SUNY series in Communication Studies – serie

This book is a postmodern analysis of Ronald Reagan's 1984 film, A New Beginning, which marked the coming-of-age of the televisual political campaign film. The film was a landmark in the art of political filmmaking. Its thesis proclaimed a resurgence of American pride, patriotism, and prosperity under the leadership of Ronald Reagan. A New Beginning was unprecedented for a number of reasons: it replaced the traditional nominating speech for the candidate at the Republican National Convention; its form was a hybrid documentary and advertisement; it illustrated the use of televisual rebirth rhetoric to gain public support for a political ideology; and, most importantly, the masterful project documented a shift from verbal to visual rhetoric in American presidential campaigning.The author examines the film as a cultural text and as an effective political tool. Framing, ideology, myth, and visual cliché are analytic tools used to deconstruct the film; the method combines rhetorical theory with communication theory and semiotically-based theories of film and television. Morreale gives insight into the increasingly prevalent use of television to create a political reality.

According to Deetz, our obsolete understanding of communication processes and power relations prevents us from seeing the corporate domination of public decision making. For most people issues of democracy, representation, freedom of speech, and censorship pertain to the State and its relationship to individuals and groups, and are linked to occasional political processes rather than everyday life decisions. This work reclaims the politics of personal identity and experience within the work environment as a first step to a democratic form of public decision-making appropriate to the modern context.

Critiques semiotic accounts of the nature of language and sets forth a dialogic alternative.This book analyzes the prominent view that language is basically a system of signs and symbols; outlines an alternative that builds on aspects of the philosophies of Heidegger, Gadamer, Buber, and Bakhtin; and employs this alternative to criticize accounts of language developed by V.N. Volosinov, Kenneth Burke, and Calvin O. Schrag. From the perspective of communication theory, this book extends some features of the postmodern critique of representationalism to develop a post-semiotic account of the nature of language as dialogic.

A book about how individuals decide that arguments (or excuses) are valid or invalid, sound or unsound, strong or weak, ethical or unethical, with many examples and applications.This book brings together essays that demonstrate the art of argument evaluation. The essays apply a variety of theoretical approaches to specific, historically-situated arguments in order to render a specific normative judgment. By bringing to bear knowledge of argumentation theory along with expertise pertaining to the specific arguments under investigation, this book illustrates the utility of argument evaluation as a discrete mode of scholarly engagement.

Deals with women in political power during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, Catherine de Medici, Mary II) and about the gender-based stereotypes that were produced rhetorically about them.The authors examine the political rhetoric of a number of powerful women of the Renaissance, male responses to this rhetoric, drama and fiction by both male and female authors considering women and political context, and how historians-then and now-have evaluated powerful women.A multi-disciplinary collection, the book includes an essay about Christine de Pizan and her fifteenth-century look at powerful women, an examination of seventeeth-century rhetoricians and how they viewed and reshaped the Renaissance in terms of giving power to women, and examples of English and French women in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.The afterword contextualizes these examples and raises questions about modern issues. The book provides a greater understanding of gender and power in the Renaissance as well as insights into the contemporary age.

Explores relationships between classical and contemporary approaches to rhetoric and their connection to the underlying assumptions at work in Zen Buddhism.Zen in the Art of Rhetoric interrogates the role of dualistic thought in human communication and culture, and offers new insights into the similarities and differences that mark Eastern and Western conceptualizations of language. Beginning with a reconsideration of the relationship between Zen Buddhism and rhetoric, the book progresses through a series of essays that examines the epistemological assumptions shared by pre-classical and postmodern rhetorics and Buddhist metaphysics, suggesting that the conception of rhetoric articulated by the Greek Sophists parallels the questioning of duality posed by Zenists as well as the critique of negation advanced by some postmodern theorists.Drawing on poetry, personal narratives, critical analysis, and epistemological explorations, this book expands traditional conceptions of rhetoric beyond an "art of persuasion" to a power to manage diverse conceptions of reality, freeing the study and practice of discourse from the essentializing constraints of foundationist philosophy. As an "inquiry into coherence," the book explores social, political, and pedagogical issues ranging from racism, to cultural and ethnic diversity, to the role of argument and persuasion in the creation and perpetuation of difference. The result of this exploration is an understanding of rhetoric as a Tao, a Way of being, thinking, and speaking grounded in what the author calls "dialogic coherence," an actively non-argumentative approach to language, life, and method that is based upon the philosophies and practices of the Eastern martial arts.

