Making sense of 'God Hates Fags' and 'Thank God for 9/11': A thematic analysis of milbloggers' responses to Reverend Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church

Daniel Brouwer; Aaron Hess

doi:10.1080/10570310701215388

Making sense of 'God Hates Fags' and 'Thank God for 9/11': A thematic analysis of milbloggers' responses to Reverend Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church

Daniel Brouwer, Aaron Hess

Human Communication, Hugh Downs School of

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

16 Scopus citations

Abstract

Since June 2005, the Reverend Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) have conducted protests at funerals of U.S. military personnel killed in the War on Terror. Investigating a webring of military blogs, we conduct an analysis of vernacular responses to the WBC's protests. Articulation theory informs our analysis as we characterize the ideological work performed in vernacular responses to the protests. Bloggers' responses demonstrate that the WBC exposes ideological tensions involving freedom of speech and religious expression, enactments of citizenship, injustice in the justice system, and disciplined military bodies out of control.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	69-90
Number of pages	22
Journal	Western Journal of Communication
Volume	71
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/10570310701215388
State	Published - Jan 2007

Keywords

Articulation
Blogs
Fred Phelps
Freedom of Speech
Milblogs
Military
Nation
Religion
Sexuality
Vernacular

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Language and Linguistics
Communication

Access to Document

10.1080/10570310701215388

Cite this

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abstract = "Since June 2005, the Reverend Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) have conducted protests at funerals of U.S. military personnel killed in the War on Terror. Investigating a webring of military blogs, we conduct an analysis of vernacular responses to the WBC's protests. Articulation theory informs our analysis as we characterize the ideological work performed in vernacular responses to the protests. Bloggers' responses demonstrate that the WBC exposes ideological tensions involving freedom of speech and religious expression, enactments of citizenship, injustice in the justice system, and disciplined military bodies out of control.",

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AB - Since June 2005, the Reverend Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) have conducted protests at funerals of U.S. military personnel killed in the War on Terror. Investigating a webring of military blogs, we conduct an analysis of vernacular responses to the WBC's protests. Articulation theory informs our analysis as we characterize the ideological work performed in vernacular responses to the protests. Bloggers' responses demonstrate that the WBC exposes ideological tensions involving freedom of speech and religious expression, enactments of citizenship, injustice in the justice system, and disciplined military bodies out of control.

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Making sense of 'God Hates Fags' and 'Thank God for 9/11': A thematic analysis of milbloggers' responses to Reverend Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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