Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Ethos And Credibility : Collaborating To Develop Students’ Critical Information Literacy, Richard H. Hannon, April D. Cunningham

LOEX Conference Proceedings 2009

Librarians and professors know that students who search online believe they can identify good sources based on surface credibility. But students make bad decisions if they apply criteria out of alignment with academic values. This presentation outlines an innovative merger of traditional Rhetoric and Information Literacy to guide students’ research decisions. The collaboration between a librarian and a Composition instructor illustrates librarians’ central role in deepening students' academic values. Participants will take away a new approach to developing students’ evaluative skills that draws on the philosophical principles of “good reasons” and ethos.

Mapping Injustice: The World Is Witness, Place-Framing, And The Politics Of Viewing On Google Earth, Joshua P. Ewalt

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Working from assumptions that inequality is often spatially informed, a set of interactive cartographies has recently proliferated on Google Earth. In this essay, I analyze one of those interactive cartographies: The World is Witness produced by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). I read the map as an organizational rhetoric that frames place as "embedded injustice." I also argue that thorough analysis of the framing of local place on Google Earth must inherently question whether the map can create a disruption in the viewing subject. While the map presents vital information on excruciatingly despicable acts of injustice, and the …

Not The M-Word Again: Rhetoric And Silence In Recent Multiculturalism Debates, Wenche Ommundsen

Wenche Ommundsen

No abstract provided.

Who Benefits From Early Childcare Subsidy Design In Ireland?, Bernie O'Donoghue Hynes, Noirin Hayes

Articles

Best Newcomer Article

The design of policy tools reveals underlying biases that are not easily identified in policy documents. A review of two early childhood education and care subsidies in Ireland aimed at different target populations exposes differential treatment of children, parents and service providers. It also demonstrates how in a split system ‘early education’ is prioritised over ‘childcare’. The designs serve to reinforce stereotypes that enable the powerful and advantaged to accrue benefits while those perceived to be less deserving are burdened through the maldistribution of resources.

To Get The Shot Or Not: Narratives, Rhetoric, And The Childhood Vaccination Crisis, Katherine M. Hurley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Parents in developed countries like the United States are questioning the need for and safety of childhood vaccinations. Incidences of disease have risen as fewer parents have vaccinated their children. Perhaps the most significant public figure to reinforce the choices of parents not-to-vaccinate is Jenny McCarthy, whose best-selling book details her theory about the cause of, and cure for, her son‘s autism. As I demonstrate, the study of the narratives is vital for understanding the vaccination crisis, not the least because of the extent to which McCarthy‘s (2007) story has echoed through parenting communities. I examine whether chosen anti- and …

Communicating Crisis: How Culture Influences Image Repair In Western And Asian Governments, Yvonne Siew‐Yoong Low, Jeni Varughese, Augustine Pang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to seek to understand the differences in image repair strategies adopted by two governments that operate in the Western and Asian societies when faced with similar crises. Design/methodology/approach: Textual analyses are presented of communication of Hurricane Katrina and Typhoon Morakot by the Taiwanese and US governments, respectively. Findings: Faced with similar accusations of slow response, the Asian culture, represented by the Taiwanese Government, used predominantly mortification and corrective action strategies. The Western culture, represented by the US Government, used predominantly bolstering and defeasibility and a mixed bag of other strategies such as shifting …

Composing @Play, Jonathan Lashley

All Theses

Modern college students traverse the boundaries of traditional literacy daily. Maturing alongside Web 2.0 and multimodal social networking, these young people tweet, blog, email, film, photograph, illustrate, hyperlink, and compose their lives regardless of formal instruction. Therefore rhetorically analyzing a student's recreational play with image, video, audio, and oral mediums often proves helpful for writing instructors who wish to better mentor and engage the communicative capacities of those born in the late 20th century and after. Yet few educators have actively pursued this line of inquiry over the last couple of decades. Many continue to favor traditional pairing of academic …

The Donner Party And The Rhetoric Of Western Expansion, Mary Stuckey

Communication Faculty Publications

There have been numerous studies of the frontier myth as it operated in the early republic and throughout our history. As a result of this work, we know a lot about the frontier myth, its history, elements, and ideological functioning. We know less, however, about how that myth developed when its ideological elements met the empirical realities of western emigration. I argue that four specific cultural fictions—erasure, civilization, community, and democracy— are integral elements of the larger fiction of the American frontier myth. By understanding them through the vehicle of the Donner Party narratives, we can deepen our understanding of …

Tracking The Language Of Time And Space, 1945-2008, Roderick P. Hart, Elvin T. Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article explores how contemporary historians can avail themselves of quantitative approaches to examine how elusive concepts like ‘time’ and ‘space’ have been used in the public domain. By making use of specifically designed programs, historians can use digital tools to harness an unprecedented mass of information. This is a particularly important methodological innovation at a time of rapidly expanding data: news, speeches, and commentary are available first electronically, and they are available on countless sites in an unprecedented array of formats. Mastering these sources digitally is not only imperative for the contemporary historian; it also provides essential source material …

