Elspeth Tilley

When words fail us: using visual composites in research reporting

This article describes a use of visual imagery in research reporting that helps to emphasize the human and social dimensions of research issues and encourage different ways of thinking about the findings and implications. During the literature review, in order to establish the authors’ longitudinal research into adult literacy, they observed that research participants’ own perspectives and rich life-worlds were usually invisible in final reports and articles, submerged under layers of governmental or scholarly discourse. An irony was that, while literacy theory was moving towards acknowledging multi-literacies, reporting of literacy research remained heavily mono-modal. The authors of this research wanted to differ from this trend by giving people who were affected by adult literacy policy a vivid presence within their reports. They were intrigued by the use of visual means to foreground interviewees’ own words both as a way to register their importance to readers and to try to signal the multi-modal nature of literacy. They depicted their interviewees’ words as language spoken by imagined individuals typical of the interviewees, grounded within photographs of their research site. In this article, the authors describe their intentions and methods in making their reports visual and artistic composites rather than more traditional densely worded policy reports; they deconstruct some of the key images contained in their report in order to critique their efficacy in achieving their aims.

Acknowledging power: The application of Kaupapa Māori principles and processes to developing a new approach to organisation–public engagement

This article argues for recognition of the value and relevance of Indigenous knowledges about principles and practices of engagement to theory building and praxis in organisation–public engagement. Specifically, in this article, the Kaupapa Māori body of knowledge and practice that has developed around Indigenous/non-Indigenous engagement in Aotearoa New Zealand is identified as a valid source of insight for the analogous situation of organisation–public engagement where power imbalance is inherent. Selected Kaupapa Māori principles are proposed for their ability to provide pertinent alternatives to mechanistic approaches at each stage of the engagement process.

Do apprentices' communities of practice block unwelcome knowledge?

Purpose – This study aims to examine how well print‐literacy support being provided to New Zealand Modern Apprentices (MAs) is supporting their study and practical work.Design/methodology/approach – The authors undertook a qualitative analysis of a database of 191 MAs in the literacy programme, then in 14 case studies completed 46 interviews with MAs, their employers, industry coordinators and adult literacy tutors to obtain triangulated insights into each MAs learning.Findings – A strong sense of disjunction appeared between the work culture and the norms of being print literate which adult literacy tutors worked to draw apprentices into. Interviewees perceived a divide between practice and theory, or “doing the job” and “doing bookwork”, so that MAs were faced with trying to be two different kinds of people to succeed in their apprenticeship.Research limitations/implications – Future research may explore the ways in which differing value‐sets that apprentices encounter can compete with and undermine cr...

The paradoxes of organizational power and public relations ethics: Insights from a feminist discourse analysis

A qualitative thematic analysis of data from a 13-organization research study focusing on public relations ethics identified five main themes: first, that ethical dilemmas were frequent, widespread, and often handled in ways that practitioners themselves were uncomfortable with; second, labels and stereotypes about public relations practitioners as unscrupulous exacerbated the problem; third, hierarchies and silos of power in relationships within organizations, between organizations, and with clients contributed to the problem; fourth, there were barriers to, and inadequate channels or opportunities for, candid and forthright discussion about these hierarchies and silos, this lack typically manifesting as senior staff self-censoring or parroting optimistic organizational orthodoxy about ethics and junior staff feeling unsafe to criticize organizational processes; and fifth, practitioners used multiple coping strategies to deal with their sense of powerlessness including blaming others (particularly journalists), fatalism, reductive framing, and intentional blocking of awareness and evaluation of ethical issues. While it is possible these themes could be interpreted as evidence of public relations practitioners’ individual moral inadequacy, a broader analytical lens, taking into account the organizational and global power structures the practitioners described, suggests otherwise. Taking its cue from the power-attuned approach of feminist poststructuralists, this article argues that the data should be read as symptomatic, not causal, and that it is to the overarching operating power structures of global capitalism that public relations ethicists could most productively turn their attention if they want to identify loci for change.

Responding to Terrorism using Ethical Means: The Propaganda Index

Determining whether communicationis as ethical as possible involves assessment of means (texts, language, and communication style) as well as ends (communication intent and outcomes). This article introduces the propaganda index as a ay to achieve the former. A tool that measures whether texts contain stylistic devices that have been elsewhere identified as classically propagandist, the index is first overviewed then applied to a case study text: the Australian Government “terror kit” information package. The case study analysis, combined with some background to the kits reception in Australia, indicates that the high levels of propaganda were probably not helpful ti the kit in achieving its aims either ethically or effectively.

