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Forensics, or competitive speech and debate, has a history stretching back to the ancient Greeks. Although practitioners, students, and coaches have long sung its praises, limited research has been done to demonstrate the long-term value of forensics competition for students. This study used narrative interviews to discover the perceived value of forensics competition to individuals who were at least ten years removed from competition and had not remained active in forensics. After interviewing 34 individuals, this study used grounded theory (Glaser, 1965; 2002; Glaser & Strauss, 1967) to analyze the results. Analysis revealed that individuals followed a similar pattern of becoming involved in forensics and remaining as participants. Additionally, they believed they learned academic skills, social skills, and had more opportunities because of their participation in forensics, despite having to overcome some negative effects of participation. Participants noted that they used many of the skills they developed in forensics every day. Participants also demonstrated that forensics was a part of their identity and many remained connected to former teammates, former competitors, and their alma mater. Analysis led to the development of the Narrative of the Professional, which is the story of the forensics competitor.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Despite clinical recommendations, only 25.8% of infants in the United States are exclusively breastfed at 6 months of age. Breastfeeding policies and communication campaigns exist to support exclusive breastfeeding, and women who use formula report facing stigma and feeling like a failure. Narratives can be used to discern how individuals make sense of experiences related to health, and narrative theorizing in health communication provides a framework of problematics used to explain how individuals construct stories that reveal the tensions between continuity and disruption and creativity and constraint. Individual experiences are often influenced by master narratives such as “Breast is best,” which are phrases that shape our understanding of the world. Because of the negative impact of using formula on maternal well-being, the purpose of this research was to use a narrative framework to analyze the stories of women who used formula in relation to the master narrative of breast is best. Building off of pilot interviews with 22 mothers, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 women who had used formula within the first 6 months after giving birth and had an infant no older than 12 months at the time of the interview. Qualitative analysis revealed that women perceived formula as shameful and costly. Conversely, they viewed breastfeeding as biologically superior, better for bonding, and a way to enact good motherhood. Current messaging about breastfeeding, particularly for women who intend to breastfeed, may have unintended negative effects when women face a disruption to their breastfeeding journey. In addition, women viewed breastfeeding and formula feeding as in relation to and in opposition to one another, reducing the perceived acceptability of behaviors such as combination feeding. Despite constraints in the master narrative regarding acceptable infant feeding practices, women demonstrated creativity in their individual stories and found formula feeding enabled more equitable parenting and preserved mental health. Practical implications include that organizations promoting exclusive breastfeeding in the United States should move away from framing breastfeeding as an all-or-nothing choice and develop tailored and value-neutral messaging recognizing breastfeeding as a complex psychosocial and biological process.

All human communication is narrative in nature (Fisher, 1987) and should adhere to narrative rationality and value-laden idealistic-moralistic or materialistic Master Analogues to be accepted by audiences (Fisher, 1985). This study examined the persuasive nature of the visual narratives presented by the 2020 presidential candidate’s official Facebook posts as well as examine how the candidates’ rhetorical visions create referential points in constructing the viewers’ own identities as supporters (Messaris, 1997). As Foss, Foss, & Trapp (2002) contend, “a basic function of the media is the creation of representations or simulations – reproduced versions of reality” (p. 313). The version of reality being presented on each candidate’s official Facebook page creates narratives as means of influence and cultivating group identity.

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Master of Arts / Communications Studies, Theatre and Dance / Charles J. Griffin / This study examines the therapeutic nature of veterans’ reunions through a qualitative analysis of interviews and participant observation of the 2010 Delta Raiders of Vietnam Association biannual reunion. Eight Vietnam veterans who served in the 2nd Battalion, 501st Infantry, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), Company D during Vietnam were interviewed, as well as three wives of these veterans. The following research question directed the study: What communicative functions do veterans’ reunions serve? By examining the quality of social support and the rationality (probability and fidelity) of the narratives that these veterans provide one another, this study seeks to understand why Vietnam veterans continue meeting for reunions, what in particular is so strong about the Delta Raider reunions, and how personal narratives communicatively function within a veteran’s reunion context. Results show that the veterans’ reunions primarily serve to rebuild narrative probability for the veterans, as well as construct boundaries for narrative fidelity to work within. Additionally, veterans’ reunions provide therapeutic relief, forming a second family through renewed company pride, and revealing tension between shared veteran experience and family communication.

This thesis uses a narrative approach to explore how hallucinations are understood by people with dementia, their carers and community mental health nurses. The study aims to make visible the multiple enactments of realities of hallucinations as they are practiced within a community mental health setting. While existing research shows a growing body of research about experiences of dementia, the experience of hallucinations has been unexplored. Research about hallucinations has predominantly focused on epidemiology or pharmaceutical interventions. The research was conducted in one area of Scotland, using three triadic case studies comprising a person with dementia living at home, their carer and community nurse. Data were collected through conversational interviews. In this study realities are conceptualised as enacted and multiple. The study was informed by an ethic of care approach which critiques the view of people as isolated individuals. People are understood to live in relationships within which they co-construct narratives. It provided an ethical framework to research relationships and data analysis. Data were analysed using voice centred relational analysis, which uses four separate ‘listenings’ for each interview. This method identifies the multiple voices speaking and allows a high degree of reflexivity. I-poems were produced for each of the interviews and some visual illustrations were used in different ways to illustrate the analysis and allow an alternative interpretive perspective on the data. The analysis reveals that people with dementia and their carers contextualise their understanding of hallucinations into their narrative identity. They strive for continuity but also experience them as potential threats. Ambiguity and uncertainty are characteristic of the experience of hallucinations of people with dementia and carers and I suggest that liminality is a useful concept to understand this. Community nurses have multiple, and fluid understandings of hallucinations; they negotiate these different hallucinations within a situated practice enactment. Their decision to act on hallucinations does not depend on whether they relate to consensus reality, but whether they cause distress. The findings of this study highlight the complexities and ambiguities of hallucinations within dementia and shows how they are managed in practice. The theoretical perspectives of enacted realities and ethic of care, alongside creative methods enhances understanding of the ephemeral nature of hallucinations. This study adds to literature challenging the exclusion of the people with dementia from research by demonstrating that they are able to talk about their experiences of hallucinations. The study contributes to the story of hallucinations in dementia by disrupting the fixed boundaries of the dominant discourse that views hallucinations as a clear cut break with reality.