OAKTrust :: Browsing by Author "Mercieca, Jennifer"

Browsing by Author "Mercieca, Jennifer"

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Afterword: Trump as Anarchist and Sun King
(SOCIETAS, 2018) Mercieca, Jennifer
Trump’s 2016 campaign was anarchy—it longed for a distant past outside of the current system. Trump argued repeatedly that the current American political system had to be destroyed because it had been corrupted by weak and ineffective politicians. He asked Americans to return to a simpler time when the federal government wasn’t so big, regulations weren’t so tough, and capitalists and capitalism were free. So doing, he promised, would restore American greatness. This represents a startling rupture in American political discourse.
Analyzing Constitutive Rhetorics The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions and the 'Principles of ’98'
(Blackwell, 2010) Jasinski, James; Mercieca, Jennifer
Barack Obama and the Rhetoric of Heroic Expectations
(Texas A&M University Press, 2014) Mercieca, Jennifer; Vaughn, Justin
How we learned to think of the American president as America's hero and how that creates institutional, contextual, and personal burdens on the presidency. We examine how Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign relied upon creating unrealistic heroic expectations.
"The culture of honor: How slaveholders responded to the abolitionist mail crisis of 1835"
(Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 2007) Mercieca, Jennifer
In the summer of 1835 northern abolitionists mailed over 100,000 anti-slavery newspapers to slaveholders in the South, which led slaveholders to violently prevent the abolitionist sentiment from circulating in their local communities. In analyzing the discourse produced by the crisis, I argue that the slaveholders' expert use of the norms of community obligation, which were supported by the rhetoric of honor, allowed them both to reassert control over the national abolition debate and to retain their local status and privilege.
Curating Memory: 9/11 Commemoration and Foucault's Archive
(2012-08-17) Rowe, Sara 1988-; Mercieca, Jennifer; Campbell, Heidi; Jones Barbour, Jennifer; Kellstedt, Paul
This study of commemoration of 9/11 on the 10th anniversary is performed at the intersection of public memory and rhetorical studies. Examining the role of the individual within public memory, this study furthers both fields by expanding on the definitions, processes, and negotiation between official and vernacular discourse. With a theoretical frame work that uses Foucault's concept of discursive archive, rhetors involved in the creation of public memory are framed as curators of a discursive archive of 9/11 memory. The role and limitations of the curatorial role is explored in three cases studies: a local ceremony, national newspapers, and Twitter hashtags. The study finds that there is a complicated interaction between vernacular and official memory and narrow definitions of the terms are not sufficient to describe the processes through which individuals take part in public memory. Rhetors involved in the public memory process may take on complex and ambiguous roles within the entangled discourses of official and vernacular memory. Within these case studies, individual curators crafted messages about the 10th anniversary of 9/11 that reify the importance of individuals tied to particular groups, urge for unity, and focus on the ten years since the tragedies.
Dangerous Demagogues and Weaponized Communication
(Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 2019-06-11) Mercieca, Jennifer
This essay argues that we can usefully separate “heroic demagogues” from “dangerous demagogues” by whether or not the demagogue allows themselves to be held accountable for their words and actions. “Dangerous demagoguery” can be thought of as “weaponized communication” that uses words as weapons to achieve the dangerous demagogue’s strategic goals. The essay examines several recent examples of dangerous demagogues using weaponized communication strategies, including conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, President Donald Trump, and Neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin. Weaponized communication is a danger in any democracy as it corresponds with democratic erosion.
A Discovered Dissembler Can Achieve Nothing Great”; Or, Four Theses on the Death of Presidential Rhetoric in an Age of Empire
(Presidential Studies Quarterly, 2007) Hartnett, Stephen; Mercieca, Jennifer
Because of the explosion of mass media, we have entered a new age of white noise; because of the disastrous extension of U.S. imperial ambitions, we have entered a new age of political deception; when these two historical factors are combined with the peculiar communicative habits of President George W. Bush, Americans are left with what we call a post‐rhetorical presidency. This is an anti‐democratic condition wherein presidential discourse is not meant to mobilize, educate, and uplift the masses; rather, by marshaling ubiquitous public chatter, waves of disinformation, and cascades of confusion‐causing misdirection, post‐rhetorical presidential discourse attempts to confuse public opinion, prevent citizen action, and frustrate citizen deliberation. Under these new conditions, the president defines fantasy, not reality; he numbs citizens rather than energizing them; instead of informing and teaching, he chooses to dumb down and stupefy. We pursue this thesis by offering four philosophical theses and three rhetorical case studies of the president's public speaking, thus combining critical theory and rhetorical criticism to help map what may represent the death of democracy.
