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A Discourse-Based Analysis of Literacy Sponsorship in New Media: The Case of Military Blogs

Thomas, Patrick William
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1302521629

Abstract Details

2011, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English.
This dissertation examines the construct of literacy sponsorship within the context of online literacy practices of soldiers blogging from Iraq and Afghanistan between 2008 and 2010. While existing treatments of the literacy sponsorship construct are situated within print-based modes of textual production, I argue that the new media context poses significant complications for current assumptions central to the construct; namely, that individuals pursue literacy practices as a means of socioeconomic empowerment, and that institutional definitions of literacy reproduce institutional ideologies. The case of military blogs is of particular import given current Department of Defense efforts to maintain information security during wartime. Additionally, this study extends current understandings of sponsorship by situating the study of sponsorship within actual discourse practices of sponsors and soldiers. This study draws on a multi-method approach of data collection and analysis in the forms of document collection from the Department of Defense, email interviews with nine currently deployed soldiers, and textual analysis of the soldiers’ blogs. The research design, in the form of a case study, provides a framework in which researcher-generated data and participant-generated data are compared. Data analysis for this study takes the form of three conceptually overlapping parts; analysis of the development for regulations that authorize soldiers’ blogging practices, comparative analyses of soldiers’ rhetorical knowledge about their blogs and blog post content, and a sample case study of one soldier’s blogging practices. Results from this study reveal individuals acting on behalf of the sponsoring institution to read and regulate soldiers’ blog content maintain idiosyncratic processes for doing so. These disparate forms of sponsorship are in part due to the new media context, which allows soldiers to define their own rhetorical situations, and which makes identifying soldiers’ blogs for review problematic. The rapid proliferation of and diverse rhetorical functions for blogs complicate and are complicated by the sponsor’s conception of the blog as a textual form. Thus, the sponsor-sponsored relationship in this context requires redefinition.
Pamela Takayoshi, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Brian Huot, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Patricia Dunmire, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Alexa Sandmann, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
174 p.
Communication; Composition; Literacy; Military Studies; Rhetoric; Web Studies
Digital Literacy; New Media; Literacy Sponsorship; Literacy; Blogging; Soldiers; Army

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Thomas, P. W. (2011). A Discourse-Based Analysis of Literacy Sponsorship in New Media: The Case of Military Blogs [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1302521629

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Thomas, Patrick. A Discourse-Based Analysis of Literacy Sponsorship in New Media: The Case of Military Blogs. 2011. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1302521629.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Thomas, Patrick. "A Discourse-Based Analysis of Literacy Sponsorship in New Media: The Case of Military Blogs." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1302521629

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2011, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.