Course Description
Explores social discourse about war, conflict, and violence through studies of public address, propaganda, media representations, and social movements.
Athena Title
The Rhetoric of War
Prerequisite
COMM 2100 or COMM 2200 or COMM 2200E or COMM 2360 or COMM 3300 or COMM 3320 or COMM 3340 or GEOG 3640 or INTL 3200 or INTL 3200E
Semester Course Offered
Not offered on a regular basis.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course is designed to give students tools for understanding the common rhetorical modes through which war is represented in public life. Students should come away with an understanding of the historical role communication has played in priming public audiences to authorize state violence, depicting aggression, characterizing leaders and societies, animating social movements, and remembering conflict after it has passed. Goals of the course include sharpening critical thinking regarding the vital role of rhetoric in the construction of conflict, improving writing abilities through one or more research projects, and refining public speaking skills with one or more presentations.
Topical Outline
1. Theories of group identity and violence 2. Classical propaganda 3. The military-media relationship 4. Free speech in wartime 5. Representations of war in the entertainment industries 6. Presidential justifications and announcements of war 7. War and social movements 8. Demonization and constructing the other 9. Memorializing, commemorating, and remembering war 10. War and emerging media 11. Witnessing violence 12. Images of war and its visualization