{"title":"Protection Narratives and the Problem of Gun Suicide","authors":"C. Rood","doi":"10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.2.0029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.2.0029","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Even though gun suicides account for well over half of all U.S. gun deaths each year, they largely are absent from collective attention, policy discussion, and rhetorical study. Using stories about gun suicide from Everytown for Gun Safety’s website, “Moments That Survive,” this essay examines how the authors depict gun suicide as a public problem and a gun problem rather than as a private problem limited only to the individual gun user. In so doing, these stories revise three of the gun debate’s key terms: collective grief, character, and agency. More than simply drawing attention to gun suicide, these stories critique the dominant narrative of protection (protection from “them”) and urge readers to reimagine suicide, protection, and gun violence.","PeriodicalId":45013,"journal":{"name":"Rhetoric & Public Affairs","volume":"34 2","pages":"29 - 56"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41286131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ethics and the Orator: The Ciceronian Tradition of Political Morality by Gary A. Remer (review)","authors":"Robert W. Cape","doi":"10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0144","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0144","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45013,"journal":{"name":"Rhetoric & Public Affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"144 - 147"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49110373","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"They Spoke in Defense of Roy Moore: Networked Apologia and Media Ecosystems","authors":"J. Justice, B. Bricker","doi":"10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0093","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Alabama Judge Roy Moore's unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate demonstrates the importance of updating theories of political apologia to account for the role of partisan networks in the image repair process. Although Moore's defeat has been characterized as a triumph of decency, judging his campaign on partisan grounds reveals a different story. His apologia campaign, reinforced and circulated by important figures in conservative media and the Republican Party, undermined the allegations for voters and secured partisan unity. Although existing apologia scholarship focuses upon the rhetoric of the accused, assuming that rhetors transmit their image repair discourse directly to an audience, this analysis illustrates that a sustained campaign of networked apologia waged by a variety of high-profile surrogates from both politics and media may contribute to image repair in ways efforts from an individual rhetor cannot. By broadening the analytic focus to include media ecosystems, this case study of Moore's campaign illustrates that contemporary apologia can be a networked process.","PeriodicalId":45013,"journal":{"name":"Rhetoric & Public Affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"132 - 93"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49546404","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Monkey Business in a Kangaroo Court: Reimagining Naruto v. Slater as a Litigious Event","authors":"S. M. Muller","doi":"10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0031","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This essay performs a critical rhetorical analysis of out-of-court texts pertaining to Naruto v. Slater, colloquially known as the \"Monkey Selfie Lawsuit.\" By veering from a legal positivist perspective on law and turning toward theories of the public screen, it argues that while People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) formally lost its case on appeal, it successfully litigated their case in the court of public opinion. It further offers the concept of the \"litigious event\"—a staged lawsuit designed for mass media dissemination—to explain my perspective. By latching onto the already-viral monkey selfies at the center of the copyright dispute, PETA took advantage of the public screen by bringing a private, logocentric civil suit into a public, image-based digital sphere. Increased coverage of the case allowed PETA's legal team to harness the power of digital media to disseminate important arguments about legal rights for animals. Naruto v. Slater functioned as a trial for media, as a strategic lawsuit for public participation—in other words, as a strategically sound and rhetorically powerful litigious event.","PeriodicalId":45013,"journal":{"name":"Rhetoric & Public Affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"31 - 59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46085545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Rhetorics Haunting the National Mall: Displaced and Ephemeral Public Memories Ed. by Roger C. Aden (review)","authors":"Daniel M. Chick","doi":"10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0133","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0133","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45013,"journal":{"name":"Rhetoric & Public Affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"133 - 135"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45641083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hamilton Bean, Stephen J. Hartnett, F. Banaei-Kashani, H. Jafarian, A. Koutsoukos
{"title":"\"Imitation (In)Security\" and the Polysemy of Russian Disinformation: A Case Study in How IRA Trolls Targeted U.S. Military Veterans","authors":"Hamilton Bean, Stephen J. Hartnett, F. Banaei-Kashani, H. Jafarian, A. Koutsoukos","doi":"10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0061","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Russian disinformation activities imitate divisive U.S. political discourse within a polarized social media ecosystem. As part of a multipronged response, U.S. citizens have been urged to increase their personal vigilance and to identify inauthentic messages, hence flagging foreign-made disinformation by studying its content. However, by applying Taylor's concept of \"imitation (in)security\" to a set of Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency (IRA) Facebook and Instagram advertisements, this article explains why content-centered approaches to combatting disinformation need to be reimagined. Building upon imitation (in)security, we propose that the strength of the IRA disinformation campaign was not its ability to foist falsehoods upon unsuspecting Americans, but, rather, its uncanny imitation of prevalent themes, images, and arguments within American civic life. Our analysis of IRA-generated advertisements targeting U.S. military veterans demonstrates how IRA \"trolls\" were imitating American communication patterns to amplify existing positions within a deluge of messages marked by polysemy. Our analysis suggests readers should be less concerned by such Russian-made imitations than was suggested in much of the breathless 2016 post-election coverage, for the traction of such disinformation hinges on domestic crises and injustices that long predate Russian interference. Pointing to foreign-made social media content stokes a sense of threat and crisis—the essence of national insecurity and a main objective of the IRA's efforts—yet our actual security weaknesses are homemade.","PeriodicalId":45013,"journal":{"name":"Rhetoric & Public Affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"61 - 92"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"66992116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"\"Guided by Ghosts of the Post-Civil War Era\": Felon Disenfranchisement and the Limits of Race Liberal Advocacy","authors":"Christopher Earle","doi":"10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0001","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This essay analyzes arguments regarding race and U.S. felon disenfranchisement laws. In response to the denial of the vote to 6.1 million Americans in 2016, voting rights advocacy has helped spur a range of liberalizing reforms in states across the country. The essay attributes such policy victories to activists' success in redefining felon disenfranchisement as a racial justice rather than criminal justice issue. It argues, however, that U.S. public discourse still does not reflect a clear or coherent understanding of how and why race matters in the context of felon disenfranchisement. Through a rhetorical frame analysis of media coverage in four newspapers over a twenty-year period, the essay identifies and evaluates the three most common racial frames, arguing that each adheres to prevailing logics of racial liberalism. While this adherence lends the frames some degree of persuasive power, this essay argues that it also causes dominant publics to misunderstand the racial character of felon disenfranchisement. The essay concludes that more substantial reform hinges on the ability of activists to transform public meanings to reflect their preferred understanding of the causes and consequences of racial inequality.","PeriodicalId":45013,"journal":{"name":"Rhetoric & Public Affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"1 - 29"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46969979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Andrew Jackson: A Rhetorical Portrayal of Presidential Leadership by Amos Kiewe (review)","authors":"J. Justice","doi":"10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0148","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0148","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45013,"journal":{"name":"Rhetoric & Public Affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"148 - 151"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43282491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Bad Sixties: Hollywood Memories of the Counterculture, Antiwar, and Black Power Movements by Kristen Hoerl (review)","authors":"D. P. Schulz","doi":"10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0140","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0140","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45013,"journal":{"name":"Rhetoric & Public Affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"140 - 143"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42050468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Discourse of Propaganda: Case Studies from the Persian Gulf War and the War on Terror by John Oddo (review)","authors":"Yishan Wang","doi":"10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0136","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.25.1.0136","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45013,"journal":{"name":"Rhetoric & Public Affairs","volume":"25 1","pages":"136 - 139"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41627754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}