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Tracing Framing Processes in the Abortion Debate: An Ethnographic Investigation of a Pro-Life Lobbying Organization

Sterud, Sommer Marie
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1625059489273216

Abstract Details

2021, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English.
COVID, coupled with a flurry of black deaths at the hands of policemen, has spawned a new era of social movements. As online environments have multiplied, so have people’s options for civic engagement. As a result, the field of writing studies and rhetoric is full of new research that questions what a social movement is and what it can do. However, it has yielded little empirical data that details the behind-the-scenes activity of a social movement organization. How can we understand what constitutes a social movement today if we rely only on what we see happening in the streets or on the internet? Such a front stage view only allows us access to the final product of activism, and thus, obscures the complex circumstances that catalyze and shape civic engagement. This research is an attempt to understand such circumstances, especially those related to writing as a tool to gain a more powerful position within a social movement network. In addition to there being little empirical research on social movements within writing studies and social movement rhetoric, there is a scarce body of literature that addresses how conservative social movements work. For many, the election of Donald Trump on the heels of our first black president has revealed surprising facts about our culture as fears about immigration, gun control, and abortion have been inflamed. Political debates about race, climate change, voter suppression, and reproductive rights restrictions make the study of conservative rhetorical tools even more critical. Using one prominent pro-life lobbying and social movement organization as my specifying site, this dissertation study aims to understand what motivates, influences, and facilitates a social movement. What entanglement of ideology, circumstances, and personal attachments exist within an activist organization, and how do these factors influence the language and delivery methods of such defining documents as mission statements, donor letters, legislation, and recruitment materials? Inspired by sociohistoric scholars like Clay Spinuzzi, Stephen Witte, and Bruno Latour, this dissertation project answers writing and rhetoric scholars’ call for more interdisciplinarity to reinvigorate the study of social movement within the field. By tracing the actors in a prominent pro-life organization, I was compelled to reckon with activity outside the bounds of writing and rhetoric to gain a fuller picture of how this organization garners support and achieves organizational goals. In addition, relying on Iddo Tavory and Stefan Timmermans’ (2014) methodological theory, Abductive Analysis, I consulted numerous disciplines outside my own to better understand this lobbying and social movement organization; thus, this project serves as an example to other scholars who wish to more closely investigate the complexities of both the front and backstage literate activity that has contributed to an organization’s rise to power.  
Derek Van Ittersum (Committee Chair)
Sara Newman (Committee Member)
Pamela Takayoshi (Committee Member)
Daniel Skinner (Committee Member)
212 p.
Organization Theory; Rhetoric; Social Research
social movements, reproductive rights, network theory, sociohistoric theory, organizational rhetoric, abductive analysis, political process theory

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Sterud, S. M. (2021). Tracing Framing Processes in the Abortion Debate: An Ethnographic Investigation of a Pro-Life Lobbying Organization [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1625059489273216

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Sterud, Sommer. Tracing Framing Processes in the Abortion Debate: An Ethnographic Investigation of a Pro-Life Lobbying Organization . 2021. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1625059489273216.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Sterud, Sommer. "Tracing Framing Processes in the Abortion Debate: An Ethnographic Investigation of a Pro-Life Lobbying Organization ." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1625059489273216

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1625059489273216
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This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.