Matching Items (3)
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- All Subjects: Digital communications
- Creators: Long, Elenore
Description
In this dissertation, I study large-scale civic conversations where technology extends the range of “discourse visibility” beyond what human eyes and ears can meaningfully process without technical assistance. Analyzing government documents on digital innovation in government, emerging data activism practices, and large-scale civic conversations on social media, I advance a rhetoric for productively listening to democratic discourse as it is practiced in 2016. I propose practical strategies for how various governments—from the local to the United Nations international climate talks—might appropriately use technical interventions to assist civic dialogues and make civic decisions. Acknowledging that we must not lose the value that comes from face-to-face civic deliberation, I suggest practical pathways for how and when to use technology to increase democratic engagement from all stakeholders.
ContributorsSutherland, Alison (Author) / Adamson, Joni (Thesis advisor) / Long, Elenore (Committee member) / Simeone, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This dissertation discusses how Twitter may function not only as a tool for planning public protest, but also as a discursive site, albeit a virtual one, for staging protest itself. Much debate exists on the value and extent that Twitter (and other social media or social networking sites) can contribute to successful activism for social justice. Previously, scholars' assessments of online activism have tended to turn on a simple binary: either the activity enjoyed complete success for a social movement (for instance, during the Arab Spring an overthrow of a regime) or else the campaign was designated as a failure. In my dissertation, I examine a Twitter public-relations campaign organized by the New York Police Department using the hashtag #MyNYPD. The campaign asked citizens to tweet pictures of themselves with police officers, and the public did, just not in the way the police department envisioned. Instead of positive photos with the police, the public organized online to share pictures of police brutality and harassment. I collected six months of tweets using #MyNYPD, and then analyzed protestors' rhetorical work through three lenses: rhetorical analysis, analysis of literacy practices, and social network analysis. These analyses show, first, the complex rhetorical work required to appropriate the police department's public-service campaign for purposes that subverted its original intent; second, the wide range of literacy practices required to mobilize and to sustain public attention on data exposing police abuse; and third, the networked activity constituting the protest online. Together, these analyses show the important work achieved within this social justice campaign beyond the binary definition of successful activism. This project shows that by increasing our analytical repertoires for studying digital rhetoric and writing, scholars can more accurately acknowledge what it takes for participants to share experiential knowledge, to construct new knowledge, and to mobilize connections when engaging online in public protest.
ContributorsHayes, Tracey (Author) / Hayes, Elisabeth (Thesis advisor) / Long, Elenore (Thesis advisor) / Boyd, Patricia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
RISE Tutoring is an ASU student organization which helps refugee youth achieve academic and personal success through tutoring and mentorship. As a member of RISE Tutoring for three years, the researcher sought to document and analyze the program’s impact on the Phoenix refugee community. It was determined that video documentation, with its ability to capture both visual and verbal testimony, was the ideal holistic approach to assess and share this impact. The researcher hypothesized that RISE Tutoring adds value to the lives of its tutors and students through the multidimensional growth––educational, personal, and cultural––it facilitates for all. Methods of data collection were limited to video and audio, but approval from the Institutional Review Board and consent from all participants were obtained prior to the project’s start. The final video, filmed and edited with the help of a professional videographer, was 20 minutes and 21 seconds in length. The findings derived from the recorded interviews with students, tutors, and community leaders, and from the footage of tutoring and group activities, validated the researcher’s hypothesis. Viewers of the video can witness the bonding of tutors and students; hear the pride in the voices of the tutors and see the passion in their eyes when they speak of their students; and feel the joy and excitement that the program brings to its students’ lives. This project transformed the personal experiences of participants into a collective RISE Tutoring identity which can now be presented, for the first time, to the public. The video also aimed to help RISE Tutoring share its meaningful work and improve its marketing efforts, thereby enabling the organization to recruit more tutors and students, build new partnerships, and fundraise. Through the fulfillment of these goals, the video will empower the organization to effect greater change in the community.
ContributorsMarkowitz, Brenley Paige (Co-author) / Markowitz, Brenley (Co-author) / Klimek, Barbara (Thesis director) / Long, Elenore (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05