Limited gender differences in ethical decision making between demographics in the USA and New Zealand

Purpose – The literature is divided upon whether a gender difference occurs with respect to ethical decisions. Notable researchers Tannen and Gilligan demonstrated gender difference while subsequent researchers indicate that gender differences are becoming more neutralized. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This paper analyzes the gender demographic and intercultural influences on ethical decision-making by undergraduate students from New Zealand and the USA through four scenarios. Findings – Overall for the USA and New Zealand, this research demonstrates this split as well, since two scenarios showed significance while two did not. The two that demonstrated a significance dealt with personnel issues and a past client relationship. These two scenarios suggested that a relationship orientation and relativistic nature among women may influence their decision making. The two scenarios without significance were less relationship oriented, involving dealing with a customer (...

Community of practice versus community of readers: the literacy tutors’ dilemma

Abstract This paper describes a journey undertaken by literacy tutors who were caught between incompatible values and needs in building apprentices’ literacy. The highly literate tutors were committed to teaching critical literacy. They believed that improved literacy could support learners’ aspirations to advance their prospects at work, build their connections within their community and improve their health. Hence, the tutors aimed to guide their learners into membership of an imagined community of fluent readers. They found, however, that the apprentices, along with their managers and training coordinators, saw literacy as instrumental rather than a desired outcome in its own right. Essentially, achieving a sufficient level of literacy was needed for the apprentices to become members of workplace communities of practice. Tutors then questioned their prior assumptions about the intrinsic importance of literacy, slowly accepting a dichotomous way of thinking where industrial ways of learning and knowing were predominant. Tutors’ realisation that apprentices already possessed embodied and oral literacies helped them to support the apprentices in escaping (though not leaving) workplace contexts that were becoming increasingly document-driven in character and featuring rising expectations of improved print literacy.

Young adult literacy learners describe the text–orality nexus

Abstract Research has described the importance of orality at work and in everyday life but little agreement currently exists on how to theorize modern orality. This study explores how young adult literacy learners thought about and employed their textual (print) literacy within the oral contexts of their lives. We interviewed 88 mainly unemployed young persons undertaking literacy training to assess how their literacy fitted within their everyday lives, exploring their learning, employment, motivation, persistence, barriers to learning, and power dynamics. Respondents saw their textual literacy as situated within a matrix of everyday interpersonal communication more than as stand-alone functional skills, describing how literacy integrates with oral-experiential lifeworlds such as at work. Empirical evidence was provided to support the recent work of scholars who are building theory in the text–orality nexus. This study provides insights into the oral world of people with liminal (threshold) textual literacy; since such individuals are necessarily more oral than literate in their everyday life experience, they provide unique insights into how their orality intersects with use of textual information.

Temporal discourse and the news media representation of Indigenous- non-Indigenous relations: A case study from Aotearoa New Zealand

Time is a particularly powerful construct in postcolonial societies. Intermeshed with discourses of race, place and belonging, European ideas of time as linear, Cartesian and chronological function as enduring discursive categories that frame public debate within conceptual legacies from colonialism. There is substantial evidence internationally that modernist and mechanical temporal discourses of progress and efficiency have impeded Indigenous aspirations, including attempts to achieve sovereignty. In this article, we use a critical whiteness studies framework, and a critical discourse analysis methodology, to make visible the temporal assumptions in mainstream news articles from Aotearoa New Zealand. These articles, from influential, agenda-setting media, discuss crucial issues of indigenous rights, including Te Tiriti o Waitangi negotiations. Our analysis shows that they do so within a culturally specific, Western temporal framework, which limits their ability to provide balanced, informative coverage of the issues at stake.

‘‘Sort of Set My Goal to Come to Class’’: Evoking Expressive Content in Policy Reports

This article documents a novel yet theory-informed process of preparing research reports designed for government officials who are concerned with creating adult-literacy policy. The authors use cartoons that include verbatim dialogue from the transcripts of interviews with research participants with low functional literacy. This dialogue, which depicts positive messages about the participants’ moral character, strengths, and resilience, is set against photographic backdrops of the participants’ lived environment to give a sense of real people in a real place. Inclusion of such images is an attempt to change policy-report readers’ thinking about adult literacy because creative visual communication offers ways to approach this challenge that text alone cannot.