- Department of Communication, UCB 270
Boulder, Colorado, United States 80309-0270 - 303-492-8738
Bryan C . Taylor
University of Colorado, Boulder, Communication, Faculty Member
- Bryan C. Taylor is Professor of Communication at the University of Colorado - Boulder, and former Director of its Pea... moreBryan C. Taylor is Professor of Communication at the University of Colorado - Boulder, and former Director of its Peace, Conflict, and Security Program. His research interests include nuclear weapons communication, and the role of mimesis in post-9/11 media and security. His related research has been published in journals including Annals of the International Communication Association, Communication Theory, Critical Studies of Media Communication, and elsewhere. He is co-editor of the volume Nuclear Legacies: Communication, Controversy, and the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Complex (Lexington), The Handbook of Communication and Security (Routledge), and co-author of Qualitative Communication Research Methods (Sage). His additional research interests include organizational ethnography and organizational culture.edit
This paper examines the production of a particular nuclear-organizational history to illuminate the rhetorical and political practices by which stakeholders engage that history as an opportunity to perform preferred ideological... more
This paper examines the production of a particular nuclear-organizational history to illuminate the rhetorical and political practices by which stakeholders engage that history as an opportunity to perform preferred ideological narratives. Analysis utilizes data collected from the authors' reflective participation in this process, and focuses on the tension between nuclearhistorical and-heritage discourses. We use the lens of critical public nuclear history studies to show how nuclear-organizational history contributes to broader controversy over the commemoration of nuclear weapons production in post-Cold War US culture.
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... Before turning to the narratives, however, it is useful to first establish their context by reviewing how home and field ... the uncanny prevalence of birth and baby metaphors in official discourse (such as military cables)... more
... Before turning to the narratives, however, it is useful to first establish their context by reviewing how home and field ... the uncanny prevalence of birth and baby metaphors in official discourse (such as military cables) surrounding the development of the atomic bomb. ...
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Copyright © 2002 by Sage Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage... more
Copyright © 2002 by Sage Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in ...
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Argues the value of communication theory and research for the emerging field of nuclear-environmental humanities. Conceptualizes material-discursive entanglements that constitute regimes of U.S. nuclear deterrence and weapons development.... more
Argues the value of communication theory and research for the emerging field of nuclear-environmental humanities. Conceptualizes material-discursive entanglements that constitute regimes of U.S. nuclear deterrence and weapons development. Identifies opportunities for critical intervention into the communicative politics of contemporary nuclear insecurity.
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Public discourse commonly depicts "communication" as a crucial function of nuclear hotlines. However, scholars have not critically examined images of communication that dominate the development and use of nuclear hotlines. Analysis of... more
Public discourse commonly depicts "communication" as a crucial function of nuclear hotlines. However, scholars have not critically examined images of communication that dominate the development and use of nuclear hotlines. Analysis of related institutional narratives reveals their multiple, competing conceptions of "communication." While this interpretive flexibility may serve the needs of nuclear hotline stakeholders, it also creates ambiguity and contradiction that may distort its ongoing development. We subsequently surface key meanings of communication associated with the history, technology, and institutions of the nuclear hotline. We focus on two limitations of these narratives-the perpetuation of instrumental illusions, and the insensitive conception of mediated communication-and their implications for nuclear hotline development. We conclude by reviewing the benefits of revising these narratives and proposing an agenda for communication research.
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This forum considers recent trends in organizational communication ethnography, a distinctive tradition of qualitative research. Historically, ethnography has been valued for its unique ability to generate nuanced findings that vividly... more
This forum considers recent trends in organizational communication ethnography, a distinctive tradition of qualitative research. Historically, ethnography has been valued for its unique ability to generate nuanced findings that vividly explain how communication is meaningful and consequential for organizational actors. Customarily, ethnographers pursue this ideal through distinctive practices. These include embedding for extended periods in routine organizational settings; generating detailed, descriptive data from their observation of, interaction with, and interviewing of organizational members; preserving those actors’ indigenous meanings for their artifacts and
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ABSTRACT Recent revelation of disinformation campaigns conducted by external adversaries on social media platforms has triggered anxiety among western liberal democracies. One focus of this anxiety has been the emerging technology known... more
ABSTRACT Recent revelation of disinformation campaigns conducted by external adversaries on social media platforms has triggered anxiety among western liberal democracies. One focus of this anxiety has been the emerging technology known as deepfake. In examining related controversy, I use the theoretical lens of securitization to establish how communicative reflexivity shapes the attribution of threat to digital media. Next, focusing on the case of the U.S. government, I critique deepfake’s securitization by applying two theories of media and state (in-) security. I argue that deepfake sustains the liberal state’s conventional dread of mimetic threats posed to its ontological security. I then challenge this narrative by exploring satire as an alternate configuration of deepfake’s capabilities. I conclude by summarizing the implications of this case for ongoing study of digital media, conflict, and politics.
