Jim A. Kuypers | Virginia Tech (original) (raw)
Papers by Jim A. Kuypers
Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, 2023
Ron DeSantis had made national headlines well before being reelected governor of Florida by the l... more Ron DeSantis had made national headlines well before being reelected governor of Florida by the largest margin seen in the past forty years, almost 20 full points, even as he had taken no national level interviews. A large part of his gain in national attention came through the what I call a rhetorical strategy of "poking the bear," with the bear in this case being the national media. By adopting the mainstream stance on a few key mainstream issues that the press, as a left leaning institution, would be certain to cover as controversial, even as radical, DeSantis was able to position himself as a viable contender for the Republican presidential nomination, even as he had not announced his candidacy.
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Res Rhetorica, 2021
Historically the American news media has operated from Libertarian model of news production, yet ... more Historically the American news media has operated from Libertarian model of news production, yet from the late 1950s into today it has been incorporating ever more elements of the Social Responsibility model into its reportorial practices. Research indicates that in ever increasing amounts news reporters are focused more on interpreting rather than presenting the news. I argue that this practice, coupled with the ideological make-up and growing advocacy interests of journalists and editors, is beginning to move the American press away from a social responsibility model to something completely unknown in the history of the American Republic, something fundamentally damaging to the Democratic ideals and functioning of that Republic. Moreover, this movement is correlated with ever increasing negative views of the press, with trust in the mainstream news at historical all-time lows. This speech looks at this trend and positions it within the context of the recent Pandemic and Presidential election, and offers suggestions for not only the American press, but for any country seeking to have a robust and free press system that strengthens participatory Republics operating on Democratic principles. PDF available here: https://resrhetorica.com/index.php/RR/article/view/600
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KB Journal, 2021
In The War of Words Burke uses the term scientific to describe the news “in the sense that it dea... more In The War of Words Burke uses the term scientific to describe the news “in the sense that it deals with information” but is also rhetorical since “it forms attitudes or induces to action.” In this essay I outline Burke’s major ideas in his “Scientific Rhetoric” chapter; present for consideration Burke’s assumptions about the press; and conclude with comments about how one might productively extend Burke’s insights into future studies of the news media. Paper can be found here: http://kbjournal.org/kuypers-scientific-rhetoric
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Kenneth Burke Journal, 2019
Using Burke’s notion of terminological screens, we perform a cluster analysis on Donald Trump’s i... more Using Burke’s notion of terminological screens, we perform a cluster analysis on Donald Trump’s inaugural address. We discovered keywords that appeared to point to Trump’s stock campaign phrase, Make America Great Again: we, Washington, D.C., people, you/your, and America. Our analysis seeks to explain how the phrase's rhetorical presence in Trump’s inaugural address opened and closed possibilities for unity and division, and ultimately allowed for an inaugural speech reception on par with prior presidents
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The authors of this study looked for differences in war reporting between journalists embedded wi... more The authors of this study looked for differences in war reporting between journalists embedded with combat units and journalists based behind the lines (homeland) during the second Gulf War. Examining news stories published between 21 March 2003 and 10 April 2003, the authors’ initial examination of news articles discovered two major differences in how the war was framed by the two reporting groups: the strength of Iraqi army resistance and the response of the Iraqi civilian population to the Allied incursion. Embedded reporting was found to be more accurate and generally more positive about American actions than were the behind the lines reporting, which tended to be negative and often wildly inaccurate.
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![Research paper thumbnail of “From Chaos, Community: The Crisis Leadership of Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger” following the 4/16/2007 massacre [Crisis Communication; School Shootings]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/53611833/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Examines the crisis rhetoric of Virginia Tech's President Charles Steger following the 4/16/2007 ... more Examines the crisis rhetoric of Virginia Tech's President Charles Steger following the 4/16/2007 massacre of 32 students and faculty on Virginia Tech's campus.
