Critical communication pedagogy as a response to the petroleum industry’s neoliberal communicative practices

Courses: Professional Speaking, Business and Professional Communication, Environmental Communication, or any course covering topics related to neoliberalism and the environment.

Objectives: In this single-class activity, students will first examine the possible environmental effects of fracking near the Bakken Oil Formation in North Dakota. Second, students will evaluate how the petroleum industry obscures the effects of fracking through the use of corporate ventriloquism. Third, students will respond to the petroleum industry’s power by utilizing critical communication pedagogy.     

Writing from the archive: Henry Garnet’s powder-plot letters and archival communication

Through a reading of the archived letters of Henry Garnet (1555–1606), Superior of the Jesuit order in England and suspected Gunpowder plotter, this article investigates the nature of the archive in relation to narrative theory. Figuring the archive as one of the number of narrating voices accrued by the individual record, I argue that models of communication such as those put forward by Roman Jakobson, Wayne C. Booth and Seymour Chatman afford useful insights into the ways in which power is inscribed and reinscribed in the record through successive acts of reading and rewriting.

Gutenberg and the Digital Evolution: Highlights of a Trend-Follower Market from a Distributer’s Perspective

Germany’s acceptance and spread of e-books are typical for a trend-follower. Germans are still reluctant to change their reading habits and strongly support the diversity of small bookshops. Germany’s biggest book distributor and wholesaler KNV strongly believes in the future of the printed books and is building the most modern media distribution center in central Germany. KNV is also placing a lot of efforts in supporting small and medium size bookshops and in establishing multi-channel strategies and promoting online and digital sales. After many unsuccessful efforts to establish an e-reading platform in Germany by various organizations, the “Tolino” platform has the potential to grow to a real significance alongside to Amazon and Apple. Therefore, KNV will support its clients to become part of the new alliance, initiated by the major book chains, Bertelsmann and Deutsche Telekom.     

How food ads communicate ‘health’ with children: a content analysis of Korean television commercials

In the past decades, the rates of childhood obesity have increased rapidly in Asian countries, where an increase in Westernization of behavioral and dietary lifestyle is evident. Although causes of childhood obesity have raised an issue about the direct influence of food advertising on children, little has been known about what kinds of health relevant content are provided and how they are presented. The present study explores the current practice of television food advertising targeted at children in Korea and extends previous content analyses by examining the content and presentation manner of health-related claims as well as persuasive appeals and food types. The results of the analysis of 403 television commercials show children in Korea are still mainly targeted with advertising messages that urge the consumption of unhealthy foods heavily emphasizing sensory and emotional appeals, while food marketers have not utilized health information enough and put an emphasis on ‘health’ in advertising without making substantial claims explicitly. This study also reveals that some presentation manners of health-related claims are identified as potentially misleading with child audiences.     

‘What a setting for a mystery’: Yaddo, the Yaddo records, and the memory of place

‘Yaddo’, recalled composer Aaron Copland, ‘became so much a part of my life that I tend to forget how strange the name sounds to those not familiar with it.’ By its very delineation, vagary of purpose, and posture of cloistered withdrawal, Yaddo is defined by a meticulously cultivated and carefully guarded tradition of community and cultural identity; one that was carefully preserved (and, in turn was informed by) the formation of an archive. My point of query centers on the particular consequences of the bond between historical trace and physical place being severed (as perhaps it always must be) when the very materiality that informs an institution’s ‘memory’ is irrevocably distanced.     

