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Communication Commons

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2017

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

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Full-Text Articles in Communication

The American Pickers Demonstrates Communication Skills, Jeffrey Brand Oct 2017

The American Pickers Demonstrates Communication Skills, Jeffrey Brand

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This activity prepares students to identify persuasive communication practices in non-classroom environments and to view reality-based television programs as a learning platform for understanding communication theories and concepts. Using selected scenes or an entire episode from a popular reality-television program, American Pickers, students can observe how Mike and Frank establish a rapport with new customers, get to know them and their stories, negotiate sales, interact with each other as a team, and leave with a new relationship (client) and connection intact. The purpose of this exercise is to help students observe these initial contacts and relationships as they develop on …


Developing A Supportive Communication Climate For Virtual Task Groups, Brent Kice Oct 2017

Developing A Supportive Communication Climate For Virtual Task Groups, Brent Kice

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This class activity places students in virtual teams to assess Gibb’s (1961) defensive or supportive behaviors as a means of reinforcing trust among virtual task-group members. A worksheet offering a fictitious online chat transcript is provided for group analysis; student directions for creating unique team names are also given. This activity helps students to establish positive climates for virtual task groups.


Men’S Rights Activists And The Ray Rice Domestic-Violence Case: Using Critical Communication Pedagogy To Counter Hegemonic Masculinity, David H. Kahl Oct 2017

Men’S Rights Activists And The Ray Rice Domestic-Violence Case: Using Critical Communication Pedagogy To Counter Hegemonic Masculinity, David H. Kahl

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Some groups in society communicate in ways that attempt to marginalize others. One such group is the Men’s Rights Activists (MRA) who use language to attempt to normalize the subjugation of women through its rejection of feminism. This activity is designed to engage students in a dialogue about MRA’s response to the domestic-violence incident involving Baltimore Ravens’ running back Ray Rice and his fiancé, Janay Palmer, in a hotel elevator. Specifically, the activity allows students to learn about MRA members and their hegemonic ideology, to examine/view the domestic-violence incident, and to use critical-communication pedagogy (CCP) as a means to examine …


Closing The Assessment Loop In The Basic Communication Course, Claire H. Procopio Oct 2017

Closing The Assessment Loop In The Basic Communication Course, Claire H. Procopio

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Participation in the learning-outcome assessment is an important expectation of most communication teachers. Considerable communication research has been devoted to defining assessment, identifying what is assessed, and determining how best to do assessment (Morreale, Backlund, Hay, & Moore, 2011). The National Communication Association (NCA) recently announced the publication of Learning Outcomes in Communication (NCA, 2015). This case study explores how a program, one new to learning-outcome assessment in the basic course, overcame common challenges with implementing assessments. The case illustrates how to use assessment data meaningfully and offers specific strategies that individual communication instructors, course directors, and assessment leaders can …


Blending Theory And Application: Student-Authored Organizational Case Studies, Colleen Arendt Oct 2017

Blending Theory And Application: Student-Authored Organizational Case Studies, Colleen Arendt

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Case studies have been used as a pedagogical method for nearly a century. The case-study method provides numerous benefits for students, encouraging problem-solving, perspective taking, reflecting, and strategizing. After a semester of reading and discussing published case studies, the purpose of this assignment is to have students write and analyze their own case studies based on their organizational experiences. This assignment blends theory and application, helps students engage in important sensemaking about their experiences, and calls on them to contribute knowledge and content to the course. Variations, debriefing prompts, and an assignment appraisal are included.


Enemies Of The State: The Symbolic Annihilation Of White-Zimbabwean Identity In The Twenty-First Century, Rick Malleus Oct 2017

Enemies Of The State: The Symbolic Annihilation Of White-Zimbabwean Identity In The Twenty-First Century, Rick Malleus

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This article explores the Zimbabwean government-controlled newspapers’ symbolic annihilation of white-Zimbabwean identity in the twenty-first century. Zimbabwe has been through political, social, and economic upheaval in the last 15 years, and it is in this context that the media’s construction of white identity is examined. Using a content analysis of online articles from The Herald and The Chronicle, six themes of constructed white identity were identified. The government media’s motivation for this symbolic annihilation of white-Zimbabwean identity is discussed, and the article concludes with a consideration about why this construction of white-Zimbabwean identity matters.


An Examination Of The Narratives Of Lottery-Scholarship Legislation, Kristopher D. Copeland Oct 2017

An Examination Of The Narratives Of Lottery-Scholarship Legislation, Kristopher D. Copeland

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

States have relied on lottery-scholarship policies to support public goals, such as higher education. In this paper, I utilize the narrative paradigm to examine how stories from the Hope for Arkansas lottery campaign became embedded in the policy-design process. Through in-depth interviews with 19 participants and a document analysis of 86 documents, the findings suggest that the Hope for Arkansas campaign’s narratives were tied to the policy-design process of the lottery legislation.


