National Communication Association Research Articles

Radical rhetorics at/and the world’s end: epistemologies, ontologies, and otherwise possibilities

ABSTRACT This short essay introduces the special issue, “Radical Rhetorics at/and the World’s End,” which features original short essays that offer bold, risky, and provocative perspectives that share the general belief that we can no longer afford safe, incremental, or mechanical solutions and responses to the profound challenges that confront our planetary community/ies today. Rather than a new set of universals, or proscriptive, prescriptive, or diagnostic solutions, the essays included herein open an in/coherent political horizon and gesture to a diverse set of tools, concepts, and approaches that might help re-think what meaningful social change, world-building, and the pluriversal present and future might look like in all of its diversity, unpredictability, and in/coherence. This forum emerged from a roundtable discussion at the 2022 National Communication Association convention and was developed through a collaborative peer review process that involved all contributing authors. This introduction establishes the disciplinary, conceptual, and personal context surrounding this forum before providing a brief overview of the essays.

A Jazz Aesthetic Reprise (on the Work of Tami Spry)

This performative piece serves as a tribute to Tami L. Spry upon her retirement from academic teaching. The piece is considered a reprise because it is based on a shortened version given on a panel at the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (2016) that celebrated the publication of her book, Autoethnography and the Other: Unsettling Power through Utopian Performatives. A variation of this piece was presented at the 2022 National Communication Association Convention in New Orleans on the panel: “The Place of Performance and the Performance of Tami L. Spry.” The piece infuses citations in building an incomplete bibliography of her body of work. And like her body of work, this tribute text is a performance script.

Decade of Race Publications: Meta content Analysis of Race in Communication Scholarship from 2010–2020

The #CommSoWhite movement gained momentum in 2020, pointing to a heightened need for communication scholarship to reckon with race and racism. This content analysis provides a systematic review of a decade of race scholarship in communication studies. Manuscripts that address race in all of journals published by the National Communication Association and the International Communication Association journals were analyzed. Preliminary findings reveal trends regarding race scholarship and point to opportunities for advancing communication studies knowledge about race and racism. This research begins to map the terrain of race scholarship in the discipline of communication in order to show missed opportunities, patterns of publications regarding racial phenomena, and highlight potential biases in our collective knowledge of contemporary scholarship about race.

“A terrible beauty is born”: using Yeats to respond to Last Words, November 2021

ABSTRACT In 2021, I attended the first National Communication Association conference since 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic began), and I participated in Kirt Shineman’s experimental collaborative performance, Last Words. In response to Shineman’s curation of historic texts in an experimental form, this response reflects on my immersive audience member <-> performer experience, and concludes by using William Butler Yeats’ “Easter 1916” (and other Yeats texts) to craft a poetic reply to the content, form, and 1916/2021 time periods of Last Words.

Cracking the Cracked-Up System: Shared Stories from Interstage Academic Feminist Collaboration

The concept of “cracking the cracked-up system” was introduced in a 2018 National Communication Association (NCA) convention panel. The panel’s purpose was to bring voices together and validate both presenters’ and members’ experiences in higher education. Several women have contributed to the conversation across the years, and these conversations have crafted sustained interstage feminist academic collaboration. In this layered account, the narratives include mental health, burnout, and institutional support for women in academia who, after being socialized into the culture of academia during graduate school, struggle with the pressure to be the traditional ideal academic worker. Our narratives demonstrate how interstage feminist academic collaboration can serve as a support system given the “cracked-up” nature of the university.

Satire as the Comic Public Sphere: Postmodern “Truthiness” and Civic Engagement

Satire as the Comic Public Sphere: Postmodern “Truthiness” and Civic Engagement

The labor of diversity in the 2020–2021 U.S. communication job market

ABSTRACT Following George Floyd’s murder in 2020, academia pursued a policy of diversity, noticeable in the job advertisements for the following academic year. This article analyzes 77 tenure-track positions for the 2020–2021 academic year advertised on the National Communication Association’s COMMNotes. With a focus on the job market and labor, the authors explain the assumptions of applying for tenure-track positions. The analysis shows how diversity transforms from concept into practice. However, within the context of the U.S.-based communication studies’ economic conditions, the authors ask if labor is outside the conceptualization of diversity.

Intervention orientations in communication research

ABSTRACT The importance of intervention in communication research has continued to expand in a variety of research traditions including applied communication, engaged scholarship, and communication activism. The growing importance of intervention requires closely examining our research practices regarding knowledge production and the role of nonacademic research partners. The present study articulates four intervention orientations based on an analysis of articles (n = 154) from 2010 to 2020, drawn from journals published by the U.S.-based Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, International Communication Association, and National Communication Association. Four orientations are articulated using the dimensions of problem focus and intervention pathway: (1) translation, (2) critique, (3) design, and (4) co-creation. Implications regarding temporality and intervention, the significance of interdisciplinary research, and the sustainable social impact of interventions are highlighted.

