Connections in Conversation: Dialogue Rooted in Equity
Date
2025-07-08
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Abstract
This thesis analyzes filmed dialogues that center interracial and intergroup understanding through small group communication. This research seeks to deepen understandings of structures and power dynamics in communication networks at the intersection of social network analysis, communication analysis, and restorative justice principles. Examining seven filmed dialogues, including five intergroup identity-based dialogues and two restorative justice circles, through computational techniques to analyze the transcripts using social network analysis, centrality measures, and sentiment analysis, this research illuminates the relationship between communication, dialogic connection, and social power structures. This research finds that these filmed identity-based intergroup dialogues center the narratives and emotional arcs of the white participants, and, more often than not, use the participants of color as educators instead of equally included participants. Further, this research finds that white participants often expressed higher sentiment scores than participants of color, and that their sentiment scores followed how positively or negatively they felt about their place in a racialized society. By centering the emotional and educational stories and arcs of understanding of the white participants, these filmed intergroup identity-based dialogues reinforce the very racial injustices that they claim to work toward dismantling.
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Intergroup dialogue, intercultural communication, racial justice, communication analysis, social network analysis, sentiment analysis