Results by title

Only recently have linguists ceased to regard metaphors as mere frills on the periphery of language and begun to recognize them as cornerstones of discourse. Phyllis Wilcox takes this innovation one step further in her fascinating study of metaphors in American Sign Language (ASL).

       Such an inquiry has long been obscured by, as Wilcox calls it, “the shroud of iconicity.” ASL’s iconic nature once discouraged people from recognizing it as a language; more recently it has served to confuse linguists examining its metaphors. Wilcox, however, presents methods for distinguishing between icon and metaphor, allowing the former to clarify, not cloud, the latter. “If the iconic influence that surrounds metaphor is set aside, the results will be greater understanding, and interpretations that are less opaque.”

       Wilcox concludes her study with a close analysis of the ASL poem, “The Dogs,” by Ella Mae Lentz. In presenting Deaf Americans’, Deaf Germans’, and Deaf Italians’ reactions to the poem, Wilcox manages not only to demonstrate the influence of culture upon metaphors, but also to illuminate the sources of sociopolitical division within the American Deaf community. Metaphor in American Sign Language proves an engrossing read for those interested in linguistics and Deaf culture alike.

Methodological Matters offers a series of investigative reflections from experienced and emerging researchers to provide guidance for researchers who are navigating important complexities early in their careers. Each chapter explores a larger research-related question by narrating how one researcher negotiated a unique methodological challenge while working on a dissertation in the field of rhetoric and composition.

Given the constraints placed on new researchers’ time and resources, one way to navigate research-related precarities is to learn from others who have successfully traversed the same investigative terrain. This volume curates investigative reflections from researchers who, at the time of writing, were in the process of completing (or had just completed) their dissertations. Three parts explore issues of identity, craft, and practice in conducting research as an emerging scholar in rhetoric and composition, and the collection concludes with critical reflections on the role of precarity in conducting research.

Both a curated series of investigative reflections from emerging researchers and a resource guide with tangible tools for use in graduate seminars and fieldwork, Methodological Matters amplifies voices of those who learned how to do research in precarious contexts while simultaneously situated within the sometimes frustrating developmental phase located between “student” and “practitioner.”

Methods and Methodologies explores how researchers theorize, design, enact, reflect on, and revise digital writing research. The contributors to the two volumes of this edited collection explore how digital technologies can be used to solve problems, challenge the status quo, and address inequities. In some cases, they do so by using familiar digital technologies in novel ways. In other cases, they explain the use of relatively new or less familiar technologies such as digital mapping apps, Twitter bots, audio-visual captions, and computer programming code. By reflecting on the lessons that emerged from their work—and in particular on their own positionality—the authors provide methodological narratives that are personal, professional, and individual yet foundational. By combining attention to human positionality and digital technology, Methods and Methodologies addresses important social issues and questions related to writing and rhetoric.

The death of the daily newspaper in the internet age has been predicted for decades. While print newspapers are struggling from drops in advertising and circulation, their survival has been based on original reporting. Instead of a death knell, metro dailies are experiencing an identity crisis—a clash between traditional print journalism’s formality and detail and digital journalism’s informality and brevity.  

In Metro Dailies in the Age of Multimedia Journalism, Mary Lou Nemanic provides in-depth case studies of five mid-size city newspapers to show how these publications are adapting to the transition from print-only to multiplatform content delivery—and how newsroom practices are evolving to address this change. She considers the successes when owners allow journalists to manage their newspapers—to ensure production of quality journalism under the protection of newspaper guilds—as well as how layoffs and resource cutbacks have jeopardized quality standards.

Arguing for an integrated approach in which print and online reporting are considered complementary and visual journalism is emphasized across platforms, Nemanic suggests that there is a future for the endangered daily metro newspaper.

