One Nation Under the Market: Mediated Narratives of the 2008 Crisis in America

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dc.contributor.advisorBailey, Steven C.
dc.creatorCurran, Michael Gregory
dc.date.accessioned2015-12-16T19:18:11Z
dc.date.available2015-12-16T19:18:11Z
dc.date.copyright2015-05-19
dc.date.issued2015-12-16
dc.date.updated2015-12-16T19:18:11Z
dc.degree.disciplineCommunication & Culture, Joint Program with Ryerson University
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation examines the construction of the 2008 economic crisis in American media through a comparative analysis of three case studies, each involving a different medium and each involving a distinct implied public. I have approached this subject from a rhetorically-inclined hermeneutical and phenomenological perspective that conceptualizes texts as manifestations of symbolic practices which reflect social reality as well as construct it, and I explore how the texts of each case study simultaneously reflect and conjure both the 2008 crisis and their imagined publics. In order to explore the some of the various ways the 2008 crisis has been constructed in American media, this research deploys three primary lines of investigation: the examination of radio broadcasts of speeches by American presidents during the crisis, the analysis of a selection of documentary and fictional films on or related to the crisis, and the evaluation of periodical articles from The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. The findings of the research reveal that the three case studies examined offer particularly distinct and elastic depictions of the 2008 crisis. The presidential radio addresses depicted the crisis in a predominantly metaphorical manner as a painful event experienced by a national public through their rhetorical invocation of a particular and patriotic mytho-ideological imaginary of America and its history. The films portrayed the crisis primarily as the dramatic unfolding of a traumatic narrative, emphasizing the character-driven nature of this dramatic unfolding and frequently highlighting the moral ambiguity of agents and characters. The periodical articles largely constructed the crisis as principally related to matters of governance, finance and economics in both its precipitation and in its assuagement or resolution, conspicuously paying scant attention to the affective dimensions of its impact. Collectively, the case studies evidence that the multiform and dynamic character of the depictions of the 2008 crisis in American media are significantly shaped by the combinative overlap of the particularity of the crisis as a complex and ambiguous phenomena, the dominant modes of address and distinct properties of each media type, and the particular implied publics to which each body of texts corresponded.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/30664
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectAmerican studies
dc.subjectRhetoric
dc.subjectCommunication
dc.subject.keywordseconomics
dc.subject.keywordseconomic history
dc.subject.keywordseconomic history 21st century
dc.subject.keywordshistory
dc.subject.keywordseconomic crises
dc.subject.keywordsfinance
dc.subject.keywordsinternational finance
dc.subject.keywordsfinancial crises
dc.subject.keywordscapitalist crises
dc.subject.keywordscrises of capitalism
dc.subject.keywordscapitalism
dc.subject.keywordshistory of capitalism
dc.subject.keywords20th century history
dc.subject.keywordseconomic history 20th century
dc.subject.keywordsrecession
dc.subject.keywordsGreat Recession
dc.subject.keywords2008 Crisis
dc.subject.keywordseconomic depression
dc.subject.keywordsUnited States
dc.subject.keywordsUnited States economic history
dc.subject.keywordsUnited States history
dc.subject.keywordsUnited States politics
dc.subject.keywordsAmerica
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican history
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican studies
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican politics
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican economics
dc.subject.keywordseconomy
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican economy
dc.subject.keywordsUnited States economy
dc.subject.keywordssubprime crisis
dc.subject.keywordsglobal financial crisis
dc.subject.keywordsinternational finance
dc.subject.keywordsbanks
dc.subject.keywordsbanking
dc.subject.keywordsmoney
dc.subject.keywordsmarkets
dc.subject.keywordsstock market
dc.subject.keywordsstock market crashes
dc.subject.keywordspolitics
dc.subject.keywordspolitical science
dc.subject.keywordsphilosophy
dc.subject.keywordsideology
dc.subject.keywordsmyth
dc.subject.keywordsgovernment
dc.subject.keywordsgovernance
dc.subject.keywordstrauma
dc.subject.keywordstrauma studies
dc.subject.keywordsmedia
dc.subject.keywordsmass media
dc.subject.keywordsmedia studies
dc.subject.keywordsmedia theory
dc.subject.keywordsmediation
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican media
dc.subject.keywordsUnited States media
dc.subject.keywordsmass communication
dc.subject.keywordscommunication
dc.subject.keywordscommunication studies
dc.subject.keywordspolitical communication
dc.subject.keywordseconomic communication
dc.subject.keywordsradio
dc.subject.keywordsbroadcasting
dc.subject.keywordsfilm
dc.subject.keywordscinema
dc.subject.keywordsmovies
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican presidents
dc.subject.keywordsUnited States presidents
dc.subject.keywordspresidential studies
dc.subject.keywordsBarack Obama
dc.subject.keywordsGeorge W. Bush
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican movies
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican film
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican cinema
dc.subject.keywordsperiodicals
dc.subject.keywordsmagazines
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican periodicals
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican magazines
dc.subject.keywordsmedia history
dc.subject.keywordsjournalism
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican journalism
dc.subject.keywordspress coverage
dc.subject.keywordsdocumentary cinema
dc.subject.keywordsdocumentary film
dc.subject.keywordsHollywood film
dc.subject.keywordsfeature film
dc.subject.keywordsThe New Yorker
dc.subject.keywordsThe New York Review of Books
dc.subject.keywordsMargin Call
dc.subject.keywordsInside Job
dc.subject.keywordsArbitrage
dc.subject.keywordsThe Queen of Versailles
dc.subject.keywordsrhetoric
dc.subject.keywordsphenomenology
dc.subject.keywordshermeneutics
dc.subject.keywordsnarrative
dc.subject.keywordsnarratology
dc.subject.keywordsdramatism
dc.subject.keywordspublic
dc.subject.keywordspublics
dc.titleOne Nation Under the Market: Mediated Narratives of the 2008 Crisis in America
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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