Leading scholars of classical rhetoric address contemporary topics in Greek rhetoric and oratory.This is a bone-crushing confrontation of contemporary questions about the origins and early development of Greek rhetorical theory and practice. It examines a number of important issues from several new perspectives, and offers a more complex and multi-faceted account of the early history of rhetoric than is to be found anywhere else. It is especially unique in bringing together in one place the work of several distinguished scholars of Greek rhetoric and oratory. It takes a revisionist look at the Sophists and explores Greek sites, settings, and culture in ways that challenge long-standing ideas about discourse in the polis. A passionate book full of satyrs rather than philosophers, it is innovative and bold, a treasure-house of provocative ideas.

Examines the nature of rhetorical theory and criticism, the rhetoric of science, and the impact of poststructuralism and postmodernism on contemporary accounts of rhetoric.Rhetorical Hermeneutics asks whether rhetorical theory can function as a general hermeneutic, a master key to texts. The dazzling central essay by Dilip Parameshwar Gaonkar questions rhetoric's globally interpretive status; Gaonkar begins with the ubiquity of rhetoric: "It is a habit of our time to invoke rhetoric, time and again, to make sense of a wide variety of discursive practices that beset and perplex us, and of discursive artifacts that annoy and entertain us, and of discursive formations that inscribe and subjugate us. Rhetoric is a way of reading the endless discursive debris that surrounds us."Starting from the work of John Angus Campbell, Alan Gross, and Lawrence Prelli on the rhetoric of science, Gaonkar broadens his critique to fundamental issues for any rhetorical theory and develops four questions that cut to the heart of the possibility of a (post)modern rhetoric: How can rhetoric, an art traditionally directed toward practice, transform itself into hermeneutic theory, a mode of reading? Does contemporary rhetorical theory have legitimate theoretical status? Can an intentional, strategic theory of rhetoric survive the poststructuralist, postmodernist critique? Is the case study, the centerpiece of rhetorical and ethnographic scholarship, epistemologically robust enough to bear the weight of a discipline?Representing a variety of disciplines, contributors to this volume include: M. Leff, D. McCloskey, J. A. Campbell, A. Gross, S. Fuller, C. Miller, C. Willard, J. Jasinski, W. Keith, D. Kaufer, A. King, and T. Farrell. In a pellucid final essay, "A Close Reading of the Third Kind," Gaonkar responds to his critics.

A corrected and extensively annotated version of the sole meeting between two of the most important figures in twentieth-century intellectual life.The Martin Buber-Carl Rogers Dialogue offers a corrected and extensively annotated version of this central text in human sciences. Focusing on the sole meeting between these two central figures in twentieth-century intellectual life, Anderson and Cissna return to the original 1957 audio tape and to a variety of other primary sources as they correct and clarify the historical record.The authors highlight hundreds of errors, major and minor, in previously distributed and published transcripts—beginning with the typescript circulated by Rogers himself. They also show how an accurate text enhances our understanding of the relationship between Buber's philosophy and Rogers's client- and person-centered approach to interpersonal relations. Anderson and Cissna discuss the central issues of the conversation, including the limits of mutuality, approaches to "self," alternative models of human nature, confirmation of others, and the nature of dialogic relation itself. Although Buber and Rogers conversed nearly forty years ago, their topics clearly resonate with contemporary debates about postmodernism, forms of otherness, cultural studies, and the possibilities for a dialogic public sphere.

Offers insight and practical guidance for people interested in improving their interpersonal relationships in an age of rampant cynicism.Dialogic Civility in a Cynical Age offers a philosophical and pragmatic response to unreflective cynicism. Considering that each of us has faced inappropriate cynical communication in families, educational institutions, and the workplace, this book offers insight and practical guidance for people interested in improving their interpersonal relationships in an age of rampant cynicism.