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Following the Nat Turner rebellion, the Virginia State Legislature held a debate in early 1832 ov... more Following the Nat Turner rebellion, the Virginia State Legislature held a debate in early 1832 over the abolition of slavery in the state. Two sides, pro-abolitionists and traditionalists, sparred over a two-week period. Using dramatistic analysis, I undertake a case study of the debate, looking specifically for the terministic screens used by each side to ascertain their worldviews that ultimately led to a narrow defeat of the pro-abolitionists.
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Barnett Baskerville asked, "must we all be rhetorical critics?"1 More recently, James Darsey aske... more Barnett Baskerville asked, "must we all be rhetorical critics?"1 More recently, James Darsey asked, "must we all be rhetorical theorists?"2 In similar vein I ask, "must we all be political activists?" I pose this question after reading the Quarterly Journal of Speech editorials penned by Robert L. Ivie. These essays are, frankly, a rallying call for academics who wish to use criticism as a tool to engage in political activism within the academy.
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![Research paper thumbnail of The Rhetorical River [Development of Ideological Rhetorical Criticism]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/54386955/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Publication of Malcom Sillars’s ‘‘Persistent Problems in Rhetorical Criticism’’ in 1976 presented... more Publication of Malcom Sillars’s ‘‘Persistent Problems in Rhetorical Criticism’’ in 1976 presented rhetorical critics with eight recalcitrant issues concerning the practice of rhetorical criticism. In revisiting this important essay, one finds missing from Sillars’s observations one important consideration: the ideological turn in criticism. In the essay that follows, I carry-on in the tradition of Sillars and explore how the ideological turn that occurred after the publication of Sillars’s essay has introduced new possibilities and problems for rhetorical criticism.
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In this essay, we provide a brief overview of how frames work, discuss the relationship of frames... more In this essay, we provide a brief overview of how frames work, discuss the relationship of frames to the news media, and perform a qualitatively based, comparative framing analysis of President Bush’s speech to the United Nations and the mainstream American press response that followed. Findings suggest that by the end of formal military operations in Afghanistan, the press was increasingly framing its reports in such a way that President Bush’s public statements were inaccurately transmitted to the public at large. Three key findings are advanced: one, the press depicted the Bush administration as an enemy of civil liberties; two, hard news stories echoed the positions generated by editorials and opinion essays; three, as early as eight weeks after 9/11, the press was actively contesting the meaning of the War on Terror. Also discussed is the nature of the War on Terror as a master frame
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Historians give John Pym due credit as a successful Parliamentarian; rhetorical critics examine P... more Historians give John Pym due credit as a successful Parliamentarian; rhetorical critics examine Pym's prowess as an orator. Both perspectives focus on Pym's management of issues of the day and do not account for his masterful appropriation of political language. We conduct an ideographic analysis of twelve of his addresses to Parliament between 1640 and 1643. His discourse reveals a crucial reformulation of in relation to subsidiary ideographs, including , , and . These ideological innovations were instrumental in building Parliamentary opposition to Charles I and allowed for advances in democratic ideas made manifest in Anglo-American liberalism.
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We employ a Burkean perspective to examine the role of rhetoric in the sport of NASCAR. In parti... more We employ a Burkean perspective to examine the role of rhetoric in the sport of NASCAR. In particular, we explore the role that driver rhetoric plays in the mainstream success of the sport. We selected six representative television interviews by NASCAR drivers and subjected them to a pentadic analysis. For comparison purposes, we perform the same analysis on two interviews from each of three other major American professional sports – football, basketball, and baseball. Our findings suggest that rhetorical norms in NASCAR do differ from those norms of other major American sports, and that this distinction could possibly play a role in the marketing success of NASCAR.
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We compare news coverage of the Jena 6 found in “A” list blogs to traditional print news articles... more We compare news coverage of the Jena 6 found in “A” list blogs to traditional print news articles. We found that the print articles shared four themes and framed those themes in a similar fashion. Similar themes were found among blog entries, although the framing of those themes broke down along political lines. However, all blogs framed the media’s role in the Jena 6 as negative.