Introduction: Writing Occupied Palestine: Toward a field of Palestinian Communication and Cultural Studies

ABSTRACT This special issue emerged from a belief that Communication journals have long ignored Palestinian voices. A review of all manuscripts published across eleven journals published by the National Communication Association provides unequivocal data supporting that belief. Specifically, prior to this special issue, only twelve articles across these 11 outlets emphasized Palestinian perspectives. In this brief introduction to the special issue, a brief summary of the content of those articles is laid out, and a call for the emergence of a domain of Palestinian Communication and Cultural Studies – founded on an essential commitment to center the question of Palestine through a decolonial lens that values the indigenous and Palestinian voice – is made.

Decolonizing Organizational Communication

The ideas of this forum germinated at the Organizational Communication Division’s pre-conference at the 106th annual convention of the National Communication Association (NCA) in 2020. A group of scholar-teachers, committed to addressing various critical social issues, came together to challenge dominant ideas, paradigms, and structures within and beyond organizational communication. We engaged with decolonization and social justice as an ongoing project that cultivates scholarship, pedagogy, and public engagement. Our discussions left us with a sense of urgency and inspiration to work substantively toward thinking differently about organizational communication. Our goal in this forum is to present the collective as a sharp provocation to decenter the spaces of theorizing and pedagogical practices in organizational communication and beyond.

Targeting an audience: A discussion of relevant variables and a test of priming

“Targeting an Audience: A Discussion of Relevant Variables and a Test of Priming” is a teaching activity created to further students’ knowledge of persuasive message reception and priming—a persuasion tactic often used in advertising by brands. Explanations of intended courses, learning objectives, and rationale are provided to help instructors understand why this activity may be impactful in their classrooms. Additionally, advice for facilitating the activity, including information on the materials, preparation, and a breakdown of the activity’s two parts, is provided as a guide for instructors to add this activity to their lesson plan. This activity was written for submission after successful facilitation in a graduate-level communication course, although applications extend beyond this level. An appraisal of the activity suggests limitations and variations of the activity. Originally developed as part of an instructional discussion for a graduate seminar in persuasion, “Targeting an Audience: A Discussion of Relevant Variables and a Test of Priming” is presented in this manuscript as an engaging activity to introduce any college-level student to the ideas of persuasive message reception and priming. Myers et al. (A curricular view of communication course offerings of national communication association department members. Communication Education, 70(4), 421–434, 2021) found persuasion to be the second most commonly offered course among National Communication Association department members, which may suggest that materials and activities to teach persuasion, such as presented in this manuscript, are in high demand. Courses This activity is intended for use as part of a persuasive communication course lesson in which persuasive message effects on receivers are discussed. Although originally developed for a graduate seminar in persuasion, this activity may also be facilitated in undergraduate persuasion or introductory communication courses. Objectives By participating in this activity, students will: (1) be able to define individual variables that influence a message receiver; (2) understand the effect of the variables on message reception through discussion of basic research findings and personal experiences; (3) apply the variables to suggest the “target audience” of real-life advertising examples; and (4) understand that receivers are not blank slates.

Rhetorics Haunting the National Mall: Displaced and Ephemeral Public Memories

Rhetorics Haunting the National Mall: Displaced and Ephemeral Public Memories

Needs Assessment of National Communication Association Conference Presentations: Members’ Perceptions of Presentation Effectiveness, Values, and Challenges

This study analyzed the National Communication Association (NCA) members’ perceptions regarding the effectiveness of their own and their peer presentations and the challenges they faced when preparing and giving conference presentations. Overall, participants (n = 187) feel fairly content with the effectiveness of NCA conference presentations and the value they have gained from them. The effectiveness of others’ presentations has a significant association with members’ perceived value of the conference presentations. The lack of experience and lack of confidence are key variables that heighten anxiety which can impact the effectiveness of presentations. Process anxiety was positively associated with presentation effectiveness whereas performance anxiety was negatively associated with presentation effectiveness. This needs assessment provides informed suggestions for making academic presentations more effective in the future.

Instructional Resources to Assess Applied Projects as a Culminating Graduate Communication Student Experience

This study reviews the traditional culminating graduate student experiences, theses, and comprehensive exams, as well as a newer, more professionally relevant option, applied research projects. We conceptualize applied projects as student-led, client-connected, hands-on, experiential projects that address a real-world communication problem or topic through the creation of relevant deliverables. We used Glassick et al.’s (1997) scholarship assessed model and the National Communication Association’s communication learning outcomes to determine perceived differences between culminating experiences. Survey results (N = 32) of recent alumni and current master’s level Communication students demonstrate near-equal ratings of applied projects and theses in their ability to both meet scholarship assessment criteria and communication learning outcomes. Comprehensive exams are rated comparatively worse. Based on these criteria and others gained from implementing applied projects as an option for students, we offer a rubric for assessing master’s level applied research projects.

