FROM MYTH TO METAPHOR TO MEMORY: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF TELEVISED REPRESENTATIONS OF PROJECT APOLLO, 1968-2004 A dissertation presented to the faculty of the Scripps College of Communication of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Kathy A. Keltner June 2007 © 2007 Kathy A. Keltner All Rights Reserved This dissertation titled FROM MYTH TO METAPHOR TO MEMORY: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF TELEVISED REPRESENTATIONS OF PROJECT APOLLO, 1968-2004 by KATHY A. KELTNER has been approved for the School of Telecommunications and the Scripps College of Communication by Joseph Slade Professor of Telecommunications Gregory J. Shepherd Dean, College of Communication Abstract KELTNER, KATHY A., Ph.D., June 2007, Mass Media FROM MYTH TO METAPHOR TO MEMORY: A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF TELEVISED REPRESENTATIONS OF PROJECT APOLLO, 1968-2004 (259 pp.) Director of Dissertation: Joseph Slade This dissertation examines televised representations of the Apollo missions to the Moon on CBS Evening News when the missions occurred, 1968 through 1972, then how the project has been remembered in more contemporary representations, 1973-2004. First it was necessary to examine the extent to which NASA’s public relations apparatus influenced the language of the network. Findings suggest that, while NASA did not dictate CBS’s reporting, there were strong mutual relationships between agency and network that kept reporting positive. Second, using a rhetorical analysis methodology in the theoretical context of James Carey’s ritual view of mass communication, I argue that mediated representations of Apollo followed four distinctive rhetorical strategies to appeal to and convince Middle America to support the $25 billion dollar project. These strategies mirrored what Mark Byrnes found to be NASA’s rhetorical strategies: nationalism, romanticism, and pragmatism. An additional discursive pattern was identified: the glorification of American technology. On television, rhetoric of nationalism asserted the certainty of American success in winning the cold war along with images of Kennedy. Romantic metaphors burnished other rituals: space was an American frontier open to exploration by a cohort of heroes including rugged astronauts portrayed as cowboys, and self-made individualistic engineers. Pragmatic metaphors underlined the social, political, and economic utility of space exploration to justify the missions as the public began to question the necessity of additional trips to the Moon after Apollo 11. Narratives of technology underscored U.S. leadership in innovation while touting its organizational know-how and technological successes. An additional discovery was CBS’s use of binary oppositions necessary in news reporting that acted to enhance the public view of NASA while drawing the audience together via discourse of community. An extended analysis of televised representations across a variety of television networks including CBS, CNN, PBS, and The History Channel (THC) during post- Apollo years, 1973-2004, provides confirmation that little had changed in the form of CBS’s initial rhetoric. However, there was a shift in whom the network’s deemed heroes of the space program. This analysis suggests that the media now place its primary focus on the creators of technology instead of the astronauts as in Apollo’s glory years. In addition, more contemporary representations have yet to focus on the experiences of women and African American engineers who were instrumental in getting the United States to and from the Moon before the Soviets during the cold war. In sum, it was through the four rhetorical strategies and the binary oppositions that Carey’s ritual model of communication was evident on CBS, CNN. PBS, and THC. The reality of the public’s understanding of the Apollo project was created, repaired, transformed, and maintained through these mediated representations to reinforce American values in an effort to persuade the public to support Apollo, and more recently, NASA’s current manned missions into the final frontier. Approved: _____________________________________________________________ Joseph Slade Professor of Telecommunications I dedicate this dissertation to my mother, Norma Rich Kerbaugh, and all of the other “Steel Magnolias” who have positively influenced me. This research is also dedicated to the memory of Robert George Kerbaugh. Acknowledgments This research would not have been possible without the assistance and support of many people and institutions. First, I would like to express my infinite appreciation to Joseph Slade who offered invaluable guidance and suggestions for this dissertation while exuding an abundance of patience. I also thank the other members of my committee, Katherine Jellison, Joe Bernt and Don Flournoy who worked with me to provide wonderful insight in their areas of specialty that only they could have provided. You are all scholars whom I admire and hope to emulate. I am especially grateful to Ohio University’s Contemporary History Institute that provided research funding and an excellent program that grounded me in historical instruction making this research possible. This dissertation would not have taken the shape it did without the support of a Guggenheim Fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum. Roger Launius, who sparked my interest in Apollo, Margaret Weitekamp, and Valerie Neal provided information, insight, and enthusiasm and got me thinking about space and history in new ways. Many thanks also to Mike Neufeld, David DeVorkin, Martin Collins, Paul Ceruzzi, Cathy Lewis, Allen Needell, and John Krige who also offered excellent suggestions. NASM’s library staff was instrumental in finding and providing a wealth of information. Special thanks to the staff of the NASA History Office: Jane Odom, John Hargenrader, Colin Fries, Steve Garber, and Nadine Andreassen who happily assisted me in finding hard-to-find information any time, day or night. I thank them for their help, support, long-standing friendships, and countless laughs at the Market Inn. I also owe a dept of gratitude to Joel Banow, Special Events Director at CBS Evening News during the Apollo years, Brad Perry of NASA Langley Research Center, and Hugh Harris from NASA Kennedy Space Center. Words cannot express my thanks for providing me with the excellent oral histories of your Apollo experiences. This story is for you and your coworkers who made the Apollo feat possible. I hope I have done you justice. To the staff at the Television News Archives at Vanderbilt University I offer sincere thanks. John Lynch and Skip Pfeiffer made sure I had the tapes I needed even when I popped in on short notice. Your humor made traveling through thirty-six years of space reporting and multiple hours with Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid go by much more quickly. Also in Nashville, I am much indebted to Michael Gray at the Country Music Hall of Fame for tracking down the tapes of songs that went to the Moon with Apollos 12 and 14. Thanks to David Eason whose graduate courses at Middle Tennessee State University piqued my interest in cultural studies and introduced me to influential scholars such as James Carey and Michael Schudson. Norma Pecora at Ohio University solidified that interest. Thank you, Dr. Pecora, for suggesting that I take a historical approach in my doctoral studies. Much gratitude is owed to Paula Carpenter at Ohio University’s School of Telecommunication who transcribed notes and kept my spirits high with her support and friendship, and to Undrah Basaanjav for her help with the ETD filing and for her friendship. Personally, I also wish to thank all of the people who put me up (and put up with me) while I worked on this dissertation, especially Nancy and Gary Koger who provided a peaceful haven while I viewed the seemingly endless tapes at Vanderbilt University (and Pluto for giving me writing breaks). Norma and Bob Kerbaugh provided a clear dining room table (never complaining about my stacks of books and piles of papers) and an environment that fostered creative thinking so that I would write away. I could not have done it without each of you and love you all. Todd Wirth, thank you for being a constant soundboard of ideas and for supplying me with innumerable jokes and anecdotes to keep it all in perspective. Finally, I offer many thanks to Betsy Casada and Carol Wolkoff of the Alpha Xi Delta House Corporation and OU’s “Fuzzies,” 2001-2004, who taught me what it is like to be an undergraduate student in the year 2000-something, which has made me a better teacher. 11 Table of Contents Page ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................................4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.............................................................................................................................8 LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................................13 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................14 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................................23 APOLLO AND THE MYTH OF SPACE EXPLORATION....................................................................................23 THE APOLLO PROGRAM ............................................................................................................................25