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ABSTRACT This essay isolates and explores a growing body of communication research concerned with ‘security.’ It opens by defining this concept, and discussing recent geopolitical and interdisciplinary trends contributing to its... more
ABSTRACT This essay isolates and explores a growing body of communication research concerned with ‘security.’ It opens by defining this concept, and discussing recent geopolitical and interdisciplinary trends contributing to its association with communication. It subsequently reviews distinctive engagement with ‘security’ displayed in five disciplinary subfields, including strategic communication, discourse analysis, public argument studies, rhetoric, and critical-cultural communication studies. It concludes by providing four sets of recommendations for future development of this research program.
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ABSTRACT This introduction to the special issue reviews recent developments in interdisciplinary scholarship on security, discourse, and culture. It then reviews recent work in fields of critical intercultural studies to associate these... more
ABSTRACT This introduction to the special issue reviews recent developments in interdisciplinary scholarship on security, discourse, and culture. It then reviews recent work in fields of critical intercultural studies to associate these developments with the commitments of Cultural Discourse Studies. It concludes by previewing the essays collected for this issue.
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This chapter engages communication surrounding the history and future of U.S. nuclear weapons production. The authors begin by arguing that these phenomena are normalized, and thus neglected, among citizens and communication scholars, and... more
This chapter engages communication surrounding the history and future of U.S. nuclear weapons production. The authors begin by arguing that these phenomena are normalized, and thus neglected, among citizens and communication scholars, and respond by reviewing the history of the U.S. nuclear weapons production complex and by characterizing communication among its associated organizations and communities. They then examine the material and discursive legacies of this system, emphasizing recent changes that have opened new possibilities for communication between institutions and their stakeholders. The authors next develop three theoretical frames for analyzing communication in this dense and rapidly evolving scene: (a) democracy, participation, and the nuclear public sphere; (b) organizational crisis, change, and stakeholder communication; and (c) nuclear history, memory, and heritage. They conclude by identifying and addressing various challenges associated with adopting this research program. Throughout, the authors foreground and critique the role of communication in responding to the past and creating the future of nuclear weapons production.
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Nuclear criticism theorizes culture as the site of struggle between ideological narratives seeking authority over the meaning of nuclear symbols. Following the end of the cold war, various groups have conducted this struggle through... more
Nuclear criticism theorizes culture as the site of struggle between ideological narratives seeking authority over the meaning of nuclear symbols. Following the end of the cold war, various groups have conducted this struggle through public discourse about U.S. nuclear weapons organizations. This paper examines symbolic conflict over the history and future of one such organization, the Los Alamos National Laboratory. This conflict was conducted between pro-nuclear Laboratory officials and employees of its Bradbury Science Museum, and local anti-nuclear activists. The conflict centered around the activists' construction of an alternative exhibit that was placed in the Museum, and that challenged its dominant narrative of nuclear history. Analysis reveals that the identities and activities of these two groups can be distinguished by three sets of opposing constructs: nuclearism/pacifism; monologue/dialogue, and fact/narrative. These frames guided the groups' interpretive practices, and heuristically condense the heteroglossia of post-cold war debate about nuclear history. They clarify, in turn, the process by which cultural memory is constructed and transformed to serve nuclear-ideological interests.
“Nuclear deterrence” describes how states use nuclear weapons to discourage the aggression of other states by threatening them with nuclear punishment. “Communication” is commonly associated with theories and policies of nuclear... more
“Nuclear deterrence” describes how states use nuclear weapons to discourage the aggression of other states by threatening them with nuclear punishment. “Communication” is commonly associated with theories and policies of nuclear deterrence (e.g., as a requirement for its effectiveness). Deeper exploration, however, uncovers at least four co-existing images of communication: as “Information,” “Interaction,” “Signification,” and “Discourse.” This chapter clarifies the premises, functions, and implications of these images. It argues that scholars and policymakers benefit from greater appreciation for the distinctiveness of communication as a complex phenomenon that is conceptualized and practiced differently across deterrence spheres. A brief case study of symbolism developed in the U.S. – North Korean deterrence relationship illustrates the benefits of communicative analysis.
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I argue that although dialogism encourages heightened reflexivity about the use of politicized formats in collecting and narrating nuclear ethnographic data, it also inflects that narration in unpredictable- and potentially... more
I argue that although dialogism encourages heightened reflexivity about the
use of politicized formats in collecting and narrating nuclear ethnographic
data, it also inflects that narration in unpredictable- and potentially partisan-ways. I attribute this condition to four factors: (1) the heavily sedimented context of nuclear
debate that encourages readers to simplistically code discourse as partisan (as either "pro" or "anti"), despite researchers' attempts to the contrary; (2) the difficulty of achieving either neutral or innovative interpretation in a polarized site where interests are defended against dialogue; (3) the inherent potential of nuclear weapons sites for creating spiritual extremity that encourages moral engagement; and (4) the resistant tendencies of "novelistic" ethnography. The very juxtaposition of nuclear voices in ethnographic accounts encourages an ethical interrogation by the marginalized of the dominant group's assertions and glosses.
use of politicized formats in collecting and narrating nuclear ethnographic
data, it also inflects that narration in unpredictable- and potentially partisan-ways. I attribute this condition to four factors: (1) the heavily sedimented context of nuclear
debate that encourages readers to simplistically code discourse as partisan (as either "pro" or "anti"), despite researchers' attempts to the contrary; (2) the difficulty of achieving either neutral or innovative interpretation in a polarized site where interests are defended against dialogue; (3) the inherent potential of nuclear weapons sites for creating spiritual extremity that encourages moral engagement; and (4) the resistant tendencies of "novelistic" ethnography. The very juxtaposition of nuclear voices in ethnographic accounts encourages an ethical interrogation by the marginalized of the dominant group's assertions and glosses.
