Browsing by Subject "Barack Obama"
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Item Barack Obama and the rhetoric of a black president(2013-12) Young-Johnson, Connie; Brummett, Barry, 1951-This dissertation analyzes the discourse of Obama’s speeches to argue my thesis that Obama won election by virtue of his rhetorical speechmaking but more specifically, his ability to manage race in those speeches. I define and refer to Obama’s rhetorical handling of race in his speechmaking throughout the campaign as the rhetoric of race management. By rhetorical race management, I mean the strategic use of race (or obfuscation of race) in one’s discourse to manage or affect the audience’s beliefs or opinions of the listener. From a communication-based standpoint, understanding how race operated in this election requires us to examine the history of racism in the United States as well as critical scholarly work on the subject. Understanding how Obama was able to manage race in his rhetoric is necessary because it forces us to perhaps reexamine and scrutinize the 2008 Presidential election more carefully for several reasons. As rhetorical scholars, if we are in the business of understanding how our icons and politicians can potentially manipulate and use our rhetorical signs and symbols against us—or in spite of us--it is in our best interest to understand why the process occurred and why we allowed it to happen. I suggest that Obama’s deliberate attempt to weave ideological constructs like patriotism and the American Dream into his campaign strategy obfuscated his representation as the marginalized “other” and created a new political identity that has little to do with marginalization. By examining the theories of scholars like Kenneth Burke, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Walter Fisher, and Dana Cloud, I outline how race and racism historically operated in our political elections, from both a sociopolitical, or quantitative perspective, as well as a critical perspective. By using a multimethod analysis, we are better positioned to understand how Barack Obama successfully played the race card in the Presidential Election of 2008. More importantly, I argue in my conclusion why his use of rhetorical race management, was absolutely necessary if he were to become the first African-American president in a historically racist country.Item Contemporary high-level political rhetoric surrounding climate change — how Gore, Bush, and Obama approach the issue.(2012-08-08) Vint, Kyle J.; Gerber, Matthew G.; Communication Studies.; Baylor University. Dept. of Communication Studies.Climate change has become a hot button issue spanning the fields of economics, politics, religion, race, ethics, and identity. This thesis provides a rhetorical criticism analyzing how three high-level politicians, namely Al Gore, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, navigate the intense contours of climate change discussions and articulate their own rhetorical understanding of the phenomena. Presidents and major political figures influence and shape the evolution of climate change rhetoric within American politics. One of the ways high-level politicians shape understandings of climate change is by articulating different rhetorical frames of climate change. This thesis analyzes how political leaders employ different frames in the face of political, economic, and rhetorical constraints. This thesis argues that the ways Gore, Bush, and Obama framed climate change, its consequences, and its solutions, hold important implications for the discussions and policy formulations surrounding climate change.Item Conversation with an Apple : play development as movement-building against mass incarceration(2015-05) Goodnow, Natalie Marlena; Gutierrez, Laura G., 1968-; Alrutz, Megan; Jones, Omi Osun Joni L.This reflective practitioner research project explores if and how viewing and responding to drafts of my original solo play in development, "Conversation with an Apple," contributes to efforts to build a movement against mass incarceration, with a particular focus on dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline. I draw upon Michelle Alexander's theorization of mass incarceration in the United States, social movement theory elaborated and archived by contemporary activists, and theories in performance and affect studies to contextualize my investigation. I describe how I utilized Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process to elicit audience responses to staged readings of "Conversation with an Apple," and also how I employed modified grounded theory techniques to analyze those responses. I then explain how insights gained through these methodologies informed revisions of the "Conversation with an Apple" script and my plans for future post-show workshops. I conclude with an evaluation of the usefulness of these play development and research methodologies in my artistic practice. I find that both Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process and the modified grounded theory analysis I utilized, along with a return to my guiding theoretical frameworks, contributed meaningfully to my reflective practice, yielding several key insights. First, I discovered that the play does seem to have the potential to raise consciousness among audience members regarding multiple manifestations of mass incarceration as it affects young people, although I decided that a few key mechanisms of mass incarceration might be more fully elaborated through script revisions. Second, I found that when audiences responded to the play, the shared experience of viewing the performance functioned as a springboard for conversation about other shared experiences in their lives, thus building a sense of community in at least a small way. I also theorize that the act of transmitting heightened affect together while viewing this play built community. Finally, my analyses revealed that although some audience members felt outraged at the realities of mass incarceration and inspired to make a change, many felt hopeless after viewing the play. These analyses informed my most significant revisions to the "Conversation with an Apple" script and plans for post-show workshops.Item Hope and the post-racial : high school students of color and the Obama American era(2015-05) Smith, William Louis; Brown, Anthony L. (Associate professor); Salinas, Cynthia; De Lissovoy, Noah; Epstein, Terrie; Urrieta, Jr., LuisDrawing on critical race theory, racial formation theory and the extant literature on the so-called post-racial turn in American life, this research explored the broad question of how young people of color make sense of issues of race and equity in the era of the first Black president. Using a case study design, as well as elements of visual research methods and narrative inquiry, I examined how a group of high school students of color at a predominantly White high school have learned about race and Obama, considering both formal school curricula and out-of school sources. I also sought to understand what significance the students placed on president Obama’s election, including their views on racial progress in the U.S. and their beliefs in the plausibility of a post-racial American era. Through the collection and analysis of interview, classroom observation, and artifact data, my findings suggest that schools can be unfriendly spaces for learning about these topics, but students pick up rich, though scattered, information through out-of-school sources such as family, community, and media. Additionally, students exhibited contradictory beliefs about race in America, with experiences of racial marginalization at school juxtaposed with measured optimism about racial progress in the U.S. Students also expressed personal inspiration in having a Black president and a willingness to hold multiple, competing narratives about race, Barack Obama, and their own lived experiences. These findings suggest a need for history and social studies teachers to provide formal curricular spaces for open discussion about race and President Obama to allow students to discuss and extend their multiple Obama narratives. Researchers must also consider the hybridized racial stories of both students of color and of the 44th president.