Sounds About White: Critiquing the NCA Standards for Public Speaking Competency

Using critical discourse analysis, I critically examined the National Communication Association’s (NCA) standards for public speaking competency to determine what type of ideal speaker the standards would produce. Highlighting NCA’s emphasis on “suitable” and “appropriate” forms of communication and the use of Standard American English, I argue that the ideal competent speaker in our classrooms sounds White. I complete the essay by reimagining the basic course using methods of Africana Study to explore ways that the standards for public speaking might be decolonized and made more inclusive to students of all backgrounds.

A curricular view of communication course offerings of National Communication Association department members

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to continue the trend of identifying the course offerings of National Communication Association (NCA) department members started by Wardrope (1999). A curricular profile of U.S. communication departments. Communication Education, 48(3), 256–258. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634529909379173 and followed by Bertelsen and Goodboy (2009). Curriculum planning: Trends in communication studies, workplace competencies, and current programs at 4-year colleges and universities. Communication Education, 58(2), 262–275. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634520902755458. Supported by an Advancing the Discipline grant obtained by the NCA in 2019, this third iteration identifies the Top 30 course offerings across 322 NCA Department members as of May 2020. The results indicate that over the past three decades, the most currently offered communication courses have remained relatively stable, with the interpersonal communication course remaining the most currently offered course by NCA department members, followed (in this study) by the persuasion, introductory, intercultural, public speaking, organizational, group, research methods, argumentation and debate, and theory courses. Future researchers might extend this line of research by inquiring whether these offered courses are required for the undergraduate degree in communication, a department major or area of emphasis, a department minor, or institutional graduation as well as probe the graduate courses offered by communication departments.

Student-instructor relationships and ethics education: examining student perceptions of the integrative ethical education model

The National Communication Association has positioned ethics education as a key student learning outcome for those graduating with a degree in communication. However, as central as this learning outcome is, few studies, within communication and across disciplines investigating teaching/learning, have explored specific instructor behaviors that promote students’ ethical development. This study explores how instructor behaviors are recognized by students as fulfilling the integrative ethical education (IEE) model. A relationally based approach, the tenets of the IEE model propose pedagogical practices that can be implemented in order to promote student learning and ethical development. Conducting a thematic analysis of focus group and interview data, we identified specific instructor communication behaviors students connected to the IEE model. Further, our findings suggest that central to implementing the IEE model are the development of a strong student-instructor relationship and classroom community. Implications for ethics education in communication and future research directions are discussed.

The faculty hiring network for PhD-granting communication programs

What is the structure of the faculty hiring network in the communication discipline? Using the Doctoral Program Guide of the National Communication Association, we compiled a list of 87 communication doctoral programs from 77 institutions, and obtained information on 1323 faculty members, including current university employment and where they earned their PhD. These data allowed the construction of a communication PhD hiring network, in which degree-granting universities were linked to current places of employment. Social network analyses addressed structural questions about faculty hiring in communication. Key findings include that hiring in communication is characterized by an open arrangement, without a clear clique-based structure, that self-hires are related to faculty size and university centrality, and that over time the hiring structure evolved from one with a number of feeder universities to one where hiring is more decentralized.

Resisting Brown: Race, Literacy, and Citizenship in the Heart of Virginia

Resisting Brown: Race, Literacy, and Citizenship in the Heart of Virginia

Afrocentricity as the Organizing Principle for African Renaissance. Interview with Prof. Molefi Kete Asante, Temple University (USA)

Professor Molefi Kete Asante is Professor and Chair of the Department of Africology at Temple University. Asante’s research has focused on the re-centering of African thinking and African people in narratives of historical experiences that provide opportunities for agency. As the most published African American scholars and one of the most prolific and influential writers in the African world, Asante is the leading theorist on Afrocentricity. His numerous works, over 85 books, and hundreds of articles, attest to his singular place in the discipline of African American Studies. His major works, An Afrocentric Manifesto [Asante 2007a], The History of Africa [Asante 2007b], The Afrocentric Idea [Asante 1998], The African Pyramids of Knowledge [Asante 2015], Erasing Racism: The Survival of the American Nation [Asante 2009], As I Run Toward Africa [Asante 2011], Facing South to Africa [Asante 2014], and Revolutionary Pedagogy [Asante 2017], have become rich sources for countless scholars to probe for both theory and content. His recent award as National Communication Association (NCA) Distinguished Scholar placed him in the elite company of the best thinkers in the field of communication. In African Studies he is usually cited as the major proponent of Afrocentricity which the NCA said in its announcing of his Distinguished Scholar award was “a spectacular achievement”. Molefi Kete Asante is interviewed because of his recognized position as the major proponent of Afrocentricity and the most consistent theorist in relationship to creating Africological pathways such as institutes, research centers, departments, journals, conference and workshop programs, and academic mentoring opportunities. Asante has mentored over 100 students, some of whom are among the principal administrators in the field of Africology. Asante is professor of Africology at Temple University and has taught at the University of California, State University of New York, Howard University, Purdue University, Florida State University, as well as held special appointments at the University of South Africa, Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, and Ibadan University in Nigeria.