The essays in this forum combine the resources of organizational communication and cultural studies to engage the phenomena of the new economy. We have used this term broadly to designate a variety of recent trends that converge to... more
The essays in this forum combine the resources of organizational communication and cultural studies to engage the phenomena of the new economy. We have used this term broadly to designate a variety of recent trends that converge to produce the
integration of organizational and cultural processes: the rise of shareholder value and short-term strategy, downsizing, outsourcing, mergers, innovations in computing and telecommunications technology, market differentiation, flexible production, globalization, and hegemonic discourses that prioritize knowledge, enterprise, and the customer.
integration of organizational and cultural processes: the rise of shareholder value and short-term strategy, downsizing, outsourcing, mergers, innovations in computing and telecommunications technology, market differentiation, flexible production, globalization, and hegemonic discourses that prioritize knowledge, enterprise, and the customer.
. . . Nuclear waste represents one of the most complex and highly charged controversies created by postwar society. Perhaps daunted by its technical, legal, and political complexities, communication scholars have not widely engaged this... more
. . . Nuclear waste represents one of the most complex and highly charged controversies created by postwar society. Perhaps daunted by its technical, legal, and political complexities, communication scholars have not widely engaged this topic. Most communication-based research . . . has emerged from the subfields of environmental and technical communication, and has focused on the discourses employed by government officials, scientific experts, facility operators, and community members in related conflicts. Eschewing objectivist concern with the accuracy of these discourses, these studies instead evaluate the process through which the parties interact. Specifically, they criticize an arrogant and instrumental orientation among officials and experts towards engineering public communication so that it conforms to preferred identities, relationships, and processes. . .
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Traditionally, communication scholars have examined nuclear discourse at the expense of nuclear images. This essay compensates by developing a nuclear-critical iconology, one sensitive to the role of images in creating and disrupting... more
Traditionally, communication scholars have examined nuclear discourse at the expense of nuclear images. This essay compensates by developing a nuclear-critical iconology, one sensitive to the role of images in creating and disrupting popular consent to the production of nuclear weapons. As such, this essay contributes to larger critical projects concerned with visual rhetoric and post-Cold War culture. Following a review of Cold War nuclear iconography and the changing post-Cold War nuclear condition, I examine three aesthetics in post-Cold War nuclear iconography for their significance and potential consequences.
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The term “meaning” conceptualizes a fundamental object of explanation in the study of communication, one whose status may be characterized as alternately ubiquitous, mundane, elusive, and compelling. Broadly, “the meaning of meaning” is... more
The term “meaning” conceptualizes a fundamental object of explanation in the study of communication, one whose status may be characterized as alternately ubiquitous, mundane, elusive, and compelling. Broadly, “the meaning of meaning” is generated in intellectual traditions that conceptualize the nature of, and the relationships among, three distinct sets of phenomena: (1) an external, material reality, which forms the object of human experience and knowledge; (2) an internal, private consciousness, in which the modern individual experiences the world as a uniquely personal matter; and (3) intersubjectivity, viewed as the communicators' achievement of shared understanding.