Advocates applying a spirit of play to everyday life.In this lively and enlightening book, Paul Brenner suggests that treating life's events and everyday activities as a game would lead to a more socially functional and effective society. Through compelling suggestions and dynamic anecdotes, he conceptualizes all our economic, political, social, and spiritual pursuits in terms of role-play, and demonstrates the contribution this perspective can make to the happiness of individuals and to the systemic welfare of an increasingly complex social order.

Explores antagonistic encounters between people, both individuals and groups, and governments.In the form of demonstrations, social movements, guerrilla warfare, and internet "hacktivism," political dissidents or "counterpublics" challenge the state and assert themselves upon the public stage. At stake in such engagements are profound issues of political and economic redistribution, individual and collective rights, political legitimacy, social stability, and identity. This book explores encounters between marginalized people and states to better understand the contours of social controversy and social transformation borne from conflict.

Explores new ways to think about privacy and disclosure.Offering a practical theory for why people make decisions about revealing and concealing private information, Boundaries of Privacy taps into everyday problems in our personal relationships, our health concerns, and our work to investigate the way we manage our private lives. Petronio argues that in addition to owning our own private information, we also take on the responsibility of guarding other people's private information when it is put into our trust. This can often lead to betrayal, errors in judgment, deception, gossip, and privacy dilemmas. Petronio's book serves as a guide to understanding why certain decisions about privacy succeed while others fail.

Drawing on examples from contemporary life, Woodward explores rhetorical conditions that create powerful moments of identification.Illustrated with interesting examples drawn from politics and art, The Idea of Identification draws on classical social and rhetorical theories to establish a systematic framework for understanding the varieties and forms of identification. Woodward references a variety of contexts in contemporary life to explore the rhetorical conditions that create powerful and captivating moments. By invoking the influential ideas of Kenneth Burke, George Herbert Mead, Joshua Meyrowitz and others, he shows how the rhetorical process of identification is separate from psychological theories of identity construction. Woodward concludes with an argument that film theory has perhaps offered the most vivid descriptive categories for understanding the bonds of identification.

Looks at the critical role of community members and other interested parties in environmental policy decision making.The contributors to this volume explore the communication practices of various stakeholders-interested citizens, grassroots and public interest groups, industry representatives, scientists and technical experts, government agencies, federal regulators-engaged in a variety of environmental decision-making contexts in the U.S. and elsewhere. Included are case studies that analyze individuals and organizations participating both within institutional mechanisms and through alternative forms of environmental advocacy. These studies reveal that public participation in environmental decision making is both shaped by and, in many cases, constrained by the ways in which environmental issues, problems, and solutions are defined or framed through the strategic communication practices of the participants.

Offers a conceptual foundation for nonviolent rhetoric.This remarkable book asserts that nonviolent rhetoric, largely overlooked until now, supports conflict transformation when applied to contemporary political communication. Ellen W. Gorsevski explores the pragmatic nonviolence of Macedonian President Kiro Gligorov, the visual rhetoric of Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, and an anti-racist campaign in Billings, Montana. In so doing, she establishes a foundation for theorizing how conflicts can be understood, prevented, managed, or reduced by employing peace-minded rhetorical means. Peaceful Persuasion highlights the great possibilities, as well as deep responsibilities, of rhetorical choices made on the geopolitical scene and uncovers the transformative potential of recognizing the social, cultural, and political value of nonviolence in fostering democracy.

Using penetrating, in-depth interviews, examines the individual political development of young adults in post-1960s America, and the roles that news media play in that development.This groundbreaking book examines the significance of the news media for the political beliefs and behavior of contemporary Americans. Relying on original, in-depth interviews with members of the group known as Generation X, Marco Calavita analyzes the memories and understandings of these individuals' political development dating back to childhood. Specifically, he focuses on the developmental significance of news media engagement in the context of institutions and phenomena like family, peers, schooling, and popular culture. Calavita succeeds where others have failed at exploring the inevitably contextualized and ecological nature of individual political development, and the specific roles of news media in that development. Apprehending Politics illuminates the subtle but fundamental power of news media in who we are politically, and how we got that way.