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In this study we use a dramatistic perspective to explore the absence of guilt as a determining f... more In this study we use a dramatistic perspective to explore the absence of guilt as a determining factor of the continued hierarchical destruction in the Martin Luther King, Jr./Charles R. Drew Medical Center. This public hospital’s history of patient mortality dilemmas was featured in the Pulitzer Prize-winning public service series authored by the Los Angeles Times staff. We examine the hierarchical relationships within the hospital especially in terms of Kenneth Burke’s trio of guilt, purification, and redemption. We found that without recognition of guilt and fitting purification, redemption remained out of reach, and the polluted hierarchy further grew.
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We present a dramatistic analysis of the discourse of Syrian President Assad and his opposition i... more We present a dramatistic analysis of the discourse of Syrian President Assad and his opposition in the ongoing Syrian civil war. Comparing terministic screens and world views expressed in the discourses, we find that the Assad regime believes it is not responsible for the current conflict, and is justified in the use of violence against rebel groups. Rebel groups overtly reject Western values and seek to depict their current and planned violence as morally justified.
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When the U.S.S. Vincennes shot down Iran Air 655 (Airbus) on 3 July 1988, the Reagan administrati... more When the U.S.S. Vincennes shot down Iran Air 655 (Airbus) on 3 July 1988, the Reagan administration initially reacted in a reserved and perfunctory manner; however, within two weeks the discourse had assumed a more vituperative demeanor. These disparate rhetorical styles suggest the premise that the administration redefined the context from which it communicated to the world. This study analyzes administrative rhetoric of the United States government during the Airbus crisis, examining all written verbatim records produced by the administration within a thirty day period following the shootdown. By studying the interplay of text and context, as this relates to the concept of rhetorical situation, we demonstrate that the administration contextually reconstructed the entire incident, that George Bush's speech before the United Nations on 14 July 1988 was the culmination of this change, and that discourse following Bush's speech evinced rhetorical qualities characteristic of administrative discourse during the Korean airliner shootdown in 1983.
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Chapters by Jim A. Kuypers
Press Bias and Politics: How the Media Frame Controversial Issues, 2002
This is a comparative framing analysis of Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March speech and the main... more This is a comparative framing analysis of Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March speech and the mainstream press coverage of that speech. This detailed analysis shows that the press brought with it judgments made prior to Farrakhan's speech, and then relayed these judgments as news about the march. Whereas Farrakhan's march message was a complex blend of spiritual and secular action, the press only relayed Farrakhan's message through a narrow secular light that was tainted by the press's own prejudgment of Farrakhan.
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Rhetorical Criticism: Perspectives in Action, 2nd ed., 2016
This chapter explores the concept of Eclectic Criticism, and provides examples of how to perform ... more This chapter explores the concept of Eclectic Criticism, and provides examples of how to perform such an analysis.
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Kuypers, Jim A. “News Media Framing of the Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton 2016 Presidential ... more Kuypers, Jim A. “News Media Framing of the Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton 2016 Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speeches: Terministic Screens and the Discovery of the Worldview and Bias of the Press,” in Kuypers, Jim A., Ed. The 2016 American Presidential Campaign and the News Media: Implications for the American Republic and Democracy (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018): 101-132.
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Journal of Contemporary Rhetoric, 2023
Ron DeSantis had made national headlines well before being reelected governor of Florida by the l... more Ron DeSantis had made national headlines well before being reelected governor of Florida by the largest margin seen in the past forty years, almost 20 full points, even as he had taken no national level interviews. A large part of his gain in national attention came through the what I call a rhetorical strategy of "poking the bear," with the bear in this case being the national media. By adopting the mainstream stance on a few key mainstream issues that the press, as a left leaning institution, would be certain to cover as controversial, even as radical, DeSantis was able to position himself as a viable contender for the Republican presidential nomination, even as he had not announced his candidacy.