Expression is a basic concept in both scholarly theories and vernacular understandings of communication. It was terminologically derived from the Latin verb meaning to press out a physical substance, but over time came to signify... more
Expression is a basic concept in both scholarly theories and vernacular understandings of communication. It was terminologically derived from the Latin verb meaning to press out a physical substance, but over time came to signify representation practiced through art, language, or other symbols. Its deep conceptual roots in the West are found in ancient Greco‐Roman rhetoric; it traverses the canons of both delivery and style (whose Latin name, elocutio, is sometimes translated as “expression,” here connoting the aesthetic qualities of technical performance). That deeper history in turn indicates some of the persistent theoretical fault lines in understanding expression. This entry engages three of those fault lines, subsequently depicting expression as (1) embodied, stylized performance whose relation to “substance” is to be scrutinized; (2) utterance whose successful accomplishment is contingent upon initiation as well as reception; and (3) individual and collective practice both enabled and constrained by institutionalized structures of power and meaning
Experience is the distinctive quality of human consciousness in which ongoing existence (being) makes itself available for meaningful reflection and interpretation (knowing). In the psychological paradigm, experience denotes a continuous... more
Experience is the distinctive quality of human consciousness in which ongoing existence (being) makes itself available for meaningful reflection and interpretation (knowing). In the psychological paradigm, experience denotes a continuous quality of perception, in which embodied human interaction with the environment generates complex sensory information. Filtered by existing cognitive schemata, that stimulation is then attributed varying levels of relevance and priority. "Experience" has subsequently generated four connotations. The first designates a baseline stratum of perception consisting of fundamental, preorganized awareness. This stratum is conceptualized either as an organic totality devoid of interpretive activity, or as an infrastructure of routines whose familiarity does not warrant additional reflection unless their performance generates an unexpected outcome. The second connotation, developed by the American pragmatist philosopher John Dewey, indicates a portion of registered consciousness that is selected (either instinctively or deliberately) as a candidate for the infusion of greater intelligibility, which is then objectified as a specific experience. Here, punctuation interrupts the flow of consciousness , and elevates that portion to the status of bounded event, whose inconvenient and enigmatic features call out for attention, conceptualization, and judgment. For communication scholars, experience becomes a social and cultural matter, as language and other kinds of symbolic codes are employed by actors to attribute significance to those features (e.g., through categorization), and to assess their implications for ongoing participation in episodes and relationships. Third, "experience" designates an accumulation of informal (practical) and formal (conceptual) knowledge that is generated through lived cycles of human sense-making and action. Here, the interpretations attached to experience are continuously applied as guides for participation in relevant situations, and are evaluated for their sustainability as habit and pattern. They may subsequently be shared through socialization and education as forms of legitimate knowledge and authoritative wisdom. A final connotation of "experience" melds psychological imagery with cultural values surrounding the modern, liberal individual. Here, "experience" designates a distinctly internal, private realm of knowledge and agency, possessed by both persons and groups, in which their authentic interests and identities are actively cultivated through ongoing reflection and interaction. This connotation opposes the integrity of human experience to the colonizing influences of mass society, whose dominant rationalities may illegitimately constrain the potential manifestations of experience. Experience is subsequently The International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy.
This chapter is concerned with nuclear museums as a rhetorical site of public memory in post-Cold War American culture. Its argument is developed across three sections. I will begin by discussing the unique relationships that exist... more
This chapter is concerned with nuclear museums as a rhetorical site of
public memory in post-Cold War American culture. Its argument is developed across three sections. I will begin by discussing the unique relationships that exist between nuclear weapons, space, and rhetoric. Next, I will consider museums as reflexive spaces for the "entangled" discourses of nuclear history, memory, and heritage. I then conceptualize and critique the relationship between nuclear museum rhetoric and the evolving context of post-Cold War U.S. culture.
public memory in post-Cold War American culture. Its argument is developed across three sections. I will begin by discussing the unique relationships that exist between nuclear weapons, space, and rhetoric. Next, I will consider museums as reflexive spaces for the "entangled" discourses of nuclear history, memory, and heritage. I then conceptualize and critique the relationship between nuclear museum rhetoric and the evolving context of post-Cold War U.S. culture.
Contemporary media culture frequently associates security with imitation. This essay theorizes critique of related textuality within the contemporary "media/security nexus." It advocates for enhanced usage of mimetic theory to critique... more
Contemporary media culture frequently associates security with imitation. This essay theorizes critique of related textuality within the contemporary "media/security nexus." It advocates for enhanced usage of mimetic theory to critique media representation of security , as that condition is pursued through cultural practices of adaptation, disguise, and simulation. Two competing traditions of mimetic theory are reviewed, along with their appropriations in the fields of media studies and security studies. Four benefits are proposed for mimetic critique of "media/security." The essay concludes by considering the ethical and political stakes of this critique.
This essay isolates and explores a growing body of communication scholarship devoted to the relationship between media and security. It begins by reviewing communication’s disciplinary history surrounding this relationship, and recent... more
This essay isolates and explores a growing body of communication
scholarship devoted to the relationship between media and security. It
begins by reviewing communication’s disciplinary history surrounding
this relationship, and recent trends stimulating the convergence of media and security scholarship. It surveys five prominent research
programmes offering distinctive images of the media–security
relationship: visual securitization, media framing; media materialism;
mediatization; and critical-cultural media studies. It then grounds that
survey in a case study of media and nuclear weapons that problematizes the communicative status of security technologies. It concludes with a discussion of potential futures for this larger body of work.
scholarship devoted to the relationship between media and security. It
begins by reviewing communication’s disciplinary history surrounding
this relationship, and recent trends stimulating the convergence of media and security scholarship. It surveys five prominent research
programmes offering distinctive images of the media–security
relationship: visual securitization, media framing; media materialism;
mediatization; and critical-cultural media studies. It then grounds that
survey in a case study of media and nuclear weapons that problematizes the communicative status of security technologies. It concludes with a discussion of potential futures for this larger body of work.
