In Authenticating Whiteness: Karens, Selfies, and Pop Stars, Rachel E. Dubrofsky explores the idea that popular media implicitly portrays whiteness as credible, trustworthy, familiar, and honest, and that this portrayal is normalized and ubiquitous. Whether on television, film, social media, or in the news, white people are constructed as believable and unrehearsed, from the way they talk to how they look and act. Dubrofsky argues that this way of making white people appear authentic is a strategy of whiteness, requiring attentiveness to the context of white supremacy in which the presentations unfold. The volume details how ideas about what is natural, good, and wholesome are reified in media, showing how these values are implicitly racialized. Additionally, the project details how white women are presented as particularly authentic when they seem to lose agency by expressing affect through emotional and bodily displays. The chapters examine a range of popular media-newspaper articles about Donald J. Trump, a selfie taken at Auschwitz, music videos by Miley Cyrus, the television series UnREAL, the infamous video of Amy Cooper calling the police on an innocent Black man, and the documentary Miss Americana-pinpointing patterns that cut across media to explore the implications for the larger culture in which they exist. At its heart, the book asks: Who gets to be authentic? And what are the implications?

The Communication Experience: A Guide to Successful Public Speaking introduces students to the study of public speaking by focusing on four foundational conclusions about the communication experience: that writing, reading, critical thinking, and speaking skills are needed to succeed in any academic or professional setting; that public speaking is just one of many communication skills needed to succeed; that speeches are more than something that you cut and paste together; and that public communication is often made more difficult than it has to be. The text helps students recognize the role of public speaking within the larger practice of communication, develop essential skills for and approaches to speechmaking, and understand and overcome communication apprehension. The text is organized into three units. Unit one focuses on the global communication experience. In unit two, students learn about academic and professional speechmaking. Unit three teaches readers how to personalize their speeches, addressing ways they can cultivate their own unique style and customize their content. Individual chapters address various communication environments; incorporating audience ethics into speechmaking; argumentation; hearing versus listening; tailoring a speech for a specific audience; organizational strategies for speeches; storytelling in academic and professional presentations; finding your voice; and more. The Communication Experience is an exemplary resource for courses and programs in public speaking and communication.

A broadly interdisciplinary study of the pervasive secrecy in America cultural, political, and religious discourse.
The occult has traditionally been understood as the study of secrets of the practice of mysticism or magic. This book broadens our understanding of the occult by treating it as a rhetorical phenomenon tied to language and symbols and more central to American culture than is commonly assumed.
Joshua Gunn approaches the occult as an idiom, examining the ways in which acts of textual criticism and interpretation are occultic in nature, as evident in practices as diverse as academic scholarship, Freemasonry, and television production. Gunn probes, for instance, the ways in which jargon employed by various social and professional groups creates barriers and fosters secrecy. From the theory wars of cultural studies to the Satanic Panic that swept the national mass media in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gunn shows how the paradox of a hidden, buried, or secret meaning that cannot be expressed in language appears time and time again in Western culture.
These recurrent patterns, Gunn argues, arise from a generalized, popular anxiety about language and its limitations. Ultimately, "Modern Occult Rhetoric" demonstrates the indissoluble relationship between language, secrecy, and publicity, and the centrality of suspicion in our daily lives.

Advanced Public Speaking: A Leader's Guide is a comprehensive textbook designed to serve as a speech-making reference for upper-level undergraduate students. Now in its second edition, this volume offers brand new classroom-tested chapter assignments, updated examples, and new content on speaking to international and remote audiences. An instructor's manual and test bank are available for download on the book's companion website, offering everything from guidance in constructing a syllabus, to lecture suggestions, to classroom activities. This student-engagement focused and flexible text offers students the opportunity to increase their speaking abilities across a variety of more specific and complex contexts.