Listening To Unheard Voices: Nurses’ Communication Experiences With The Nrs Pain Scale, Matthew H. Barton, Kevin Stein Oct 2017

Listening To Unheard Voices: Nurses’ Communication Experiences With The Nrs Pain Scale, Matthew H. Barton, Kevin Stein

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This study examines nurses’ experiences with the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS). These responses characterize the communication trials that nurses face with pain diagnosis, pain management, and overall patient care. Interviews with 20 nurses reveal three themes: subject dissatisfaction, feeling limited, and subjective satisfaction. An analysis of these themes reveals the need for renewed discussion about the way pain is communicated and the challenging expectations nurses must regularly confront. Implications for listening to important, but often quiet, even silent, voices in pain management and clinical practice are discussed.


Weight-Based Stigma And Self-Esteem: A Test And Extension Of The Stigma Communication Model, Andie Malterud, Jenn Anderson Oct 2017

Weight-Based Stigma And Self-Esteem: A Test And Extension Of The Stigma Communication Model, Andie Malterud, Jenn Anderson

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Personal experience with weight-based stigma is negatively associated with self-esteem (Myers & Rosen, 1999). Our study examines how self-esteem is affected by exposure to weight-based stigma communication that is directed at another person. Using Smith’s (2007) stigma communication framework, we created a 2 (Stigma level: high, low) x 2 (Gender of stigmatized person: male, female) x 2 (Body of stigmatized person: large, small) posttest-only experiment. Participants’ self-esteem was highest after seeing a small body subjected to intense stigma and lowest after seeing a large body subjected to intense stigma. Additionally, we observed three-way interactions affecting the perceptions of two stigma-communication …


Should A Dropped Argument Always Be Treated As A Conceded Argument?, Ryan K. Clark Oct 2017

Should A Dropped Argument Always Be Treated As A Conceded Argument?, Ryan K. Clark

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

In this brief essay, I shall argue that the answer to this question is ”No.” The notion that “dropped equals conceded” reflects a well-intentioned norm against intervention which is embodied in the tabula rasa metaphor of adjudication . However, accepted as and absolute rule, it favors quantity (i.e., speed) reduces debate to “ink on the flow” instead of arguments weighed in the mind, and distorts our understanding of what actually happens in debates. In it’s place, I propose a norm which proceeds from an alternative formulation of adjudication. It is only when an uncontested argument passes prima facie tests that …


From The Editor, Anthony M. Wachs Oct 2017

From The Editor, Anthony M. Wachs

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.


Front Matter Oct 2017

Front Matter

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.


Constructive Peer Evaluations: The Toilet Paper Stuck To My Shoe Lesson, Stephanie Kelly Oct 2017

Constructive Peer Evaluations: The Toilet Paper Stuck To My Shoe Lesson, Stephanie Kelly

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Peer evaluation is a useful learning tool that provides students with a holistic view of their work. However, getting students to provide quality feedback to their peers can be a struggle. The purpose of this activity is to make students realize that constructive criticism, when given tactfully, is the only polite option so that they will share thorough, useful feedback throughout the semester.


Simulated Creative Collaboration: Experiencing Challenges To Innovative Virtual Teaming In The Classroom, Brian C. Britt, Kristen Hatten Oct 2017

Simulated Creative Collaboration: Experiencing Challenges To Innovative Virtual Teaming In The Classroom, Brian C. Britt, Kristen Hatten

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This activity provides students with in-depth experience working as part of an innovative virtual team, which will enable them to better understand the relative advantages and disadvantages of various approaches to creative collaboration in different contexts. Participants are divided into groups, which must then solve an assigned problem using a specified communication technology and creative process from the literature. The instructor will introduce a variety of obstacles to communication using each technology, which may inhibit students’ creative processes. Following the activity, the class will discuss these challenges, participants’ responses, and the range of experiences with different collaborative processes and technologies.


Using Social Lubricants To Increase Conversationality, Nathaniel Simmons Oct 2017

Using Social Lubricants To Increase Conversationality, Nathaniel Simmons

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Responding to the epidemic of the dying art of conversation (Asha, 2014; Barnwell, 2014 April), this activity constructs a space in which students tap into social lubricants as a conversational, artistic tool to increase conversational skills. Inspired by Monahan & Lannutti’s (2000) social lubricant work, this study views social lubricants— any object or action that facilitates social interaction, such as a dog or a compliment— as a vital resource that merits pedagogical attention. After completing a role-play in which students tap into a social lubricant to achieve an assigned goal, students will be able to: (a) define social lubricants; (b) …


Social Justice Storytelling: Giving Our Students More Than Just An Education In Speech, Phillip E. Wagner Oct 2017

Social Justice Storytelling: Giving Our Students More Than Just An Education In Speech, Phillip E. Wagner

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

In an effort to highlight the practical and relevant applications of public speaking, this activity was designed to give students a safe space to discuss current social justice issues. Beginning with an open-ended narrative prompt, this activity requires students to take turns building upon a social justice narrative, giving them an opportunity to practice confident delivery and healthy dissent while also further enhancing public speaking skills and fostering a social-justice orientation.