Communication scholars have variously heeded the call for study of environmental and nuclear issues. A somewhat neglected line of inquiry, however, is the nexus among nuclear weapons, environmental communication, and (post-) Cold War... more
Communication scholars have variously heeded the call for study of environmental and nuclear issues. A somewhat neglected line of inquiry, however, is the nexus among nuclear weapons, environmental communication, and (post-) Cold War culture. We may attribute disciplinary neglect of this particular intersection to a number of factors, including the historical dominance of public address as a paradigm for Cold War criticism, and the environmentalist framing of the nuclear threat as prospective ecocide. There are, however, important exceptions to this pattern: studies of the discursive politics surrounding the siting of nuclear waste facilities and the management of "stakeholder relations" in facility communities have demonstrated the benefit of integrating these topics. This essay reviews related theory and research, and provides a case study of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons production facility.
In this chapter, we depict, interpret, and illustrate recent developments in postmodern critical theory for communication ethics. We proceed below by first, reviewing key premises of postmodern ethical philosophy. Next, we consider the... more
In this chapter, we depict, interpret, and illustrate recent developments in postmodern critical theory for communication ethics. We proceed below by first, reviewing key premises of postmodern ethical philosophy. Next, we consider the implications of this work for the distinctive theory and practice of communication ethics. Next, we illustrate the variety and potency of these implications by profiling the work of two philosophers: Alasdair MacIntyre, and Alain Badiou. In each case, we review major claims in the key works of these authors, and illustrate their contributions to communication scholarship. Throughout, we adopt as a guiding ethic for our own argument the following claim by Suzan Ilcan: “[Postmodern] ethics is not a mere vision of things to come . . . rather, it is a way of mediating and transforming hierarchical relations between ideas and things, self and others, so that they become interactive, resourceful, and creative.”
This chapter examines the role of “stewardship” discourse in shaping relationships between the Department of Energy and its stakeholders. I focus on the discourse of “Long Term Stewardship” (LTS), which surrounds the development of... more
This chapter examines the role of “stewardship” discourse in shaping relationships between the Department of Energy and its stakeholders. I focus on the discourse of “Long Term Stewardship” (LTS), which surrounds the development of systems at nuclear weapons production and waste storage sites that are intended to protect human health and the environment for the duration of threats posed by contamination. I proceed by examining historical development of the term “stewardship,” and its association with nuclear weapons development. Next, I analyze key DOE and stakeholder texts to interpret and evaluate LTS discourse. I focus on how that discourse shapes
the nature and consequences of stewardship operations. Specifically, I explore an ongoing tension in this discourse between images of “stewardship” and “guardianship” that configure power relationships between these groups in different ways. I conclude by considering the relationship between LTS discourse and the commonly-presumed ideals of stewardship, and by proposing further research that explores the relationship between LTS and its companion nuclear discourse of “Stockpile Stewardship.” These two discourses, I argue, must be
considered simultaneously if nuclear stewardship is to ethically serve the interests of dialogue and democracy.
the nature and consequences of stewardship operations. Specifically, I explore an ongoing tension in this discourse between images of “stewardship” and “guardianship” that configure power relationships between these groups in different ways. I conclude by considering the relationship between LTS discourse and the commonly-presumed ideals of stewardship, and by proposing further research that explores the relationship between LTS and its companion nuclear discourse of “Stockpile Stewardship.” These two discourses, I argue, must be
considered simultaneously if nuclear stewardship is to ethically serve the interests of dialogue and democracy.
In the field of communication, ethnographers draw upon a number of theoretical traditions to ground their work. These range from "interpretive" theories of phenomenology, ethnomethodology, and symbolic interaction, to "critical" theories... more
In the field of communication, ethnographers draw upon a number of theoretical traditions to ground their work. These range from "interpretive" theories of phenomenology, ethnomethodology, and symbolic interaction, to "critical" theories such as feminism and neo-Marxism. This eclecticism creates a vibrant -- but also potentially confusing -- context for producing ethnography. Theoretical traditions typically involve complex narratives about human experience and social action. Accounts of these traditions sometimes gloss their internal diversity to emphasize their apparent distinctiveness. As a result, ethnographers attempting to grasp a tradition for the first time can be challenged by its seeming contradictions and messy entailments. Ideally, after they invest significant time and effort, this confusion resolves into sophisticated appreciation of a theory's potential. While it is never easy, this process of "mastering" theory is especially challenging in the case of postmodernism. In this chapter, I attempt to explain why this is, address the implications of this condition for doing communication ethnography, and sketch a brief case that illustrates these claims. By the end of the chapter, you will hopefully be equipped to more reflectively engage postmodernism as a potential resource for your work.
