Research — Blog — Jenn Dumoulin

Inside and Outside of the House: The Relationship Between Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech and Parliamentary Privilege

Further to my previous blog post about digging through some of my old term papers from law school and my master’s degree, I’ve not only revised and updated one of my papers (and submitted it to a journal!) but I’ve also published the original draft on my website. The original version of the paper is titled “Inside and Outside of the House: The Relationship Between Freedom of Expression, Freedom of Speech and Parliamentary Privilege” - and you can find a sneak peek here!

INTRODUCTION:

Freedom of expression is a necessary condition for democracy. It ensures that issues of common concern are freely and openly debated and allows for the criticism of government actions. In this sense, its purpose is to “[promote] the free flow of ideas essential to political democracy and the functioning of democratic institutions”. Despite this important function, freedom of expression is not absolute. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms [hereafter the Charter] permits limits on freedom of expression if they are reasonable and justifiable in a free and democratic society.

While it is possible to debate whether any limits to such a fundamental freedom are justifiable, and indeed the courts have done so many times, it is nevertheless commonly accepted that this is the case. Interestingly, freedom of expression is limited not only within society as a whole, but also within its governing democratic institutions. At first glance, such limitations appear counterintuitive. How can elected representatives properly deliberate and create laws if they do not have the ability to speak freely while doing so?

Propaganda and the American Military Establishment: How Television Influences Attitudes, Behaviours and Perceptions

I’ve been digging through my own archives to find papers that I wrote during law school, my master’s degree and my undergraduate studies. It’s been a useful exercise that has allowed me to get back in touch with some of my earlier research interests - yes, there is a trend - as well as to reflect on the evolution of my writing.

It is therefore with great pleasure that I finally publish this paper from my master’s degree, submitted in January 2010, entitled Propaganda and the American Military Establishment: How Television Influences Attitudes, Behaviours and Perceptions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine propaganda, in particular wartime propaganda, in a post-9/11 context in order to understand the complex role that television plays as a tool of social control and mass persuasion. In doing so, this paper begins with an in-depth study of propaganda which explores the target audience and scope of propagandistic campaigns, the functions and objectives of propaganda, and, finally, the techniques and features employed in such campaigns. In order to distinguish between propaganda and other forms of promotional discourse, a discussion on the ethics of propaganda is conducted.

Finally, a case study focusing on the television series 24 is conducted to illustrate how patriotic and idealistic images can be used to mobilize support for the American military establishment and its strategic operations, including the acceptance of morally questionable conduct. This case study demonstrates the influential role that television can play in the context of wartime operations by encouraging support for the military and law enforcement agencies.

The Individual, the Office, and a Bible: A Critical Examination of the President’s and the Presidential “Body”

During the spring semester, I took a graduate seminar in the School of Nursing called “Histoire socioculturelle du corps” (or the Sociocultural History of the Body). As the final assignment for this course, I wrote a paper on “the presidential body” following President Trump’s Bible Photo-op in early June. The paper sits at the intersection of public relations and political communication. Public relations is a little outside of my wheelhouse, but I enjoyed reading for and writing the paper.

This critical essay (which you can read on my blog) examines how the president's body (as an individual) and the presidential body (as an institution) have been constructed through the use of photography, publicity, and force. To do this, this paper first examines how the physical body of the president has been positioned and represented in photo opportunities (hereinafter referred to as photo-ops) and public relations events to emphasize or minimize certain characteristics. Then, the presidential body (as an institution) is examined to shed light into how it participates in the positioning of the president’s body and how it has been perceived as a result of specific photo-ops and publicity moments.

End of Summer Update: Because It's Been a Minute

WOW! Is it almost the middle of September already? I can’t believe how quickly the summer went by. Before diving into some substantial content - I’ve been quiet for a while because I’ve been working on some big projects - I thought I’d take the time to give a bit of an update on what’s new and exciting.

Read on to hear about what’s been happening on the academic, professional and personal front, and to see what I have planned for the coming academic year!

How to Write a Dissertation: Getting and Staying Organized

About a month ago, I blogged about how I was finally getting started on writing my dissertation and some of the challenges that I had overcome to get to that point - including writing my chapter outlines (or creating my roadmap) and establishing my timelines (or figuring out how long it would take me to hit each landmark).

While writing a dissertation or thesis comes with many challenges - everything from picking a topic to finding a supervisor, to doing a Boolean search or triple-checking your spelling, grammar or citations - early on in research and writing process, it’s important to get and stay organized. Having an organization system that you’re comfortable with is key. This applies to both researching and writing.

Everyone’s system will be a bit different, based on how we think, what tools we like to use, whether we like to read online or in print, and even how we envision the final presentation of our research. This post explores some of the tools that I’ve started using for this ginormous project

Ph.D, ResearchJennifer DumoulinMay 7, 2020Research Process, Writing, Organization, Dissertation

How to Write a Dissertation: Some Not-So-Preliminary Thoughts

As a Ph.D Candidate in the second semester of my fourth year of study with my admission scholarship quickly running out and my desire to finish my degree increasing exponentially, I’ve been working on developing a plan to write my dissertation. For the past 4-5 months, I’ve flip-flopped back and forth over which chapter to start with; I’ve also started reading for all of them and stopped, turning back to my data instead for inspiration. These months aren’t lost time by any means - among other things, I’ve come up with chapter titles, have a paper in progress because of a conference presentation that I did with my data set, and have figured out how I want to present my dissertation - but I recognize that continuing on without a solid plan won’t help me to make the progress that I want to make.

So… where to start?

Personal, Research, Ph.DJennifer DumoulinApril 8, 2020Research Process, research, Ph.D