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Res Rhetorica, 2021
Historically the American news media has operated from Libertarian model of news production, yet ... more Historically the American news media has operated from Libertarian model of news production, yet from the late 1950s into today it has been incorporating ever more elements of the Social Responsibility model into its reportorial practices. Research indicates that in ever increasing amounts news reporters are focused more on interpreting rather than presenting the news. I argue that this practice, coupled with the ideological make-up and growing advocacy interests of journalists and editors, is beginning to move the American press away from a social responsibility model to something completely unknown in the history of the American Republic, something fundamentally damaging to the Democratic ideals and functioning of that Republic. Moreover, this movement is correlated with ever increasing negative views of the press, with trust in the mainstream news at historical all-time lows. This speech looks at this trend and positions it within the context of the recent Pandemic and Presidential election, and offers suggestions for not only the American press, but for any country seeking to have a robust and free press system that strengthens participatory Republics operating on Democratic principles. PDF available here: https://resrhetorica.com/index.php/RR/article/view/600
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KB Journal, 2021
In The War of Words Burke uses the term scientific to describe the news “in the sense that it dea... more In The War of Words Burke uses the term scientific to describe the news “in the sense that it deals with information” but is also rhetorical since “it forms attitudes or induces to action.” In this essay I outline Burke’s major ideas in his “Scientific Rhetoric” chapter; present for consideration Burke’s assumptions about the press; and conclude with comments about how one might productively extend Burke’s insights into future studies of the news media. Paper can be found here: http://kbjournal.org/kuypers-scientific-rhetoric
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Kenneth Burke Journal, 2019
Using Burke’s notion of terminological screens, we perform a cluster analysis on Donald Trump’s i... more Using Burke’s notion of terminological screens, we perform a cluster analysis on Donald Trump’s inaugural address. We discovered keywords that appeared to point to Trump’s stock campaign phrase, Make America Great Again: we, Washington, D.C., people, you/your, and America. Our analysis seeks to explain how the phrase's rhetorical presence in Trump’s inaugural address opened and closed possibilities for unity and division, and ultimately allowed for an inaugural speech reception on par with prior presidents
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The authors of this study looked for differences in war reporting between journalists embedded wi... more The authors of this study looked for differences in war reporting between journalists embedded with combat units and journalists based behind the lines (homeland) during the second Gulf War. Examining news stories published between 21 March 2003 and 10 April 2003, the authors’ initial examination of news articles discovered two major differences in how the war was framed by the two reporting groups: the strength of Iraqi army resistance and the response of the Iraqi civilian population to the Allied incursion. Embedded reporting was found to be more accurate and generally more positive about American actions than were the behind the lines reporting, which tended to be negative and often wildly inaccurate.
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Examines the crisis rhetoric of Virginia Tech's President Charles Steger following the 4/16/2007 ... more Examines the crisis rhetoric of Virginia Tech's President Charles Steger following the 4/16/2007 massacre of 32 students and faculty on Virginia Tech's campus.
