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Spring 2001
| February 2 |
Dr. Robert Heath - Dept.
of Communication, University of Houston |
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"Over the Horizon: The
Next Generation of Public Relations Research" |
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For nearly two decades, public relations
practice, research and theory has sought its center by addressing
the implications of the concepts of symmetry. Relationship development
will be the essence of the next advance in this line of analysis.
To that end we have new concepts to imagine, understand, and translate
into best practices as scholars, students, and practitioners come
closer to realizing the goal of establishing the rationale of public
relations as the creation, maintenance, and repair of mutually beneficial
relationships. |
| February 16 |
Dr. Charles Pavitt - Dept.
of Communication, University of Delaware |
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"A History of Scholarship
in Group Discussion Procedure: The First Century" |
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John Dewey's How We Think (1910)
has been the inspiration for an ever-growing research literature on
group discussion procedure. In his presentation, Dr. Pavitt will describe
this literature in its historical context, and interpret the findings
in light of Dewey's position. |
| March 2 |
Dr. James May - Classics
Department, St. Olaf College |
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"Ciceronian Oratory
in Context" |
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This colloquium attempts to relate to
a modern audience, two millennia removed, the context of a Ciceronian
speech. In a sense, when we read an ancient speech, it is like moving
into another, foreign culture. Dr. May tries to address the "cultural"
differences of Ciceronian oratory that stem from things like the oral
nature of Roman society, the place and circumstances of delivery of
speeches, the ancient concepts of delivery, etc., as we can gather
from Cicero's own testimony in works like De oratore and Brutus
as well as in his speeches. |
| March 30 |
Dr. Dale Herbeck - Dept.
of Communication, Boston College |
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"The First Amendment
and Popular Culture: The People vs. Larry Flynt" |
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In "The People v. Larry Flynt,"
Milos Forman offers a sympathetic rendition of the many legal woes
of Larry Flynt. While this movie was a financial disappointment, it
remains worthy of scholarly attention as it contributes to an informed
understanding of the complex relationship between popular culture
and the freedom of expression. |
| April 13 |
Dr. Linda Putnam - Dept.
of Speech Communication, Texas A&M University |
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"Shifting Frames and
Conflict Intractability: The Case of the Edwards Aquifer" |
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This presentation focuses on a study
of a multiparty environmental conflict typical of a classic common
resource pool. The study centers on the communicative framing and
the shifts in frames that occur over time in stakeholder perceptions
and media coverage of the dispute--particularly as they relate to
casting the conflict as intractable or entrenched. |
| May 11 |
Showcase of Graduate Student
Research |
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Yi-Ru Chen |
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"Conflict Resolution
and Two-Way Symmetrical Public Relations: A Case Study of How Chen
Shui-Bian’s Government Dealt with the Forth Nuclear Power Plant in
Taiwan" |
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This talk explores the functions and
practices of public relations in conflict resolution by looking at
a case involving the construction of the fourth nuclear plant (4NNP)
on the island of Taiwan. The uniqueness of this case is that it illustrates
the void that public relations can fill in resolving disputes between
Taiwan's Executive Branch and its many publics. It examines how the
Executive Branch practice public relations when handling the major
incidents in three different phases. Second, it analyzes the political
and social context of each incident in the different phases that influenced
the function and practice of public relations. Third, it explains
the practice of public relations in each phase from the governmental
public relations practitioners’ perspectives. Finally, it compares
how public relations was practiced to public relations theories to
make recommendations for practitioners facing similar crises in the
future. |
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Jeong-Nam Kim |
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"Toward a Descriptive
Model of Activism" |
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In my talk, I formulate a descriptive
model of activism in global public relations, which aims to integrate
structural and micro (i.e., individual) level theories. Despite some
conceptual overlapping and demanding theoretical reasoning, the research
"launched" a working model to contain the various levels
related to the resulting phenomenon, social activism. My analysis
shows that Korea has moved toward the high extent of activism, and
this tendency seems to increase continuously. The working model provides
an initial step for future study on activism in global public relations,
the continuous accumulation of positive (i.e., descriptive) knowledge
in a global setting, and the introduction and justification of normative
knowledge related to a global theory of public relations. |
Fall 2000
| September 15 |
Dr. James Klumpp - Dept.
