An Examination of Campustruth Advertisements: Are they Legitimate?

Location

CSU 255

Start Date

12-4-2004 10:30 AM

End Date

12-4-2004 12:00 PM

Student's Major

Communication Studies

Student's College

Arts and Humanities

Mentor's Name

Daniel Cronn-Mills

Mentor's Department

Communication Studies

Mentor's College

Arts and Humanities

Description

In the fall of 2002 Campustruth started placing anti-Arab and anti-Muslim advertisements in campus newspapers across the nation. According to their mission statement at Campustruth.org, Campustruth claims to be a group of Americans from all faiths, who accept diversity of opinions, and believe in truth and accuracy. Yet its ads display a contradictory message as they clearly target Arabs as adversaries. Perhaps what it should say is all faiths...except Islam. Analysis of these ads is vital for the following reason: our nation has always been a mixture of cultures, and with the mixture has always come dissenting opinions; the level of dissent, however, is aggravated and perpetuated by advertisements like those from Campustruth. The organization presents opinion as fact. Thus we must ask, do Campustruth's advertisements have legitimacy, despite the irony in its organization? In order to analyze Campustruth's ads we will utilize Angela Trethewey's article "Isn't it Ironic: Using Irony to Explore the Contradictions of Organizational life," found in the Spring 1999 Western Journal of Communication. Trethewey's theory is appropriate because it evaluates the irony created by organizations to justify contradictions in their messages.

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Apr 12th, 10:30 AM Apr 12th, 12:00 PM

An Examination of Campustruth Advertisements: Are they Legitimate?

CSU 255

In the fall of 2002 Campustruth started placing anti-Arab and anti-Muslim advertisements in campus newspapers across the nation. According to their mission statement at Campustruth.org, Campustruth claims to be a group of Americans from all faiths, who accept diversity of opinions, and believe in truth and accuracy. Yet its ads display a contradictory message as they clearly target Arabs as adversaries. Perhaps what it should say is all faiths...except Islam. Analysis of these ads is vital for the following reason: our nation has always been a mixture of cultures, and with the mixture has always come dissenting opinions; the level of dissent, however, is aggravated and perpetuated by advertisements like those from Campustruth. The organization presents opinion as fact. Thus we must ask, do Campustruth's advertisements have legitimacy, despite the irony in its organization? In order to analyze Campustruth's ads we will utilize Angela Trethewey's article "Isn't it Ironic: Using Irony to Explore the Contradictions of Organizational life," found in the Spring 1999 Western Journal of Communication. Trethewey's theory is appropriate because it evaluates the irony created by organizations to justify contradictions in their messages.