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Following the Nat Turner rebellion, the Virginia State Legislature held a debate in early 1832 ov... more Following the Nat Turner rebellion, the Virginia State Legislature held a debate in early 1832 over the abolition of slavery in the state. Two sides, pro-abolitionists and traditionalists, sparred over a two-week period. Using dramatistic analysis, I undertake a case study of the debate, looking specifically for the terministic screens used by each side to ascertain their worldviews that ultimately led to a narrow defeat of the pro-abolitionists.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Barnett Baskerville asked, "must we all be rhetorical critics?"1 More recently, James Darsey aske... more Barnett Baskerville asked, "must we all be rhetorical critics?"1 More recently, James Darsey asked, "must we all be rhetorical theorists?"2 In similar vein I ask, "must we all be political activists?" I pose this question after reading the Quarterly Journal of Speech editorials penned by Robert L. Ivie. These essays are, frankly, a rallying call for academics who wish to use criticism as a tool to engage in political activism within the academy.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Publication of Malcom Sillars’s ‘‘Persistent Problems in Rhetorical Criticism’’ in 1976 presented... more Publication of Malcom Sillars’s ‘‘Persistent Problems in Rhetorical Criticism’’ in 1976 presented rhetorical critics with eight recalcitrant issues concerning the practice of rhetorical criticism. In revisiting this important essay, one finds missing from Sillars’s observations one important consideration: the ideological turn in criticism. In the essay that follows, I carry-on in the tradition of Sillars and explore how the ideological turn that occurred after the publication of Sillars’s essay has introduced new possibilities and problems for rhetorical criticism.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
In this essay, we provide a brief overview of how frames work, discuss the relationship of frames... more In this essay, we provide a brief overview of how frames work, discuss the relationship of frames to the news media, and perform a qualitatively based, comparative framing analysis of President Bush’s speech to the United Nations and the mainstream American press response that followed. Findings suggest that by the end of formal military operations in Afghanistan, the press was increasingly framing its reports in such a way that President Bush’s public statements were inaccurately transmitted to the public at large. Three key findings are advanced: one, the press depicted the Bush administration as an enemy of civil liberties; two, hard news stories echoed the positions generated by editorials and opinion essays; three, as early as eight weeks after 9/11, the press was actively contesting the meaning of the War on Terror. Also discussed is the nature of the War on Terror as a master frame
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Historians give John Pym due credit as a successful Parliamentarian; rhetorical critics examine P... more Historians give John Pym due credit as a successful Parliamentarian; rhetorical critics examine Pym's prowess as an orator. Both perspectives focus on Pym's management of issues of the day and do not account for his masterful appropriation of political language. We conduct an ideographic analysis of twelve of his addresses to Parliament between 1640 and 1643. His discourse reveals a crucial reformulation of in relation to subsidiary ideographs, including , , and . These ideological innovations were instrumental in building Parliamentary opposition to Charles I and allowed for advances in democratic ideas made manifest in Anglo-American liberalism.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
We employ a Burkean perspective to examine the role of rhetoric in the sport of NASCAR. In parti... more We employ a Burkean perspective to examine the role of rhetoric in the sport of NASCAR. In particular, we explore the role that driver rhetoric plays in the mainstream success of the sport. We selected six representative television interviews by NASCAR drivers and subjected them to a pentadic analysis. For comparison purposes, we perform the same analysis on two interviews from each of three other major American professional sports – football, basketball, and baseball. Our findings suggest that rhetorical norms in NASCAR do differ from those norms of other major American sports, and that this distinction could possibly play a role in the marketing success of NASCAR.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
We compare news coverage of the Jena 6 found in “A” list blogs to traditional print news articles... more We compare news coverage of the Jena 6 found in “A” list blogs to traditional print news articles. We found that the print articles shared four themes and framed those themes in a similar fashion. Similar themes were found among blog entries, although the framing of those themes broke down along political lines. However, all blogs framed the media’s role in the Jena 6 as negative.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
In this study we use a dramatistic perspective to explore the absence of guilt as a determining f... more In this study we use a dramatistic perspective to explore the absence of guilt as a determining factor of the continued hierarchical destruction in the Martin Luther King, Jr./Charles R. Drew Medical Center. This public hospital’s history of patient mortality dilemmas was featured in the Pulitzer Prize-winning public service series authored by the Los Angeles Times staff. We examine the hierarchical relationships within the hospital especially in terms of Kenneth Burke’s trio of guilt, purification, and redemption. We found that without recognition of guilt and fitting purification, redemption remained out of reach, and the polluted hierarchy further grew.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
