Angel, Adriana Dissertation 11-12-12
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The Role of Secondary Orality in the Construction of Factual Discourses about Colombian Corruption 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 Adriana M. Angel Botero December 2012 © 2012 Adriana M. Angel Botero. All Rights Reserved. This dissertation titled The Role of Secondary Orality in the Construction of Factual Discourses about Colombian Corruption by ADRIANA M. ANGEL BOTERO has been approved for the School of Communication Studies and the Scripps College of Communication by Benjamin R. Bates Associate Professor of Communication Studies Scott Titsworth Interim Dean, Scripps College of Communication ii ABSTRACT ANGEL BOTERO, ADRIANA M., Ph.D., December 2012, Communication Studies The Role of Secondary Orality in the Construction of Factual Discourses about Colombian Corruption Director of Dissertation: Bejamin R. Bates This dissertation examines the role of secondary orality in the construction of factual discourses about Colombian corruption. By performing a rhetorical analysis of the Colombian radio program Hora 20, I analyze how factual discourses about Colombian corruption are constructed through radio and, specifically, through secondary orality. After analyzing thirteen radio episodes on corruption, I claim that secondary orality leads to a highly polysemic understanding of corruption in which different approaches to this phenomenon correspond with particular terministic screens. The invitational nature of secondary orality makes possible the co-existence of various terministic screens in which different factual discourses of corruption are represented through language. These different factual discourses on corruption emerge in the context of what I call dialogic rhetoric. Beyond the realm of discourse, this polysemy of corruption has material consequences resulting on what I called the normalization of corruption. Chapter 1 of this dissertation offers a description of radio and corruption in Colombia. Chapter 2 presents a review of the literature produced on radio; examines the concepts of orality and secondary orality; and discusses the problem of factuality and its related terms, such as rhetoric and symbolic efficacy. Chapter 3 discusses cluster analysis and explains how I used this method to rhetorically analyze the radio program Hora 20. iii Chapter 4 describes the six clusters of terms that radio speakers of Hora 20 use when discussing issues of Colombian corruption about three broad contexts: corruption as a long term Colombian problem, agricultural corruption, and health corruption. It also analyzes the different rhetorical strategies that speakers employ to make factual their own accounts on corruption. Chapter 5 discusses how the language of radio influences the way in which radio speakers communicate about corruption and, specifically, how secondary orality works in radio. In this chapter I suggest three main levels –emphatic, grammatical, and dialogic– through which we can start to understand the language of the secondary orality of radio. Finally, Chapter 6 offers a more detailed connection between chapters 4 and 5, and, therefore, between radio representations of corruption and secondary orality. It also summarizes how this dissertation advances our understanding on corruption, radio, and cluster analysis. Lastly, it suggests some directions for future research. iv DEDICATION A mi querida Colombia: Un país que no deja de sorprenderme y en quien albergo todas mis esperanzas. (To my beloved Colombia: A country that never ceases to surprise me and in which I invest all my hopes) v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I always thought that writing my dissertation would be a very solitary endeavor. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a collective process of thinking in which one author (me) was in charge of putting into words the ideas, theories, and the discipline that professors and friends have taught me during my academic career. I do not have enough words to thank them. First, I thank my advisor, Dr. Bates, for guiding me in this difficult process of writing a dissertation. I would like to become as clear, patient, and efficient as he is. I also want to thank to all the members of my committee. Drs. Babrow, Rawlins, Welser and Obregon are professors that I greatly admire. That you are the readers of my dissertation is a great honor for me. Three institutions also deserve my gratitude: Fulbright for giving me the opportunity to pursue a PhD in Communication as I always dreamed, the School of Communication Studies at Ohio University for helping me to become a communication scholar, and the University of Manizales for sponsoring my studies here in the United States. Other professors and mentors also deserve my deepest gratitude: my mentor Karen Greiner, who always helps me to organize my ideas, to believe in myself, and to admire the Colombian scholarship in communication. My undergraduate professor Ancízar Narváez, who introduced me to the field of communication and taught me ideas and theories, some of them present in this dissertation. And my graduate professor Jorge Hernández Lara, who with enormous patience has always answered my questions and vi who has helped me select and comprehend the cases of corruption that I analyze in this dissertation. I also want to thank my family, and especially my sister, Lina Ángel, for believing in me. Last, but not least, I want to thank my Athenian family, Claudia Nieto and –mi Pavo– Alvaro Fuentes, for reminding me about the world outside this dissertation. You became my family and that is the most important support that I could ask for. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii Dedication ........................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. vi List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... xi List of Figures ................................................................................................................... xii Chapter 1: Introduction to the Dissertation ......................................................................... 1 Radio in Colombia .......................................................................................................... 4 The Different Uses of Radio ....................................................................................... 4 Community, Public, and Educational Radio ............................................................... 5 News Radio ................................................................................................................. 7 Social and Cultural Contributions of Radio ................................................................ 9 Radio in Colombia and Radio in the United States .................................................. 11 Corruption in Colombia ................................................................................................ 14 Definitions and Typologies of Corruption ................................................................ 15 Causes of Corruption ................................................................................................ 18 Mass Media and Corruption ...................................................................................... 21 Corruption, Communication, and Media .................................................................. 23 Research Problem ......................................................................................................... 25 Preview of the Dissertation ........................................................................................... 29 Chapter 2: Literature Review and Theoretical Framework .............................................. 32 Research on Radio ........................................................................................................ 33 Talk Radio ................................................................................................................. 35 Radio and Rhetoric ................................................................................................... 41 The Language of Radio ............................................................................................. 42 Orality and Secondary Orality ...................................................................................... 44 Orality and Literacy .................................................................................................. 44 Secondary Orality ..................................................................................................... 55 Rhetoric of Facts ........................................................................................................... 68 viii Facts and Factuality .................................................................................................. 69 The Rhetorical Character of Language ..................................................................... 72 Chapter 3: Methodology ................................................................................................... 78 Hora 20 and Corruption ...............................................................................................