of Communication, University of Maryland |
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"The Public Sphere and
the Political Sphere: Rhetorical Interconnections" |
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The myths of Western democracy have conflated
the different and equally lively spheres of discursive action. The
result is a limited understanding of ways in which political communication
occurs against a background of public discourse. This presentation
seeks to define the two spheres and discusses problems and possibilities
for criticism that employs such a distinction. |
| September 29 |
Dr. Deborah Rosenfelt - Women's
Studies, University of Maryland |
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"American Women's Literature
and Global Gender Issues" |
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This talk, drawn from work in progress,
examines fiction by contemporary women writers in the United States
as a significant site of both social critique and utopian dreams for
social change. It will explore how writers like Marge Piercy, Leslie
Silko, and Paule Marshall confront in their novels of the 90's the
implications for women and for gender arrangements of the processes
of globalization. Their recent fiction lies at the intersection of
a tradition of American women's socially concerned writing with postcolonial
cultural production. |
| October 13 |
Showcase of Graduate Student
Research |
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Brecken Swartz |
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"Media Education and
Critical Thinking" |
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At the outset of the 21st century, with
the quickening pace of societal changes brought about by the rapid
proliferation of new media technologies, countries are faced with
the increasingly formidable task of preparing students for a highly
changeable and uncertain future. This reality makes the need for critical
thinking skills more salient than ever before, especially in countries
like China which have traditionally fostered a linear model of instruction
and rote memorization as an educational paradigm. One effective tool
to foster the development of higher-order thinking skills is a media
curriculum that would allow students to both discuss and create media
messages in order to understand the concept of media non-transparency
as they learn to reflect and communicate their ideas to others. Such
a transactional educational model, if extended universally, could
contribute to a modern renaissance in Chinese thought and serve as
a valuable heuristic toward future research. |
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Prof. James E. Grunig and
Chun-ju (Flora/Lu) Hung |
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"Reputation: The Difference
Relationships Make" |
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The concepts of reputation and reputation
management recently have become extremely popular in public relations
practice. Indeed many practitioners define public relations as reputation
management, and reputation has replaced image as a popular buzzword.
We believe that there are many problems with the concept of reputation
and, especially, with the concept of reputation management. Most popular
measures of reputation are no more than traditional attitudinal items
used in public opinion polls. Because reputation is an outcome, rather
than a process, it cannot be "managed." We believe that
reputations consist of cognitive structures (what people think and
say about an organization) and that they are a product of the behavioral
relationships between organizations and strategic publics. The talk
reports about recent studies that developed measures of organization-public
relationships and reputation. |
| October 27 |
Dr. Melanie Green - Dept.
of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania |
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"Narrative Worlds, Real
Impact: How Stories Affect Beliefs" |
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Although persuasion is a central area
of social psychology, the means by which individuals may be influenced
by stories, as opposed to more traditional persuasive communications
(e.g., editorials, advertisements) has been relatively ignored. In
this talk, I describe the highlights of a research program that examines
the persuasive impact of narratives, as well as the effects of labeling
a narrative as fact or fiction. Our studies suggest that the phenomenological
experience of becoming absorbed into a story, or transported into
a narrative world, is a key mechanism underlying the influence of
stories on individuals' beliefs. |
| November |
Series of Talks on Political
Communication Research from a Rhetorical Perspective |
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The following six talks are scheduled
from 12 - 1 p.m. |
Friday, 11/3
0200 Skinner |
Dr. Garth Pauley - Calvin College
"Franklin Roosevelt on the Verge of Rhetorical Leadership" |
Monday, 11/6
0104 Skinner |
Dr. Omar Swartz - Duke University
"Rhetoric, Social Justice, and Community: A Personal Research
Narrative of a Political Communication Scholar" |
Monday, 11/13
0104 Skinner |
Dr. Mari Boor Tonn - University of New
Hampshire
"'Holy Mother of God': The Labor Agitation of Mary Harris 'Mother
Jones'" |
Friday, 11/17
0200 Skinner |
Dr. Trevor Parry-Giles - Dept. of Communication,
University of Maryland
"Constructing Presidentiality: The West Wing and the Ideological
Dualism of Presidential Leadership" |
Monday, 11/20
0104 Skinner |
Dr. Barbara A. Biesecker - University
of Iowa
"Reconfiguring the National: Paregoric Rhetoric and Corporal
Politics" |
Wednesday, 11/29
0104 Skinner |
Dr. Lester C. Olsen - University of Pittsburgh
"A Cartography of Silence: Problems of Language in U.S. Public
Policy Concerning Sexualized Aggression" |
| December 1 |
Dr. Cynthia Coleman Sillars
- Dept. of Communication, Georgia State University |
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"Taking Aim at Superbugs
to Spark Interest and Compliance in Health Behavior" |
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News of superbugs and flesh-eating bacteria
signal the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but how
do we reduce consumption of antibiotics to solve the problem? Professor
Coleman-Sillars will report on research conducted at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention to understand how publics conceptualize
health and antibiotics, and how physicians and pharmacists can help
consumers avoid taking unnecessary drugs. |
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