A Semi-Automated Descriptive Phrase and Frame Analysis of Texts About the Herbicide Agent Orange Sarah Beth Hopton University of South Florida, [email protected]
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University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School January 2015 Evidence of Things Not Seen: A Semi-Automated Descriptive Phrase and Frame Analysis of Texts about the Herbicide Agent Orange Sarah Beth Hopton University of South Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the Other Communication Commons, and the Rhetoric Commons Scholar Commons Citation Hopton, Sarah Beth, "Evidence of Things Not Seen: A Semi-Automated Descriptive Phrase and Frame Analysis of Texts about the Herbicide Agent Orange" (2015). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/5705 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Evidence of Things Not Seen: A Semi-Automated Descriptive Phrase and Frame Analysis of Texts about the Herbicide Agent Orange by Sarah Beth Hopton A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Rhetoric & Composition Department of English College of Arts and Science University of South Florida Major Professor: Carl Herndl, Ph.D. Meredith Johnson, Ph.D. John Skvoretz, Ph.D. Jurgen Pfeffer, Ph.D. Date of Approval: May 4, 2015 Keywords: digital discourse analysis, communicating science, technical communications. Copyright © 2015, Sarah Beth Hopton DEDICATION To those who still suffer. Mutato nomine et de te fabula narrator: Change only the name and this story is about you. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work would not have been possible without the help and contributions of many people. I am particularly indebted to my committee, consisting of Drs. Herndl, Johnson, Skvoretz, and Pfeffer, and to my research collaborators and coding partners, Fred Morstatter and Dana Rine. I am also indebted to my family, whose unfaltering faith kept me buoyed in the roughest of seas. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... iii LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................v ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................. viii CHAPTER 1: HISTORY & CONTEXT .........................................................................................1 Overview ..............................................................................................................................1 The Birth of Agent Orange ..................................................................................................4 America in Vietnam .............................................................................................................7 Agent Orange as Scientific Controversy ............................................................................10 Agent Orange in the US News Media ................................................................................16 Agent Orange as Legal Controversy ..................................................................................18 American Skepticism & Vietnamese Acceptance of Agent Orange .................................19 Networked Rhetorics .........................................................................................................27 CHAPTER 2: THEORY & DEFINITIONS ..................................................................................31 Metaphors, Descriptive Phrases, and Why They Matter ...................................................31 From Metaphors to Frames ................................................................................................42 Critical Discourse Analysis as a Means to Interpret Metaphors and Frames ....................45 Historical and Modern Approaches to Computer-Aided Discourse Analysis ...................47 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................52 A Definition of Big Data ....................................................................................................52 Brief Description of Research Site ....................................................................................57 Corpora in Detail ................................................................................................................59 Congressional Hearings & Reports ........................................................................59 New York Times Articles ......................................................................................61 New York Times Editorials ...................................................................................61 The Vietnamese News Agency ..............................................................................62 Research Questions ............................................................................................................62 Determining the Unit of Analysis ......................................................................................63 Method for Data Collection and Analysis .........................................................................66 Distant Reading, Interpretation, and Analysis ...................................................................71 Limitations…. ....................................................................................................................80 Human Error ..........................................................................................................81 Multiple Theoretical Perspectives ..........................................................................82 Problems Specific to Big Data ...............................................................................82 Questions about Mixing Methods ..........................................................................84 i Conclusion .........................................................................................................................85 CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS ........................................................................................86 The Environment ...............................................................................................................90 The Uncertainty of Agent Orange ......................................................................................97 Victims & Victimization ..................................................................................................100 Remuneration ...................................................................................................................103 Ways of Describing Agent Orange ..................................................................................108 CHAPTER 5: INTERVENTION, VISUALIZATION, AND THE FUTURE PROSPECTS OF BIG DATA AND AGENT ORANGE ...............................................116 Intervention & Social Change ..........................................................................................116 The Value and Possibilities of Network Analysis & Visualization .................................120 Distant Reading through Network Visualization .............................................................121 Overcoming Limitations Specific to this Project .............................................................124 Studying Emerging Sites of Political and Scientific Controversy ...................................126 Summary of Results .........................................................................................................130 Conclusion .......................................................................................................................133 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................134 APPENDIX ..................................................................................................................................145 ii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. List of Corpora Contents ..................................................................................................62 Table 2. Examples of Themes and Expressions .............................................................................69 Table 3. Equations and Examples of Resulting Metaphorical Frames ..........................................70 Table 4. The Top 5 Keywords per Stakeholder for Cross-section of Corpus: “Environment.” .........................................................................91 Table 5. Top 5 Descriptive Phrases per Stakeholder for Cross-section of Corpus: “Environment.” .........................................................................93 Table 6. Top 5 Co-Occurrences per Stakeholder for Cross-section of Corpus: “Environment.” .........................................................................95 Table 7. Top 5 Keywords per Stakeholder for Cross-section of Corpus: “Uncertainty.” ...........................................................................97 Table 8. Descriptive Phrases per Stakeholder for Cross-section of Corpus: “Uncertainty.” ...........................................................................98 Table 9. 5 Co-Occurrences per Stakeholder for Cross-section of Corpus: