Crime and Punishment: The Impacts of the Messaging Project on the Abortion Debate

Presenter Information

Sarah Walker, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Location

CSU 204

Start Date

27-4-2009 8:00 AM

End Date

27-4-2009 10:00 AM

Student's Major

Communication Studies

Student's College

Arts and Humanities

Mentor's Name

James Dimock

Mentor's Department

Communication Studies

Mentor's College

Arts and Humanities

Description

The abortion debate has been raging for more than half a century, and has divided the nation over the issue ever since its beginnings. The arguments have encompassed arenas ranging fi-om women's rights to religious sanctity. In 2006, the National Institute for Reproductive Health launched a campaign called the Messaging Project. This venture has been unlike any other previously run advertising campaign in the recent past, because rather than making a response to the already existing fi*ame of the abortion debate, the NIRH attempts to shift the focus, by concentrating on the real life consequences of laws that make abortion illegal. However, the campaigns somewhat unorthodox approach to the topic has raised questions about the impacts the Messaging Project will ultimately have. This research endeavor focused on those impacts by analyzing the project through the lens of Herbert W. Simons' article Going Meta: Definition and Political Applications, published in the November 1994 edition of The Ouarterlv Joumal of Speech. Simons' meta move sought to explain how a rhetor works to gain advantage in a debate. Simons' method worked very effectively when applied to the analysis of the Messaging Project, and using the analysis, we could identify the ways that the Project, holds impacts for the entirety of debates in all fields, not just abortion.