We present a dramatistic analysis of the discourse of Syrian President Assad and his opposition i... more We present a dramatistic analysis of the discourse of Syrian President Assad and his opposition in the ongoing Syrian civil war. Comparing terministic screens and world views expressed in the discourses, we find that the Assad regime believes it is not responsible for the current conflict, and is justified in the use of violence against rebel groups. Rebel groups overtly reject Western values and seek to depict their current and planned violence as morally justified.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
When the U.S.S. Vincennes shot down Iran Air 655 (Airbus) on 3 July 1988, the Reagan administrati... more When the U.S.S. Vincennes shot down Iran Air 655 (Airbus) on 3 July 1988, the Reagan administration initially reacted in a reserved and perfunctory manner; however, within two weeks the discourse had assumed a more vituperative demeanor. These disparate rhetorical styles suggest the premise that the administration redefined the context from which it communicated to the world. This study analyzes administrative rhetoric of the United States government during the Airbus crisis, examining all written verbatim records produced by the administration within a thirty day period following the shootdown. By studying the interplay of text and context, as this relates to the concept of rhetorical situation, we demonstrate that the administration contextually reconstructed the entire incident, that George Bush's speech before the United Nations on 14 July 1988 was the culmination of this change, and that discourse following Bush's speech evinced rhetorical qualities characteristic of administrative discourse during the Korean airliner shootdown in 1983.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Press Bias and Politics: How the Media Frame Controversial Issues, 2002
This is a comparative framing analysis of Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March speech and the main... more This is a comparative framing analysis of Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March speech and the mainstream press coverage of that speech. This detailed analysis shows that the press brought with it judgments made prior to Farrakhan's speech, and then relayed these judgments as news about the march. Whereas Farrakhan's march message was a complex blend of spiritual and secular action, the press only relayed Farrakhan's message through a narrow secular light that was tainted by the press's own prejudgment of Farrakhan.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Rhetorical Criticism: Perspectives in Action, 2nd ed., 2016
This chapter explores the concept of Eclectic Criticism, and provides examples of how to perform ... more This chapter explores the concept of Eclectic Criticism, and provides examples of how to perform such an analysis.
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Kuypers, Jim A. “News Media Framing of the Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton 2016 Presidential ... more Kuypers, Jim A. “News Media Framing of the Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton 2016 Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speeches: Terministic Screens and the Discovery of the Worldview and Bias of the Press,” in Kuypers, Jim A., Ed. The 2016 American Presidential Campaign and the News Media: Implications for the American Republic and Democracy (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018): 101-132.
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This chapter begins the project of understanding media manipulation of controversial issues.
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Kuypers, Jim A. “The Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speeches of Donald Trump and Hillary Clin... more Kuypers, Jim A. “The Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speeches of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton: Terministic Screens and Antagonistic Worldviews,” Political Campaign Communication: Theory, Method and Practice. Robert E. Denton, Jr., ed. (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017): 141-168.
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![Research paper thumbnail of "News Media [Framing] Reporting of the War on Terror"](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/53693570/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](This is the concluding chapter from the book, Bush’s War: Media Bias and Justifications for War i... more This is the concluding chapter from the book, Bush’s War: Media Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age. This book uses a framing analysis to examine Bush’s presidential speeches concerning the war on Terror form his initial September 11, 2001, remarks through well after the conclusion to initial mission in the Iraq war. Although many books have offered a take on the attacks of 9/11 and their impact upon American society, one area has been comparatively ignored: presidential justifications for war in the age of terrorism, and those justification in relation to the framing of the mainstream news media. This chapter summarizes the findings of the analysis of thousands of news reports, asking specifically, What did President Bush say to justify American military actions in the post–9/11 world? And how did the public hear what he said, especially as it was filtered and framed through the news media? Additional theoretical and methodological information are contained in chapter 1.
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![Research paper thumbnail of Hoyt Hopewell Hudson's Nuclear Rhetoric [Academic Criticism's 20th Century Beginnings]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/53628618/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Details the major theoretical contributions from early communication scholar and rhetorical criti... more Details the major theoretical contributions from early communication scholar and rhetorical critic, Hoyt Hopewell Hudson. Demonstrates how he presaged many of the disciplinary changes prior to other, better known scholars of the same period (1920-1950). Among the first from the Cornell School.
