Issue 10, Spring 2016

A Double-Sided Mirror

Ashley Canter

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Appalachian region was not only exploited for capitalistic gains, but also put on display by outsider voices for being home to a supposed “backwards” and “barbaric” culture. Appalachians experienced exploitation working in mines and other industries that only benefitted those receiving the resources of the mountains. A once self-sustaining, individualized culture was now forced to be dependent and suffer through the “otherization” of its own people. Voices hidden in the murky skies and distant mountains of Appalachia were not only silenced, but more hauntingly, they were spoken for, manipulated, and marginalized. One example of such devastating manipulations of voice lies in the insider voices of Appalachian women and the voices outside of the region that spoke for these women in text. Throughout the research I am presenting here, I will begin to reclaim the stolen, replaced, and marginalized voices of Appalachian women not only in hopes to repair the injustices done to this population some years ago, but also to set an example of how to carry out just research in modern studies of the region.

Communication and Citizen Participation in Southern Local Politics

Meagan Denny

Recidivism rates are high in most Western countries and, as prisons in these countries become overcrowded, the resources meant to enhance reintegration of inmates into society can be inadequate or nonexistent. On the other hand, Norway has one of the lowest recidivism rates among Western nations, at approximately 20 percent. Norway also has, along with other Scandinavian countries, a unique approach to its prison system. This paper discusses the exceptionalism associated with Norway’s prison system and explores the reasons behind its low recidivism rates, with a focus on the encouragement of reintegration of inmates into society. With the educational opportunities and normalization techniques found in Norway’s open prisons, this country’s prison system has rehabilitation at its core, a feature that has largely been embraced by a majority of the Norwegian population. Discussions in this research draw on open-ended survey responses from Norwegian respondents. The arguments connect opportunities created in the Norwegian prison system through education and normalization programs to the low recidivism rates found in Norway.

Communication and Citizen Participation in Southern Local Politics

Rachel Houston

Despite the fact that 96 percent of all political contests in the United States are for local offices, citizens are far more likely to participate in national elections and forgo exercising their voice in local politics. And, although academic literature has focused extensively on citizen participation at the national level, locallevel democracy has often been neglected. This neglect may be caused by a lack of interaction between constituencies and city mayors and managers. Without effective communication between both groups, citizens will be unaware of opportunities to affect social and fiscal policies in their communities. Scholars know little about the perceptions of local government officials concerning citizen participation and the media. By analyzing survey data from 221 local municipalities in the South, this study focuses on understanding Southern city mayors’ and managers’ views on media reporting about government and citizen interest in local politics. This study finds that a majority of Southern city mayors and managers do not put emphasis on increasing citizen engagement in their cities and do not see a connection between the media and citizen participation.

Exposing Artemia Salina to Chattonella Subsalsa: A General Toxicity Test

Nick Picha

The raphidophyte Chattonella subsalsa has been reported to cause harmful algal blooms in every major ocean. In South Carolina, C. subsalsa blooms have been observed in brackish stormwater detention ponds as well as estuarine waters neighboring urbanized areas. Blooms frequently cause fish kills although the fish kill mechanism of C. subsalsa is currently unknown. In many harmful species, the lethality of algal cells is thought to correspond with algal growth phase. Algal growth is known to progress through five distinct phases; lag, early exponential, late exponential, stationary, and decline. In nature, harmful algal blooms commonly occur in the late exponential or stationary growth phases; however, in vitro studies of Chattonella have identified the early exponential phase as most lethal. The strain of C. subsalsa used for this study was found to progress through the five growth phases in a period of twenty days. To examine the lethality of C. subsalsa at various growth phases, the zooplankton species Artemia salina was exposed to C. subsalsa culture at two-day intervals for twenty days. Deaths fluctuated among the growth phases of C. subsalsa with the highest mortalities observed in the late exponential and stationary growth phases. The late exponential and stationary growth phases were found to have significantly greater percent mortalities than the early exponential, lag phase, and control groups (Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test, p=0.05).

Illusory Perspectives: Edward Weston

Jeremy Razook

Photographer Edward Weston was famously able to capture unexpected beauty—no matter if his subject was fruit or human. This essay locates Weston’s artistic vision within the modernist movement of the first half of the twentieth century and uses two well-known images to illustrate Weston’s unique talent for transcending the boundaries between human and nonhuman, animate and inanimate, being and nonbeing in his desire to encourage the experience of introspection and contemplation in viewers.

Rhetoric in the Mass Media: Terrorism or Freedom of Speech?

Carolyn Rhoades

Terrorism is a widely debated topic on social media networks such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. This is due to the fact that a high percentage of users rely on sites such as Twitter and Facebook as a news source for developing stories and information. In a study conducted in 2015 by Pew Research Center, in association with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, research found that 63 percent of Facebook users and 63 percent Twitter users depend on these social networks for their news, which is a substantial increase from 2013.1 This paper presents a rhetorical analysis of terrorism within the framework of social media. This focus is on the widespread rhetoric of terrorism disseminated through social media and the effects on users’ para-social relationships and physiological responses to these messages. Social cognitive theory and the role it plays in social media will be discussed further.

Identity, Community, and Nikki S. Lee

Haley Yarborough

This research sheds light on the complex artistry of Korean-born photographer Nikki S. Lee. Although Lee’s work initially appears straightforward and casual, this essay explores how photographs in “The Hip Hop Project” and “The Tourist Project” actually reinforce and critique specific cultural stereotypes. In performing different ethnic and cultural identities for her photographs, Lee also investigates what it means to one’s own identity to be labeled part of a specific community.