Assessing Logical Fallacies In Persuasion: Using Role-Play To Identify And Critique Solid Reasoning In Public Speaking, Nancy Bressler Oct 2017

Assessing Logical Fallacies In Persuasion: Using Role-Play To Identify And Critique Solid Reasoning In Public Speaking, Nancy Bressler

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Because the development of solid reasoning skills is an instrumental aspect of speech formation, this teaching activity draws connections among the identification of logical fallacies, the recognition of the importance of soundly reasoned arguments, and the reduction of speaker apprehension. Students are asked to design their own humorous skits that exemplify a logical fallacy. This exercise encourages them to consider not only how fallacies can be based on faulty reasoning, but the broader implications of logical fallacies, including speaker credibility, underlying rhetorical uses, and to what extent a lack of speaker motivation can lead to deficient reasoning. Through student collaboration …


Incorporating Confucius And Ancient China Into A Rhetorical Theory Course, Sara A. M. Drury Oct 2017

Incorporating Confucius And Ancient China Into A Rhetorical Theory Course, Sara A. M. Drury

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

In our globalized world, students of communication benefit from experiencing diverse cultures and perspectives throughout the curriculum. One way to encourage twenty-first century global learning is to infuse the study of Chinese discourse into rhetorical theory courses. This essay first provides a rationale for the importance of comparative rhetoric and a review of relevant literature on ancient Chinese rhetoric. Then, the essay details a three-week module on ancient Chinese rhetoric with readings and activities, and an appraisal of the activity, with the goal of demonstrating the necessity and feasibility of introducing undergraduate students to globalized rhetorical studies.


“Symbols Are Important”: Nation-States And The Images On Our Money, John R. Katsion Oct 2017

“Symbols Are Important”: Nation-States And The Images On Our Money, John R. Katsion

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Visual rhetoric has been an area of growing interest for those within the communication field, and this study aims to add to that body of work. One area within the study of visual rhetoric is the everyday, mundane images produced by nation-states, and more narrowly, the images on a nation’s currency. Traditionally, scholars who study images on currency have seen them through the lens of state-as-pedagogue—in other words, that the state is using that “sacred space” to teach their citizenry. Political theorist and scholar Jacques E.C. Hymans (2204, 2010) challenges this notion, and instead posits that nation-states try to connect …


A Guilty Conscience: Barack Obama And America’S Guilt In “A More Perfect Union”, Scott Anderson Oct 2017

A Guilty Conscience: Barack Obama And America’S Guilt In “A More Perfect Union”, Scott Anderson

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

On March 18, 2008, Barack Obama addressed the status of racial equality in America in a speech titled “A More Perfect Union.” The speech came on the heels of a media firestorm that erupted around Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s religious advisor and friend, whom media accused of harboring allegedly racist and anti-American sentiment. The association with Wright undermined Obama’s status as the post-racial candidate and threatened to derail his presidential bid. Using Kenneth Burke’s dramatistic process (the guilt-purification-redemption cycle), this article argues that Obama’s use of guilt may have contributed to his success. In the speech Obama elucidated three types …


Spotlight On Distinguished Service: Judy Kroll, Andrea Carlile Oct 2017

Spotlight On Distinguished Service: Judy Kroll, Andrea Carlile

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

As a young forensics educator, I am constantly reminded that my work, like the work of Discourse, stands on the shoulders of giants. Keeping the roots of forensics education alive is essential in growing the activity. For me our Aristotelian roots remain ever present because Aristotle’s pursuit of truth lies at the core of modern forensic activity. He once wrote, “Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well.” This sentiment encapsulates the essence of a forensics giant from South Dakota, Judy …


A Life-Changing Gift: The Impact Of Classroom Climate And Community Building, Joshua N. Westwick, Kelli J. Chromey Oct 2017

A Life-Changing Gift: The Impact Of Classroom Climate And Community Building, Joshua N. Westwick, Kelli J. Chromey

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

The study of classroom climate and community has been a hallmark of communication education research for several decades (Dwyer et al., 2004). This wealth of meaningful research has provided scholars and instructors an abundance of practical strategies and knowledge to help develop and strengthen classroom climate and community. Moreover, this research has illustrated the relevance and need for a positive classroom climate and community within our educational institutions. The impact of creating a community-oriented classroom climate was documented by Dwyer et al. (2004), who found that, “Fostering a positive climate and sense of community for students in educational settings has …


Message From The Editor: The Power Of Community, Karla M. Hunter Oct 2017

Message From The Editor: The Power Of Community, Karla M. Hunter

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.