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Kuypers, Jim A. Partisan Journalism: A History of Media Bias in the United States. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014). Choice Outstanding Academic Title.
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Kuypers, Jim A. “Framing Analysis,” Rhetorical Criticism: Perspectives in Action. Jim A. Kuypers, ed. (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009), 181-204.
Outlines a methodological perspective for performing framing analysis as rhetorical criticism.
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Kuypers, Jim A., “Artistry, Purpose, and Academic Constraints in Rhetorical Criticism,” Purpose, Practice, and Pedagogy in Rhetorical Criticism. Jim A. Kuypers, ed. (Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2014), 83-95.
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Aamidor, Abe, Jim A. Kuypers, and Susan Wiesinger, Media Smackdown: Deconstructing the News and the Future of Journalism (New York, Peter Lang Publishing, 2013).
Overview of major types of media bias including liberal ideological bias, coverage bias, theoreti... more Overview of major types of media bias including liberal ideological bias, coverage bias, theoretical bias, perceptual bias, biases beyond the political, money bias, visual bias, recency bias, status quo bias, fairness and balance bias, and bad news bias. Included commentary on political news bloggers as media watchdogs.
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“Framing Analysis from a Rhetorical Perspective,” Doing News Framing Analysis. Paul D’Angelo and Jim A. Kuypers, eds. (New York: Routeledge, 2010), 286-311.
Advances a theoretical model for performing framing analyses from a rhetorical perspective. Diff... more Advances a theoretical model for performing framing analyses from a rhetorical perspective. Differentiates between social scientific framing and rhetorical framing.
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Lexington Books, 2020
From the Publisher: In President Trump and the News Media: Moral Foundations, Framing, and the Na... more From the Publisher: In President Trump and the News Media: Moral Foundations, Framing, and the Nature of Press Bias in America, political communication researcher Jim A. Kuypers takes readers on a rhetorical framing tour de force, this time incorporating elements of Moral Foundations Theory to investigate the ideological underpinnings of press reports. Using a rhetorical version of framing analysis, Kuypers analyzes four major speeches by President Trump and compares them with the reporting on those speeches by the mainstream news media. The moral foundations of both Trump and the news media are examined to assess their respective moral/ideological underpinnings. The results turn framing theory on its head by demonstrating how frames do not give rise to moral assessments as previously thought, but rather the presence of moral foundations provide moral substance to frames as they are developed and found throughout news coverage. The results reveal how journalists inject bias consciously and unconsciously into hard news stories, and that their moral foundations act to privilege liberal concerns and denigrate conservative concerns. Kuypers conveys how news media framing acted to treat President Trump not as a source of news, but as a political opponent while at the same time helping the political opposition of the President. By evaluating journalistic practices through the lens of their own published ethical standards, Kuypers argues that contemporary journalistic practices are damaging the American Republic and makes the case for immediate incorporation of viewpoint diversity within news organizations. Scholars of communications, journalism, and political science will find this book particularly interesting.
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Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014
This book guides readers on a journey through American journalistic history, focusing on the warr... more This book guides readers on a journey through American journalistic history, focusing on the warring notions of objectivity and partisanship. Kuypers shows how the American journalistic tradition grew from partisan roots and, with only a brief period of objectivity in between, has returned to those roots today.
