Critical and Cultural Studies Commons^™

Camp Horror And The Gendered Politics Of Screen Violence: Subverting The Monstrous-Feminine In Teeth (2007), Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay argues that Mitchell Lichtenstein’s film Teeth (2007) is an exemplary appropriation of the femme castratrice, a sadistic and castrating female figure that subverts the patriarchal mythologies undergirding the gendered logics of both screen violence and cultural misogyny. The film chronicles Dawn’s post-sexual assault transformation from a passive defender of women’s purity to an avenging heroine with castrating genitals. First, I illustrate how Teeth intervenes in the gendered politics of spectatorship by cultivating identification with a violent heroine who refuses to abide by the stable binary between masculine violence/feminized victimhood. This subversive iteration of rape-revenge cinema is assisted by …

Embracing Discursive Paradox: Consultants Navigating The Constitutive Tensions Of Diversity Work, Jennifer Mease (Also Peeksmease)

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This article addresses how diversity consultants manage the dual demands of social justice and organizational goals or priorities. I suggest that navigating this “discursive paradox” is one of—if not the—defining feature of diversity work. To investigate this discursive paradox, I analyze diversity work as a process (rather than a collection of products) as evidenced in interviews with 19 diversity consultants. The results offer two derivative discursive paradoxes that emerged in consultants’ talk about diversity work: the tension between broad and narrow constructions of human differences and the tension between emphasizing change at the organizational and individual levels. Rather than …

Preferential Methods Used By Celcis Students To Enhance Conversational Skills., Karina Mariadas

Honors Theses

Conversational skills are something that can be improved over time. For new language learners, conversing in English can be difficult. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the preferential methods to enhance conversational skills used by students from the Center for English Language and Culture for International Students (CELCIS) at Western Michigan University. The study was conducted using a survey questionnaire consisting of 7 parts. The conversation improvement methods that were addressed in the survey included: print, audio-visual, electronic devices/technology, face-to-face conversations and games. 112 students, 35 females, 75 males and 2 unknowns, participated in the survey during …

Christian Chicken Vs. Mainstream Media: A Case Study Analysis Of Chick-Fil-A’S Stance On Traditional Marriage Using Situational Crisis Communication Theory, Christiannn Mcnew

Masters Theses

A crisis can strike an organization at any moment and it is the responsibility of the organization to be prepared with a plan of action. This thesis will explore crisis management, using Timothy Coombs’ crisis management strategies, of Chick-fil-A and then COO Dan Cathy to see if those two parties implemented crisis strategies in a way that benefited the organization following Cathy’s statements in support of the biblical definition of family. Since many interpreted these comments as anti-gay sentiments from Chick-fil-A itself, crisis struck the organization Cathy represented. This thesis will also look at the idea of social activism in …

The War On Drugs: An Analysis Of The Rhetoric According To Richard Weaver’S Theory Of Ultimate Terms, Cristina Peniche

Masters Theses

The language associated with President Nixon’s ‘war on drugs’ has sparked considerable debate in the political struggle against narcotics' abuse and crime, as well as within scholarly research. There is a language associated with the debate and it reflects the primary considerations of policy makers- economics, criminal behavior, and morality. The present study discusses these qualities as well as the rhetorical ideas of Richard Weaver, specifically his theory of ultimate terms. Then, discussions within research show the discontent that scholars bear towards narcotics'-related language. Specifically, there is concern that the rhetoric may stigmatize certain populations and hinder better outcomes. As …

The Conceptualization Of Self-Identity Among Residents Of Appalachia Ohio, Jessica L. Krok-Schoen, Angela L. Palmer-Wackerly, Phokeng M. Dailey, Janice L. Krieger