Embodied Storying, A Methodology for Chican@ Rhetorics: (Re)making Stories, (Un)mapping the Lines, And Re-membering Bodies
(2012-10-19) Cobos, Casie; Driskill, Qwo-Li; Alonzo, Juan; Jackson, Shona; Mercieca, Jennifer
This dissertation privileges Chican@ rhetorics in order to challenge a single History of Rhetoric, as well as to challenge Chican@s to formulate our rhetorical practices through our own epistemologies. Chapter One works in three ways: (1) it points to how a single History of Rhetoric is implemented, (2) it begins to answer Victor Villanueva's call to "Break precedent!" from a singly History, and (3) it lays groundwork for the three-prong heuristic of "embodied storying," which acts as a lens for Chican@ rhetorics. Chapter Two uses embodied storying to look at how Chican@s are produced through History and how Chican@s produce histories. By analyzing how Spanish colonizers, contemporary scholars/publishers, and Chican@s often disembody indigenous codices, this chapter calls for rethinking how we practice codices. In order to do so, this chapter retells various stories about Malinche to show how Chican@s already privilege bodies in Chican@ stories in and beyond codices. Chapter Three looks at cartographic practices in the construction, un-construction, and deconstruction of bodies, places, and spaces in the Americas. Because indigenous peoples practice mapping by privileging bodies who inhabit/practice spaces, this chapter shows how colonial maps rely on place-based conceptions of land in order to create imperial borders and rely on space-based conceptions in order to ignore and remove indigenous peoples from their lands. Chapter Four looks at foodways as a practice of rhetoric, identity, community, and space. Using personal, familial, and community knowledge to discuss Mexican American food practices, this chapter argues that foodways are rhetorical in that they affect and are affected by Chican@ identities. In this way, food practices can challenge the conception of rhetoric as being solely attached to text and privilege the body. Finally, Chapter Five looks at how Chican@ rhetorics and embodied storying can affect the field(s) of rhetoric and writing. I ask three specific questions: (1) How can we use embodied storying in histories of rhetoric? (2) How can we use embodied storying in Chican@ rhetorics? (3) How can we use embodied storying in our pedagogy?
The Emergence of the Outrage Presidency
(Spectra, 2020-03-09) Mercieca, Jennifer
"Fully Aware of the Power of Words": Morality, Politics, and Law in the Rwandan "Media Trial"
(2012-10-19) Serber, Bradley; Aune, James A.; Mercieca, Jennifer; Yarak, Larry
Incitement to genocide is a fairly recent and elusive concept in international law. First used at Nuremberg, the concept did not reappear for more than fifty years, when the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) used it to convict and sentence three media executives: Ferdinand Nahimana, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, and Hassan Ngeze. Using their trial as a case study, I use rhetorical analysis to help clarify both the concept of "incitement" and the role that morality, politics, and law play in genocide and its aftermath. This case study helps to explain some of the complexities that often accompany genocide. First, because incitement depends on one person's words and another's actions, the answer to the question of who is responsible for the final outcome is unclear. Second, because genocide affects, and is affected by, the decisions of both local and international communities, actions (not) taken by either affect one another in significant ways. Finally, in the aftermath of genocide, questions of culpability, punishment, and reconciliation complicate international law. Based on this case study, I suggest ways in which the international community might learn from what happened in Rwanda.
Health Care Policy Making in Canada as Rhetorical Transcendence: 1944-2014
(2015-03-12) Cudahy, Christopher Michael; Conrad, Charles; Mercieca, Jennifer; Burk, James; Iverson, Joel
Canada’s national program for health services was conceived in the late 1960’s after protracted advocacy on the provincial level – most notably from Tommy Douglas, premier of Saskatchewan. After insured services for both hospital and physician services had been secured in the province in 1961, the Government of Canada faced increasing pressure to nationalize universal health care. Largely in response to the advocacy of Mr. Justice Emmett Hall in his 1964 Commission Report, a national system was instituted into law in 1968 under Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. Since that time, robust advocacy has waned and successive federal governments have instead focused on defending Medicare through the enactment of rigid legislation such as the Canada Health Act. This legislation and other advocacy has enshrined universal health care into the Canadian psyche making it highly resistant to change. I sought to assess the nature of the advocacy that has served to perpetuate the status quo at all costs and have suggested ways in which the rhetorical landscape could be altered to reinvigorate public discussion to keep Medicare up to date and to ultimately strengthen health care services in Canada. I employed rhetorical and communication theory as a lens for providing suggested pathways for clash and reform. The following findings were noted in the dissertation. First, rhetorically induced value principles associated with Medicare have devolved into an institutionalized system that has been reinforced through its strong connection with Canadian identity. Second, there has been a marked de-emphasis of rhetoric which has been supplanted by a focus on funding mechanisms and point of service delivery. Third, the more flexible argumentation associated with the legislative realm has been neglected and largely replaced by the more adversarial and rigid enforcement of perceived rights for health care through judicial review. Throughout the dissertation I argued for the need for rhetoric to be resurrected in Canada perhaps through the vehicle of egoistic charismatic political leaders. All in all, I envision a health care system that is more flexible, molded by rhetoric and allows for greater innovation while retaining core principles such as universality.
Ignoring the President: Barack Obama and the Postrhetorical Presidency
(Texas A&M University Press, 2017) Mercieca, Jennifer
The rhetorical presidency model made good sense within the traditional media market of the twentieth century, but makes little sense within the new media market of the new millennium. The era of the rhetorical presidency was characterized by a relationship between the presidency and the press that was reciprocal, mutually beneficial, and stable; the era of the post-rhetorical presidency is characterized by a relationship between the presidency and the press that is independent, competitive, and unstable. The post-rhetorical presidency began with the Bush Administration and flourished with the Obama Administration’s expert use of social and new media. Trump has only continued what his predecessors started.
The Irony of the Democratic Style
(Rhetoric & Public Affairs, 2008) Mercieca, Jennifer
Living and Performing Journalism in Turkey: Community, Affect, and Hegemony
(2019-11-21) Miles, Caitlin Marie; Wallis, Cara; Mercieca, Jennifer; Burkart, Patrick; Reddy , Vanita; Haydari Pakan, Nazan
This dissertation is an ethnographic exploration of how journalism is defined and performed within the daily lives of journalists in Istanbul, Turkey. Based on nine months of embedded ethnographic fieldwork, extensive interviews, and participant observation, my research presents narratives that underscore the relationship between Turkey’s sociopolitical and cultural environment and the expression, performance, and experience of journalism for people engaged in Turkey’s media field. Although some academic research has focused on the dynamics of the political economy of news media within Turkey, little has been done to explore how journalists personally engage in their profession on a daily basis as it relates to their life worlds. Geo-political and cultural shifts in regional and world politics, such as a mass refugee crisis, a rise in right-wing authoritarianism, and the neoliberalization of Turkey’s economy, have had a significant influence on the daily lives and experiences of all those living within the country. As journalists report on these events and how Turkey’s political climate affects people from all across the country, they are also contending with their position and role within Turkey’s socio-political milieu. I situate Turkey as an authoritarian neoliberal state, whereby a free market economy justifies and bolsters state interventions within the spheres of daily life. In presenting how these factors shape a given political context, I turn to theories of affect to underscore the relationship between daily, lived, and embodied experience and the presence of such institutions as the state and its economic policies. Accordingly, my dissertation accounts for how journalism might be conceptualized as embodied detachment, whereby journalists attempt to grapple with their desires to cultivate a professional practice rooted in impartiality and objectivity, while also contending with how their habits, tastes, relationships, and identities are saturated by the history and politics of Turkey on a sensorial, affective level. In exploring the inter-connection between journalism, daily life, and broader phenomena, such as nationalism and authoritarian neoliberalism, my dissertation presents three themes to highlight how journalists in Turkey negotiate the tension between their subjective life experiences and professional goals. My dissertation examines how space, community, and identity are realms through which journalists negotiate their professional ideals, while grappling with personal life circumstances that challenge their visions of journalism.