Contributors engage the communication issues associated with violence in families, including interspousal violence and violent parents and children.Although the United States has a high level of affluence and education compared to much of the rest of the world, neither wealth nor schooling ensures personal safety, particularly within the family and home. Every ten seconds, a child is beaten, neglected, or molested by his or her own family members, and many couples and children can be violent, abusive, and aggressive towards other family members as well. Family Violence focuses on the communication processes that occur before, during, and after these episodes. Contributors to the volume include both established scholars and newcomers to the communication field who use quantitative and qualitative approaches to unravel the complexities of the communication processes that are at the center of violence in families. Essays cover a range of topics, focusing separately on couples violence and violence between parents and children, and through the lens of communication research shed new light on the significant problem of domestic violence in the United States.

This book focuses on the most powerful agency of value formation in our time - the video image as purveyed through television and mass media. Special attention is given to the impact of television on education and the challenges of instructing a generation of children who have never know a time BT, that is, "before television."Both the negative and the positive implications and consequences of video technology are discussed in the book by a range of experts in the humanities and social sciences. Among the prominent issues and questions: How does television function as an agent of value formation? What is the impact of conventional, commercial format on values and critical judgment? What is a video text and how is it different from a convention text? How do we develop the instructional tools to teach people to be critical viewers? What is television's place in the arts and what is a video artist? What happens to consciousness after viewing 30,000 or more hours of television by the time an individual graduates from high school? Is the growing problem of aliteracy directly attributable to television?The social and moral implications of television during its "second 50 years" will be profound and far-reaching. The authors of Video Icons and Values provide valuable clues as to what these implications are, will be, and what can be done about them.

This book relates the concept of civility to rhetorical disposition, and incivility to indisposition. The author discusses classical rhetorical theory and interprets it for use in all interactions, exploring origins in infancy of the rhetorical disposition and the rhetorical indisposition. He provides four case-study chapters of the lives of individuals illustrating unhealthy narcissism and rhetorical failure - Jim Jones, Joseph McCarthy, Paul Morel, and Tiberius Gracchus. These cases illustrate how unfavorable narcissism can give adverse direction to the rhetorical imperative and lead to problems in relationships. Barrett offers a rhetorical corrective.

This handbook examines the communication aspects of the management position in academia. Most academic department chairs are not trained in management skills, including communication strategies. While previous works have dealt with personnel and time management issues, this book illustrates how to communicate with faculty, students, consultation teams, and other administrators in ways that improve the workings of a department while decreasing the workload and tension that often accompany the appointment.

This book provides a practical and accessible way of evaluating good and bad arguments used in everyday conversations by applying normative models of dialectical (interactive) argumentation, where two parties reason together in an orderly and cooperative way. Using case studies, the author analyzes correct and incorrect uses of argumentation on controversial issues that engage the reader's interest while illustrating points in a practical way. Walton gives clear explanations of the most common errors and tricky deceptions - traditionally called "fallacies" - that can trip up an unwary arguer.

Deals with women in political power during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, Catherine de Medici, Mary II) and about the gender-based stereotypes that were produced rhetorically about them.The authors examine the political rhetoric of a number of powerful women of the Renaissance, male responses to this rhetoric, drama and fiction by both male and female authors considering women and political context, and how historians-then and now-have evaluated powerful women.A multi-disciplinary collection, the book includes an essay about Christine de Pizan and her fifteenth-century look at powerful women, an examination of seventeeth-century rhetoricians and how they viewed and reshaped the Renaissance in terms of giving power to women, and examples of English and French women in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.The afterword contextualizes these examples and raises questions about modern issues. The book provides a greater understanding of gender and power in the Renaissance as well as insights into the contemporary age.

Provides insight into the world of political communication through its explication of theory and research methodology.Focusing on theoretical and methodological insight, this book brings together scholars from a variety of fields whose research is guided by diverse analytical approaches. Instead of focusing on what divides scholars, the authors explore areas of intellectual community, building a more systematic and rigorous understanding ofpolitical communication. By broadening and deepening understanding of the field, this book provides insight into political processes that would otherwise be lacking.