Front Matter Oct 2017

Front Matter

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.


Improving Interviewing And Conversational Skills Using "Speed Interviewing", Colleen Arendt Oct 2017

Improving Interviewing And Conversational Skills Using "Speed Interviewing", Colleen Arendt

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

A great deal of research focuses on the importance of effective interviewing skills across professions and interpersonal settings. This activity, based on “speed dating,” is designed to improve students’ interviewing skills. Specifically, the activity develops listening and probing skills by having students conduct mini interviews without preparation. The lack of preparation forces students to rely only on their listening and probing skills instead of an interview protocol. To increase difficulty, the questions can be tailored to employment or internship interviews to help the interviewees prepare while their partners practice listening and asking probing questions. This activity can also be modified …


Exploring The Canons Of Rhetoric Through Phil Davison’S Campaign Stump Speech, Joshua N. Westwick, Kelli J. Chromey Oct 2017

Exploring The Canons Of Rhetoric Through Phil Davison’S Campaign Stump Speech, Joshua N. Westwick, Kelli J. Chromey

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

A common learning objective of many communication courses centers on speech criticism and evaluation, and the classic canons of rhetoric (invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery of the speaker) have been used to help communication students achieve these learning outcomes. This teaching activity provides a creative and meaningful way to explore the canons of rhetoric—through assigning students to perform critical evaluation of a popularized YouTube video, the campaign stump speech of Stark County, Ohio, treasurer candidate Phil Davison. Students have responded favorably to the activity and demonstrated an increased awareness and understanding of the rhetorical canons and their use in …


"I Don't Always Look At Memes, But When I Do, It's For A Class": Using Memes To Demonstrate Language Rules, Jocelyn M. Degroot, Hannah Coy Oct 2017

"I Don't Always Look At Memes, But When I Do, It's For A Class": Using Memes To Demonstrate Language Rules, Jocelyn M. Degroot, Hannah Coy

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This activity uses Internet memes to demonstrate the pervasiveness of language rules and culture’s effect on language in online culture. Numerous introductory communication courses include a discussion on verbal communication that focuses on language rules and the effects of culture on verbal communication. The most relevant language rules for memes are the regulative rules that guide action and how we use language (Cronen, Pearce, & Harris, 1979). In this exercise, students analyze and evaluate language rules present in popular online memes. The students identify the language rule utilized in each of a pre-chosen set of Internet memes and generate at …


Facing Our Racial Biases Via The Implicit Association Test, Stacey A. Peterson Oct 2017

Facing Our Racial Biases Via The Implicit Association Test, Stacey A. Peterson

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Classroom discussions around race and difference are often difficult and challenging. We all come to our social interactions as products of our cultural selves, race being one of a myriad of multi-faceted characteristics. Therefore, while many feel that race is something that is discussed ad nauseam, others feel that such discussions rarely scratch the surface. This exercise uses the Implicit Association Test on race to encourage students to reflect upon and examine their hidden biases and address the role those biases play in potential communicative interactions, decisions, actions, and even emotions that they, the students, likely have of people of …


Using Video Clips To Illustrate How Paralinguistic Variation Communicates Emotion, Shane Semmler Oct 2017

Using Video Clips To Illustrate How Paralinguistic Variation Communicates Emotion, Shane Semmler

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Aristotle’s explication of the available means of persuasion includes logic, character, and emotion as the three artistic proofs available to any rhetorician. Because emotion is the least understood rhetorical proof (Jorgenson, 1998), this lesson plan uses Aristotle’s definition of delivery (i.e., variations in rate, volume, and pitch) to illustrate how paralinguistic qualities reflect and elicit emotion. Educators are provided with the necessary materials and procedures for a 50-minute multimedia instructional event including the content and citations for a lecture articulating how paralinguistic variation reflects and elicits emotion, links to audiovisual illustrations of emotional paralinguistic variation, worksheets to structure student processing …


Practicing Critical Research: Applying A Feminist Textual Analysis To The Film 300, Tatjana M. Hocke-Mirzashvili, Stephanie Kelly, Darrel Blair, Hoyoung (Anthony) Ahn Oct 2017

Practicing Critical Research: Applying A Feminist Textual Analysis To The Film 300, Tatjana M. Hocke-Mirzashvili, Stephanie Kelly, Darrel Blair, Hoyoung (Anthony) Ahn

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This single-class activity was developed to give students hands-on experience with critical research. The purpose of this activity is to assist students in developing critical, textual analysis skills by applying a feminist lens to the hyper-masculine film 300, specifically analyzing symbolic representations of power.