reproduction limits of 3-D printed objects’, I observe the aspirational promise of becoming a producer of my own belongings through new networks of production. I am interested in gaining a better understanding of the data consumed that perpetuates hyper-consumptive tendencies for new technological apparatuses. My role as a designer focuses on the resolution of not only the surface of the object through 3-D …

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’ …

Sound And Vision: Marketing Recorded Music In The Age Of Radio, Daniel Martin Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

In the early 1930s, the popularity of radio and the economic austerity of the Great Depression threatened to make the phonograph record obsolete. However, by the time the United States entered World War II in 1941, records were returning to popularity. This return coincided with the first instances of the appearance of unique cover artwork on record albums. This thesis explores the cultural and industrial factors that converged in the late 1930s to make album artwork viable in ways that it would not have been earlier. This thesis also investigates how RCA Victor and Columbia, two record companies that had …

"Bring The Fan To The Game:" Football, Baseball, And The Transformation Of Sports Television Into Entertainment, Ethan Collins

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the growing symbiosis of the sport-television relationship as it evolved during the 1960s. Professional football and baseball are primarily considered they demonstrate the ways television impacted local and national audiences. Football embraced television as a way to disseminate the game to a wider, national audience. Baseball, because of its long history as a local attraction, resisted the encroachment of television. Baseball prioritized the live game over the televised version, while football became more visually descriptive for viewers and took on characteristics of entertainment programming. These changes were technologically, industrially, and economically based, and this thesis discusses the …

A Partial Reading Of The Stones: A Comparative Analysis Of Irish And Scottish Ogham Pillar Stones, Clare Jeanne Connelly

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

A PARTIAL READING OF THE STONES: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF IRISH AND SCOTTISH OGHAM PILLAR STONES

by

Clare Connelly

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Bettina Arnold

Ogham is a script that originated in Ireland and later spread to other areas of the British Isles. This script has preserved best on large pillar stones. Other artefacts with ogham inscriptions, such as bone-handled knives and chalk spindle-whorls, are also known. While ogham has fascinated scholars for centuries, especially the antiquarians of the 18th and 19th centuries, it has mostly been studied as a script and a …

The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints In National Periodicals, 1982-1990, Matthew E. Morrison

Theses and Dissertations

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has continued to receive exposure in national periodicals. This thesis will explore that image from 1982 to 1990. During those years, the church continued to grow in membership and expand its existing programs.

National periodicals can assist in assessing the public image of the Church because they help "mould public attitudes by presenting facts and views on issues in exactly the same way at the same time throughout the entire country." In this manner, they help to form the public opinion about the Church. They also reflect existing opinions because magazine publishers …

Wendell J. Ashton: Advocate, Publisher, Civic Leader, Val L. Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

Wendell J. Ashton has been described as a pacesetter in the communications field in the Intermountain West. He was a trailblazer in public relations in the early days of his career at Gillham Advertising. His life has been filled with challenges such as publisher of the Deseret News, director of the LDS Church Communications Department, principal in Gillham Advertising, and various civic and community activities.

Ashton's communications career was one of innovator and pioneer as he helped forge the public relations industry in the Intermountain West. His career has followed in the footsteps of many other professionals such as …

A History Of The Development And Objectives Of The Lds Church News Section Of The Deseret News, Paul T. Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

The Church News supplement to the Deseret News has been part of the Salt Lake City newspaper for over fifty years. It has evolved from a weekly eight-page tabloid religious section of the daily newspaper to a weekly magazine of feature articles, photographs, editorials and news of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
An historical study of the Church News has not been done previously. Hence, the intent of this study is to observe how the Church News has served its purposes and goals over its history. The study briefly outlines how the publication has developed and will …

Mormonism In National Periodicals, 1961-1970, Dale P. Pelo

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the image of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as reflected in articles appearing in general national periodicals of the United States during the decade 1961-1970. All articles listed in Readers Guide to Periodical Literature under the heading "Mormons and Mormonism" or related topics were searched. A rating system as devised by Dr. Richard O. Cowan in his work "Momonism in National Periodicals" was implemented.

A History Of The Photojournalism Department Of The Deseret News 1948 To 1970, Richard J. Nye

Theses and Dissertations

The photojournalism department of the Deseret News is presently one of the most highly organized and productive departments within the newspaper itself. Major changes in staffing and management of the photo lab have been made since 1948, resulting in a more efficient department. Deseret News staff photographers are skilled in their profession and are proud to be a part of the newspaper staff.

The Deseret News has a colorful history, from its beginning in 1850 with all the trials that accompany a growing newspaper up to and including the establishment of the Newspaper Agency Corporation in 1952. It is a …

An Analysis Of References To The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints In General Magazines Of The United States During Selected Periods Between 1847 And 1953, Herbert Newel Morris

Theses and Dissertations

This study was proposed to analyze articles referring to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the national magazine press. A "symbol coding" form of content analysis was used, in which each pertinent word or name was categorized, counted as indulgent or deprivatory and classified as to the thematic nature of the text.

A Study In Social Distance In A Typical Mormon Community, Anthon Steffensen Cannon

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to measure the amount of social distance found in a typical Mormon community, and to investigate the influence of the so-called "Mormon Church" upon the prejudices of its members towards other races and religions. It also aims to experiment with a techique for re-conditioning social distance in order to increase the degree of sympathetic understanding of persons for other groups of people.