Award Date

1-1-2002

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication Studies

First Committee Member

Dolores Tanno

Number of Pages

105

Abstract

This thesis examines and compares the religious discourse used by President George W. Bush in his September 20, 2001, address to a join session of Congress and by Osama bin Laden in his taped statement that aired on Al Jazeera television on October 7, 2001. As leaders of societies who both believe they are God's chosen people with a mission, both men relied on the religions of their respective nations to create a reality whereby one was good and the other evil. To illustrate how Bush and bin Laden achieve this, I apply the social construction of reality theory as it was originally presented by Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann in the 1960s. I conclude that religious discourse allowed Bush and bin Laden to, in the words of Berger and Luckmann, "nihilate" each other rhetorically and to create and maintain their own constructions of reality---their own "symbolic universes."

Keywords

Construct; Discourse; George Bush; Osama Bin Laden; President; Reality; Religious

Controlled Subject

Rhetoric; Religion; Political science

File Format

pdf

File Size

6400 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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