Item Details

title

Big Data and the Rhetorical Narrative

author

Bowling, Roy Nathaniel

abstract

This project effectively illustrates a tactic by which the constructs of narrative inquiry from a humanist perspective, in particular the rhetorical narrative tradition, can migrate into a larger methodology while simultaneously recognizing and training agents in narrative visualization via up-to-date computational tools. The Reddit platform in particular, served as a suitable illustration for a multifaceted approach to novel methods in narrative inquiry due to the free accessibility to online storytelling in addition to a substantial collection of unstructured data it offers. This permitted an effective exploration through means of analyzing mediated narratives while concurrently using computational methods to assemble, filter, and interpret "Reddit narratives." The project progresses in two parts. First I offer a model for contemporary rhetorical narrative analysis that embraces social media as a viable source of user-generated narrative data. The second half of the project illustrates a data analysis template that employs a rhetorical lens for the creation of narrative maps. Collectively this project proposes a model for continued rhetorical narrative inquiry that intersects at traditional qualitative analysis and the contemporary deployment of textual analytic software.

subject

Big Data

Data Visualization

Multiple Methods

Narrative Mapping

Reddit

Rhetorical Narrative

contributor

Zulick, Margaret D (committee chair)

Mitra, Ananda (committee member)

date

2015-01-21T09:35:15Z (accessioned)

2015-11-20T09:30:10Z (available)

2014 (issued)

degree

Communication (discipline)

embargo

forever [N.B. Embargo lifted 11-19-2015 by Molly Keener, per author's request.] (terms)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/47448 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Thesis