The “scholar's anthology”: Televisual studies

Television criticism as an academic field of inquiry has exploded in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and this issue offers a sampling of such work.     

The “scholar's anthology”: Contemporary rhetorical studies

This issue samples a range of theoretical and critical studies exemplifying several currents in contemporary rhetorical thought.     

The ‘scholar's anthology”: An introduction

These introductory comments preview this issue's new feature, “The Scholar's Anthology,” and its subject‐matter, “cultural criticism.”     

“The total woman:”; The rhetoric of completion

The success of Marabel Morgan's Total Woman indicate its rhetorical effectiveness despite its substantive flaws. This article argues that the book's strong appeal to readers stems from: (1) its promise of fulfillment if woman expiate the guilt they bear for marital discord by self sacrifice; (2) its reinforcement of readers perceptions of themselves and their husbands; and (3) its emphasis on the power of “Total Women”; and its encouragement of sexual fantasy and play. These strategies produce a persuasive message which plays on readers’ concerns for their marriages, offers an alternative to the self consciousness urged by feminists and permits women to fulfill comfortable stereotypes yet experience the power and sexual freedom promised by liberationists. For readers with troubled marriages Morgan provides an alluringly simple, emotionally attractive answer to complex questions. Her message is rhetorically effective even if intellectually weak and psychologically misleading.     

Using “Reinterpreting the Four Freedoms” to Teach about Ideology and Ideographic Persuasion

Courses: Persuasion, Argumentation, and/or Rhetorical Theory

Objective: This one-day activity uses Franklin Delano Roosevelt's “Four Freedoms” speech, in combination with contemporary reinterpretations of Norman Rockwell's related images, to explore the concepts of ideology and visual ideographs.     

The response to “roots”: A national survey

This study examines radio‐television columns in the newspapers to determine how columnists have responded to accelerating developments and issues in the electronic media. The indications are: show business as usual.     

The “Unplugged” Project

Courses: This assignment, with modifications, can be used in most Communication Studies courses along with other courses across disciplines

Goals/Objectivies: Students will (1) demonstrate an awareness of their digital media use, (2) identify how their digital media use affects their communication behaviors, and (3) identify how their digital media use affects other aspects of their lives     

“Freedom Edition”: Considering Sony Pictures and The Interview

Culture Digitally is a community of scholars, originally convened by Tarleton Gillespie (Cornell University) and Hector Postigo (Temple University). With generous support from the National Science Foundation, the group supports scholarly inquiry into new media and cultural production through a wide range of projects and collaborations, including a scholarly blog and periodic workshops. For more information on projects and researchers affiliated with Culture Digitally, visit culturedigitally.org or follow @CultureDig on Twitter.

This is the latest in the series of Culture Digitally’s “dialogues.” On occasion, we invite two or more participants to engage in an intellectual back-and-forth, on a point of interest that emerges from discussions at our meetings, around blog posts, or based on evident, shared interests. In these dialogues, scholars are encouraged to grapple with contemporary issues in media, but to do so quite a bit faster than the glacial pace of publishing typically allows. We imagine them as the digital equivalent of the scholarly exchange of letters between pre-eminent scientists. The thinking is meant to be raw and provocative, a chance for the dialogue participants to prod each other beyond their own certainties.

The scholars in this dialogue were convened by Joshua Braun in response to the recent public and media discourse surrounding the security breach at Sony Pictures Entertainment and its film, The Interview.     

The problems of forming an electronic resource stock: The effect of “large” transactions

The problems and difficulties of selecting and purchasing electronic information for library stock acquisition and a librarian-bibliographic service are described.     

Managing E-book Acquisition: The Coordination of “P” and “E” Publication Dates

For many research libraries, the book acquisition process has grown increasingly complicated and unwieldy as libraries seek both print and electronic formats, practice both patron-driven and library-selected purchasing, and must accommodate a wide range of patron and disciplinary preferences in setting these priorities. In this presentation, Gabrielle Wiersma of the University of Colorado Boulder and Sarah Forzetting of Coutts Information Services describe an integrated approval plan system that manages all book acquisition processes to reduce inefficiency and streamline librarian workflows.     

“Authentic” talk in broadcast news: The construction of community

Some recent assessments of public communication have demonstrated a concern for “authentic” forms of discourse in public life. This article uses a methodology derived from conversation analysis to examine different forms of public discourse in news interviews. Previous studies taking this approach have outlined the protocols for formal news interviews, but this article also looks at some types of “conversational” news interviewing that are increasingly prevalent in contemporary broadcasting. The modes of address (to the overhearing audience) in these types of interview can be usefully compared to the inclusive, sociable address associated with some genres of popular entertainment. It is suggested that the effect of “communality,” constructed by these conversational forms of talk, might be one factor in the development of new forms of participatory “public‐ness,” around some types of news events.     

Manufacturing Authenticity: The Rhetoric of “Real” in Women's Magazines

Discourses of authenticity are symptomatic of an era of destabilized communication hierarchies, participatory media, and reality television programming. Women's magazines are an apt site to examine articulations of authenticity given the genre's traditional emphases on aspirational consumption and “making up” the external self. This study explores constructions of authenticity in the advertising and editorial content of two top-ranked publications, Glamour and Cosmopolitan. Drawing on a qualitative textual analysis of these magazines, the author conceptualizes three overlapping tropes of authenticity: (a) promoting natural, organic products; (b) the celebration of ordinary-looking women; and (c) the encouragement of inner-directed self-discovery. These striations of real products, real external beauty, and real internal beauty, respectively, allow authenticity to seep throughout the texts without fundamentally disrupting their traditional commercial function.