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Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

2010

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Speech and Rhetorical Studies

Kairotic Strategema: A Rhetorical Investigation Of Barack Obama’S 2009 Health Care Address, Serena M. Sánchez-Wilson Dec 2010

Kairotic Strategema: A Rhetorical Investigation Of Barack Obama’S 2009 Health Care Address, Serena M. Sánchez-Wilson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines President Barack Obama’s address given on September 9, 2009 entitled “Remarks by the President to a Joint Session of Congress on Health Care.” In order to address various situational and contextual elements such as legislative ambiguity, national expense, bureaucratic intrusion, abortion, euthanasia and illegal immigration, President Obama opportunely enters the conversation at a particular time so as to benefit his agenda of passing health care reform. Revolving around the notion of kairotic strategema, which includes the understating of deliberative address as well as the possession of kairos and phronesis, I assert that this aids President …

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A Rhetorical History Of The Office Of Legal Counsel, William O’Donnal Saas May 2010

A Rhetorical History Of The Office Of Legal Counsel, William O’Donnal Saas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

For over seventy-five years, the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) has played a significant role in the crafting of executive policy rhetoric. Yet, within the scholarship in presidential and rhetorical studies, the OLC remains one of the least understood and, thus, underappreciated forces behind executive policy action. This thesis seeks to bridge the research gap by: (1) accounting for the OLC's rhetorical history through discussion of available "opinions" and their rhetorical consequences; and (2) by submitting a case study from the OLC's rhetorical history to critical analysis. Often, I will argue, the OLC "co-invented" international and domestic policies with White …

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I Am Journalism (And So Can You!): Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, And The Role Of The Journalist, Eugene Wagner May 2010

I Am Journalism (And So Can You!): Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, And The Role Of The Journalist, Eugene Wagner

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Satire news has garnered considerable critical attention, yet the question of just what mainstream journalism might take from it has yet to be asked. This study aims to clarify the normative potential of such alternative discursive approaches. Geoffrey Baym's theory of discursive integration, which argues that once distinct modes of discourse are now blending together, may help explain the relationship between humor and the mediation of current events. This study uses a discourse analysis to compare how mainstream television news outlets and The Daily Show approach truth claims, finding that journalistic credibility suffers, at least in part, from avoiding critical …

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Ghost Hunting: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The American Media On The Waterboard, William Saas Apr 2010

Ghost Hunting: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The American Media On The Waterboard, William Saas

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

This project looks at popular media hands-on investigations of the waterboard (an interrogation method used in the war on terror, viewed historically as "torture") to discover what I argue are the haunting effects of the second Bush administration's rhetorical war.

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