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Critical and Cultural Studies Commons

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South Dakota State University

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Articles 1 - 18 of 18

Full-Text Articles in Critical and Cultural Studies

Advancing Karl Jaspers: The Connection Between The Theory Of Existential Communication And Mentoring Satisfaction, Nolan Patrick Bowers Jan 2024

Advancing Karl Jaspers: The Connection Between The Theory Of Existential Communication And Mentoring Satisfaction, Nolan Patrick Bowers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Existential philosopher Karl Jaspers’s theory (1932/1970; 1935/1971b) of existential communication is understood to be his most important contribution to existentialism. Additionally, this theory has unique ties to the phenomena of communication, begging its use as a dialogic theory. However, Jaspers’s theory has been relatively untouched by academia. This thesis understands the theory of existential communication through an operationalization of its aspects and explicitly connecting them to communicative behaviors. These aspects of existential communication are (1) vulnerability, (2) open-mindedness, and (3) equality. This study set out to determine whether these aspects could be found within mentoring relationships and support the aspects …


Argumentation For Critical Heterogenous Political Discussions: Constructing A Rebuttal, Rebecca Oliver Nov 2023

Argumentation For Critical Heterogenous Political Discussions: Constructing A Rebuttal, Rebecca Oliver

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This activity seeks to explain to undergraduate students how to craft a proper attack and defense in argumentation and debate, persuasion, or political communication courses. The activity teaches students 1) the parts of a basic argument structure and 2) how to construct a rebuttal using a basic argument structure. Students will argue against their true political typology by selecting an opposing typology from the Pew Research Typology Quiz. Broadly, this exercise is designed to encourage students to engage in dialogues with people who disagree with their political positionality. Specifically, the activity accomplishes this by teaching students the value of basic …


Encoding & Decoding: Artfully Modeling Communication, Daniel L. Foster, Ashley D. Garcia Nov 2023

Encoding & Decoding: Artfully Modeling Communication, Daniel L. Foster, Ashley D. Garcia

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Drawing objects and concepts, such as cats, trees, love, democracy, and family, is probably the last activity students expect to do in a communication course. Although this sounds like an introductory art activity, creating visual representations provides a nuanced understanding of the encoding and decoding processes. Encoding and decoding are the most hidden and often the most unfamiliar and complex fundamental components of communication for students to comprehend. By engaging in this activity, students translate their decoding process into drawings, which serve as personal artifacts representative of their encoding and decoding. Students come to better conceptualize this cognitive process with …


“Party In The Communication Classroom”: Exploring Communication Competence To Raise Social Awareness, Nancy Bressler Nov 2023

“Party In The Communication Classroom”: Exploring Communication Competence To Raise Social Awareness, Nancy Bressler

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This activity demonstrates communication competence and allows students to observe, assess, and ultimately utilize the model of communication competence to engage with other people successfully. To understand how to engage in communication competence, students must recognize that appropriateness and effectiveness are crucial aspects of their communication. Through the communication competence model, students examine how to achieve effectiveness in their communication by setting goals for specific contexts; they also consider to what extent their goals are achievable given the particular situation. Using a 2014 MTV Video Music Award example, students can analyze why Miley Cyrus allowed a homeless man to accept …


Introducing Public Speaking Self-Concept (Pssc): A Novel, Qualitatively-Derived Communication Anxiety And Competence Variable, Karla M. Hunter, Joshua N. Westwick Nov 2023

Introducing Public Speaking Self-Concept (Pssc): A Novel, Qualitatively-Derived Communication Anxiety And Competence Variable, Karla M. Hunter, Joshua N. Westwick

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Despite numerous quantitative assessments of teaching interventions that have helped mitigate public speaking anxiety (PSA), this common barrier to public speaking persists. In addition, quantitative measures may not be appropriate for all instructional goals, especially with students from across a variety of cultures. To enrich educators’ capacity to help diverse bodies of students overcome the challenges presented by PSA, this qualitative study asked students to “Please describe yourself as a public speaker” at the beginning and the end of a freshman-level, general education public speaking class. Thematic analysis identified a two-dimensional pattern within student responses (N = 51) (a …


Front Matter Nov 2023

Front Matter

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.


Discourse: The Journal Of The Scasd, Volume 8 (2023), The Speech Communication Association Of South Dakota Nov 2023

Discourse: The Journal Of The Scasd, Volume 8 (2023), The Speech Communication Association Of South Dakota

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.