Evolution Of A President: John F. Kennedy And Berlin, Nicholas Labinski

Master's Theses (2009 -)

This paper examines John F. Kennedy's rhetoric concerning the Berlin Crisis (1961-1963). Three major speeches are analyzed: Kennedy's Radio and Television Report to the American People on the Berlin Crisis, the Address at Rudolph Wilde Platz and the Address at the Free University. The study interrogates the rhetorical strategies implemented by Kennedy in confronting Khrushchev over the explosive situation in Berlin. The paper attempts to answer the following research questions: What is the historical context that helped frame the rhetorical situation Kennedy faced? What rhetorical strategies and tactics did Kennedy employ in these speeches? How might Kennedy's speeches extend our …

Barack Obama Inaugural Address: The Optimistic Jeremiad, Jason Fields

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

George Bush Doesn’T Care About Black People: An Ideological Rhetorical Criticism Of Whiteness And Racism, Kate Braden

College of Communication Master of Arts Theses

On September 2, 2005, hip-hop artist Kanye West’s made the comment on live television that standing President “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, contributing to the national debate surrounding the government’s response to the storm and its survivors and the impact of race (and class) on such circumstances. An ideological criticism is conducted to assess how the dominant ideologies of whiteness and racism emerge in Bush’s rhetoric and affective performances in reaction to that accusation. In my analysis of Bush’s discursive and emotional enactments that responded to Kanye’s comment against him, three strategies …

"Spring Awakening" And Anti-Conformity: An Ideological Criticism, Kara M. Stone

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Race In Rhetoric: A Textual Analysis Of Barack Obama's Campaign Discourse Regarding His Race, Andrea Dawn Andrews

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This study is a textual analysis of Barack Obama's nine most noteworthy speeches from 2004 to 2009 during his rise to prominence and presidential campaign. Because Obama was considered an inspiring speaker and because he was the first African American to win either a major party's presidential nomination or a general • • presidential election, this study examines how Obama's use of language about his race may have contributed to his success. Previous research has shown that use of six rhetorical devices resonates with the American people: abstraction, democratic speech conversational speech, valence messages, conciliatory messages and imagery. The study …

Rhetorical Failures, Psychoanalytic Heroes: A Psychorhetoric Of Social Change, Kimberly D. Huff

Communication Dissertations

This dissertation confronts the rhetorical discipline with the Real of an antagonism illuminated through its encounter with Lacanian psychoanalysis. Rather than eliding the desire of subjects in favor of traditional discursive rhetorical solutions, the pschorhetorical response I will propose locates desire and the subject in the moments where communication fails and seeks to make public the realization of desire. Through the psychoanalytic analysis of three acts of agency that comprise rhetorical failure, I will argue that rhetorical analyses of social change are actually not persuasive enough in their acceptance that social reality is entirely mediated. The cases will show that …

Rhetorical Counterinsurgency: The Fbi And The American Indian Movement, Casey R. Kelly

Casey R. Kelly

This essay unfolds in three sections. First, I develop a theory ofrhetorical counterinsurgency and explain its refinement within theFBI as a method of threat control and management. Second, I situate rhetorical counterinsurgency within a series of migrating culturalcontexts, including the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and culturalstereotypes of American Indians. These contexts constrained theavailable interpretations of Indian, as well as non-Indian radicalism andjustified the application of techniques of counterinsurgency. Finally,I offer a rhetorical analysis of both the FBI’s use of communicativetactics as a method of counterinsurgency as well as the content of theirrhetorical constructions of AIM. I investigate two disarming …

Communicating With The World: History Of Rhetorical Responses To International Crisis And The 2007 U.S. National Strategy For Public Diplomacy And Strategic Communication, Laurel R. Berryman

Communication Theses

Following the events of September 11, 2001, we have seen a revival in American public diplomacy. I argue the U.S. continues to rely on similar rhetorical responses to crisis that are an essential part of American public diplomacy interconnected through history, from the birth of our country to the recent 2007 U.S. National Strategy for Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication. Tracing this recurring rhetorical process from our founding to the Carter Administration illustrates our reliance on similar rhetoric despite changing contexts. I use Burke’s concept of identification and the interrelated use of ethos and enemy construction to demonstrate the rhetorical …

Secular Salvation: Sacred Rhetorical Invention In The String Theory Movement, Brent Yergensen

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

String theory is argued by its proponents to be the Theory of Everything. It achieves this status in physics because it provides unification for contradictory laws of physics, namely quantum mechanics and general relativity. While based on advanced theoretical mathematics, its public discourse is growing in prevalence and its rhetorical power is leading to a scientific revolution, even among the public. By presenting a history of continual discovery of extra dimensions, string theory proponents draw upon key thinkers in physics such as Theodor Kaluza and Albert Einstein and frame them as pioneers for the emergence of string theory.