The book begins with an overview of newspapers during Colonial times, explaining how those papers openly operated in an expressly partisan way; he then moves through the Jacksonian era’s expansion of both the press and its partisan nature. After detailing the role of the press during the War Between the States, Kuypers demonstrates that it was the telegraph, not professional sentiment, that kicked off the movement toward objective news reporting. The conflict between partisanship and professionalization/objectivity continued through the muckraking years and through World War II, with newspapers in the 1950s often being objective in their reporting even as their editorials leaned to the right. This changed rapidly in the 1960s when newspaper editorials shifted from right to left, and progressive advocacy began to slowly erode objective content. Kuypers follows this trend through the early 1980s, and then turns his attention to demonstrating how new communication technologies have changed the very nature of news writing and delivery. In the final chapters covering the Bush and Obama presidencies, he traces the growth of the progressive and partisan nature of the mainstream news, while at the same time explores the rapid rise of alternative news sources, some partisan, some objective, that are challenging the dominance of the mainstream press.
This book steps beyond a simple charge-counter-charge of political bias in the news in that it offers an argument that the press in America, except for a brief period, was essentially partisan from its inception and has returned with a vengeance to its original roots. The final argument presented in the book is that this new development may actually be healthy for American Democracy.
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Lexington Books, 2014
This edited volume fills a void in the literature concerning the purpose, practice, and pedagogy ... more This edited volume fills a void in the literature concerning the purpose, practice, and pedagogy associated with performing rhetorical criticism. Literature regarding these issues—predominantly purpose—exists primarily as scattered journal articles and as sections within chapters of textbooks on rhetorical criticism. This book brings together 15 established rhetorical critics, each of whom offers well thought out and argued opinion pieces that stress the more personal nature of criticism. The purpose of this book is to serve as a disciplinary resource, and as a teaching and learning aid.
Accessibility across areas of expertise and experience is stressed in this book. Critics range from junior faculty to emeritus, and represent a broad spectrum of views on criticism. In this sense the book offers a snapshot of the views of a wide swath of successfully practicing, contemporary rhetorical critics.
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Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2021
Rhetorical Criticism: Perspectives in Action presents a thorough, accessible, and well-grounded i... more Rhetorical Criticism: Perspectives in Action presents a thorough, accessible, and well-grounded introduction to contemporary rhetorical criticism. Systematic chapters contributed by noted experts introduce the fundamental aspects of a perspective, provide students with an example to model when writing their own criticism, and address the potentials and pitfalls of the approach. In addition to covering traditional modes of rhetorical criticism, the volume presents less commonly discussed rhetorical perspectives, exposing students to a wide cross-section of techniques.
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Fake news, Twitter use, identity politics in the campaign, and other controversial topics are inc... more Fake news, Twitter use, identity politics in the campaign, and other controversial topics are included in this edited book. It is unique in its discussion of a wide range of issues affecting the news media coverage of the election, coming from an equally diverse range of intellectual perspectives including the rhetorical, social-scientific, communication studies, and media studies. It contains eleven chapters grounded in hard evidence and communication theory, and examines significant topics such as fake news, media construction of Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s campaign personalities, media bias, visual meme depictions of the candidates, identity politics in the news, Trump’s Twitter use, entertainment news, and social media as news. These chapters individually and collectively provide a direct commentary on the implications of the 2016 campaign news coverage for the future of the American Republic and political communication in the media.
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Media in America, America in the Media Conference, 2021
Historically the American news media has operated from Libertarian model of news production, yet ... more Historically the American news media has operated from Libertarian model of news production, yet from the late 1950s into today it has been incorporating ever more elements of the Social Responsibility model into its reportorial practices. Research indicates that in ever increasing amounts news reporters are focused more on interpreting rather than presenting the news. I argue that this practice, coupled with the ideological make-up and growing advocacy interests of journalists and editors, is beginning to move the American press away from a social responsibility model to something completely unknown in the history of the American Republic, something fundamentally damaging to the Democratic ideals and functioning of that Republic. Moreover, this movement is correlated with ever increasing negative views of the press, with trust in the mainstream news at historical all-time lows. This speech looks at this trend and positions it within the context of the recent Pandemic and Presidential election, and offers suggestions for not only the American press, but for any country seeking to have a robust and free press system that strengthens participatory Republics operating on Democratic principles.
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