Can government’s presence on social media stimulate citizens’ online political participation? Investigating the influence of transparency,trust, and responsiveness

This paper empirically investigates the association of quality information provided by a government agency on social media and citizen’s online political participation. It further answers the why and how questions regarding the existence of this relationship by examining the mediating influence of transparency, trust, and responsiveness. The data was collected from 388 followers of the social media platforms of a government agency i.e. Punjab Food Authority and the findings of the analysis were obtained using structural equation modeling technique. The results reveal that the agency’s provision of quality information on social media was significantly related to perceived transparency, trust in agency, perceived responsiveness, and citizens’ online political participation. Moreover, the results show that perceived transparency mediates the relationship between agency’s provision of quality information on social media and citizens’ trust in agency. Additionally, trust in agency was an insignificant predictor and perceived responsiveness was a negative predictor of citizens online political participation, Also, trust in agency and perceived responsiveness suppressed the relationship between agency’s provision of quality information on social media and citizens’ online political participation. This study aims to bring awareness and contribution to the body of knowledge about the governmental use of social media and its resulting benefits since in developing countries like Pakistan the research in this area is sparse. Further, it provides strategic and practical suggestions to agencies regarding advantages of utilizing social media in their communication with citizens.     

Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot: The role of a support seeker’s reply in online support provision

This experiment examined reciprocal communication among support seekers and support providers in online support forums. An interactive online support forum web page was employed where comments to a support-seeking post and a support seeker’s reply to previous comments were manipulated, and participants could post their responses on the interactive web page. Results showed that support seekers received more supportive responses from subsequent viewers when they expressed appreciation for earlier comments. Compared with an appreciative reply to supportive comments, the same reply to unsupportive comments elicited more positive expectancy violations and thus higher levels of action-focused supportiveness in viewers’ responses. This study extended the application of expectancy violations theory to the context of online support forums.     

‘He’s a battler. He’s not a quitter:’ the narrative framing of Jerry Kill’s health-related organizational exit

The abrupt retirement of Jerry Kill, the University of Minnesota’s head football coach, for health reasons during the 2015 season ignited intensely emotional reactions from diverse organizational stakeholders. Our essay analyzes the public discourses surrounding Kill’s organizational exit. Specifically, we explore how audiences co-constructed multiple and conflicting narratives about his departure, concurrently praising and blaming Kill for his body management. We highlight how these discourses construct complex subjectivities for working individuals who experience chronic illness. We conclude by discussing how the narrative frames implicate broader discursive struggles between the cultural values of health and work.     

Uses of computer‐mediated political communication in the 1992 presidential campaign: A content analysis of the Bush,Clinton and Perot computer lists

This article presents a content analysis of three computer‐mediated communication (CMC) networks used for political discussion during the 1992 Presidential election campaign. Data indicate that the main use of computer networks in the campaign was to assert personal opinions about the candidates, issues, and the election. Other uses were talking about one's own life and experiences, telling others what they should be doing, and posting information for others to read. Significant differences were found between the three campaigns for uses of these computer networks. The Clinton network was used more than the other two for posting information. The Perot network was used more than the others for asserting opinions. This study indicates that voters have specific functions for the use of computer networks as new channels of political communication. Future research should examine what groups of voters use these networks the most and how such use affects candidate image formation. Suggestions are offered for the study of campaign computer lists in the upcoming presidential election of 1996.     

Entertaining audiences,ensuring inclusivity,and considering media influence: Sixth graders’ understanding of media producers’ responsibility

Qualitatively analyzing 35 responses from a letter-writing homework in a media literacy education program, this study examines sixth graders’ understandings of producers’ responsibility in creating media content. Responses suggest their understandings about producers’ responsibility are bounded within the context of their media use as consumers, rather than as citizens. Findings focus on the importance of introducing contextual factors of media production as well as the challenges that researchers and educators might face.     

The ecology of academic risk: relationships between communication apprehension,verbal aggression,supportive communication,and students’ academic risk status

Contemporary research exploring at‐risk student populations has generally used the epidemiological model, the constructivist model, or the ecological model to explain processes involved in academic risk. This study applies communication constructs to the ecological model of academic risk, which proposes that academic risk is a function of individual, social, and cultural communication phenomena. A survey of 232 students found that (a) at‐risk students communicated more with friends about school than did regular‐admission students, (b) levels of communication apprehension differed depending on at‐risk status and sex, and (c) levels of verbal aggression differed depending on at‐risk status. These results are discussed in terms of theoretical and applied implications.     

