Communication Ethics Literacy
 The postmodern historical moment that we are currently living
in is a juncture in human history that challenges the assumption
that there is only one form of reasoning and one understanding
of the right and good (Arnett, R., Harden Fritz, J., & Bell, L., 2009,
p. 13).
 This era is highlighted by the continuing trend toward
globalization and interconnectedness; and may be described
through terms such as pluralism, multiculturalism, difference
and diversity.
 Communication ethics literacy does not require one to agree with
the notions held by the Other (or persuade the Other to change
their worldview) so that there is one universal good; but it does
require one to endeavor to understand the position of the Other
for the purpose of intellectual dialogue that will allow us to
harmoniously co-exist in a postmodern era of difference (Arnett,
Harden Fritz, & Bell, 2009, p. 20).
Communication Ethics Literacy
 The objective of this presentation is to analyze the film
Glory (Zwick & Fields, 1989) for specific communicative
acts and exchanges that demonstrate and support the
notion that communication ethics is the key to successfully
navigating in this contemporary period of time through the
practice of understanding and learning that leads to
deliberate dialogue by both a dominant group and
minority group so that dialogic communication may be
achieved.
 The story takes place during the Civil War and depicts the
first organized unit of the U.S. Army to be entirely
comprised of Black men (mostly “runaway” slaves).
Communication Ethics Literacy
 Specific scenes from the movie will be examined to
illustrate communication ethics practices or violations
as defined by the concepts of :
 The inarticulate
 Personal narratives
 Emergent ideas
 I am looking to determine whether the film provides
“equipment for living” so that a viewer may make
choices in future communicative acts and exchanges
that promote and protect the good of embracing
difference that allows for harmonious co-existence
between diverse groups in this postmodern era.
Literature Review
 There is an abundance of scholarly material available that
examines particular concepts that individually contribute
to the defining principles of communication ethics.
 Kenneth Burke posited that literature provides readers
with “equipment for living” (Littlejohn & Foss, 2011, p.
358) by outlining options for behavior depicted within the
narrative that can be exercised to make good decisions
relevant to everyday interactions.
 Burke’s view explains that audiences may be self-aware in
making connections between the meanings depicted in the
book and everyday experiences; or rather, there exists the
possibility of conscious effort by the communicator to find
synergy between the art form and personal situations
(Young, 2000, p. 448).
Literature Review
 The investigation into what viewers think their interpretations
mean and what they see as the implications of any resulting
actions in the world remains a neglected area of study (Young,
2008).
 Stuart Hall (1990) suggests that “the media construct for us a
definition of what race is, what the imagery of race carries, and
what the ‘problem’ of race is understood to be,” by unceasingly
drawing the imaginary distinctions and relations between
subordination and domination, and normalizing racial
superiority and inferiority.
 Spitzberg and Cupach (1984), as well as Ladegaard (2011) and
Sharifian and Jamarani (2009) all agree that a competent
communicator is able to engage and manipulate the social
environment to accomplish goals because of an awareness to
exhibit behavior that is both expected, and accepted in any given
interaction.
Literature Review
 What is considered effective or appropriate is likely to differ from
culture to culture and may not successfully parallel with a
predominant group’s definition of those attributes.
 Thompson (2009), Arnett (2008), Leeman (2011), and Shuman
(2006) all agree that narratives, those stories about the way the
world is or should be that act as a guiding voice for people’s lives,
can act as a stabilizing or destabilizing factor when a true
attempt is made to understand and learn from the narratives of
Others.
 The narratives of Others contains an element of the
communication ethics concept referred to as the Inarticulate, or
that which cannot be described in words so that it is understood
by people navigating outside of a particular culture.
Literature Review
 Sharifian and Jamarani (2011) study a literal example
of the Inarticulate in their research through the
exploration of the Persian cultural pragmatic schema
of sharmandegi (being ashamed).
 Members of the culture use sharmandegi to express
gratitude, offer goods and services, and to apologize.
 English speakers not familiar with the culture do not
understand its intent and communicative exchanges
are misinterpreted and do not make logical sense to
the ear.
Literature Review
 Scholars concur that understanding and learning leads to
dialogic communication and emergent ideas that make a
predominant group aware of inequalities in power
structures related to intercultural communication that:
 Leads to erroneous representation of marginalized groups
 Simultaneously repeats the position of superiority of a
predominant group.
 Linking the ideas of “equipment for living” and
communication ethics theories is Bakhtin’s Theory of
Dialogics.
 It aligns well with Burke’s hypothesis because it confirms
the notion that the audience faces a relentless barrage of
personal decisions that ultimately affect everyday life.
Literature Review
 The obstacles that an individual faces in daily life are constant,
resulting in an endless presence of disorder (cited in Littlejohn &
Foss, 2011, p. 238). Bakhtin suggests the world is in constant
flux and, as such, all interactions undertaken to address the
continuous change will influence the future (p. 239).
 This supports Burke’s hypotheses because it aligns with the
notion that literature poses a set of problems and suggests
resolutions to them.