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Social identity and its association to culture, place, and health is an important, but understudied, area of research. One social group that illustrates this connection between place and identity is people living in Appalachia. This exploratory mixed-method study investigates the appropriateness of the self-concept of Ohio Appalachian adults with cancer as “Appalachian,” the context associated with that identity and its association with community identification, rural identity, Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) status, demographic data, and clinical trial (CT) enrollment. Forty-nine adults with cancer residing in Appalachia were recruited. Participants were cancer patients who (1) were offered a randomized clinical cancer trial; …

Thanatourism, Caminata Nocturna, And The Complex Geopolitics Of Mexico’S Parque Ecoalberto, Marouf A. Hasian Jr., José Ángel Maldonado, Kent A. Ono

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This article provides readers with a critical analysis of Mexico’s Parque EcoAlberto. Utilizing some of the theoretical work of interdisciplinary scholars who are interested in the study of “thanatourism,” the authors illustrate how this park, with its Caminata Nocturna (night hike), is much more than simply a “dark” tourist attraction that deters those who might travel North to the U.S. border. This study shows how the indigenous Hñähñú in Mexico have to confront a host of symbolic and material forces that are sometimes hidden in the patriotic metanarratives that swirl around this park.

Critical Media Literacy And Gender: Teaching Middle School Students About Gender Stereotypes And Occupations, Laurel Puchner, Linda Markowitz, Mark Hedley

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This study examined the effectiveness of the implementation of a small-scale critical media literacy curriculum unit focused on gender stereotypes, especially as they pertain to occupations. The research question was whether students exposed to the critical media literacy (CML) curriculum were more likely than students not exposed to believe: that women experience discrimination in the workplace; that the media constructs stereotypical messages about women and men, especially regarding occupations; and that the media influences people’s thinking. Participants were students in 5 seventh grade classes, who were exposed to a 4-workshop curriculum, and students in 5 eighth grades classes, who were …

The Movie "Wild": In Search Of A Lost Soul, Jerry Duane Gibson

Communication Studies

The Pacific Crest Trail is a 2,600 mile area that begins at the border of San Diego and Mexico and finishes near the Washington and Canadian border. Cheryl Strayed wrote her memoir about her journey along this trail in 1995 at the age of 26. Her book was then made into a motion picture and released on December 25^th, 2015. The director, Jean-Marc Vallee, was suggesting the idea that the Pacific Crest Trail was a very effective psychological therapeutic tool for grieving the loss of a parent while discovering one’s true authentic self. The traditional western methods of …

The Power And Importance Of Emotional Investment In Scholarly Research: An Ethnographic Account Of San Luis Obispo County Juvenile Hall, Claire E. Shannon

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

Cooking Without Women: The Rhetoric Of The New Culinary Male, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Between their detailed instructions, measurements, and helpful hints, cookbooks provide directives about the proper management of household space. Cookbooks establish rules that govern intimate habits, helping readers to make sense of how cooking rituals fit within the domestic division of labor. They cultivate, naturalize, and sometimes resist domestic habits as they pass into the realm of unconscious investments that ideological critics call “common sense.” However, Isaac West argues that while cookbooks “invite readers into specific subject positions, some of which are more attainable than others,” they provide cooks with “opportunities for communicating who they are and who they might want …

Accommodating New Vistas, Jessica Gasiorek, Howard Giles, Jordan Soliz

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

In this special issue, we aim to provide a diverse sample of current research that uses and/or extends Communication Accommodation Theory in innovative ways. With this prologue, we provide a general overview of the tenets and recent developments of theory, discussing how each of the seven original research articles included herein fits in the theory’s ever-evolving framework and body of research.

