Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Long May She Reign: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Gender Expectations In Disney’S Tangled And Disney/Pixar’S Brave, Caitlin J. Saladino

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

This project addresses messages about gender expectations in Disney princess narratives. The two films included in my project are Tangled (2010) and Brave (2012), which feature the most recently inducted princesses to the marketed Disney Princess line (Rapunzel and Merida, respectively). Using genre as an organizing principle, I argue that Rapunzel and Merida are different from the past Disney princesses (Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Jasmine, etc.) because their narratives reflect new ideas about gender expectations in modern society. The central tension appearing in both films is the opposition between the image of woman as traditional, domestic, and dependent and woman …

Walt Disney And The Propaganda Complex: Government Funded Animation And Hollywood Complicity During Wwii, Amanda Cunningham

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Walt Disney’s work as an animator during World War II had a measurable impact on culture and in the development of government produced messages. It is important to examine this understudied area of Disney’s life and his studio’s efforts to produce wartime training and propaganda films during WWII. Government agencies, including the U.S. Treasury, contracted Disney to produce 32 animated shorts between 1941 and 1945 (Gabler, 2007).

Employing a semiotic approach of cinema, this study focuses on the cartoons The New Spirit (1942), Der Fuehrer’s Face (1943) and Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi (1943). While American wartime …

Gilded Age Visual Media As The Impetus For Social Change: Jacob Riis’S Reform Photography And The Antecedents Of Documentary Film, Denitsa Yotova

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

This study examines the birth and evolution of the social documentary genre in visual media. It suggests that a mixture of ideology, technology, and social awareness are necessary for a successful social reform. It finds that despite the limitations of technology during the nineteenth century, social documentaries were produced long before they were part of the genres of photography and film. By focusing on the work of Danish photographer Jacob Riis and tracing the emergence of film, this study demonstrates a connection between documentary film and Riis’s social documentary photography and public slide exhibitions. The study concludes that in order …

The Other September 11th: El Mercurio Media Coverage After The Chilean Coup Of 1973, Valeria A. Gurr‐Ovalle

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

This thesis provides an exploratory overview of the role the El Mercurio newspaper played along with the military after the Chilean coup of 1973. The study reviews the contents of the newspaper’s front pages, including their coverage of the events during the coup. The thesis will show how the paper revisited its coverage each year on the September 11th anniversary, beginning with the years dominated by the military government, from 1973 through 1990, and continuing through the transition to democracy, from 1991 through 2007. The primary method used in the course of this examination is a content analysis, which will …

President Barack Obama's Commencement Addresses: Revising The Functions Of Ceremonial Rhetoric, Milene Ortega Ribeiro

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Commencement speakers are typically expected to praise students for their achievements and motivate them for the path that is to come. When the commencement speaker is a President, however, the expectation is different. In times of rhetorical presidency, no presidential address is apolitical, and this project investigated the functions of ceremonial rhetoric in light of the rhetorical presidency doctrine. Close textual analysis of the three most controversial commencement speeches delivered by President Obama, revealed that the challenge of fulfilling the expectations of a commencement address, while also responding to rhetorical problems, required the President to adopt complex rhetorical strategies. The …

Mother Knows Best The Rhetorical Persona Of Michelle Obama And The "Let's Move" Campaign, Monika Bertaki

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Some first ladies are often condemned for being too involved with the presidents' power in politics and other first ladies find themselves condemned for the lack of involvement. First ladies, it seems, are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Consequently, Michelle Obama faces rhetorical problems, which in some respects are similar to those of previous first ladies, and in other respects are quite different. Along with the criticisms encountered by previous presidential wives, Obama faces the stereotypes African American women have endured since the inception of the nation. Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign serves as a rhetorical …

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton And The Use Of Presidential Surrogacy In Foreign Policy Discourse, Mary Mcinturff

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Abstract: Through a case study utilizing the rhetoric of President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, this essay reveals the value of investigating the rhetoric of presidential surrogates in conjunction with presidential discourse. Support for this argument is derived from a close analysis of the combined rhetorical tactics of Obama and Clinton, illuminated by dramatistic criticism, value analysis, and mode of argument. Although an essential foundation for an analysis of an administration’s foreign policy rhetoric, the president’s discourse is not the only data that merits attention. For foreign policy rhetoric, this essay elucidates both the importance and utility …

What Is Conservatism?, Heidi Peters

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

The re-branding of the right manifested itself in conservative movements and gatherings across the country in-between 2008 & 2010. One of those events included Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor Rally on August 28, 2010. This research project is a case study that illustrates how the conservative political ideology is defined and rejuvenated after massive defeat.

Politics & Poverty: Is The New Media Changing The Message? An Analysis Of Framing In New Media News, Jessica Wheeler

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Many media researchers have turned their attention to new media, specifically how the proliferation of blogs has changed the way media inuences the public agenda. Less attention has been paid to how blogs and new media are changing the way news is framed and reported. In a preliminary case study two elements of political news reporting on blogs were explored: 1) Do political blogs focus more on insider information and process news than traditional media’s online news outlets? 2) What implications, if any, does this dierence have on the value of the information in assisting the audience form opinions about …