Scholar Artist Teacher

My research focuses on Media and Popular Culture. I am especially interested in how race, gender, and sexuality work within fan communities. I use mixed methods including ethnography, archival work, and filmmaking to allow folks a space to tell their stories. 

Pulos, R. (Accepted). 

Communication and Democracy.

In 2020, conservative media personalities put forth the notion that Critical Race Theory (CRT) was making its way into k-12 classrooms to indoctrinate American kids and shame white kids for their racist ancestors. The anti-CRT propaganda campaign was not only impressive but was also very effective. Suddenly, anyone who watched conservative media outlets knew what Critical Race Theory was – except that they really did not. A mountain of public discourse came out of this campaign including the creation and dissemination of information to help citizens fight CRT at local school boards. This paper looks closely at an anti-CRT toolkit created with the aim of perpetuating and materializing a post-race society. Published by Russell Vought and his conservative think tank Citizens for Renewing America, the toolkit uses the archetypal metaphor of war to motivate the conservative public to take action in local politics while further aggravating

an already polarized public.

Accepted for presentation at the National Communication Association's 111th Convention in November 2025.

 Once Upon a Time…in Community Theatre is an episodic documentary about The Theatre Company, a community theatre in Texas. The folks that come to TTC do it for their love of theatre and to build community. Anyone who walks through the doors of the theatre will be greeted with a deep feeling of belonging. “Community with Heart” is an uplifting episode that shows the power of community theater.

Full documentary coming in 2027! 

Pulos, R. (2024). The ABCs of Trying to Belong [Video]. Latin@ Literatures, 

https://lob.latinoliteratures.org/video-poems/

From the artist: 

Rick Pulos is many things and nothing at all. I fit here but don’t fit there. Belonging has been a lifelong negotiation of where I am and where I want to be. “The ABCs of Trying to Belong” is a musing on my many adventures through life that have challenged me and strengthened me. The performance portion is an excerpt from a longer solo multimedia theatre piece “Mixing Ingredients or How to Make an American by Checking Off Boxes.” Faced with the little boxes to check off on my college applications back in the early 1990s, I realized I sort of did not fit into the choices easily or perfectly. Little boxes! All of a sudden, my past and my future collided…staring at those boxes, I was bewildered. Boxes, boxes…boxes!

ABSTRACT

Legendary comic Phyllis Diller carved out a career in a male dominated field by going into spaces where women were not typically allowed. She created a stage persona that gave her the ability to make fun of life and society. Part of her stage act was her fictional husband Fang and his cartoon-like family members including an obese mother, an alcoholic father, a scheming brother, a tooth-pick thin sister, a half-wit uncle, a midget cousin and a slew of other family members of various design. Relying on Diller’s 52, 000 joke cards archived at the Smithsonian Institution and her videotaped performances, this paper will track the history of Fang and his family and how they fit into the comedic work of Diller. A deep dive into Fang’s real and fictional history will reveal the complex worldview Diller imparts about husbands, marriage and men in general and also about American culture and life.

Pulos, R. (2022). Phyllis Diller and Her Fictional Husband Fang. Comedy Studies, 13 (1). 

Presented at the Southern States Communication Association’s 95th Annual Convention in April 2025.

For this research project, I partnered with the College Station Parks & Recreation Department to conduct a study with older adults who attend line dancing classes at two local community centers. Older adults not only find community by attending the classes, but it is good for their physical and mental health. This paper is being prepared for publication. 

Presented at the Southern States Communication Association’s 92nd Annual Convention in April 2022.

ABSTRACT

Second baseman Wilmer Flores “tried to hold back tears he couldn’t control” (Castrovince, 2020, para. 1) in 2015 when he thought he had been traded by the Mets, his home team since he started in the minor leagues. A media flurry ensued. But Mets manager Terry Collins clapped back with “How would you react? You guys think these guys are stone-cold robots, they’re not, they are human beings who have emotions, and this kid is upset. He’s sad. He’s been a Met his whole life” (Kernan, 2015, para. 1). Most recently, during the 2021 French Open, superstar Naomi Osaka declined to participate in press conferences to safeguard her mental health (Bowen, 2021). She eventually withdrew from the competition because the French Open organization fined her and threatened to suspend her. What happens when elite athletes show emotion, show fragility, and share their mental health struggles with the world? How does the media frame these narratives? This paper will use media framing theory to look closely at Simone Biles’ withdrawal from the Olympic gymnastics’ competition in Tokyo and how the media portrayed her decision to choose mental health over the pressures of athletic stardom. Some outlets were supportive while other outlets were critical. The findings of this paper will illuminate the complex ways the media portrays celebrity athletes when they make difficult decisions based on their mental health.