Organizational Secrecy And The Fbi’S Cointelpro–Black Nationalist Hate Groups Program, 1967–1971, Kristen Hoerl, Erin Ortiz

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

In this article, we explain how secrecy influenced the communication and decision-making processes within COINTELPRO–Black Nationalist Hate Groups, the FBI’s covert program to disrupt left-leaning Black political organizations between 1967 and 1971. Memos exchanged between the FBI Director and field offices reveal how the organization strategized to conceal its identity as the source of anonymous communication. The Bureau developed explicit techniques for managing the content of their messages, the materials used to construct print messages, and the distribution of those messages. The Bureau’s techniques suggest that organizational secrecy involves a high degree of coordination between members, but it may also …

Making Sense Of Hurtful Mother-In-Law Messages: Applying Attribution Theory To The In-Law Triad, Christine E. Rittenour, Jody Koenig Kellas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study focused on hurtful messages daughters-in-law (DILs, N = 132) reported receiving from mothers-in-law (MILs). Results reveal various hurtful message types: under- and over-involvement, personal attacks, and hurt communicated to or through a third party. Grounded in attribution theory, we examined DILs’ attributions for MILs’ hurtful messages and their perceived agreement with their husbands’ reasoning for the message. Our findings illuminate distress-maintaining and relationship-enhancing attribution biases for MILs’ behaviors, such that DILs who were less satisfied with their MILs tended to make more internal attributions for MIL hurtful behaviors, and more satisfied DILs tended to make more external attributions. …

Shaved Or Saved? Disciplining Women’S Bodies, Casey Ryan Kelly, Kristen E. Hoerl

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Proponents of sexual liberation and abstinence-until-marriage advocates appear to be on opposing ends of the sociopolitical spectrum; however, both are invested in the regulation of women’s vaginas. We argue that the rhetoric of both communities produces the same disciplinary configuration for the control of women’s bodies. Both communities instruct women that the appearance of a prepubescent and pure vagina is essential to sexual appeal and self-care. Whether sex positive or sex negative, both communities articulate a model of sexual health that negates women’s status as active, desiring subjects. Ultimately, we argue that public scrutiny of women’s vaginas implicitly and overtly …

Bringing Sexy Back: To What Extent Do Online Television Audiences Contest Fat-Shaming?, Debbie Rodan

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The latest reality program about weight loss makeover, Australian Channel Seven’s Bringing Sexy Back maintained the dominant frame of fat as bad, shameful and unsexy. Similar to other programs’ point of view, only slim bodies could claim to be healthy and sexy. Conversely the Fat Acceptance movement presents fat as beautiful, sexy, and healthy. But what did online audiences in 2014 think about Bringing Sexy Back? In this article online-viewer-generated comments are analysed to find out: a) whether audiences challenged and contested the dominant framing; and b) what phrases did they use to do this. The research task is …

Geo-Based Technologies, Tourists And Bushfires In Northern Australia, Donnell Holloway, David Holloway, Lelia Green

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This paper analyses how the use of geo-based technologies can play a role in the safety of tourism operations and tourist travel — especially in the case of bushfires. The study uses data from 42 qualitative interviews with tourists, tourism operators and other stakeholders in the remote Kununurra area of Western Australia carried out in 2012 and 2013. We contend that the spatiotemporal nature of tourism has stimulated considerable development in a range of geo - based technologies. The paper argues that geo-based technologies are an integral part of fire suppression and mitigation practices, and that tourists’ familiarity with geo-based …

From Grapes To Wine To Brands To Culture: A Qualitative Study Of Kentucky Wineries And Kentucky Wine Producers, Benjamin J. Triana

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

The Kentucky wine industry has grown from six wineries in 1999 to more than sixty wineries as of 2013. However, the industry has reached a crucial point in its development as funds allotted from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement ended in 2014. As a result, Kentucky wine producers must navigate the demands of local, regional, national, and international wine markets without the same amount of economic support provided in the early stages of the industry’s development.

