"Army of One" to "Army Strong" : visual media and U.S. Army recruitment during Bush"s "War on Terror"

From Bush’s September 20, 2001 “War on Terror” speech to Congress to President-Elect Barack Obama’s acceptance speech on November 4, 2008, the U.S. Army produced visual recruitment material that addressed the concerns of falling enlistment numbers—due to the prolonged and difficult war in Iraq—with quickly-evolving and compelling rhetorical appeals: from the introduction of an “Army of One” (2001) to “Army Strong” (2006); from messages focused on education and individual identity to high-energy adventure and simulated combat scenarios, distributed through everything from printed posters and music videos to first-person tactical-shooter video games. These highly polished, professional visual appeals introduced to the American public during a time of an unpopular war fought by volunteers provide rich subject matter for research and analysis. This dissertation takes a multidisciplinary approach to the visual media utilized as part of the Army’s recruitment efforts during the War on Terror, focusing on American myths—as defined by Barthes—and how these myths are both revealed and reinforced through design across media platforms. Placing each selection in its historical context, this dissertation analyzes how printed materials changed as the War on Terror continued. It examines the television ad that introduced “Army Strong” to the American public, considering how the combination of moving image, text, and music structure the message and the way we receive it. This dissertation also analyzes the video game America’s Army, focusing on how the interaction of the human player and the computer-generated player combine to enhance the persuasive qualities of the recruitment message. Each chapter discusses how the design of the particular medium facilitates engagement/interactivity of the viewer. The conclusion considers what recruitment material produced during this time period suggests about the persuasive strategies of different media and how they create distinct relationships with their spectators. It also addresses how theoretical frameworks and critical concepts used by a variety of disciplines can be combined to analyze recruitment media utilizing a Selber inspired three literacy framework (functional, critical, rhetorical) and how this framework can contribute to the multimodal classroom by allowing instructors and students to do a comparative analysis of multiple forms of visual media with similar content.

Cladophora, mass transport, and the nearshore phosphorus shunt

Excessive Cladophora growth in the Great Lakes has led to beach fouling and the temporary closure of nuclear power plants and has been associated with avian botulism and the persistence of human pathogens. As the growth-limiting nutrient for Cladophora, phosphorus is the appropriate target for management efforts. Dreissenids (zebra and quagga mussels) have the ability to capture particulate phase phosphorus (otherwise unavailable to Cladophora) and release it in a soluble, available form. The significance of this potential nutrient source is, in part, influenced by the interplay between phosphorus flux from the mussel bed and turbulent mixing in establishing the phosphorus levels to which Cladophora is exposed. It is hypothesized that under quiescent conditions phosphorus will accumulate near the sediment-water interface, setting up vertical phosphorus gradients and favorable conditions for resource delivery to Cladophora. These gradients would be eliminated under conditions of wind mixing, reducing the significance of the dreissenid-mediated nutrient contribution. Soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) levels were monitored over dreissenid beds (densities on the order of 350•m-2 and 3000∙m-2) at a site 8 m deep in Lake Michigan. Monitoring was based on the deployment of Modified Hesslein Samplers which collected samples for SRP analysis over a distance of 34 cm above the bottom in 2.5 cm intervals. Deployment intervals were established to capture a wind regime (calm, windy) that persisted for an interval consistent with the sampler equilibration time of 7 hours. Results indicate that increased mussel density leads to an increased concentration boundary layer; increased wind speed leads to entrainment of the concentration boundary layer; and increased duration of quiescent periods leads to an increased concentration boundary layer. This concentration boundary layer is of ecological significance and forms in the region inhabited by Cladophora