The term “ethnography” designates a particular methodological tradition in social and cultural research. Historically, it is associated with documentary and analytic practices developed by agents of the European powers between the 18th... more
The term “ethnography” designates a particular methodological tradition in social and cultural research. Historically, it is associated with documentary and analytic practices developed by agents of the European powers between the 18th and 20th centuries, which supported their projects of imperial expansion and colonial administration. Methodologically speaking, ethnography is categorized as “qualitative,” in that it seeks to record, interpret, and explain human communication in the unique contexts of participants' local activities and their subjective meanings. Because organizations constitute both a principal agency and object of (post‐)modernity, they have proven to be rich and enduring contexts for ethnographic research. Nonetheless, the formal use of ethnographic methods to explain human organization has waxed and waned in popularity over the past hundred years. Organizational ethnography in the 21st century faces turbulence that will stimulate redefinition of the enterprise
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In the past two decades, a growing number of researchers have used qualitative methods to study various aspects of organizational communication. Researchers have turned to qualitative methods for a variety of reasons, including the... more
In the past two decades, a growing number of researchers have used qualitative methods to study various aspects of organizational communication. Researchers have turned to qualitative methods for a variety of reasons, including the recognition of the limitations of positivist epistemology and quantitative methods, as well as the acceptance of multiple approaches to the study of organizations. The increased use of qualitative methods in organizational communication also has reflected (or, more often, has followed) the trend set by scholars in anthropology, sociology, management, and other disciplines. We welcome—indeed, we celebrate—the widespread use of qualitative methods by contemporary organizational communication scholars. In this chapter, we consider some of the issues and challenges that continue to confront researchers using these methods. Specifically, we begin the chapter with a discussion of some trends in the evolution of qualitative research in organizational communication. We then focus the majority of the chapter on key methodological issues and challenges confronting qualitative researchers. We conclude with a discussion of future trends in qualitative research.
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Symbolic forms play an important role in mediating cultural knowledge of nuclear weapons. One recurring form in postwar cultural texts is the nuclear weapons organization—the various groups using labor, technology and materials to design,... more
Symbolic forms play an important role in mediating cultural knowledge of nuclear weapons. One recurring form in postwar cultural texts is the nuclear weapons organization—the various groups using labor, technology and materials to design, manufacture and deploy the Bomb. Several of these texts depict the wartime Los Alamos Laboratory, where the first atomic bomb was constructed. Conventionally, these texts privilege masculine, rational and technological elements of that event. Alternately, this essay examines one woman's autobiography of Los Alamos, emphasizing its recovery of elements obscured by that focus, specifically gender, subjectivity and sexuality. This alternate version of Los Alamos reveals its contested status as a site of cultural memory and advances critical understanding of the nuclear weapons organization.
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Nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear war are daunting “facts” of contemporary culture. Nonetheless, they are symbolic productions: the meaning of the Bomb historically has been created in a cultural dialogue between conflicting... more
Nuclear weapons and the threat of nuclear war are daunting “facts” of contemporary culture. Nonetheless, they are symbolic productions: the meaning of the Bomb historically has been created in a cultural dialogue between conflicting interests. This essay uses post‐structuralist theory to explore the utility of a key signifier in that dialogue, the scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer. During the 1980s, critics interpreted a published volume of Oppenheimer's letters in ways that both clarified and challenged the conventional arrangements of nuclear deterrence. Their responses suggest the enduring value of Oppenheimer as an intertextual form that mediates cultural experience of nuclear weapons.
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ABSTRACT Throughout the nuclear age, popular‐cultural texts have oriented audiences to the Bomb, and to the organizations that design, produce and deploy it. Collectively, these texts reflect a mixture of patriotism, awe, dread, and... more
ABSTRACT Throughout the nuclear age, popular‐cultural texts have oriented audiences to the Bomb, and to the organizations that design, produce and deploy it. Collectively, these texts reflect a mixture of patriotism, awe, dread, and opposition to nuclear weapons. This essay explores one film text of a principal event in nuclear history: the construction of the atomic bomb at the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. The ironic “problems” of the 1989 Hollywood film Fat Man and Little Boy demonstrate the ideological operations of nuclear texts, and the role of the nuclear weapons organization as a symbolic form in cultural discourse.
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Conversational texts gathered in a study of relationships between elderly individuals and college students are interpreted as the discursive production of elderly frailty. Conversation is explored as the relational arena in which elderly... more
Conversational texts gathered in a study of relationships between elderly
individuals and college students are interpreted as the discursive production
of elderly frailty. Conversation is explored as the relational arena in which
elderly identity is assembled and displayed. Accomplished in and through
discourse, an elderly identity of frailty orients communicators to illness and
death and reflects the allocation of power within relationships between the
elderly and others. Frailty is also examined as a frame for the narration of
accumulated life experience.
individuals and college students are interpreted as the discursive production
of elderly frailty. Conversation is explored as the relational arena in which
elderly identity is assembled and displayed. Accomplished in and through
discourse, an elderly identity of frailty orients communicators to illness and
death and reflects the allocation of power within relationships between the
elderly and others. Frailty is also examined as a frame for the narration of
accumulated life experience.
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ABSTRACT During the late Cold War period, nuclear weapons briefly became a compelling object for communication scholars. This essay reviews that body of work and considers the prospects for nuclear communication scholarship in post‐Cold... more
ABSTRACT During the late Cold War period, nuclear weapons briefly became a compelling object for communication scholars. This essay reviews that body of work and considers the prospects for nuclear communication scholarship in post‐Cold War culture.
