Jim A. Kuypers

Jim A. Kuypers, Professor Virginia Tech

_{School of Communication

115 Shanks Hall

181 Turner Street NW

Blacksburg, VA 24061

540-231-3154 | kuypers@vt.edu}

Dr. Jim A. Kuypers is a professor in Virginia Tech’s School of Communication. His research efforts are devoted primarily to exploring and understanding how professional politicians and citizens publicly address pressing social and cultural issues as these issues are relayed through the mediating lenses of the press.

Kuypers is a pioneer in the area of rhetorical framing analysis. This work has led to important discoveries concerning how original messages of political actors—professionals and citizens alike—are re-framed by the press before being transmitted to the general public. In particular, Kuypers’s methodology allows researchers to investigate how the news media act to shape public awareness, understanding, and evaluations of issues and events in a particular direction.

The framing approach Kuypers has advanced has led to important discoveries that shed light on how framing research from a social scientific point of view and framing research from a rhetorical point of view often yield dramatically different results. For instance, in his work on the War on Terror, Kuypers found that, contrary to much social scientific work on the subject, the press actively countered efforts of the administrative branch of the U.S. Government to combat Islamic Terrorism.

In addition to his work on framing, Kuypers is actively involved in exploring how public advocacy works in the digital age. Such work has resulted in offering courses such as Public Advocacy, Digital Advocacy Campaigns, and Professional Communication. Work in this area has applications across a wide variety of areas, including business relations, marketing, and public relations.

Kuypers joined the faculty of Virginia Tech in 2005 after having first served as a Distinguished Senior Lecturer and Director of the Office of Speech at Dartmouth College.

Principal Areas of Research Focus

Political Communication
Strategic Communication
Rhetorical Criticism
Media Bias
Rhetorical Framing Analysis

Education

PhD, Louisiana State University
Master of Online Teaching Certificate, Virginia Tech
MA, Florida State University
BS, Florida State University

Professional Roles

Professor, Department of Communication, Virginia Tech
Rhetoric Society of Europe
Southern States Communication Association

Awards and Honors

Best of the Journals in Rhetoric and Composition 2017, for Bakke, Peter and Jim A. Kuypers, “The Syrian Civil War, International Outreach, and a Clash of Worldviews,” The Kenneth Burke Journal11.2 (2016).
Everett Lee Hunt Award for Outstanding Scholarship, for Purpose, Practice, and Pedagogy in Rhetorical Criticism. Presented by the Eastern Communication Association, 2015.
Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2014, for Partisan Journalism: A History of Media Bias in the United States.
Vice-President Spotlight Scholar, Southern States Communication Association Convention, New Orleans, 2014.
Distinguished Senior Lecturer, Dartmouth College, 17 October 2002.
Outstanding Contribution to Communication Scholarship Award, American Communication Association, 1999.
Janice Hocker Rushing Early Career Research Award, Southern States Communication Association, 1999.

Publications

Books

Kuypers, Jim A. ed. Public Communication in the Time of COVID-19: Perspectives from the Communication Discipline on the Pandemic (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2022).
Kuypers, Jim A. ed. Personal and Administrative Perspectives from the Communication Discipline during COVID-19 (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2022).
Kuypers, Jim A., ed. Rhetorical Criticism: Perspectives in Action, 3^rd ed. (Lanham, MD: Roman & Littlefield, 2021).
Kuypers, Jim A., President Trump and the News Media: Moral Foundations, Framing, and the Nature of Press Bias in America (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2020).
Valenzano, Joseph, Jim A. Kuypers, and Stephen Braden, The Speaker 4th ed. (Fountainhead Press, 2019).
Kuypers, Jim A., ed. The 2016 American Presidential Campaign and the News Media: Implications for the American Republic and Democracy (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018).
Kuypers, Jim A., ed. Rhetorical Criticism: Perspectives in Action, 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.
Kuypers, Jim A. ed. Purpose, Practice, and Pedagogy in Rhetorical Criticism, Reprint ed. Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2014. Winner of the Everett Lee Hunt Award for Outstanding Scholarship.
Kuypers, Jim A. Partisan Journalism: A History of Media Bias in the United States. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. Choice Outstanding Academic Title.
Aamidor, Abe, Jim A. Kuypers, and Susan Wiesinger, Media Smackdown: Deconstructing the News and the Future of Journalism. New York, Peter Lang Publishing, 2013.
D’Angelo, Paul and Jim A. Kuypers, eds. Doing News Framing Analysis: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives(New York; Routeledge, 2010).
Kuypers, Jim A., ed. Rhetorical Criticism: Perspectives in Action (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2009).
Denton, Robert E. and Jim A. Kuypers, Politics and Communication in America: Campaigns, Media, and Governing in the 21st Century, (Carbondale, IL: Waveland Press, 2008).
Kuypers, Jim A., Bush’s War: Media Bias and Justifications for War in a Terrorist Age (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006).

Articles and Book Chapters

Kuypers, Jim A. “The Destruction of Democracy: American Mainstream News Reportorial Practices Today,” Res Rhetorica 8.3 (2021): 140-151. https://resrhetorica.com/index.php/RR/article/view/600.
Kuypers, Jim A. “ ‘Scientific Rhetoric’: Kenneth Burke’s The War of Words and the Detection of the Conscious and Unconscious Biases of the Mainstream News Media,” The Kenneth Burke Journal 15.1 (2021), http://kbjournal.org/kuypers-scientific-rhetoric
Miles, Rachel, Virginia Pannabecker, and Jim A. Kuypers, “Faculty Perceptions of Research Assessment at Virginia Tech,” Journal of Altmetrics 3.1 (2020): 1-20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29024/joa.24
Kuypers, Jim A. and Caitlin McDaniel, “The Inaugural Address of Donald J. Trump: Terministic Screens and the Reemergence Of ‘Make America Great Again,’” The Kenneth Burke Journal 14.1 (2019). https://kbjournal.org/kuypers-mcdaniel-inaugural-address
Kuypers, Jim A. “Marie Hockmuth Nichols and the Oblique Road to Ithaka,” in Marie Hochmuth Nichols, ed. Amanda McKendree (The Pennsylvania Scholar’s Series, Pennsylvania Communication Association, 2019), 18-32.
Kuypers, Jim A. “News Media Framing of the Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton 2016 Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speeches: Terministic Screens and the Discovery of the Worldview and Bias of the Press,” in Kuypers, Jim A., Ed. The 2016 American Presidential Campaign and the News Media: Implications for the American Republic and Democracy (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2018): 101-132.
Kuypers, Jim A. “The Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speeches of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton: Terministic Screens and Antagonistic Worldviews,” Political Campaign Communication: Theory, Method and Practice. Robert E. Denton, Jr., ed. (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017): 141-168.
Kuypers, Jim A. “The January 1832 Debate on Slavery in the Virginia State Legislature: Conflicting Themes and Terministic Screens.” The Kenneth Burke Journal 12.2 (2017).
Bakke, Peter and Jim A. Kuypers, “The Syrian Civil War, International Outreach, and a Clash of Worldviews,” The Kenneth Burke Journal 11.2 (2016).
Fay, Isabel, and Jim A. Kuypers, “Transcending Mysticism and Building Identification Through Empowerment of the Rhetorical Agent: John F. Kennedy‘s Berlin Speeches on June 26th, 1963,” Southern Communication Journal 77.3 (2012): 198-215.
Gellert, Ashley, and Jim A. Kuypers, “The Story of King/Drew Hospital: Guilt and Deferred Purification,” The Kenneth Burke Journal 8.1 (2012).
Goldman, Adria, and Jim A. Kuypers, “A Framing Analysis of Press Coverage of the Jena Six.” Relevant Rhetoric 1.1 (2010).