"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.

'Balance of Terror' -- Rival Militias and Vigilantes in Nigeria

Militias and vigilantes that assume public authority by fighting crime reject the laws of the state, yet they have no other set of rules to regulate their activities. Many of them claim to be accountable to their ethnic or religious community on whose behalf they operate. But their communities have found no means to institutionalise control over them. Moreover, there are no institutions to settle conflicts between different militias and vigilantes. On a local level, rival groups have reached informal arrangements. However, these compromises are unstable, as they reflect fragile alliances and shifting balances of power. Leaders of militias and other 'self-determination groups' have suggested organising a conference of all ethnic nationalities in Nigeria in order to design a new constitution that would give militias and vigilantes a legal role and define their authority. But the groups compared in this article – Oodua People's Congress, Sharia Vigilantes, Bakassi Boys, MASSOB, and Niger Delta militias – pursue very divergent interests, and they are far from reaching a consensus on how to contain violence between them.

The Social Life of Anti-Terrorism Laws. The War on Terror and the Classifications of the "Dangerous Other"

This book addresses two developments in the conceptualisation of citizenship that arise from the 'war on terror', namely the re-culturalisation of membership in a polity and the re-moralisationof access to rights. Taking an anthropological perspective, it traces the ways in which the trans-nationalisation of the 'war on terror' has affected notions of 'the dangerous other' in different political and social contexts, asking what changes in the ideas of the state and of the nation have been promoted by the emerging culture of security, and how these changes affect practices of citizenship and societal group relations.

Terror antiqua [Illustration] : (auf der Brüsseler Weltausstellung mit der Goldenen Medaille ausgezeichnet)

Leo Bakst

O terror e a dádiva. En: Avá, nº 13

La frase del epígrafe, nos introduce en una de las cuestiones centrales que trata el libro “O terror e a dádiva”: el modo en que la violencia estructural predispone al cuerpo humano a diversas formas de vulnerabilidad patogénica que crean las condiciones para que se desarrollen enfermedades epidémicas como el Sida y se propaguen otras peores, como el estado de pánico, que conduce al terror. A partir de un estudio etnográfico realizado durante los años 1998 y 1999 en la Fraternidad (Nombre ficticio utilizado por el autor) -una institución situada en la periferia de la ciudad de Brasilia, donde llegaron a vivir hasta aproximadamente doscientas personas entre adultos y niños portadores y enfermos de HIV y en el hospital donde se asistía a los enfermos, el autor nos presenta la experiencia social del sufrimiento, del dolor y del terror que suscita la enfermedad y nos propone aprehender, en y a través de ella, rasgos cardinales de la sociabilidad contemporánea.

A semiótica dos textos de terror : O discurso que provoca o medo

O trabalho a ser apresentado neste evento é fruto da pesquisa de doutorado da participante, que analisa os oito livros de terror mais vendidos no Brasil, no período de 1980 a 2007. O suporte teórico metodológico que sustenta as análises do corpus é a semiótica greimasiana. Seu objetivo é expor como o discurso se configura, provocando o efeito de sentido do medo nos textos. Para definir o terror, utiliza-se a teoria de Lovecraft (2008), segundo a qual o gênero se manifesta quando um elemento sobrenatural aparece no mundo real, causando medo. Nao há convivência de dois mundos, mas apenas existe o mundo real, com o sobrenatural inserido nele. Nesta vertente da literatura do medo, os textos sao configurados seguindo uma linha discursiva semelhante, conforme analisa a teoria semiótica, com temas, figuras e estruturas que confluem para o seguinte foco: provocar o medo no leitor. Atualmente, a literatura de terror tem conquistado um espaço cada vez maior no mercado editorial brasileiro. Entre tantos conceitos que a permeiam, é preciso considerar que, na medida em que o texto literário se apodera destes temores, demonstra o alerta, a denúncia, proporcionando o alívio da tensao cotidiana do ser humano que, ao pegar uma obra, coloca-se na funçao social de leitor. Esta é uma das hipóteses que justificam a grande vendagem atual de obras de terror. Segundo Bordini (1987), as histórias de terror definem-se pelo efeito irracional que produzem sobre o leitor. E incumbência da semiótica mostrar como este efeito irracional é transformado em discurso. Para este evento, propoe-se definir o terror, situando-o numa linha em que atuaram escritores como Edgar Allan Poe (1840) e Hawthorne (1851), e explicitar como o discurso deste tipo de literatura se configura, fazendo com que o efeito de sentido do medo saia das folhas do livro e atinja seu leitor

Relatos del terror en Buenos Aires, 1833-1842

En el año 1833, comenzó una escalada de violencia en la ciudad de Buenos Aires, cuya expresión máxima se produjo durante el segundo gobierno de Juan Manuel de Rosas, entre 1840 y 1842. La violencia derivada en miedo, primero y luego en terror, fue ejercido por la mazorca, dejando tras de sí muchas víctimas. Se mostrarán en este artículo, relatos de época y testimonios dados en los juicios a los mazorqueros, producidos en el año 1853. Ellos muestran en forma palpable, cómo se vivió el terror y las diferentes reacciones que éste produjo.