Argues that the legitimacy of the Chinese government relies on two factors: the national myth of revolution and ideological orthodoxy.The reform program of Deng Xiaoping in the People's Republic of China constitutes one of the most significant political and social change programs in recent history. A singularly important question arises from this experiment: How does a nation implement a stock market and call it Marxism? This book answers this question by examining the official discourse bridging the gap between the reform policies and orthodox Marxism. Focusing on Chinese Communist Party Congresses and the Resolution on CPC History, the author extends recent writings on the reforms by analyzing the ways in which the Chinese leadership justified the reforms, in the face of social and economic turmoil, such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square movement.Also examined is the role of discourse in the Chinese political culture. The author argues that legitimacy of the government in China rests on two factors: the national myth of revolution and ideological orthodoxy. These serve the same legitimating functions in the Communist political culture as the Confucian doctrines of the Mandate of Heaven and virtue, providing continuity in political discourse across the centuries, although the political systems have changed drastically.

This interdisciplinary conversation discusses the nature of language.Beyond the Symbol Model: Reflections on the Representational Nature of Language presents arguments on several sides of the contemporary debate over the representational nature of language. Contributors include philosophers, linguists, psychologists, semioticians, and communication theorists from the U. S., Canada, Britain, Northern Ireland, and Israel. The chapters respond to the argument that language can no longer be viewed as a system of signs or symbols, and that a post-semiotic account can be developed from the recognition that language is first and foremost constitutive articulate contact. Three chapters extend this argument, two frame it historically, three disagree, and one contextualizes the "beyond enterprise" itself.The book is a companion volume to Language as Articulate Contact: Toward a Post-Semiotic Philosophy of Communication. These two books contribute to the ongoing conversation about the nature of language that is strongly influencing theory and research in virtually all the human studies.

This interdisciplinary conversation discusses the nature of language.Beyond the Symbol Model: Reflections on the Representational Nature of Language presents arguments on several sides of the contemporary debate over the representational nature of language. Contributors include philosophers, linguists, psychologists, semioticians, and communication theorists from the U. S., Canada, Britain, Northern Ireland, and Israel. The chapters respond to the argument that language can no longer be viewed as a system of signs or symbols, and that a post-semiotic account can be developed from the recognition that language is first and foremost constitutive articulate contact. Three chapters extend this argument, two frame it historically, three disagree, and one contextualizes the "beyond enterprise" itself.The book is a companion volume to Language as Articulate Contact: Toward a Post-Semiotic Philosophy of Communication. These two books contribute to the ongoing conversation about the nature of language that is strongly influencing theory and research in virtually all the human studies.

Leading scholars of classical rhetoric address contemporary topics in Greek rhetoric and oratory.This is a bone-crushing confrontation of contemporary questions about the origins and early development of Greek rhetorical theory and practice. It examines a number of important issues from several new perspectives, and offers a more complex and multi-faceted account of the early history of rhetoric than is to be found anywhere else. It is especially unique in bringing together in one place the work of several distinguished scholars of Greek rhetoric and oratory. It takes a revisionist look at the Sophists and explores Greek sites, settings, and culture in ways that challenge long-standing ideas about discourse in the polis. A passionate book full of satyrs rather than philosophers, it is innovative and bold, a treasure-house of provocative ideas.

How do individuals tell their success stories when they want to secure recognition, but avoid appearing arrogant? By examining success stories of Nobel Prize winners, athletes, and Mary Kay Cosmetics consultants, this work analyzes this fundamental type of interpersonal communication.In Telling the Success Story, Pamela Benoit analyzes the success story as a delicate interpersonal accomplishment that involves balancing complimenting, bragging, modesty, and self-enhancement. She argues that success stories are self-presentations that are fundamental to interpersonal communication. This discourse involves the negotiation of personal identities and affects relational outcomes. It is important for individuals, businesses, and other organizations to create a favorable impression when they describe their successes.Although scholars have given considerable attention to defensive impression management in descriptions of accounts for undesirable events, this is the first book to systematically examine discourse about desirable personal events. The success stories of Nobel Prize winners, athletes, and Mary Kay consultants offer an enticing invitation to explore the practical accomplishment of success narratives and provides a model for other analyses of intricate interpersonal accomplishments.