A moment in the pragmatic political style: the rhetoric of Louis D. Brandeis
(Texas A&M University, 2004-11-15) Stob, Paul Henry; Aune, James Arnt; Mercieca, Jennifer; McDermott, John J.
This thesis examines the rhetoric of Louis D. Brandeis in light of pragmatism-specifically, the philosophical pragmatism of William James and John Dewey. While a number of scholars claim that pragmatism has nothing to offer politics, rhetoric, or decision-making, this thesis argues that Brandeis's method of acting politically, speaking publicly, and solving problems exemplifies the pragmatic political style-a style of political operation that is characteristically pragmatic, a direct extension of James and Dewey's philosophy. This thesis illustrates Brandeis's pragmatic political style through an analysis of his rhetoric prior to taking his seat on the United States Supreme Court, his rhetoric while on the Supreme Court, and his rhetoric as one of America's most prominent Zionists. This thesis shows that pragmatism (at least William James and John Dewey's classical American pragmatism-the pragmatism Brandeis exemplifies rhetorically) can be a fruitful part of political operation.
Nerd/Geek Masculinity: Technocracy, Rationality, and Gender in Nerd Culture's Countermasculine Hegemony
(2015-08-06) Lockhart, Eleanor Amaranth; Poirot, Kristan; Dubriwny, Tasha; Mercieca, Jennifer; Katz, Claire
Nerd and geek culture have become subjects of increasing public concern in recent years, with growing visibility and power for technical professions and increasing relevance of video games, science fiction, and fantasy in popular culture. As a subculture, nerd/geek culture tends to be described in terms of the experiences of men and boys who are unpopular because of their niche interests or lack of social skills. This dissertation proposes the concept of nerd/geek masculinity to understand discourses of hegemonic masculinity in nerd/geek culture. Examining three case studies, the novel Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, the neoreactionary political ideology, and the #GamerGate controversy, the dissertation suggests that nerd/geek masculinity responds to a perceived emasculation of men who identify as nerds or geeks by constructing the interests, skills, and behaviors of nerd/geek culture as inherently male traits. In this way, nerd/geek masculinity turns the very traits nerds and geeks are often mocked for into evidence of manhood – as the cost of excluding women and queer people from nerd and geek culture.
Rhetoric of Heroic Loyalty: Portrayals of Scottish Jacobites as Rebels, Reprobates and Romantics
(2016-11-28) Creel, Walter Brady; Mercieca, Jennifer; Bickham, Troy; Dorsey, Leroy; Jones Barbour, Jennifer
The Scottish Jacobite tradition spans a tumultuous arc of history in which imagery of Highland dress — tartan and kilts — was used to portray Highland Scots as enemies of the British state and as heroes of the British Empire. This dissertation analyzes historical artifacts bearing the rhetoric that accompanied the development and evolution of Scottish identity after 1745. By leveraging Kenneth Burke’s theory of dramatism and victimage rituals, this research explains how rhetorical portrayals of Scots in tartan — by anti-Jacobites, by critics of George III and by revisionist romantics — transformed and redeemed Scottish Jacobite identity from defiant “otherness” (dangerous renegades and rebels) to integrated Britishness (loyal subjects and servants of the Empire) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. From the Glorious Revolution of 1688 onward, Jacobites, loyal to the deposed James II and his heirs, endeavored to restore their rightful Stuart kings to the throne. Hanoverians portrayed Jacobites as a dangerous and existential threat to the peace, prosperity and perpetuity of a new British way of life. Jacobites were vilified through propaganda that employed cartoons, caricatures and mocking dialogue to belittle Scots loyal to the Stuarts and to undermine their cause. Scottish tartan and associated garb became a visual marker of these usurpers. When their quest was finally crushed at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, defeat was followed by systematic ethnocide — a legislative mandate from London that the Highland identity be recast in a shape that was unquestionably loyal to the crown, absolutely indifferent toward the Stuarts, and forever incapable of waging war except in the service of the king. Amid diminishing threat of Jacobite insurrection and Britain’s increasing preoccupation with global preeminence, Highlanders demonstrated their loyalty to Britain through military service to imperial ambitions. Meanwhile, with growing discontent with perceived corruption and cronyism in the court and governments of George III, anti-Jacobite rhetoric became a principal weapon against the king. This shift — adoption of anti-Jacobite rhetoric against targets other than Jacobites — along with the incubation of a new sense of integrated Scottishness, gave birth to a new identity for Highland Scots that largely constitutes present-day perception of Scotland.