This essay uses post‐structuralist theory to analyze cultural discourse about nuclear espionage, focusing on the case of Klaus Fuchs as depicted in Robert Chadwell Williams' 1987 biography, Klaus Fuchs, Atom Spy. For a variety of reasons,... more
This essay uses post‐structuralist theory to analyze cultural discourse about nuclear espionage, focusing on the case of Klaus Fuchs as depicted in Robert Chadwell Williams' 1987 biography, Klaus Fuchs, Atom Spy. For a variety of reasons, modernist biography is often frustrated in the attempt to depict subjects as unique and coherent individuals. Biographies of Los Alamos spies are shaped by intertextuality, in which their subjects continually recede before a conflicting documentary record of reminiscences, interrogation and trial transcripts, and popular culture images. Accordingly, biography offers a discursive opportunity for post‐Cold War audiences to meditate on and perhaps transform the political processes by which the contingencies surrounding Los Alamos spies and nuclear weapons technology are resolved as truth claims. Implications of this case for post‐Cold War culture and the ongoing Wen Ho Lee scandal are briefly noted
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Recent works of critical theory have examined both organizations and nuclear weapons as “sites” of symbolic activity structuring human experience and social action. This essay integrates those projects by examining autobiographical... more
Recent works of critical theory have examined both organizations and nuclear weapons as “sites” of symbolic activity structuring human experience and social action. This essay integrates those projects by examining autobiographical narratives of three scientists from the wartime Los Alamos Laboratory. These narratives suggest an organizational structure manifest in ideological discourses for nuclear practice and sensemaking. This structure would have enabled Los Alamos members to rationalize their working identities and the objects of their labor. I conclude by considering implications of these narratives for the critical study of organizational discourse
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This paper argues that organizational and local host cultures are related through the intertextual performance of membership. It proceeds by claiming that organizations may be usefully read as intertexts, and that the relationship between... more
This paper argues that organizational and local host cultures are related through the intertextual performance of membership. It proceeds by claiming that organizations may be usefully read as intertexts, and that the relationship between organizations and their environments is enacted by speakers as they negotiate their multiple identities in talk. These claims are then used to analyze the intertextual performance of membership at a Salt Lake City, Utah bookstore owned by the Mormon church. The analysis demonstrates how: (1) organizational routines surrounding the interpretation of product serve as performances of host-cultural membership; (2) communication among and between store employees and customers clarifies types of host-cultural identity; and (3) the management of controversial texts enacts the organizational environment. The analysis is intended to mark an intersection between organizational …
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We acknowledge at the outset our awkward position here as critics. We are white, heterosexual, male professors. As such, it would be ironic for us to claim" authority" over the meaning of narratives from women harassed by... male... more
We acknowledge at the outset our awkward position here as critics. We are white, heterosexual, male professors. As such, it would be ironic for us to claim" authority" over the meaning of narratives from women harassed by... male professors. Instead, we seek a" pro-feminist" analysis (Heath, 1987) that will clarify the potential meanings of these texts, and advance dialogue concerning the" organization" of sexual harassment. We bring to the narratives our interest in theorizing and transforming the relations among organization, discourse, sexuality and power. We view the narratives as" political" in that they depict how organizations regulate the meanings and practices of their members (eg, toward the female worker) in ways that promote particular interests and marginalize others (Langellier, 1989; Mumby, 1987). That regulation is accomplished by members through their interaction in episodes such as sexual …
Research Interests:
Images of “home” and “field” pervade discourse about nuclear weapons. These images create inter‐related symbolic realms in which nuclear operations are variously promoted, accomodated, and resisted. In analyzing a series of personal and... more
Images of “home” and “field” pervade discourse about nuclear weapons. These images create inter‐related symbolic realms in which nuclear operations are variously promoted, accomodated, and resisted. In analyzing a series of personal and fieldwork narratives, this essay explores various configurations of these images in both official and critical nuclear discourses. It argues that the discursive fields of national‐strategic and critical‐ethnographic operations are mapped and conducted over domestic sites. The existence and oppositional power of these sites are typically repressed, however, in order to maintain the authority of professional nuclear discourses. Revising the relationship between Home and Field potentially transforms the existing practices of both nuclear hegemony and progressive nuclear criticism
Thesis (M.S.)--Dept. of Communication, University of Utah, 1987. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [113]-116).
