USA

In this study I describe how individuals living in Laredo, Texas, a city situated in the U.S. - Mexico border region, make sense of their identities through their experiences in the Washington Birthday Celebration (WBC). By focusing on communication as means for creating cultural identities, this study provides insight into how communication is used in the construction and performance of cultural identities. Specifically, I focus on The Society of Martha Washington, one of the several affiliate organizations that participates in the WBC, in order to answer the following research questions about the enactment of cultural identities in the WBC: (1) What cultural identities are enacted at the WBC and how do participants use communication to enact these expressed identities? How do participants enact their cultural identities beyond the WBC? I argue that although the WBC is intended to foster a collective identity, it poses a problematic contradiction since it implicates the enactment of various identities wherein status differentials are enhanced.

USA

This paper explores street harassment as a contentious practice in the rhetorical spaces of the street and social media posting through a case study of the performance group Las Hijas de Violencia. Through anarchistic direct action resistance tactics, the group confronted harassers in the streets of Mexico City and their recordings launched global media interest which led to viral online sharing. Widespread sharing of their performance led to the creation of public discursive space, through comments sections, which was utilized to measure attitudes toward street harassment and feminist direct action protest. Contextualized in a growing call for an end to street harassment, this is the first critical inquiry into Las Hijas de Violencia. Their tactics and subsequent interpretations by viewers are approached critically and through an interpretive thematic analysis in order to g ain insight into hegemonic power that dictates gendered behaviors in public space, both on and offline.

Puerto Rico

Esta tesis aborda necesariamente de modo parcial, la “producción intelectual”, “académica” y “discursiva” de la “investigación de la Comunicación” y su “enseñanza” en las obras del profesor e investigador mexicano Raúl Fuentes Navarro, en su primera década investigativa (1980-1989), esto es, en el marco de su “trayectoria”, inseparables las unas de las otras. La investigación como “práctica social” y “científica”, es decir realizada en el marco de una “Universidad”, de un “Centro” u otras instituciones de “similar acreditación”, como las “asociaciones” o “comunidades académicas” de “Comunicación”, sean nacionales, regionales o internacionales. La comunicación “humana”, más allá de su concepción instrumental, mediática o periodística, es decir más allá de los “medios”, de las “mediaciones” o de las “tecnologías”, del tipo que fueran, pero también desde la reflexividad y desde de la práctica de su enseñanza en las “facultades”, “escuelas” o “carreras” de Comunicación, esto es de su “pedagogía”, asumiendo la complejidad inherente en el término “Comunicación” o, mejor dicho, en todos sus sentidos.

Gales, Gran Bretaña

The increase in the commercial relations between the United Kingdom and Mexico has brought more interest from British media. They have presence in newspapers, radio and TV, but especially print media has detected and cultivated the relations of the two countries, especially financial. There are around 15 British correspondents in Mexico whose primary interest is in business, then culture, tradition and politics, but they tend to mislead audiences when reporting extraordinary events, like disasters or tragedies. Their coverage can be seen to be as influential as the presence of US media, especially with the Mexican government and local media, but none of them have penetrated the most powerful media: commercial television.

USA

This thesis will study the rhetoric of this contemporary revolution-turned- social movement, by using cluster analysis. It explores the use of rhetoric of confrontation and rhetoric of peace to further the Zapatista cause, seeking to identify any changes in their message during the last ten years of the revolution

USA

The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to the growing literature of constitutive rhetoric, originally coined by Maurice Charland. Through a case study of the US/Mexico border fence, I ilustrate that the communicative tactics of articulation, appropriation and image events have the potential to act as interpellative strategies of identity construction. Through my analisys, i show how these strategies function in constitutive rhetoric in both verbal discourses and in visual rhetoric through image events. I also note that lack of discourses in an argument may have implications that are equally significant to those that are present.