Date of Award:

5-2024

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Arts (MA)

Department:

Communication Studies and Philosophy

Committee Chair(s)

Jennifer Peeples

Committee

Jennifer Peeples

Committee

Mollie Murphy

Committee

Jason Gilmore

Abstract

On January 6th, 2021, former president Donald Trump stated "...if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore". Following his speech thousands of Trump supporters marched to the United States capitol under the belief that they were stopping nationwide voter fraud. In the months following, the U.S. congress created The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol with the goal to investigate those responsible for the insurrection that took place at the U.S. capitol. This paper examines the committee's communication as they attempted to hold Trump responsible for these events. By comparing the past political communication tools to the current situation, I argue that the committee's inability to adapt to these discourse changes was detrimental to their goal to hold Trump accountable.

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ae1d16ee37ccaf0eec5f2ac3467af465

Included in

Communication Commons

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