Mis(s) Communication: Stigma and the Miss America Organization explores the one-hundred-year history of the Miss America Organization (MAO) as a site of stigma management. Through five years of ethnographic, archival, and interview-based research, Rebecca J. Meisenbach shows how pageant participation is both valorized and stigmatized—making MAO a key lens for studying stigma as a dynamic, power-laden communication process. The book examines stigma across individual, organizational, and societal levels, focusing on moments like Rule Seven, which once barred nonwhite participants, and the 1968 protest by the New York Radical Women alongside the first Miss Black America pageant. Meisenbach also investigates how contestants navigate stigma tied to intelligence, body image, and the sexualization of women. She analyzes MAO’s 2018 elimination of the swimsuit competition as a stigma management move and its recent shift to a for-profit model under Miss America Opportunity. The book ultimately argues for understanding stigma as communicative and deeply intersectional.

Misinformation Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa is a single volume containing two research reports by eight authors examining policy towards misinformation in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The volume first examines the teaching of ‘media literacy’ in state-run schools in seven Sub-Saharan African countries as of mid-2020, as relates to misinformation. It explains the limited elements of media and information literacy (MIL) that are included in the curricula in the seven countries studied and the elements of media literacy related to misinformation taught in schools in one province of South Africa since January 2020. The authors propose six fields of knowledge and skills specific to misinformation that are required in order to reduce students’ susceptibility to false and misleading claims. Identifying obstacles to the introduction and effective teaching of misinformation literacy, the authors make five recommendations for the promotion of misinformation literacy in schools, to reduce the harm misinformation causes.

The second report in the volume examines changes made to laws and regulations related to ‘false information’ in eleven countries across Sub-Saharan Africa 2016-2020 from Ethiopia to South Africa. By examining the terms of such laws against what is known of misinformation types, drivers and effects, it assesses the likely effects of punitive policies and those of more positive approaches that provide accountability in political debate by promoting access to accurate information and corrective speech. In contrast to the effects described for most recent regulations relating to misinformation, the report identifies ways in which legal and regulatory frameworks can be used to promote a healthier information environment.

Uncovering how secrecy, symbolism, and hidden meanings shape modern culture and communication.

The occult has traditionally been understood as the study of secrets of the practice of mysticism or magic. This book broadens our understanding of the occult by treating it as a rhetorical phenomenon tied to language and symbols and more central to American culture than is commonly assumed.

Joshua Gunn approaches the occult as an idiom, examining the ways in which acts of textual criticism and interpretation are occultic in nature, as evident in practices as diverse as academic scholarship, Freemasonry, and television production. Gunn probes, for instance, the ways in which jargon employed by various social and professional groups creates barriers and fosters secrecy. From the theory wars of cultural studies to the Satanic Panic that swept the national mass media in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gunn shows how the paradox of a hidden, buried, or secret meaning that cannot be expressed in language appears time and time again in Western culture.

These recurrent patterns, Gunn argues, arise from a generalized, popular anxiety about language and its limitations. Ultimately, Modern Occult Rhetoric demonstrates the indissoluble relationship between language, secrecy, and publicity, and the centrality of suspicion in our daily lives.

 

Does your online instruction program sometimes feel like a constant scramble to keep pace with requests and deadlines? Modular design is the answer. Approaching projects, whether large and small, with an eye towards future uses will put you on the path to accomplishing broader, organizational goals. And by intentionally building documentation and structure into your process, you will create content that can easily be scaled, modified, adapted, and transformed to meet different learner needs. Hess, experienced in online instruction in both K-12 and academic libraries, shows you how, using project examples of various sizes to illustrate each chapter’s concepts. Her resource guides you through such topics as

• the eight components of modular online learning design;
• key considerations for choosing the design model that best fits your organization and project;
• techniques for connecting your online learning goals with institutional strategy; 
• using the IDEA process to align OER content with your instructional needs;
• documenting your planning with checklists, scaffolds, and templates;
• ensuring equity of access with all content formats using the Accessibility Inventory Index;
• principles for scaling up, down, or laterally;
• three models for more meaningful and functional collaboration with internal or external partners; and
• formative testing as a foundation for ongoing evaluation and assessment.