The purpose of this study was to investigate (1) how Kentucky wine producers use cultural associations to manage their brands, (2) communicate with multiple …

Giving Voice To The Silence Of Family Estrangement: Comparing Reasons Of Estranged Parents And Adult Children In A Non-Matched Sample, Kristen Carr, Amanda J. Holman, Jenna Abetz, Jody Koenig Kellas, Elizabeth Vagnoni

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study investigated 898 parents’ and adult children’s reasons for estrangement in light of research on interpersonal attributions and the relational consequences of perspective taking. Three primary categories emerged: estrangement resulted from intrafamily, interfamily, or intrapersonal issues. Within each category, the frequency of parents’ and children’s reasons for estrangement differed significantly from each other. Parents reported that their primary reason for becoming estranged stemmed from their children’s objectionable relationships or sense of entitlement, whereas adult children most frequently attributed their estrangement to their parents’ toxic behavior or feeling unsupported and unaccepted. Parents also reported that they were unsure of the …

The Benefits And Risks Of Telling And Listening To Stories Of Difficulty Over Time: Experimentally Testing The Expressive Writing Paradigm In The Context Of Interpersonal Communication Between Friends, Jody Koenig Kellas, Haley Kranstuber Hortsman, Erin K. Willer, Kristen Carr

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The overarching goal of the current study was to determine the impact of talking interpersonally over time on emerging adults’ individual and relational health. Using an expressive writing study design (see Frattaroli, 2006), we assessed the degree to which psychological health improved over time for college students who told and listened to stories about friends’ current difficulties in comparison with tellers in control conditions. We also investigated the effects on tellers’ and listeners’ perceptions of each other’s communication competence, communicated perspective taking, and the degree to which each threatened the other’s face during the interaction over time to better understand …

Chaos, Reports, And Quests: Narrative Agency And Co-Workers In Stories Of Workplace Bullying, Stacy Tye-Williams, Kathleen J. Krone

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study examined narratives that targets of workplace bullying told about their difficult work experiences along with how co-workers were framed in these narratives. Three different narrative types emerged from their accounts: chaos, report, and quest narratives. Co-worker responses of support or lack thereof were related to the construction of various narrative forms and the level of narrative agency evident in target accounts. The study has important implications for the difference co-workers can make in a target’s ability to withstand bullying and narrate his or her experience.

High School Adolescents’ Perceptions Of The Parent–Child Sex Talk: How Communication, Relational, And Family Factors Relate To Sexual Health, Amanda Holman, Jody Koenig Kellas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This research focuses on how high school adolescents’ (n= 159) perceptions of parent– adolescent communication about sex, including communication frequency, parent–child closeness, parents’ communication competence and effectiveness, as well as the larger family environment relates to sexual risk-taking and permissive sexual attitudes. Findings show that perceived parental communication competence and effectiveness were the strongest negative predictors of adolescents’ permissive sexual attitudes and sexual risk-taking, whereas peer communication frequency was a significant positive predictor. In contrast with previous research, adolescents’ perception of parent communication frequency and family communication climate (e.g., conversation orientation and conformity orientation) was unrelated to adolescents’ sexual risk.

Communicating Ethos At The Center, Kristen Hoerl, Mercedes Kolb, Ethan Gregerson, William Butler

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Tutoring center staff must communicate their credibility to effectively assist students. Ethos is a term used within the discipline of rhetoric to describe the process of demonstrating one’s good character and credibility. Based on the works of Aristotle, ethos is one of three devices or modes of argumentative support. Ethos refers to the character of the speaker, whereas logos concerns effective reasoning, and pathos relates to the use of emotional appeals. Although they are often considered separately, appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos may function collectively to persuade an audience. While a speaker’s prior reputation influences audience perceptions, the concept …

Media Now: A Historical Review Of A Media Literacy Curriculum, Yonty Friesem, Diane Quaglia Beltran, Ed Crane

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The Elizabeth Thoman Archive at the Harrington School of Communication and Media, University of Rhode Island, has the last complete kit of one of the milestones in the early chronology of media literacy, the 1972 Media Now curriculum. This curriculum was the first of its kind, using self-contained lesson modules that were part of a larger series of kits, text references, and accompanying workbook. Its self-directed learning model gave students the opportunity to learn about the media, by doing, responding to, and reflecting on core concepts of media production. Using physical artifacts from the Media Now kit, historical documents, promotional …

‘‘Opening The Door’’: The History And Future Of Qualitative Scholarship In Interpersonal Communication, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

I was fortunate to start college during the earlier days of interpersonal communication classes being taught. From the first class, I was hooked. One of the best things about working in this area is being able to teach and study concepts and practices that make a difference in people’s lives. The theme guiding my work was adapted from a phrase Wayne Brockriede used— helping people expand their repertoire of communicative choices. This is the great joy and challenge of being an interpersonal communication (IPC) scholar.

