Rogue Scholars Roundtable II:
Return of the Rogue Scholar
Panel Proposal accepted by the Applied Communication Division
for the 1997 annual meeting of the Speech Communication Association, November,
Chicago.
Purpose: "Rogue Scholars II" is the second in
a series of panels and other forums designed to bring scholarship out of
the academic community and into the larger community in which scholarly
research is embedded. In other words, our goal with this panel (and other
endeavors) is to make scholarship accessible to those whom we study. This
particular panel will focus on how communication theory and research contribute
to addressing everyday problems and issues which individuals, groups, and
organizations face. Presenters will address topics such as language use
and jargon, organizational assessments, collaborative learning, paradox
in organizations, public discourse, and the use of mediated communication
to disseminate information in meaningful ways.
Format: This panel will be a public discussion of scholarly
research. Presenters will write 10- to 15-page papers on how their research
can or is being used in practical ways. An interviewer/ moderator will question
the panelists and serve to facilitate discussion among panelists and the
audience. Similar to Rogue Scholars I, these papers will be available on
the Rogue web page at least one month before the SCA convention in Chicago.
The papers will thus be accessible to all panelists, potential audience
members, and any others who are interested in the panel. (Papers from Rogue
Scholars I, scheduled for presentation at WSCA in Monterey, are on the Rogue
web site: http://members.cruzio.com/~rogue/.) The format for the panel will
be BRIEF presentations (no more than 5 minutes) by panel members, followed
by MUCH discussion among panelists and audience members.
Panel Participants
Ted M. Coopman
Rogue Communication Consultants, Santa Cruz, CA
email: rogue@cruzio.com
paper presenter/ roundtable panelist, panel coordinator
"New Scholarship for a New Media: Reaching the People through the People's
Networks"
Victoria Chen
Dept. of Communication
Denison University, Granville, OH
email: kumquat@cc.denison.edu
roundtable panelist
"A Space for Public Conversation:The Cupertino Community Project"
Stephanie J. Coopman
Dept. of Communication Studies, San José State University, San José,
CA
email: zimmerma@sjsuvm1.sjsu.edu
interviewer/ moderator
Joy Hart
Dept. of Communication
University of Louisville, Louisville, KY
email: jlhart01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu
paper presenter/roundtable panelist
"Organizational Paradox: Facilitating Change and Dissent"
Greg Leichty
Department of Communication, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY
email: gbleic01@ulkyvm.louisville.edu
roundtable panelist
"Organizational Paradox: Facilitating Change and Dissent"
JoAnn McKenzie
Dept. of Speech Communication, University of Texas, Austin, TX
email: mckenzie@mail.utexas.edu
roundtable panelist
"Heard it Through the Grapevine:An Organizational Communication Odd-it"
Tasha Souza
Dept. of Speech Communication, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
email: tashjean@u.washington.edu
paper presenter/roundtable panelist
"Collaboration In and Of Research and Teaching"
Shawn J. Spano
Dept. of Communication Studies, San José State University, San José,
CA
paper presenter/roundtable panelist
"A Space for Public Conversation:The Cupertino Community Project"
Tim Thompson
Dept. of Speech and Communication Studies
Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, PA
email: tthompson@edinboro.edu; paper presenter/roundtable panelist
"Being An In-Simplest-Termsist"
Richard J. Webb
Dept. of Speech Communication, University of Texas, Austin, TX
email: webb@mail.utexas.edu
paper presenter/roundtable panelist
"Heard it Through the Grapevine:An Organizational Communication Odd-it"
Shirley Willihnganz
Dept. of Communication, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY
roundtable panelist
"Organizational Paradox: Facilitating Change and Dissent"
Abstracts
"Being An In-Simplest-Termsist"
Tim Thompson
Serving to bracket the form of the panel's discussion, this paper explores
the uses and gratifications of academic jargon, and asks if the use of jargon
helps or hinders effective communication. Drawing on Burke (Dewey), and
the notion that people develop occupational psychoses -- a way of seeing
that is also a way of not seeing -- we can explore the motivation to use
one dollar terms at the expense of making "cents." The paper will
present various examples of abstractions-gone-astray and provide interpretation,
wondering all the while what "big important terms" do to academic
credibility.
"Collaboration In and
Of Research and Teaching" Tasha Souza
This paper explores collaboration, or a social constructionist perspective,
in research and teaching. Too often, as researchers and teachers, we believe
that our research and teaching are performed independently and in isolation.
Our research can benefit others and help to address real social problems
when we work in collaboration with those whom we research. Further, our
teaching will be more effective when we recognize that teaching is a collaborative
construction. All classroom participants jointly create the learning environment.
