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Phillip J. Hutchison
Statement of Goals and Objectives
The goal of my current research focuses on exploring the confluence among narrative (both its form and its social enactment) with mass communication technology, institutions and culture. I am especially interested in advocating the centrality of narrative to human consciousness and demonstrating how this view can inform an array of mass communication issues. My long-term plans center around teaching courses at the university level in both the skills of communication professions (e.g., journalism and public relations) and the underlying theory. My goal is to contribute to the field of original research and subsequent insights into communication history and the relationship between communication and culture. I have organized integrative competency areas that focus on these goals and reflect what I consider to be an integral relationship among mass communication technology, institutions, genres and culture.
Competency Areas
1. Mass Communication Theory
The mass communication theory competency has been designed to provide a somewhat focused theoretical perspective of diverse mass communication issues. This competency seeks to examine how narrative theory, to include what some scholars have identified as theories of dramatism and dramturgy, is expressed in epistemological, aesthetic and cultural perspectives of mass communication. This theoretical perspective comprises two interrelated dimensions. First, it examines the presence and significance of formal narratives among mass communication artifacts, technology, and institutions; second, it examines how narrative implicitly underscores the enactment of mass communication rituals.
2. Communication Research Methods
The communication research methods competency has been designed to focus on the application of critical research methods, particularly rhetorical criticism, in assessing the relationship among culture, aesthetics, technology and mass communication institutions. It is designed to provide the ability to conduct and justify mature critical inquiry into the interrelationship among this broad array of mass communication issues.
3. Media, Culture and Society
This competency represents an integrative approach to mass communication research that is heavily influenced by the seminal work of James Carey. This competency posits a ritual model of communication that addresses the confluence of media institutions, mass communication technology and culture. This approach to mass communication inquiry, as Carey notes, examines the relationship among communication technology, mediated presentation and audience involvement in constructing and maintaining social reality. This integrative perspective facilitates examining elusive and enigmatic issues that may elude the net of other mass communication inquiry.
4. History of American Mass Communication
The history of American mass communication competency has been designed to provide an understanding of the integral relationship among the historical development of American journalism and the closely related evolution of assorted mass communication technologies and entertainment genres. My inquiry places emphasis on these dynamics as manifest from approximately 1910-1975.
Ph. D. Committee Members
Nickieann
Fleener, Communication, chair
Robert
K. Avery, Communication
Mary
Strine, Communication
Cassandra
Van Buren, Communication
Stephen Tatum,
English
Professional Organizations
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
The National Communication Association