Political Science Commons^™

The Buck Stops In Benghazi: A Practical Application Of The Dramatistic Pentad And Interpersonal Deception Theory, Robert Taylor Kirk

Masters Theses

This study sought to determine whether or not the rhetoric of the Obama administration in response to the attacks on the consulate in Benghazi provided motivation for deception in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. This was done by utilizing Burke's dramatistic pentad to frame the events of the attack the responsive rhetoric to lay the foundation for a qualitative analysis that was conducted using criteria distilled from Buller and Burgoon's Interpersonal Deception Theory. This study posed two research questions. The first research question sought to determine through the use of the pentad whether …