Phillip K. Tompkins - Communication Crisis at Kent State: A Case Study

Communication Crisis at Kent State: A Case Study — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Communication Crisis at Kent State: A Case Study" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234567...31

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: COMMUNICATION STUDIES

Volume 15

COMMUNICATION CRISIS AT KENT STATE

Communication Crisis at Kent State

A Case Study

Phillip K. Tompkins and Elaine Vanden Bout Anderson

First published in 1971 by Gordon and Breach, Science Publishers, Inc.

This edition first published in 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1971 Gordon and Breach, Science Publishers, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-138-93903-5 (Set)
ISBN: 978-1-315-67052-2 (Set) (ebk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-94139-7 (Volume 15) (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-67041-6 (Volume 15) (ebk)

Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

On Reissuing Communication Crisis at Kent State
Forty-five Years Later

Phillip K. Tompkins
Professor Emeritus
Communication and Comparative Literature
University of Colorado at Boulder

Reading the book 45 years later brings back bitter memories, of course, about four dead in Ohio and nine wounded. As the senior author of the book I want to thank my co-author, Elaine V.B. Anderson for her help in organizing interviews and coding the interview data. She, by the way, has been Elaine V. B. Tompkins since 1971.

I want to make several points about the book. The reader must either remember or come to realize that we had to finish the spring quarter of 1970 by teaching via the U.S. Postal Service. Students were not allowed back on campus after the shootings. We assigned readings, administered exams via mail. Those of us serving on the university Commission to investigate the shootings worked throughout the summer of 1970. Our interviews with students for the study were conducted in many cases by telephone. There was a rush for those of us on the Task Force on Communication to make recommendations so the group could vote on them. The publisher was in such a rush to publish the book that the manuscript we submitted was not edited. Every word in the book was photographed exactly as it came out of the typewriter of Mrs. Terry Byers.

Another point I want to make is that the recommendations we made were accepted and approved by two bodies created to investigate the events of May 4: a Task Force on Communication and a Commission to Implement a Commitment to Non-Violence. I have since heard two criticisms of the book. The first is that it cries out for an editors blue pencil. I do not disagree. The second is that the criticism of the Kent State University administration, including President White, was harsh. I do not disagree. The tone of the book was determined by the attitude of the people we interviewed.

We heard the harshness and bitter criticism of the administration from students, faculty and members of the administration. Indeed, perhaps the harshest criticisms were heard in interviews I conducted with those administrators. They also made it clear that the problems experienced during the crisis grew out of weaknesses apparent in the routine functioning of the organization.

I hasten to explain the photographs in the book. They were taken by a student in my class in communication theory, John P. Filo. John asked if he could give me a term paper without any words. I replied that I had never received one before, but he replied that he had been on campus the day of the shootings with his camera. He said he could tell a story about miscommunication by the order of the photographs. I gave him approval, he gave me the paper, and I gave it an A ++. He also sent the paper to his hometown newspaper in Pennsylvania, which in turn nominated the folio for the Pulitzer Prize in Photography for 1970, which he won. He also gave us permission to publish them in our book. When he heard that Elaine and I were getting married in Grand Rapids, Michigan on June 12, 1971, he made the trip up to photograph us as a wedding gift.

May 4, 1970

COMMUNICATION CRISIS AT KENT STATE

A CASE STUDY

PHILLIP K. TOMPKINS

ELAINE VANDEN BOUT ANDERSON

KENT STATE UNIVERSITY

GORDON AND BREACH, Science Publishers

New York London Paris

Copyright 1971 by GORDON AND BREACH,
Science Publishers, Inc.
440 Park Avenue South,
New York, N.Y. 10016

Editorial office for the United Kingdom
GORDON AND BREACH,
Science Publishers Ltd.
12 Bloomsbury Way
London W.C.1

Editorial office for France
GORDON & BREACH
7-9 rue Emile Dubois
Paris 14e

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 77-161215

ISBN 0 677 03970 0 (cloth); 0 677 03975 1 (paper).

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Printed in the United States of America.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

To our colleagues and students who helped with the interviews:

• Ross Andrusko
• Mark Cramer
• Geneva Damron
• Rex Damron
• Gayle Epstein
• Ray Falcione
• Linda Ferraro
• Jackie Gant
• Betty Gibb
• Robin Grimmett
• Dominic Infante
• Linda Kerns
• Judie LaForme
• Bruce Landis
• Lauren Maser
• Linda Moore
• Marty Osborne
• Mary Lee Rybar
• Carol Schlick
• Bob Schlick
• Charles Waugh
• Charles Wrenn

To President White for financial assistance; to Bill Osborne for advice on sampling; to Ray Bye for innumerable acts of cooperation; to Judie LaForme for her singular reliability; to John P. Filo for his photographs; and most of all to Mrs. Terry Byers for her efficiency and dedication in arranging interviews, in bookkeeping and in typing this book.

On May 4, 1970, shots fired by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State University were heard round the world. To some they signaled a new war, a second front for the Nixon administration. Young people were outraged by the killings; campus after campus closed across the country in the days that followed. The Russian poet, Yevtushenko, wrote a poem in memory of one of the slain students. Townspeople, on the other hand, were outraged by the students. The old scar known as the Town-Gown split tore apart--exposing a deep and ugly cleavage. "They should have shot forty," some were reported to say. Or four hundred. Or even four thousand. Kent State University will never again be the obscure university of Northeastern Ohio. It will be confused less often with Penn State in the future. It has lent its name to symbols and slogans.

Next page

1234567...31

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Communication Crisis at Kent State: A Case Study»

Look at similar books to Communication Crisis at Kent State: A Case Study. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Scott L. Bills

Kent State/May 4: Echoes Through a Decade

Michael Burgan

Death at Kent State: How a Photograph Brought the Vietnam War Home to America

Thomas R. Hensley

Kent State and May 4th: A Social Science Perspective

Carole A. Barbato

This We Know: A Chronology of the Shootings at Kent State, May 1970

Deborah Wiles

Kent State

Wang Bin

Communication and Community in the New Media Age

Craig S. Simpson

Above the Shots: An Oral History of the Kent State Shootings

Sven Windahl

Using Communication Theory: An Introduction to Planned Communication

Howard Ruffner

Moments of Truth: A Photographer’s Experience of Kent State 1970

Kent State University

67 shots: Kent State and the end of American innocence

Kent State University.

The Kent State Coverup

Kathryn Carter

Interpretive Approaches to Interpersonal Communication

Discussion, reviews of the book Communication Crisis at Kent State: A Case Study and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.