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Dept. of Communication, University of Utah, 1991. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 392-413). Microfilm. s
Introduction Dating from its initial appropriation by organizational studies scholars in the 1970’s, observers have continually pronounced the “decline” and “death” of organizational culture. These pronouncements have critiqued its status... more
Introduction Dating from its initial appropriation by organizational studies scholars in the 1970’s, observers have continually pronounced the “decline” and “death” of organizational culture. These pronouncements have critiqued its status as, variously, an actual organizational phenomenon, a management fad, a valid theoretical construct, and a legitimate scholarly project. Organizational culture has stimulated these pronouncements by exceeding and defying a variety of ethical and political projects that are premised on modernist values such as linearity, coherence, realism, rationality, certainty, unity, singularity, and continuity. Instead, organizational culture has regularly disappointed its would-be pallbearers by transforming its related ontology and epistemology, and persisting as a hybrid of both tradition and innovation. Nonetheless, we may inquire whether, at the present moment,“organizational culture” is once again declining in status in the field of organizational communication studies. This claim may be supported by assessing empirical trends in indicators of its presence and influence. More broadly, however, we may contemplate a restless disciplinary zeitgeist, in which “organizational culture” seems to be undergoing displacement and reconfiguration associated with two partly-related trends. The first of these trends involves the rise of “organizational discourse,” in which social theories and research methods tied to the interdisciplinary study of language and social interaction challenge traditional interpretivist and ethnographic premises of organizational culture studies. The second trend is the field’s current embrace of structuration …
In this essay, I am concerned with the relationship between realism and nuclear weapons. Three themes in this relationship are evoked in the epigraph from Paul Tibbets, pilot of the world's first atomic bombing mission. One theme is the... more
In this essay, I am concerned with the relationship between realism and nuclear
weapons. Three themes in this relationship are evoked in the epigraph from Paul
Tibbets, pilot of the world's first atomic bombing mission. One theme is the importance of vision for realism. Like all nuclear witnesses, Tibbets was faced with translating the awesome evidence of his senses for his audience (here, journalists requesting an account of his "reactions over the target"). Although the Enola Gay's crew experienced Hiroshima through a variety of senses—one excited crewman believed he could taste the bomb's radiation6—here it is vision that predominates, and vision that establishes Tibbets's complex credibility as an author, witness and survivor of the scene. Another theme in this account involves the excessive quality of the nuclear object. Although Tibbets had been briefed prior to his mission about the destructive force of the weapon, its effects were still "quite beyond" his expectations. His remark indicates the threat posed by nuclear excess to the adequacy of realism for projecting and depicting nuclear events. . .
weapons. Three themes in this relationship are evoked in the epigraph from Paul
Tibbets, pilot of the world's first atomic bombing mission. One theme is the importance of vision for realism. Like all nuclear witnesses, Tibbets was faced with translating the awesome evidence of his senses for his audience (here, journalists requesting an account of his "reactions over the target"). Although the Enola Gay's crew experienced Hiroshima through a variety of senses—one excited crewman believed he could taste the bomb's radiation6—here it is vision that predominates, and vision that establishes Tibbets's complex credibility as an author, witness and survivor of the scene. Another theme in this account involves the excessive quality of the nuclear object. Although Tibbets had been briefed prior to his mission about the destructive force of the weapon, its effects were still "quite beyond" his expectations. His remark indicates the threat posed by nuclear excess to the adequacy of realism for projecting and depicting nuclear events. . .
Research Interests:
This essay isolates and explores a growing body of communication research concerned with ‘security.’ It opens by defining this concept, and discussing recent geopolitical and interdisciplinary trends contributing to its association with... more
This essay isolates and explores a growing body of communication research concerned with ‘security.’ It opens by defining this concept, and discussing recent geopolitical and interdisciplinary trends contributing to its association with communication. It subsequently reviews distinctive engagement with ‘security’ displayed in five disciplinary subfields, including strategic communication, discourse analysis, public argument studies, rhetoric, and critical-cultural communication studies. It concludes by providing four sets of recommendations for future development of this research program.
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Although the Cold War is commonly considered 'over,' the legacies of that conflict continue to unfold throughout the globe. One site of post-Cold War controversy involves the consequences of U.S. nuclear weapons production for worker... more
Although the Cold War is commonly considered 'over,' the legacies of that conflict continue to unfold throughout the globe. One site of post-Cold War controversy involves the consequences of U.S. nuclear weapons production for worker safety, public health, and the environment. Over the past two decades, citizens, organizations, and governments have passionately debated the nature of these consequences, and how they should be managed. This volume clarifies the role of communication in creating, maintaining, and transforming the relationships between these parties, and in shaping the outcomes of related organizational and political deliberations. Providing various perspectives on nuclear culture and discourse, this anthology serves as a model of interdisciplinary communication scholarship that cuts across the subfields of political, environmental, and organizational communication studies, and rhetoric.
Research Interests:
The Handbook of Communication and Security provides a comprehensive collection and synthesis of communication scholarship that engages security at multiple levels, including theoretical vs. practical, international vs. domestic, and... more
The Handbook of Communication and Security provides a comprehensive collection and synthesis of communication scholarship that engages security at multiple levels, including theoretical vs. practical, international vs. domestic, and public vs. private. The handbook includes chapters that leverage communication-based concepts and theories to illuminate and influence contemporary security conditions. Collectively, these chapters foreground and analyze the role of communication in shaping the economic, technological, and cultural contexts of security in the 21st century. This book is ideal for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students and scholars in the numerous subfields of communication and security studies.