Date of Award
2013
Publisher
North Dakota State University
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Awarded
Master of Arts (MA)
Program
Communication
Department
Communication
College
Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences
Faculty Advisor
O'Connor, Amy
Description
As sorority membership numbers keep rising, national sororities need to be cognizant of the ways in which they may induce their members to remain active and involved within the organization. Identification inducement messages are one way in which sorority organizations can continually reinforce organizational identification within their membership. This thesis sought to discover the strategies and tactics found in national sorority magazines and expand Cheney's (1983b) identification inducement typology. A content analysis of 25 articles found new ways in which the strategies and tactics were used. All four strategies - common ground, identification through antithesis, assumed "we," and identifying symbols - were found in the data and these strategies were used in new ways. Three new tactics - personal stories outside of the organization, positioning within the organization (both within the common ground strategy) and nicknames (within identifying symbols) - were found within the sampled articles.
Recommended Citation
Rick, Jessica Marie, "Once a Member, Always a Member: Identification Inducement Messages in National Sorority Magazines" (2013). Communication. 66.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/communication/66
Rights
NDSU Policy 190.6.2
Rights Link
https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf
Handle Identifier
https://hdl.handle.net/10365/26992