Reframing the Discourse: Organizational Identity and Image in a Houston Street Paper

Authors

  • Chris Webb University of Houston/Alvin Community College

Keywords:

Community, Literacy, Identity, Organization, Rhetoric

Abstract

This service learning project involves issues of organizational image, identity, and restructuring discursive systems for Real Advocacy, a street newspaper, dedicated to providing literacy and advocacy to the Houston area homeless population. My time with the organization examines howits discursive system interacts with the region’s complex contextual factors. Such factors include the outreach model stemming from institutions such as faith-based groups, poor urban planning, and grant-writing language. Ultimately, the organization finds that by reframing the existing pejorative discourse associated with homeless activism, it is more successful in securing a brandname identity for the homeless vendors it sponsors.

Author Biography

Chris Webb, University of Houston/Alvin Community College

Chris Webb is an English instructor for a dual-credit writing program at a private school in Alvin, TX. He also teaches first-year writing and literature at Alvin Community College.

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Published

2011-11-27