Celeste M. Condit

The Rhetorical Limits of Polysemy

Current critical studies emphasize the way in which the polysemic qualities of mass mediated texts empower audiences to construct their own liberating readings. An examination of the text, audience readings, and historical placement of an episode of Cagney & Lacey concerning abortion indicates serious constraints placed on audiences by the rhetorical situations in which readings occur. The pleasures of the audience, I argue, may not be sufficient to certify a positive role for mass media in the process of social change.

Hegemony in a mass‐mediated society: Concordance about reproductive technologies 1

This essay offers a critical method that applies the theory of hegemony to the contemporary context in the United States. It argues that most critics in communication studies who reference the theory of hegemony produce ideological critiques that operate out of the older assumptions of dominant ideology theory. It grounds a model of contemporary hegemony and illustrates a hegemonic methodology called “the critique of concord”; through an examination of the hegemonic worldview constructed to place new reproductive technologies such as IVF, surrogacy, donor gametes, hormone therapy, and so forth.

Future Health Applications of Genomics Priorities for Communication, Behavioral, and Social Sciences Research

Despite the quickening momentum of genomic discovery, the communication, behavioral, and social sciences research needed for translating this discovery into public health applications has lagged behind. The National Human Genome Research Institute held a 2-day workshop in October 2008 convening an interdisciplinary group of scientists to recommend forward-looking priorities for translational research. This research agenda would be designed to redress the top three risk factors (tobacco use, poor diet, and physical inactivity) that contribute to the four major chronic diseases (heart disease, type 2 diabetes, lung disease, and many cancers) and account for half of all deaths worldwide. Three priority research areas were identified: (1) improving the publics genetic literacy in order to enhance consumer skills; (2) gauging whether genomic information improves risk communication and adoption of healthier behaviors more than current approaches; and (3) exploring whether genomic discovery in concert with emerging technologies can elucidate new behavioral intervention targets. Important crosscutting themes also were identified, including the need to: (1) anticipate directions of genomic discovery; (2) take an agnostic scientific perspective in framing research questions asking whether genomic discovery adds value to other health promotion efforts; and (3) consider multiple levels of influence and systems that contribute to important public health problems. The priorities and themes offer a framework for a variety of stakeholders, including those who develop priorities for research funding, interdisciplinary teams engaged in genomics research, and policymakers grappling with how to use the products born of genomics research to address public health challenges.

The functions of epideictic: The Boston massacre orations as exemplar

Existing theories of epideictic focus on the content of the speeches as “praise and blame,”; on the speakers uses of the event or, more recently, on the audiences uses of the event. This essay argues that three pairs of functions define the epideictic experience for speakers and audiences and produce their characteristic message contents. Those pairs include definition/understanding, shaping of community, and display/entertainment. The utility of the perspective is indicated through an exemplary case of such “communal definition.”

How the public understands genetics: non-deterministic and non-discriminatory interpretations of the “blueprint” metaphor

Critics have worried that recent mass media coverage of genetics encourages genetic determinism and discriminatory attitudes in the public. They have identified the “blueprint” metaphor as one major component of public discourse that encourages such undesirable public opinions. To assess public interpretations of popular discourse about genetics, this audience study exposed 137 college students to sample genetics news articles and asked for their interpretations of the “blueprint” metaphor and of genetics in general. A larger group, the plurality, offered non-deterministic interpretations and perspectives on genetics. A small minority offered discriminatory interpretations, whereas a plurality offered explicit antidiscriminatory interpretations and opinions. Non-deterministic views were based on interpretations of the blueprint metaphor that understood genes as operating in a partial and probabilistic fashion, and that interpreted genes as malleable through individual will or technological intervention.

What is 'public opinion' about genetics?

Every biotechnology success story increases the number of decisions that the lay public must make about genetics. But vibrant public discussion about these far-reaching changes has been rare, and research on the publics understanding of genetics has barely scratched the surface. This article reviews what we know about the publics attitudes towards genetics, proposes some concepts for thinking about public involvement and indicates some future lines of research.

Public understandings of genetics and health.

Condit CM. Public understandings of genetics and health.

An Exploratory Study of the Impact of News Headlines on Genetic Determinism

Critics have suggested that news headlines about genetics with inappropriately deterministic content will produce increased levels of determinism in the public, even when news article contents are not highly deterministic. This might result from a replacement effect (headlines stand in for the content of the article because few people read it fully) or from a framing effect (headlines frame the interpretation of the article content). A quantitative impact study and an interview method were used to test the impact of the framing effect in a news article on genes and diabetes. This exploratory study found no support for a framing effect. Directions for future research are discussed.

Reconstructing : Culturetypal and Counter-Cultural Rhetorics in the Martyred Black Vision.

A guiding purpose of most social and political minority movements in a pluralistic society is to achieve legitimacy in the terms of the dominant ideology. In Anglo‐American liberal democracies such legitimation is located in the ideograph , an ideological commitment which promotes “sameness” and “identity.” An interesting feature of is that it functions implicitly as a rhetoric of control, requiring those who would achieve legitimacy to sublimate their “difference” from the dominant ideology. As such, it poses serious contradictions for a society that is truly interested in promoting a humanistic and pluralistic egalitarianism. In this essay the authors examine the way in which the culturetypal rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the counter‐cultural rhetoric of Malcolm X functioned together to negotiate this characteristic of as black Americans in the 1960s strove to achieve legitimacy for their struggle for civil rights, and in so doing constructed a revised and emanc...

Assessing hypothetical scenario methodology in genetic susceptibility testing analog studies: a quantitative review

Hypothetical scenario methodology is commonly employed in the study of genetic susceptibility testing uptake estimation. The methodology, however, has not been rigorously assessed and sizeable gaps exist between estimated and actual uptake for tests that have recently become available. This quantitative review explores the effect of several theoretically based factors on genetic test uptake accuracy among a sample of 38 articles. These factors include verbal immediacy and temporal proximity of test scenarios, method of decision assessment, content of testing detail provided, processing demand required, and study features related to administration and sample. A number of assessed factors influenced uptake accuracy. Among these, temporal proximity of the genetic susceptibility test appeared to be the most consistent. There was also some evidence for effects of verbal immediacy and decision-assessment method on interest in testing. We recommend strategies for increasing accuracy using hypothetical scenario methodology to examine genetic susceptibility test uptake prediction.