On the formation of very high competencies in bachelor’s degree students using information and communication technologies

This paper describes the experience on revealing problems in knowledge of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by undergraduate students and the development of a training scheme using ICT tools for individualizing the formation of the competencies defined by a basic educational program, which helps to manage human capital in the training of modern staff.     

Storying the digital professional: how online screening shifts the primary site and authorship of workers’ career stories

Employers’ use of online information increases the communicative demands and complexity of employability. For employers, gathering online information for personnel selection—a process called cybervetting—supplements or augments existing information acquisition processes. For workers, cybervetting’s extractive processes require considering potential and possible career stories employers might construct. Workers increasingly need to engage in prospective and retrospective storying to communicate and maintain employability and employment. Drawing on exemplars from employers’ reports, this essay highlights: (a) how employers report assembling and making sense of workers’ information during personnel selection; (b) the limitations of existing employability strategies; as well as (c) the increased and unequally distributed uncertainty and risk; and (d) the associated and different work expected of workers as the primary site and authorship of career stories shift.     

Creating a pocket universe: “Shippers,” fan fiction,and the X‐Files online

Ethnographic investigation of the online community of X‐Files fans known as “Shippers”; reveals a resistive posture manifested in their websites, discussions, and fan fiction. The mostly female Shippers hypothesize an unfolding romantic relationship between the series’ protagonists and thereby oppose male‐oriented conventions and commercial imperatives. In touting the equal partnership of Agents Mulder and Scully, and in wanting to see that equality as the basis for a romance, Shippers conflate the public and private and challenge artificial gender dichotomies. However, the study finds that their activities do not fully compensate for marginalization of their sensibilities in the given text.     

Sunday democracies: a mixed methods analysis of members’ perceptions of church authority and organizational dissent

Previous research has emphasized differences between churches and other types of organizations including the potential for leaders’ authority to be based on unassailable interpretations of Scripture and on divine callings. The present study examined members’ perceptions of church authority and the degree to which those perceptions affected their willingness to express dissenting opinions, a key feature of organizational democracy. Focus group participants described a fluid process as they negotiated how their voices would be heard in decision-making while simultaneously entrusting some decision-making to ordained leaders. That process sometimes involved seeing members’ voices as one expression of divine authority or compartmentalizing pastoral leadership to spiritual matters and democratic leadership to practical matters. Focus groups also emphasized the importance of church committees and transparency as integral practices for members’ voice in church decision-making. Surveys of a wider group of church members demonstrated that perceptions of democracy and divine authority influenced members’ willingness to express upward dissent, and to a lesser extent, lateral dissent. Results revealed how church members conceptualize their roles in decision-making, highlighting potential areas of conflict when leaders deviate from members’ expectations.     

Public service broadcasting,children’s television,and market failure: The case of the United Kingdom

Domestically produced children’s television is frequently highlighted as both an area of market failure, and also as an area where children’s changing consumption habits necessitate new and different ways of thinking about funding children’s content across a range of platforms. In the light of a recent U.K. proposal to set up a Public Service Content Fund to support “genres” under threat, including children’s programming, this article considers how you fund diverse high-quality children’s content in a more challenging media environment where children’s content is arguably still a market failure “genre.” The first part of the article provides context by outlining the market failure characteristics of children’s content as a framework for analyzing the validity of market failure arguments across a range of platforms. It then investigates the causes of perceived market failure in the U.K. children’s television production market. The final part examines the implications of recent U.K. policy responses to provision for children that seek to address market failure through (1) the possible introduction of a contestable fund for public service content; (2) more stringent obligations on the British Broadcasting Corporation; and (3) the re-imposition of quotas on commercially funded public service broadcastings (ITV, Channel 4, Five). Drawing on regulatory and stakeholder responses, it concludes that attempts to overcome market failure in U.K. children’s television appear unsuited for funding the longer-term curation, distribution, and discovery of new types of content on platforms other than broadcasting.