 Film offers “equipment for living” by offering a variety of options
regarding everyday communicative acts and exchanges in a
manner that demonstrates that the “right” choice may lead to
dialogic communication between a predominant group and a
minority group, as well as between members of the same group,
through the foundational communication ethics principles of
understanding, learning, and intelligent dialogue.
Literature Review
 The literature provides robust studies and insight into power
structures, cultural phenomenon, and individual truths that
serve as the background for the protection and promotion of
particular goods that are either shared or divergent from the
goods of Others.
 The research does not address the idea that a group is comprised
of individuals and, as such, there exists diversity in the goods that
are promoted and protected among its members in the same
fashion that it is present in relation to Others.
 Analyzing Glory is an opportunity to further explore widely
studied communication concepts that focus on effective
communication ethics practices between a predominant group
and a marginalized group while examining how a specific group
with a large number of shared goods can use the same concepts
to understand and learn about the differences among them for
the purpose of intelligent dialogue and emergent ideas.
Intercultural Communication Ethics
 Intercultural communication ethics protects and promotes
the “goods” of a particular culture that ultimately shape
the multiple “truths” of individuals and communities
(Arnett, R., Harden Fritz, J., & Bell, L., 2009, p. 155).
 An understanding of Others leads to learning and
intelligent dialogue that is key to achieving communication
ethics literacy in the postmodern era; and begins with the
acknowledgement that particular standpoints are largely
structured by culture.
 Intercultural communication ethics begins before any
communicative exchange because it predetermines those
notions that will be considered shared “goods” and those
that will be deemed as differences .
Methodology
 Narrative communication ethics assumes that communication ethics begins
with persons’ lives guided by stories about the way the world is or should be,
thereby protecting and promoting the good residing within a particular
narrative.
 The goods manifested in a narrative structure also present the opportunity
for one to evaluate one’s life as well as the lives of Others because they often
display ideas that many cultures believe are “right” and “good”.
 Aligning with the notion that our current historical moment acknowledges
and embraces difference rather than one universal good, multiple and
competing narratives exist that serve to frame a particular good and holds
implications for action and evaluation of that action.
 Narrative communication ethics offers the possibility of seeking temporal
agreement on minimalist values protected and promoted by more than one
story that will permit us to function together in the midst of our diversity
(Arnett et al., p. 45, 53-54).
Methodology
 The inarticulate is defined as goods that cannot be defined or pinpointed
with precision, but shape and nurture a culture’s communicative life and
practices (Arnett, R., Harden Fritz, J., & Bell, L., 2009, p. 156).
 We experience the inarticulate when we cannot find words to describe our
experiences to others and often governs the movement from book
knowledge to genuine participation (Arnett, et. al., 2009, p. 157 & 166).
 The inarticulate provides the background for what is “good” and “right” and
provides a guiding voice that speaks loudly without the clarity of voice
(Arnett, et. al., 2009, p. 167).
 Dialogic communication ethics “acknowledges communication ethics as
attentive to the emergent, is not owned by either party in the conversation,
and responsive to multiple goods that give rise to and emerge in ongoing
conversations, protecting and promoting the good of learning rather than
that of the particular”(45).
Data
 Shaw vs. the Quartermaster
 Tear It Up
 Rawlins Confronts Trip
 Shaw & Trip Fall Together
Analysis
 Shaw and the quartermaster share the privilege of belonging to a
predominant group but their divergent notions of what should be
protected and promoted as good are driven by their individual
narratives.
 Shaw’s familial background, coupled with the realization that he
flogged Trip as a slave master would do (and in error, at that), has
guided his decision to confront the quartermaster to demand basic
necessities for his troops.
 Conversely, the quartermaster subscribes to the popular universal
good of the time that Black men are inferior, and protects and
promotes that by withholding items that any man, White or Black,
would need to efficiently operate in a developed society. The
 The divergent goods between Shaw and the quartermaster further
support the notion that difference exists between members of the
same group. Not only are the men part of the same predominant
group, they wear the same uniform and are purportedly fighting for
the same political and social cause.
Analysis
 Shaw and the quartermaster share the privilege of belonging to a
predominant group but their divergent notions of what should be
protected and promoted as good are driven by their individual
narratives.
 Shaw understands the discriminatory nature of not paying Black
soldiers the same wage as White soldiers, but is resigned to the
idea that he will have to voice his complaints through the proper
channels at a later date.
 His idea of what is “right” and “good” is driven by the military’s
strong enforcement that members of its group must follow
orders as they are given. However, Trip does not share Shaw’s
good that orders should be followed. His personal narrative
causes him to draw a parallel between the reduced pay and
slavery, and drives him to immediately voice his outrage in the
same rebellious manner he bucked the institution of slavery.
Analysis
 Trip explains the “ought” of the situation; the outright disregard
for their lives by offering them less pay, instigating Shaw and the
other soldiers to the emergent idea that protest by a
predominant group and a marginalized group can be immediate
and unifying. In this sense, all the soldiers changed their
personal narratives and were driven to action by the emergent
goods of equality and fairness.
 In the same way, Trip demonstrates the concept of the emergent
when he picks up the flag and continues forward after the initial
color bearer is killed.