Theoretical Motivations For Posting In #Metoo, Shannon Pappas Jan 2023

Theoretical Motivations For Posting In #Metoo, Shannon Pappas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2017, actress Alyssa Milano shared a tweet encouraging survivors of gendered violence to write “me too.” A media storm ensued as survivors answered her call in the millions. Anyone can look back at what survivors posted during the height of #MeToo, but we still don’t know why they felt the need to post in the first place. To answer this question, the social identity model of deindividuation effects and spiral of silence were utilized. The social identification, perceived anonymity affordances, and willingness to self-censor scales were used for this research, along with a perceived deindividuation scale that was created …


Reconnecting With The Truth: Conspiracies, Perspective Taking, And Misinformation, Scott Sellnow-Richmond, Mili Pinski Dec 2022

Reconnecting With The Truth: Conspiracies, Perspective Taking, And Misinformation, Scott Sellnow-Richmond, Mili Pinski

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

“I’ve done my research.” Misinformation has become a prevalent topic in communication courses, particularly those focused on argumentation, public speaking, or even interpersonal and family communication. Students thus benefit from adapting public speaking-focused assignments to illuminate how to understand - and thus combat- disinformation in their own lives. This assignment works toward this goal in two stages, allowing students to argue not just against misinformation and conspiracies, but also to argue for them as an act of empathy and understanding. The applied nature of this exercise also empowers instructors with a way to concretely address this issue in the classroom. …


Front Matter Dec 2022

Front Matter

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.


Critical Thinking As A Pedagogical Approach: Using Critical/Cultural Studies To Analyze Music Videos, Lukas John Pelliccio, Timothy Brown May 2021

Critical Thinking As A Pedagogical Approach: Using Critical/Cultural Studies To Analyze Music Videos, Lukas John Pelliccio, Timothy Brown

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Teaching undergraduate students how to critically analyze a text is an important experience. However, it is not easy to do this because readings are often dense, and the process of writing and presenting a critique can be challenging for some students. In light of this, we have developed an assignment where students critically analyze music videos for their ideologies. In the assignment, students select three specific overt or latent content pieces from a music video and explain how those manifestations influence a particular ideology in a paper. Then they are asked to show the music video to their peers and …


Undoing Gender: An Analysis Of How Women Communicate Within The Agricultural Industry, Shala R. Larson Jan 2019

Undoing Gender: An Analysis Of How Women Communicate Within The Agricultural Industry, Shala R. Larson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent history, women have entered more business-like positions in the agricultural industry. This thesis seeks to understand how women in agriculture describe their workplace communication and whether they feel they are part of a muted group. Twelve women were interviewed regarding their experiences as women in agriculture and were asked whether they feel valued in their positions and how they communicate with their male co-workers. Specifically, interviewees were asked if they ever felt the need to alter their communication to complement, emulate, or otherwise adjust to masculine communication styles. The majority of women interviewed reported having to strategically choose …


Framed By Sexuality: An Examination Of Identity-Messages In “Purity Culture” Reflections, Ashley Pikel Jan 2018

Framed By Sexuality: An Examination Of Identity-Messages In “Purity Culture” Reflections, Ashley Pikel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Purity culture is a movement many young Evangelical Christians experienced in the 1990s and early 2000s. Purity culture espouses many values including practicing abstinence until marriage, observing strict dating and/or courtship rules, and remaining physically, emotionally, and spiritually pure. In 1997 Joshua Harris authored I Kissed Dating Goodbye (IKDG) which popularized purity culture principles. Over the past twenty years, Harris reflected on his writings as well as feedback from others to determine that some of what he wrote was incorrect. In 2016, Harris requested IKDG readers to submit their experiences with the book in the form of personal stories. Through …


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 …


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 …


"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 …


Cliteracy And Justice For All : A Critical Rhetorical Analysis Of Sophia Wallace’S Cliteracy Campaign, Vanessa Condon Jan 2015

Cliteracy And Justice For All : A Critical Rhetorical Analysis Of Sophia Wallace’S Cliteracy Campaign, Vanessa Condon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Female sexuality is constantly restricted in public discourse in the United States. To combat this, Sophia Wallace created the Cliteracy campaign: a project that sought to challenge the stigmatization of female genitals. Wallace’s attempt to create a new language regarding female sex and sexuality revealed critical implications for how we discuss sex in American culture. For an in depth analysis, I utilized feminist, materialist, and social movement rhetorical lenses. This study revealed that while text is viewed as an objective mode of communication, however, it is ingrained with hierarchical societal constraints. Moreover, Wallace’s rhetoric suggested that a god term is …


Gender Portrayal In J.K. Rowling's “Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix”: A Feminist Rhetorical Criticism, Nicole Ackman Jan 2007

Gender Portrayal In J.K. Rowling's “Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix”: A Feminist Rhetorical Criticism, Nicole Ackman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined J.K. Rowling’s (2003) novel entitled, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Although this novel has not yet been classified as a fairy tale, it does contain fairy tale elements. This study reviewed literature in the field of folklore, fairy tales, and feminism. Foss’ (2004) four-step feminist criticism model was employed to analyze gender portrayals in the novel. According to Foss’ model, the novel was analyzed for masculine or feminine perspectives of the world, effects on the audience, improvement of women’s lives, and impact on rhetorical theory. Although Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix …