Department of Communication Studies

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://hdl.handle.net/10217/100386

These digital collections include theses, dissertations, and faculty publications from the Department of Communication Studies. Due to departmental name changes, materials from the following historical departments are also included here: Speech and Theatre Arts; Speech Communication.

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Open Access
A uses and gratification study of public radio audiences
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1982) Bluebond, Scott D., author; Phillips, Dennis D., advisor; Bruner, Howard D., committee member; Pendell, Sue D., committee member
This thesis sought to find out why people listen to public radio. The uses and gratifications data gathering approach was implemented for public radio audiences. Questionnaires were sent out to 389 listener/contributors of public radio in northern Colorado. KCSU-FM in Fort Collins and KUNC-FM in Greeley agreed to provide such lists of listener/contributors. One hundred ninety-two completed questionnaires were returned and provided the sample base for the study. The respondents indicated they used public radio primarily for its news, its special programming, and/or because it is entertaining. Her/his least likely reasons for using public radio are for diversion and/or to transmit culture from one generation to the next. The remaining uses and gratifications categories included in the study indicate moderate reasons for using public radio. Various limitations of the study possibly tempered the results. These included the sample used and the method used to analyze the data. Conducting the research necessary for completion of this study made evident the fact that more research needs to be done to improve the uses and gratifications approach to audience analysis. The identification of the uses and non-uses of public radio have helped lay a foundation for future research in this area.
Open Access
Rhetorical operatives in selected blues lyrics of Bessie Smith
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1983) Bowers, Detine L., author; Vancil, David L., advisor; Irvine, James, committee member; Gravlee, G. Jack, committee member; Sims, William, committee member
A joint study of music and rhetoric allows for the expansion of the function and scope of both disciplines. This study is concerned with the periphery of rhetoric, specifically, its relationship to 1920s Blues. Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine whether popular musical lyrics can be analyzed rhetorically and to further assess the potential rhetorical operatives in Blues lyrics by Bessie Smith. The subject, Bessie Smith, and the study, are justified because both attempt to articulate an idea based on a particular culture; the former applies the theory whereas the latter explains the theory and how it has useful rhetorical dimensions. Thus, the study examines how Blues lyrics modify existing attitudes. In order to assess the extent of attitude modification, the study reviews the cultural context in which Blues was performed, develops a conceptual model, based on Burkeian theoretical premises, for analyzing rhetorical operatives in Blues lyrics, and applies the model to selected Blues lyrics. The conclusion to this study points to how a poetic form functions rhetorically. By analyzing nine selected lyrics composed by Bessie Smith between 1923 and 1930, it can be concluded that her lyrics were persuasive statements which sustained Black America until the inception of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. In many respects, Blues serves as a liberating catharsis for Blacks amidst oppression. Bessie Smith employs an epideictic address while influencing the Black audience. At the time of Bessie Smith's performance, Blacks were in the midst of a premovement era and Blues was a means for communicating by evoking the transcendence of pain incurred by Black degradation and deprivation. From this perspective, it may be concluded that Bessie Smith's Blues was a "responsible rhetoric."
Open Access
Memorializing the Holocaust: Schindler's List and public memory
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1996) Ott, Brian L., author; Gordon and Breach, publisher
No effort to memorialize the Holocaust has been as far reaching in American culture as Steven Spielberg's 1994 film, Schindler's List. As a result of its nearly unanimous acclaim, Schindler's List is now being heralded as a watershed event in Hollywood. Reviewers hold it up as a model of how entertainment can be used to convey a serious educational message? In light of its cultural scope, this essay seeks to describe the relationship between the film and public memory surrounding the Holocaust. While Schindler's List is undoubtedly an aesthetic and artistic masterpiece, the author contends that it not only fails to create but structurally disallows self-reflective spaces for internal memory-work. Rather than prompting us to struggle with the difficult issues of the Holocaust, the film is structured in such a way as to completely shoulder our memory-burden. By analyzing its formal elements, the author demonstrates how Schindler's List fuels our desire for resolution and comfort which it then fulfills by constructing an ideologically conservative sanctuary for the spectator. The author concludes the essay by considering the social and political implications of such a project. In advancing the argument of this essay, the author does not wish to judge the film in any simplistic sense. There is much about the film that is important, provocative, and productive. The author believes it is possible to retain these elements while at the same time suggesting the film's principal shortcomings.
Open Access
Bridging scholarly theory and forensic practice: toward a more pedagogical model of rhetorical criticism
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 1998) Ott, Brian L., author; National Forensic Association, publisher
In this essay, the author contends that competitors in the event of rhetorical criticism, or communication analysis (CA) as it is alternatively called, are locked into a model that poses serious questions about the educational value of the event. In an effort to narrow the ever widening gap between theory and practice and to heighten the pedagogical value of contest rhetorical criticism, the author proposes to chart briefly the chief features of the existing RC model, to identify the limitations posed by that model, and to suggest several viable alternatives.
Open Access
Intertextuality: interpretive practice and textual strategy
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2000) Walter, Cameron, author; Ott, Brian L., author; National Communication Association, publisher
In contemporary media scholarship, the concept of intertextuality is used to describe both an interpretive practice of audiences and a stylistic device consciously employed by producers of media. This study examines how the frequent, scholarly conflation of these two conceptions has weakened the theoretical usefulness of both perspectives. Turning to the view of intertextuality as stylistic device, the essay identifies parodic allusion, creative appropriation, and self-reflexive reference as three distinct intertextual strategies. It concludes by considering the ways audiences use these devices to define their identities and order their experiences.
Open Access
Popular imagination and identity politics: reading the future in Star Trek: The Next Generation
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2001) Aoki, Eric, author; Ott, Brian L., author; Western States Communication Association, publisher
Through an analysis of the popular syndicated television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, this essay begins to theorize the relationship between collective visions of the future and the identity politics of the present. Focusing on the tension between the show's utopian rhetoric of the future and its representational practices with regard to race, gender, and sexuality, it is argued that The Next Generation invites audiences to participate in a shared sense of the future that constrains human agency and (re)produces the current cultural hegemony with regard to identity politics. The closing section calls for critics to continue politicizing mediated images that appeal to popular imagination and to develop and implement a pedagogical practice of counter-imagination.
Open Access
Mixed messages: resistance and reappropriation in rave culture
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2003) Ott, Brian L., author; Herman, Bill D., author; Western States Communication Association, publisher
This essay concerns the dynamic tension between resistance and reappropriation in the youth subcultural practice of raving. We argue that the transgressive potential of underground rave culture lies primarily in its privileging of communion, which is facilitated along the intersecting axes of social space, authorship, the body, and the drug Ecstasy. The commodification of rave culture is demonstrated to be linked to a shifting consciousness reflected in changing attitudes toward Ecstasy, the relocation of dance culture into clubs, and the redefinition of the DJ as artist and superstar. A concluding section considers the implications of resistance and reappropriation in rave culture for social change and the exercise of power.
Open Access
"I'm Bart Simpson, who the hell are you?" A study in postmodern identity (re)construction
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2003) Ott, Brian L., author; Blackwell Publishing, publisher
Difference- and subsequently, identity- is now defined and affirmed through consumer choice. Though generally the author is compelled by the theoretical claims surrounding this apparent shift, in this article he wishes to problematize and then clarify those claims in an important way. Efforts to theorize shifting conceptions of identity have preceded largely without, in Kellner's words, "systematic and sustained examination of the actual texts and practices of popular media culture". Indeed, van Poecke's essay, one of the most sophisticated treatments of this subject, makes not a single reference to a specific media text. Consequently, much of the existing literature regarding postmodern identity represents the break from modernist notions far too cleanly, and in a manner that does not adequately reflect the lived experiences of present-day subjects. The hope is that by studying a specific case, the theory can be refined so as to better assist people in negotiating their rhetorical environments. To accomplish this aim, this article undertakes an analysis of the Fox network's thirty-minute, award-winning animated series, The Simpsons.
Open Access
Counter-imagination as interpretive practice: futuristic fantasy and The Fifth Element
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2004) Aoki, Eric, author; Ott, Brian L., author; Organization for Research on Women and Communication, publisher
This essay concerns the relationship between popular cinematic visions of the future and present day identity politics. The authors argue that despite its futuristic setting celebrating technological progress and multiculturalism, Luc Besson's 1997 film The Fifth Element constructs sexual and racial difference in a manner that privileges and naturalizes White heterosexual masculinity. The essay offers counter-imagination as an interpretive practice that destabilizes the categories of sexual and racial difference as they are negotiated within appeals to popular imagination.
Open Access
(Re)Locating pleasure in media studies: toward an erotics of reading
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2004) Ott, Brian L., author; Routledge, publisher
ab-stract, (n.) 1. a summary of points (as of a writing) usu. presented in skeletal form.(adj.) 1. difficult to understand: abstruse. (vt.) 1. dissociate, remove, separate. This essay concerns how language is, at once, structured (producing meaning) and infinite (destabilizing meaning). Both functions of language are tied to pleasure. Contemporary critical media studies, it is argued, has attacked the pleasure (plaisir) of language's structuring function while simultaneously repressing the pleasure (jouissance) of language's dismantling function. Is this to(o) abstract?
Open Access
Memory and myth at the Buffalo Bill Museum
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2005) Aoki, Eric, author; Ott, Brian L., author; Dickinson, Greg, author; Western States Communication Association, publisher
Few places tell the myth of the American frontier more vigorously than the Buffalo Bill Museum does in Cody, Wyoming. Traveling to the museum through the 'Western' landscape of Wyoming into the foothills of the Rockies prepares visitors for the tale of Western settlement. This narrative, which works to secure a particular vision of the West, draws upon the material artifacts of Cody's childhood and his exploits as scout, Pony Express rider and showman. The museum retells the story that Cody first told to millions at the turn of the twentieth century in his Wild West arena show. In this paper, we argue that the museum privileges images of masculinity and Whiteness, while using the props, films, and posters of Buffalo Bill's Wild West to carnivalize the violent conflicts between Anglo Americans and Native Americans.
Open Access
A dangerous message: the material effects of Enough
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2006) Richards, Joseph P., author; Holling, Michelle A., advisor; Bubar, Roe W., committee member; Dickinson, Greg, committee member
Domestic violence is a cultural epidemic in U.S. society. How we define, perceive, and treat domestic violence is a product of the material rhetorics about it. Since film is a prominent mode of rhetorical discourse, I examine how the issue of domestic violence is represented in the 2002 film Enough. I argue that the film presents a view of domestic violence that offers space for empowerment, but serves to potentially place real women in danger. I undertake a dual-methodological approach using a textual analysis of the film and a focus group discussion with female domestic violence professionals/providers to discern the negative material effects of Enough. In my concluding section, drawing from feedback from the focus group participants, I offer suggestions for improving portrayals of domestic violence that may lead to ending this problem.
Open Access
Should I stay or should I go?: the rhetoric of "scorned political wives"
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Reeder, Mal, author; Burgchardt, Carl R., advisor; Carcasson, Martin, 1972-, committee member; Sloane, Sarah, committee member
This thesis examines the rhetoric of Elizabeth Edwards and Jenny Sanford, two "scorned political wives." In the wake of their husbands' extramarital affairs, Edwards and Sanford needed to respond to embarrassing and identity-challenging rhetorical situations. Forced to defend their choices as wives and mothers, Edwards and Sanford answered the question, "Should I stay or should I go?" Although their persuasive purposes were quite different, Edwards and Sanford each employed effective rhetoric to heighten their credibility and restore their place in society. Elizabeth Edwards chose to preserve her marriage, while Jenny Sanford decided to sever her marital bonds. By examining the themes and persuasive strategies each woman used to meet her overall goals, this thesis uncovers lines of argument, or topoi, that may be characteristic of an emerging genre of "scorned political wives."
Open Access
Ushering in participatory democracy on cyber waves of change? The possibilities of an interactive White House
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Purnell, Amanda Lynn, author; Griffin, Cindy, advisor; Daum, Courtenay, committee member; Sprain, Leah, committee member
This thesis seeks to understand in what ways the Obama administration uses web-based technologies to fulfill key campaign promises for transparency and participation, as well as how those strategies may foster participatory democracy. To answer these questions, the thesis engages conversations of interactivity, interpellation, participatory democracy and the role the net generation plays in the future of participatory democracy in the United States. The project considers two key features of WhiteHouse.gov—the Briefing Room and the Blog—as well as the administration's online presence on Facebook through their White House Live feature. It concludes that the administration is fulfilling most of their campaign promises, but not all of those promises have the capacity to promote participatory democracy. The American public has more access to their government, and to information, but has little actual influence in everyday governing. This thesis also suggests that the Obama administration is putting forth a new understanding of American citizenship that interpellates an active citizen. The characteristics the administration attributes to this active citizen align with the characteristics attributed to members of the net generation. The implications of these findings and the barriers to participatory democracy are discussed as the project concludes by considering the future of politics in the United States.
Open Access
Care-ing about patients: the construction, performance, and organization of communication and care in medical education
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Clement, Elise, author; Broadfoot, Kirsten J., advisor; Merolla, Andrew J., committee member; Shaw, Jane R., committee member
In an era where health care is becoming increasingly expensive and reform is on the political agenda, it is important to understand what specifically can be reformed or altered to change the way health care is both understood and administered. To begin, what can be revealed through analyzing the way that health care providers themselves understand both care and communication? This master's thesis uses a dialogic approach to understand how both communication and care are taught and understood in medical education programs. Medical educators at five medical schools in the United States were interviewed regarding their role in teaching communication and clinical skills at their respective schools. Interview data was coded and categorized in effort to better understand how each school constructs and performs the concepts of communication and care. After uncovering how these ideas are understood, suggestions were put forth regarding how medical education curriculums might be changed in the future to better equip future doctors with the demands of delivering quality health care to a multitude of patients with varying desires, needs, and understanding of what it means to be "healthy". After analyzing interview data, this study reveals that the ways in which medical students understand communication and care have material implications for the ways they engage in clinical interactions. Therefore, altering the way these concepts are understood can potentially change the ways doctors interact with their patients. In a time when health care is changing drastically each year, these findings provide tools to make cost and time effective changes in medical education that create important changes for future of medicine. The specific changes offered by this study provide a framework for future curriculums to follow to ensure that programs meet accreditation standards, while also providing the most innovative and advanced teaching and learning methods to educate future doctors. While the sample used for this study is small, its findings still illustrate how medical education might change to better educate students. Further, the study illustrates a need for change and suggests how the methods used here might be combined with others to reveal further areas of focus for curriculum reform. The conclusions of this study reveal that health care reform can begin in the context of medical education and how reconceptualizing foundational ideas like communication and care can better equip medical students for their future clinical interactions.
Open Access
. . . [elipsis]
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Ernest, Alicia C., author; Broadfoot, Kirsten, advisor; Diffrient, Scott, advisor; Ishiwata, Eric, committee member
The ellipsis performs various functions in U.S. culture. It euphemizes, it transgresses, it represents an omission of text, and it occupies a space between words and yet has meaning. For these reasons, the ellipsis is an appropriate icon to organize the chapters of this text. This thesis proposes that the speaking subject is always already in a position that is simultaneously defined and transgressed by language and analyzes the subsequent linguistic performances enacted to negotiate with that position. The borders that form individual and national identity perceptions are imagined and yet, consequential. All speaking subjects exist in a space of discontinuity and must forever negotiate the irreducible gap between meaning and language, and subsequently, a temporal experience of identity. This thesis proposes that this condition of language renders the speaking subject a linguistic audience as abject. In an effort to negotiate this unbearable abjection, the speaking subject continuously participates in identity boundary performances in order to delineate spaces of self and other and spaces of identification, as well as to experience meaning. This delineation process in itself is neutral, but must be analyzed for its effect in practice. The effects of these performances become highly consequential in the complicated and highly contested spaces of national identity. In these spaces, the illusive boundary between self and other is exaggerated with simultaneous attempts to assimilate difference within. It is the task of this thesis to engage poststructural and psychoanalytic theories with texts that inform and delineate the frames of U.S. national identity and Native American identity. This thesis will primarily take up and build upon Kristiva’s abjection, Baudrillard’s conceptions of the virtual positive, and a Barthesian and Derridian influenced notion of authority. These theories are then engaged in an analysis of texts that inform Native American realities. The purpose for this engagement will be to challenge the reader to realize her/his own authority in the texts that inform her/his own identity and the identity of the self-created other. The aim is to position the subject in a space of conscious participation in responsible meaning making. The analysis will focus on the texts, “Native” and “House Bill 10-1067,” relying on these texts’ intertextual references to complicate seemingly harmless recent associations. These texts are relevant to this study because they continue to inform past and present conceptions of the United States as a nation-state and in turn continue to frame the material realities for Native communities. Overall, this thesis unpacks the notion that all speaking subjects are participating players on the stage of a large-scale identity boundary performance. In framing the subject’s position in this elliptical space, there is a suggestion for subjects to consider their lines in this performance, for their consequences and potential, in the forever negotiation of difference/self-reference, mise-en-abime.
Open Access
Unmasking the expert deceiver: grounded theory analysis of long-term, high-stakes deception expertise development
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Bertrand, Heather, author; Merolla, Andrew, advisor; Unnithan, N. Prabha, 1952-, committee member; Anderson, Karrin Vasby, committee member
The current study attempted to garner knowledge about expert deceivers by analyzing personal accounts of their deceptive behaviors. The goal was to understand the methods these individuals employed to become master deceivers. A selection of 12 autobiographical texts describing the exploits of three types of expert deceivers (i.e., confidence artists, espionage agents, and undercover law enforcement agents) were analyzed using a categorizational system derived from previous grounded theory research. The results from the analysis led to the development of the deception skill model, which illustrates the complex relationship of processes that occur during the development and utilization of deception expertise. Knowledge gained from this study adds to the existent body of deception research along with, potentially, adding a new avenue of deception research and practical applications for deception detectors.
Open Access
Dancing in/out/around/about the closet: narrating autoethnographic agency from [a] marginalized voice
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Hummel, Gregory Sean, author; Griffin, Cindy L., advisor; Aoki, Eric, committee member; Brantmeier, Edward J., committee member
The purposes of this study were threefold: (1) to understand the significance of autoethnography with the communication studies field; (2) to question the relationship between/within theoretical frameworks on identity, voice, and agency; and (3) to theorize on the affects of coming out through the lenses of identity, voice, and agency from an autoethnographic perspective. In short, the study finds autoethnographic perspectives to be a fruitful endeavor for communication scholars seeking to understand a more holistic picture of the human condition, while calling for more research to enhance theoretical conceptualizations of identity, voice, and agency. Furthermore, this study suggests that autoethnographic perspectives can offer voice to otherwise silenced identities, while also providing re/presentations for individuals who lack representation in and/or outside of the academy. Finally, this study urges individuals who avow to being an ally for marginalized individuals/groups to actively voice their support in order to create more comfortable/safe spaces within and/or outside of the classroom.
Open Access
Talking peace: an evaluation of peace circle community building events in secondary education
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Bruns, Mallorie Ann, author; Merolla, Andrew, advisor; Timpson, William M., committee member; Griffin, CIndy L., committee member
The dialogue-centered program, Peace Circles, aims to foster connection between school community members by bringing them together to share stories from their lives. Advocates of Peace Circles contend that they help community members develop a greater understanding and appreciation for one another. The purpose of this study is to examine and evaluate two Peace Circles events that took place in April 2009 in northern Colorado high schools. More specifically, this study sought to determine the degree to which participation in Peace Circles affects students' and community members' perceptions of school connectedness. In addition, this study explored the reasons that participants would or would not participate in future Peace Circles. This study employed a survey-based methodology, asking participants to complete surveys both before and after partaking in Peace Circles. Results indicated that individuals' perception of school connectedness increased following their participation in the Peace Circles. That is, participants reported statistically significantly higher scores on school connectedness items on post-event surveys than on pre-event surveys. Over 95% of participants also reported that they would be willing to participate in future Peace Circles. Content analysis of participants' written responses produced six categories of reasons for why participants would attend future Peace Circles events: 1) the event was a positive experience, 2) the event fostered connection, 3) the event resulted in a sense of gain, 4) the event was conducive to sharing, 5) the event had a process that participants appreciated, and 6) the event fostered a better school environment. To conceptualize program effectiveness, the author draws upon literature from adolescent and child development, as well as educational research on school connectedness. Several theoretical perspectives were utilized to define the goals of Peace Circles, including dialogue, restorative practices, and conflict resolution. Applications and suggestions for future research are offered by the author, with the goal of promoting continued, theory-based utilization of Peace Circles in schools.
Open Access
"Can we fix it?": Bob the Builder as a discursive resource for children
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2010) Freed, Brianna, author; Broadfoot, Kirsten, advisor; Aoki, Eric, advisor; Harvey, Ashley, committee member; Aoki, Eric, committee member
This thesis examines the discourses and representations constructed in the popular children's television series Bob the Builder--a discursive resource that engages work as its central theme. Through a critical cultural lens, the study uses critical discourse analysis and visual semiotics to explore the constructions of work/er, organization, non-work activities, family, gender, and diversity as they are (re)presented in the show. The study found that Bob the Builder distinctly (re)presents values of the postmodern, postindustrial worker of Western, advanced corporate capitalism. Leisure and play are portrayed as activities which, ideally, do not affect work. Family is equally placed in the periphery as family members are either placed entirely outside the organization--as with Wendy's family--or as contributing members to its operation--as with Bob's family. Gender representations are problematized by Wendy's denied occupational identity as a builder equal to her male counterpart. Diversity in the show is problematic with minimal non-White ethnic representation and two overtly stereotypical representations of supporting characters. Directions for future research are offered in the conclusion.