 He illustrates the idea that understanding, learning, and engaging
in respectful, intelligent dialogue can lead to a change in thought
as to the goods that should be protected and promoted.
Analysis
 Trip explains the “ought” of the situation; the outright disregard
for their lives by offering them less pay, instigating Shaw and the
other soldiers to the emergent idea that protest by a
predominant group and a marginalized group can be immediate
and unifying. In this sense, all the soldiers changed their
personal narratives and were driven to action by the emergent
goods of equality and fairness.
 Trip’s narrative change demonstrates the idea of communication
ethics because he accepts the difference of Others and
acknowledges that they have shared goods after all. This is
poignantly depicted by the unity exhibited by the predominant
group and the marginalized group as they work together in the
effort to achieve the common goal of defeating the Confederate
soldiers.
Analysis
 The concept of the inarticulate is illustrated when Rawlins
reprimands Trip for his obtuse behavior toward members of his unit,
and Sharts in particular. There is no specific scene where
explanatory dialogue is presented to detail the revulsion of slavery.
 The scars revealed on Trip’s back when he is rendered shirtless in
preparation for his flogging, coupled with his brief introduction in
the tent, make clear that Trip is an angry man with physical and
emotional scars that propel him to lash out at those within his
group.
 Sharts becomes the target of his ire because Trip perceives him as
not having experienced the sting of the institution of slavery as
deeply as the other Black men in the regiment.
 Rawlins and his Black comrades understand whatever “it” is that
causes Trip to behave inappropriately and expertly analyzes Trip’s
narrative without benefit of being explicitly told his personal story
because of the inarticulate factors of the culture that contribute to
the narratives that drive one to act.
Analysis
 Glory (Zwick & Fields, 1989) provides specific examples of the shift from
previous historical moments that protected and promoted the notion that
members of society should hold one idea of what is right and good to the
contemporary era’s acceptance of differences amongst people.
 The story takes place during a historical moment that subscribed to the
universal thought that White people are superior to Blacks and illustrates
the idea that communication ethics has been practiced across cultures
before it became widely acceptable to embrace diversity.
 Viewers can immediately understand that the time period in which the story
is depicted will outline inequalities in power structures based upon race but
expect to learn how the White officers and Black soldiers put their
differences aside in order to perform as one unit for the accomplishment of
the same goal.
 The story lies in how diverse soldiers engage in communicative acts and
exchanges that support their shared notion of what is right and good while
simultaneously accepting differences that are driven by personal narratives
and the inarticulate of their respective cultures.
Analysis
 Glory (Zwick & Fields, 1989) provides specific examples of the
shift from previous historical moments that protected and
promoted the notion that members of society should hold one
idea of what is right and good to the contemporary era’s
acceptance of differences amongst people.
 An audience member subscribing to Bahktin’s Theory of
Dialogics which posits that life is chaotic and will always present
problems for individual resolution is encouraged by the ability of
the characters to practice communication ethics in a time that
opposed such beliefs and can use the same tools of
understanding, learning, and intelligent dialogue presented in
the movie to make future communicative decisions that allow
one to more efficiently navigate in a historical moment that
seems to more fully embrace the acceptance of diversity.
Analysis
 There indeed exists diversity between a predominant group and
a marginalized group, but because individuals have personal
narratives that guide their lives and provide individual notions of
what should be promoted as right and good, diversity is also
found within a particular group.
 The practice of understanding, learning, and intelligent dialogue
is not simply relegated to those that hold multiple differences
from Others, but also applies to those that share numerous goods
as a result of being part of the same culture.
 Similarly, the inarticulate of a specific culture contributes to
individual narratives but acts as the “background” story for each
member of the group so that even those within it that do not
necessarily subscribe to the protection and promotion of that
person’s goods can still understand why that individual believes
their worldview is right.
Analysis
 There indeed exists diversity between a predominant group and
a marginalized group, but because individuals have personal
narratives that guide their lives and provide individual notions of
what should be promoted as right and good, diversity is also
found within a particular group.
 This seems to only be the case for marginalized groups.
Members of a predominant group are often unaware of the
benefit of their privilege and question divergence that is present
within it because it is viewed as the exception to the norm of that
culture rather than as an expression of the inarticulate of the
group.
 Dialogic communication can only occur if communication ethics
is practiced by all parties participating in a communicative act
and/or exchange.
Analysis
 There indeed exists diversity between a predominant group and
a marginalized group, but because individuals have personal
narratives that guide their lives and provide individual notions of
what should be promoted as right and good, diversity is also
found within a particular group.
 Even a minimal effort to understand Others can lead to learning
and intelligent dialogue that doesn’t necessarily result in
agreement between the parties, but at least contributes to a fresh
perspective not previously considered that can eventually lead to
an appreciation of the inarticulate aspects of a culture that may
drive genuine participation and an increase of shared goods
between and within diverse groups.
Conclusion
Glory (Zwick, & Fields, 1989) provides
“equipment for living” to those that interpret
contexts within the film as parallel to
communicative situations within their own life,
thereby offering options for making right
choices that will allow for dialogic
communication for the purpose of accepting
and embracing the differences of Others
without necessarily agreeing with their notion
of what is right and good.
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