Background
The son of John Vester and Dorothy Eloise (Hicks) McGee, he spent his early years in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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Michael McGee
Edit Profilecritic writer rhetorical theorist
Education
In 1967 he graduated with a Master of Arts In 1974 he received his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Iowa, writing his dissertation "Edmund Burke"s Beautiful Life: An Exploration of the Relationship between Rhetoric and Social Theory" under Donald C. Bryant.
Career
In his last years he was very active in virtual rhetorical communities and on-line debates. McGee founded a website, (f)ragments, for rhetorical research and created a virtual learning community.
Achievements
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McGee had many major contributions in the realm of rhetoric and in cultural studies. He published three major works: Rhetoric in Postmodern America, The Ideograph: A Link between Rhetoric and Ideology, and Text, Context, and the Fragmentation of Contemporary Culture. The most important of these is considered to be his second major work, The Ideograph. McGee was the first rhetorical theorist to propose this concept on an ideograph, which he described as, “an ordinary-language term found in political discourse. lieutenant is a high order abstraction representing commitment to a particular but equivocal and ill-defined normative goal." Also he was a critic of what he saw going on in the world around him. The most well-known of these critiques was his critique of Spike Lee and his association with Nike ads. McGee said that these ads were too racially stereotypical and made a case for Lee to cease these ads but Lee continued with them nonetheless.
Politics
He received some criticism for his teaching because of his staunch liberalism which had an effect on his teaching style but despite this, he was still a very sought after professor teaching at major universities in the United States such as the University of Alabama, the University of Memphis, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Membership
McGee was one of the founders of the American Communication Association and a member of the National Communication Association.
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Born
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Died
October 27, 2002 (aged 59) -
Nationality
United States