Defense Date

3-23-2018

Graduation Date

Spring 5-11-2018

Availability

Immediate Access

Submission Type

dissertation

Degree Name

PhD

Department

Communication and Rhetorical Studies

School

McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts

Committee Chair

Ronald C. Arnett

Committee Member

Janie Harden Fritz

Committee Member

Craig T. Maier

Keywords

Communication ethics, communication ethics literacy, counterterrorism, national security, September 11, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Abstract

This project works in the horizon of one driving question: What value does communication ethics bring to counterterrorism practices in this current moment? Following insights of communication ethics scholars that have come before, this work understands communication ethics as practices that yield social literacy about what matters to an other. This work adds to communication ethics scholarship the following finding: When applied to current and future events, communication ethics literacy affords one a lens for opening and sustaining spaces for creative communicative response. Through five chapters—which work in tandem to perform an application of communication ethics literacy to the current and ongoing practices of FBI counterterrorism—this project finds that what one ends up with is not solution-based answers, but reflective communicative practices that sustain counter responses to terrorism. These reflective practices, performed with attentiveness to communication ethics literacy, validate the importance of communications ethics for thinking about and responding to terrorism. Communication ethics literacy affords professionals a lens for exploring the questions that shape counterterrorism. And while this application does not provide answers for the demands that terrorism places on professionals in this historical moment, it provides meaningful assistance for navigating threats in a manner that does justice to the diverse nation it seeks to protect. In this moment where solution-based answers are not an attainable reality, and the demands of terrorism are ongoing, reflective communicative practices offer a space for learning and adapting to challenges in real-time.

Language

English

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