In addition, it is imperative that we begin to bridge research and teaching.
As teachers in the classroom, we are also researchers in the classroom.
Both of these roles can mutually inform one another.
"Organizational Paradox: Facilitating
Change and Dissent"
Joy Hart, Shirley Willihnganz, & Greg Leichty
Many organizational theories and most organizational research present a
view of organizations, organizational life, and organizational communication
that is free from paradox --suggesting much consistency and little contradiction.
However, many of the experiences we have with organizations are rife with
paradox. In this paper, we turn our attention to dealing with organizational
dissent and debate in organizational life -- the competing and multi-sided
stories we encounter in the work world. We present data from research we
have done in organizations, such as an auto parts manufacturing organization
undergoing change, to discuss the ways in which paradox can be handled.
We demonstrate how our research can be used to help organizational members
develop communication strategies to facilitate change, encourage healthy
debate, and cope with differing perspectives.
"Heard it Through the Grapevine:An Organizational
Communication Odd-it"
Richard J. Webb & JoAnn McKenzie
Although organizational communication audits generally result in an "executive
summary," as well as a report or scholarly article written for an academic
audience, rarely are researchers permitted, never mind called upon, to report
to an audience of non-managerial employees. Yet workers have more of a stake
in an audit report than is ever adequately acknowledged by those who control
access to, and the distribution of information within, the organizations
in which we are interested. The workforce may initially be presented to
the researcher as the source of some problem, as hostile, as under some
delicate form of control which must not be upset, and therefore systematically
excluded from the researcher's consideration as a possible audit report
audience. In this paper we directly addresses the employees of a large,
non-profit service organization, drawing upon data collected during a communication
audit requested by the organization's internal auditor. We follow the same
topical structure as the initial report and executive summary, but we presume
an entirely different and exclusive audience of non-managerial employees.
Of critical interest is the reinclusion of several significant findings
which were deleted from the formal presentation and the executive summary
at the insistence of the internal auditor. Methodological and philosophical
assumptions underlying the design and execution of applied research under
controlled-access conditions and subject to managerial editing prerogatives
provide a focus for discussion.
"A Space for Public Conversation:The Cupertino Community
Project" Shawn Spano & Victoria Chen
Meaningful public conversation on significant social/cultural issues
does not occur easily or frequently. When it comes to controversial issues,
most of us are perhaps more experienced with debates filled with anger and
hostility instead of civilized dialogue. In this paper we describe one group's
efforts to improve the quality of public conversation among citizens and
city officials in Cupertino, CA. The group, known as the Public Dialogue
Consortium (PDC), developed the Cupertino Project in order to create a space
for discussing issues that concern the Cupertino citizens. Using a systemic
framework, PDC in Phase One conducted a series of interviews to tease out
important issues from the participants' conversations. In Phase Two we conducted
more group interviews, focusing on the two issues that emerged from our
first phase, cultural richness and community safety. The culmination of
this second phase was a town hall meeting on November 20, 1996, in which
we gathered together the City Council, the Mayor, the City Manager, and
about 150 Cupertino citizens to engage in further dialogue on their concerns,
visions, and suggestions. We are currently beginning Phase Three which will
involve city officials' active participation along with the citizens' involvement
to create a better community for Cupertino residents. We plan to conduct
workshops to train the city officials and citizen leaders to keep the conversation
going.
"New Scholarship for a New Media: Reaching the People
through the People's Networks"Ted M. Coopman
In the final paper on this panel, I discuss how scholars in general,
and rogue scholars in particular, can and should use emerging micromedia
technologies to disseminate their work. As has been discussed recently on
the Communication Research and Theory Network (CRTNET), media institutions
have a short list when casting for "experts." While this list
is expanding, it is still the case that few voices have access to traditional
media. In contrast, micro media is a land where there is the potential for
everyone to have a voice with no or few restrictions. This lack of regulation
has its appeal, yet the potential also exists for new micro technologies
to go the way of the Home Shopping Network and infotainment masquerading
as news. Thus, scholars should take the initiative to provide meaningful
content in emerging micro media. Rather than trying to fit into a formula
developed for, and by, commercial media, I argue in this essay that we should
seek to develop our own standards, grounded in verifiable, methodologically
sound scholarship. In addition, I argue that as scholars one role we have
is to inform with the intent of eliciting thought, debate and discussion,
and to give the public an access point for further information. Finally,
I discuss the ways in which such material could be formatted and presented
to facilitate the accessibility ofscholarly thought and research.