Brittany L. Peterson

A Call to Educate, Participate, Invoke and Indict: Understanding the Communication of Online Hate Groups

This study analyzes the messages in hate group websites using a grounded theory approach. Through this process of interpretive inquiry we propose four prominent themes—educate, participate, invoke, and indict—that characterize the messages examined in 21 hate groups. These message themes speak to the: (a) education of members and external publics; (b) participation within the group and in the public realm; (c) invocation of divine calling and privilege; and (d) indictment of external groups including the government, media, and entertainment industries, and other extremist sects. In advancing a substantive grounded theory of online hate group communication, we also explore the potential of these themes to ostensibly reinforce the hate groups identity, reduce external threats, and recruit new members.

High-Stakes Volunteer Commitment A Qualitative Analysis

This study examines the social network ties, motivations, and experiences of high-stakes volunteers (HSVs): individuals who fulfill long-term, consistent, and intense time commitments providing medical, social, and/or psychological assistance. Interview, focus group, and observational data from three settings (volunteer firefighting, victims’ services/advocacy, outreach for at-risk youth) were analyzed using qualitative methods. Accordingly, five types of HSVs (stable lifer, imbalanced lifer, conventionalist, professional, crusader) are presented and discussed. These findings advance theoretical insight into the variety of individuals who take on HSV roles and contribute to growing scholarship on diversified approaches to volunteer management.

Rethinking Recidivism A Communication Approach to Prisoner Reentry

Prisoner reentry is one of the main criminal justice challenges confronting the United States, especially as the costs of recidivism and incarceration take increasing tolls on city and state budgets, and the effects of criminal activity are felt by families and local communities. Our goal in this article is to develop an alternative approach to prisoner reentry. Our contention is that many reentry efforts focus mainly on the visible effects of recidivism (e.g., parole violations, criminal behavior, and treatment compliance) but do not get at the underlying causes that lead to recidivism in the first place. While traditional methods of surveillance and control focus on the observable problems of recidivism, we argue that the underlying cause is a communication breakdown of being cut off from networks and meaningful relationships that provide the necessary social capital needed for successful reintegration. Therefore, we propose reframing prisoner reentry from a communication perspective, and developing subsequent communication solutions. We suggest that mentoring is one such communication solution, and we present a case study of a successful reentry mentoring program. Our case study uses a mixed research methodology, including quantitative data from a third-party assessment and qualitative data from in-depth interviews. Our key conclusions are that mentoring provides important communication links to enable coordinated service delivery for ex-prisoners, and that mentoring is a valuable conversational resource to help socially construct a favorable postrelease environment for successful reentry. Our target audience are those interested in prisoner reentry and reforming the overall criminal justice system.

Meta-Analysis of Counterattitudinal Advocacy Data: Evidence for an Additive Cues Model

The meta-analysis combines 230 investigations of counterattitudinal advocacy (CAA). The results indicate that CAA efforts are effective . Effect sizes varied little across four different methods of CAA induction (choice, task commitment, publicity, argument source). However, an additive cues model (ACM) demonstrates that as the number of elements increases, so does the size of the change in attitude. The results support the effectiveness of counterattitudinal message generation tasks and compare favorably to traditional persuasive message reception investigations.

Tensions of Narrative Ownership: Exploring the Rise of (Counter) Narratives during the Fall of Mars Hill Church

When Mars Hill Church came under fire for unethical activities, current and former parishioners began to share their stories of membership in and exit from the infamous mega church. In this study we explored the communicative space between the dominance of an organizational master narrative and the rise of a prevailing counter narrative, that is, the struggle for narrative ownership. Our thematic analysis of blogs featuring members’ and leaders’ stories and archival church documents revealed two tensions that members experienced in the struggle for narrative ownership: silence–voice and isolation–community. Ultimately, findings from this study extend Fisher’s Narrative Paradigm, situating narrative fidelity and probability as most useful not for evaluating the epistemic quality of stories but for explaining their resonance with a particular audience.

Untangling the Processes of Leaving a Member-Abusive Organization

Prior to its dissolution, Mars Hill, a former megachurch, developed a reputation for abuse and dictatorial control, creating an organizational environment from which many sought to exit. However, for those members desiring to leave, exit was far from straightforward. Our interpretive analysis of former members’ stories revealed tension as Mars Hill cast out members who wanted to stay (involuntary exit) while pressuring those who wanted to leave (involuntary staying). Former members used a form of faith-based reasoning (spiritual rationality) to manage this tension. Finally, members described ways they simultaneously experienced identification and disidentification with the organization in the face of abuse and control, a phenomenon we characterize as uncoupled identification. We discuss these findings in light of the literature on employee-abusive organizations and identification.

Courtesy Stigma and Social Support: An Exploration of Fathers’ Buffering Strategies and Blocking Rationalizations

ABSTRACT This study extends scholarship on stigma management communication and social support by exploring the experiences of fathers of children living with a rare health condition, Sturge-Weber Syndrome. Findings from this interview-based interpretive study reveal that fathers assuaged the negative effects of stigma on their children—and courtesy stigma on themselves—by employing buffering strategies, including reactive and preemptive information sharing, preparatory conversations, and support blocking. Further, fathers offered three rationalizations for their blocking behaviors—reasoning that to accept support would violate social norms, as well as privacy expectations and that accepting support was not worth the effort (social exchange). These findings encourage scholars to continue to upend predominant constructions of masculinity and also call to question prevailing assumptions about the relationship between technology and privacy.

The Communicative Construction of Involuntary Membership

This study expands conceptions of organizational membership by examining individuals whose relationships with their organizations are traditionally characterized as involuntary in nature. Data from inmates and prison employees in four U.S. and Norwegian correctional institutions was examined using structuration theory as an emergent interpretive lens, and five primary ways in which involuntary membership is constructed in communication are identified: physical environment, mobility, relationships, engagement, and body. These facets are presented as the foundation of a continuum-based theoretical perspective on (in)voluntary membership and are discussed for their applicability to future research and theorizing across organizational communication studies.

On Becoming an Involuntary Member in the Antepartum Unit.

ABSTRACT In this essay, I articulate the ways in which my scholarship and personal life collided when I became an involuntary member in the antepartum unit of a major university hospital. I draw on research examples taken from my dissertation work in prison and my time in the hospital to illustrate the interconnectedness of these involuntary experiences. After I share these stories, I offer a brief interlude to reflect on the meaningfulness of approaching membership from a continuum-based perspective and the relative implications for health communication scholars, before ending with an articulation how this experience brought me to a more crystallized view of involuntary membership.