Other Rhetoric and Composition Commons^™

Inviting Friendship: A New Approach To Nonprofit Communication, Stacia Glenn Wetherington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Beginning with Greeks’ concept of virtuous friendship philanthropy has been part of society. Metaphors of civitas, caritas and social responsibility dominated man’s understanding of charity until the explosion of neoliberal thought in the 1980s. The Band Aid movement in response to the Ethiopian famine permanently changed the way we view philanthropy. This movement created an environment of extreme commodification of charity which has created a highly competitive nonprofit sector and a loss of the collective spirit upon which it was founded. This competitive atmosphere has led nonprofits to chase dollars at the expense of their missions while also relying heavily …

An Exploration Of Communication Ethics Scholarship And Economic Spheres, Andrew Tinker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project examines communication ethics scholarship to understand how economics is understood within the field and to establish coordinates for scholars to discuss economic spheres as phenomena that affect communication ethics. Scholars draw from the tradition of virtue ethics to mark communication ethics inquiry as that which explores the practices that protect and promote the “good.” Philosophers of communication and communication ethicists have developed paradigmatic metaphors for the field that allow us to understand the formation of ethical guidelines within communities both familial, corporate, and national, that promote and protect various goods. These metaphors include “hierarchy” and “sameness” from Charles …

Corporate Social Responsibility To-Come: A Derridean Interruption Of Transparency, Robert Foschia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the relation between rhetorics of transparency and organizational action. Digging into CSR literature from a philosophy of communication perspective, this project seeks to determine if corporate social responsibility delivers on the promises it makes of a better world.

Drawing on the work of Jacques Derrida, the research first lays out his often overlooked contribution to the philosophy of communication, and then moves towards possible applications in deconstructing the perceived benefits of CSR, particularly in its transparent nature. By looking at organizational life from the Triple Bottom Line, this dissertation peels back the underlying rhetoric of planet, people, …