Popularization of …

Exploring Writing And Research Connections, Lily Todorinova, Susan A. Ariew

Academic Services Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Recognition Of The Transgender Self: An Examination Of The Apologia Of The 'Pregnant Man', Erika Marie Thomas

Wayne State University Dissertations

In 2008, Thomas Beatie, a legally recognized male, transgender man, became pregnant with his first child and approached the American mass media to tell his story and defend his decisions. Shortly thereafter, the public fought against his image, attempting to normalize his body and gender. Beatie's unique gender blurring, his choice for exposure and social recognition, and the resulting public controversy surrounding the incident makes for an important test case to understand Beatie's discursive and visual strategies directed toward the American public.

This study, a rhetorical examination of the discourse and iconic visual image used by Beatie while his pregnant …

The Rhetoric Of Sacrifice, James W. Watts

James Watts

No abstract provided.

Taking A Deep Breadth: The Rhetorical Construction Of Solidarity In The American Labor Movement, William O'Shannon Murphy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the rhetorical fragments in three case studies of the American Labor Movement constituting movement members in solidarity. Using Kenneth Burke's discussion of rhetorical substance, this project explores the possibilities for developing deep and broad forms of solidarity within the American Labor Movement. Rhetorical fragments of the Industrial Workers of the World, the United Farm Workers, and contingent faculty unionization efforts are explored.

I argue Burke's ideas of substance and identification provide a powerful lens through which we can examine the solidary practices of social movements. Through the examination of the case studies mentioned, I demonstrate that solidarity …

Gore's Science The Kairos Of An Inconvenient Truth And The Implications For Science Writing, Carolyn M. Glasshoff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Modern Americans are exposed to scientific and technical information on a daily basis that urges them to react as well as learn about new ideas. The popular science writing that circulates this information must be portrayed in a way that makes it easy for lay people to understand complicated ideas while at the same time remaining complex enough to convince readers that the information is reliable, accurate, and worth learning. In making decisions about how to accomplish this balancing act, science writers make decisions that influence the audience's opinion about new scientific ideas, how easily the audience will accept or …

Saving The Home Of The Tadpoles One Tree At A Time: A Framing And Pedagogical Analysis Of Wangari Maathai's Green Belt Movement, Anke Thorey Wolbert

Wayne State University Dissertations

While often mistaken for `just' an environmental organization, Kenya's Green Belt Movement (GBM) is engaged in environmental protection, feminism, human rights, education, sustainable development, democratic participation, and peace issues, amongst others. This diverse approach to social change makes it sometimes difficult to place the GBM within current social movement theory. To further our understanding of the GBM's unusual approach, this dissertation examines the framing efforts of the GBM's leader, Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai, as well as the organization's educational practices. Leaning on Entman's (1993) and Kuyper's (2006) definitions of framing, this project analyzes the development of the GBM's frame(s) …

Revisión De Estudios Sobre Las Funciones De Las Citas En Textos Académicos Escritos Por Estudiantes De Posgrado Nativos Y No Nativos Que Aprenden Una Lengua Extranjera, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

El estudio de las citas, los motivos por lo que se cita un trabajo y las funciones retóricas que las citas cumplen en el discurso escrito, han sido materias abordadas desde distintas disciplinas, entre ellas la Lingüística Aplicada. En el presente trabajo se rastrean los orígenes de estos temas y se revisan más concretamente los estudios llevados a cabo en el contexto académico universitario sobre citación por aprendientes nativos y no nativos de una lengua extranjera.

Summary: The study of citations, the purposes for which a work is cited, and the rhetorical functions that the citations carry out in the …

Rhetorical Analysis Of Public Policy Rhetoric: Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act Of 2004 And 2010, Julie Ann Stella

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In this research, I employed content analysis using the constant comparative method to examine and comment on the rhetoric of public policy and its audiences of specialists and generalists in the context of participative government. I examined the specific case of the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act (CNR) by comparing technical report texts from 2004 and 2010 to reveal and contrast their specialist and generalist features. Unique attributes of the rhetoric of public policy are discussed, particularly authorship and recursion. I organized the research findings into physical features, affective features, and cognitive features according to Carliner's framework of information design (2000). …

Zizek/Questions/Failing, Nick J. Sciullo

Nick J. Sciullo

In this article I am primarily concerned with presenting Slavoj Žižek3 as a legal theorist. Žižek has been a valuable contributor to critical theory and deserves a place in the pantheon of legal thinkers.

While his diverse writings are often relegated to other disciplines, they also position him as an important contributor to law and public discourse. I seek to illuminate how he mediates and interrogates the law by demonstrating how his scholarship is important to the lives of legal thinkers, questions of success and the law, capitalism, political practice, and terrorism. Because Žižek’s work is interdisciplinary and expansive, this …