I am honored to share this forum with such outstanding scholars. My article represents a …

“We Are Not Free”: The Meaning Of (Freedom) In American Indian Resistance To President Johnson’S War On Poverty, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay examines how the ideograph was crafted through dialectical struggles between Euro-Americans and American Indians over federal Indian policy between 1964 and 1968. For policymakers, was historically sutured to the belief that assimilation was the only pathway to American Indian liberation. I explore the American Indian youth movement’s response to President Johnson’s War on Poverty to demonstrate how activists rhetorically realigned in Indian policy with the Great Society’s rhetoric of “community empowerment.” I illustrate how American Indians orchestrated counterhegemonic resistance by reframing the “Great Society” as an argument for a “Greater Indian American.” This analysis evinces the rhetorical significance …

The Power Of Plur: Edmc As A Reflection Of A New Generation, Nichole Lorenz

Communication Studies

With such a broad amount of musical expression and cultural appeal, EDM has quickly become a captivating phenomenon in the United States in recent years. There is a significant trend going on with EDM culture and what it represents for youth today. For this reason, I want to dig further into the growing phenomenon of EDMC (Electronic Dance Music Culture) in the United States. I want to better understand what is going on beneath the surface façade of costumes and drug use. Why does this culture appeal to so many young people? In addition, I seek to find out whether …

Détournement, Decolonization, And The American Indian Occupation Of Alcatraz Island (1969–1971), Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

On November 20, 1969, eighty-nine American Indians calling themselves the “Indians of All Tribes” (IOAT) invaded Alcatraz Island. The group’s founding proclamation was addressed to “the Great White Father and All His People,” and declared “We, the Native Americans, reclaim the land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery” (2). Tongue in cheek, the IOAT offered to purchase Alcatraz Island for “twenty-four dollars in glass beads and red clothe.” In this essay, I illustrate how the IOAT engaged in a rhetoric of détournement, or a subversive misappropriation of dominant discourse that disassembles …

Telling The Story Of Stepfamily Beginnings: The Relationship Between Young-Adult Stepchildren’S Stepfamily Origin Stories And Their Satisfaction With The Stepfamily, Jody Koenig Kellas, Leslie Baxter, Cassandra Leclair-Underberg, Matthew Thatcher, Tracy Routsong, Emily Lamb Normand, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The current study adopts a narrative perspective in examining the content of 80 stepchildren’s stepfamily origin stories. Results reveal five types of stepfamily origin stories: Sudden, Dark-sided, Ambivalent, Idealized, and Incremental. Results support the hypothesis that story type would predict differences in family satisfaction; stepchildren who described their stepfamily origins as Idealized were more satisfied than those whose origins were Dark-sided or Sudden. Overall, participants framed their stepfamily identity more positively when their stepfamily beginnings were characterized by closeness, friendship, and even expected ups and downs, rather than when they were left out of the process of negotiating …

Reimagining The Self-Made Man: Myth, Risk, And The Pokerization Of America, Aaron M. Duncan

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This article takes a rhetorical approach to the rise of gambling in America, and in particular the growth of the game of poker, as a means to explore larger changes to America’s collective consciousness that have resulted in an increased acceptance of gambling. I contend that the rise of the risk society has resulted in significant alterations to the mythology that binds Americans together. I establish this claim through the exploration of ESPN’s coverage of the 2003 World Series of Poker and its use of the myth of the self-made man. I conclude that gambling works both to critique and …