A Rhetoric of Moral Imagination: The Persuasions of Russell Kirk
(2010-07-14) Jones, Jonathan L.; Aune, James; Clark, Bedford; Mercieca, Jennifer; Swift, Christopher
This rhetorical analysis of a contemporary and historical social movement, American conservatism, through a prominent intellectual figure, Russell Kirk, begins with a description of the author's work. Ideologies, arguments, and sentiments are considered as implicit rhetoric, where social relations are defined by persuasion, ideas, historical appeal, persona, and various invitations to shared assumptions. First, a descriptive historical context is the foundation to explore the beliefs, communicative strategies, and internal tensions of the conservative movement through the development of various identities and communities during its rise as a formidable political power. Second, an analysis of the author and the author's texts clarifies argumentative and stylistic choices, providing a framework for his communicative choices. The thesis of this discussion is that the discourses implicit and explicit in the author's writing and conduct of life were imaginative and literary products of what he termed "moral imagination." How this imagination developed, and its impact upon his persuasion, was a unique approach not only to an emergent intellectual tradition but also to the disciplines of history, fiction, policy, and audience. This work argues there were two components to Kirk's rhetoric of moral imagination. First, his choosing of historical subjects, in biographical sketch and literary content, was an indication of his own interest in rhetorical efficacy. Second, he attempted to live out the sort of life he claimed to value. I argue he taught observers by an ethos, an endeavor to live a rhetorical demonstration of what he genuinely believed was good. As demonstrated by what many who knew Kirk identified as an inner strength of character and conduct, his rhetorical behavior was motivated by a love for and a curiosity toward wonder and mystery. By an imaginative reading of history, his exemplars of more properly ordered sentiments of a moral order sought to build communities of associational, relational persons that found identity in relation to other persons. His ambition was to explore and communicate what it meant to be human - in limitation, in promise, and in the traditions and customs that provide a framework for "human" in a culture.
Slouching Towards Alexandria: A Critical Analysis of the Scholarly Communication System
(2018-05-01) Bedenbaugh, Robin Adrienne; Burkart, Patrick; Mercieca, Jennifer; Barge, James K; Prechel, Harland
TThis dissertation provides an historical analysis of libraries and discusses the broader system of scholarly communication and publishing using mixed methods from critical media studies, library studies, organizational communication, systems sociology, and rhetorical studies. It argues that practices of scholarly publishing in the US university environment are grounded in myths and ideological systems of gatekeeping which may prevent participants from recognizing dangers and opportunities associated with digital librarianship. Three such myths operate to support the status quo system of scholarly communication: the myth of authority, the myth of influence, and the myth of permanence. These myths portend and reflect structural changes in relationships governing the intertwining of library and university organizations, including emergent organizational forms, intellectual property challenges by commercial scholarly publishers, and new library-centered forms of publication enabled by new technologies.
Streaming Citizenship: How Political Television Shows Constitute American National Identity
(2021-12-08) Felton, Krystal Amanda Fogle; Dubriwny, Tasha; Mercieca, Jennifer; Goidel, Kirby; Gatson, Sarah
This dissertation examines how contemporary political television programs model American citizenship through the portrayal of political leaders and how these models of citizenship constitute American national identity. To understand how popular television rhetorically functions for a modern audience, I examine three specific texts: Netflix’s House of Cards, HBO’s Veep, and CBS’s Madam Secretary. Relying on Charland’s conception of constitutive rhetoric, Fisher’s narrative paradigm, and Dow’s model of rhetorical criticism, I conduct a rhetorical analysis examining citizenship and identity. House of Cards models American citizenship through identification by antithesis in that the show asks the audience to identify collectively in antithesis to the values carried by Frank and Claire Underwood, thereby constituting Americans as virtuous, or truthful. Veep constitutes Americans as compassionate and competent, which are directly linked; it also constitutes Americans as feminine. Madam Secretary constitutes Americans as protectors of the American way of life, which is operationalized through a Family Values ideology. This dissertation provides an important link between how political discourse rhetorically functions constitutively in American citizenship and public identity, and how popular culture both reflects and constructs rhetorics of reality.

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