It is no secret that I am a huge Madonna fan. I have seen her live over 60 times and all over the world. I was nervous about taking on something I loved so much but my first exploration into studying the Madonna fan community revealed to me that Madonna and her fan community deserve deeper study. 

The Influence of Madonna’s Social Justice Messaging on Her Fans has been accepted for presentation at the Southern States Communication Association’s 92nd Annual Convention in Spring 2022! 

ABSTRACT

Love her or hate her, Madonna is a megastar still going strong. Studies have looked at the controversial pop star from a multitude of ways but there is a lack of research into her fans. This paper intends to fill that gap in the prevailing literature by looking at the Madonna fan community. This community is dynamic, diverse and multicultural and extends across the globe. Speaking up against social injustices is a part of the DNA of Madonna’s public image and has evolved throughout her career. The purpose of this paper is to see how the fan community views social justice issues as a result of Madonna’s work in these areas. Data was collected via an extensive survey with participants drawn from a range of fans. The theoretical framework of this study pairs parasocial interaction (PSI) theory and identification theory along with the social justice scale (SJS).

Recent Publication:

Pulos, R. (2021). Madonna and Her Multicultural Fan Community [Multimedia]. In P.J. Booth & R.Y. Lee (Eds.), "Fan Studies Pedagogies.” Transformative Works and Cultures, 35. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2021.2073

Please click below to learn more about this ongoing project.

ABSTRACT

In 1992 Pepsi created a marketing ploy to increase interest in its products in the Philippines. The game was aptly called “Number Fever” and participants had to look at the number printed underneath the cap of their soft drink bottle and listen to the announcement of the winning numbers on the radio and evening news. Filipinos “…went crazy for Number Fever. Everyone was trying their luck. Winners were announced daily and suddenly Pepsi seemed to be everyone’s favorite drink” (Radeska, 2018, para. 3). The number “349” was announced for the jackpot and unfortunately thousands held the winning bottle cap. This created a serious problem for Pepsi and led to riots, deaths, conspiracy theories, lawsuits, legislation and consumer activism. Filipinos have since added the saying “349ed” as a “...generic term for being duped” (Lopez, 1994, May 4, Inside Story section). This paper will use rhetorical arena theory and cluster analysis of newspaper articles to see how the media characterized the voices that emerged during the Number Fever crisis.  

Pulos, R. (2021). Pepsi-Cola's Number Fever Fiasco: How the Media Portrays the Actors of a Crisis. Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association, 2020 (1). 

https://docs.rwu.edu/nyscaproceedings/vol2020/iss1/8/ 

ABSTRACT

On February 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced the name of a new disease, COVID-19. As the virus that causes the disease spread across the globe, the world went into crisis mode. The various actors of the COVID-19 crisis include, in part, politicians, scientists, health experts, citizens, journalists, front line workers, first responders, organizations, and so on. Their voices and their related communicative processes play out in the rhetorical arena that emerges from the crisis. Crisis memes are a particularly intriguing and salient part of the COVID-19 public discourse. Combining the theoretical implications of rhetorical arena theory (RAT) with multimodality and its close ties to social semiotics, this paper will

analyze the unique nature of memes created during the cycle of a crisis.

Pulos, R. (2020). ‘COVID-19 crisis memes, rhetorical arena theory and multimodality’. JCOM 19 (07), A01. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.19070201.

A History of the Communication of Australia’s First Chaplain

ABSTRACT

Reverend Richard Johnson was Australia’s first chaplain. This paper constructs a picture of how communication worked on the First Fleet out to Sydney Harbor and in the penal colony that was built in the years between 1788 and 1797 by looking closely at Johnson’s personal letters and his address to the colonists. His writings reveal a level of frustration in communicating scripture to the prisoners, prisoners turned settlers, and the military personnel of the colony in those early years. Communication in the colony and with the outside world was equally frustrating and difficult. His first-person accounts of early communications with aboriginals is thick with information on how a man of God in the 18th Century viewed indigenous peoples. Johnson never wavered in his mission to save the souls of the early inhabitants of Australia.

Presented at the Southern States Communication Association's 91st Annual Convention in April, 2021. 

Presented at the Central States Communication Association's 2021 Convention

On April 23, 2020 President Trump made a few interesting suggestions for combatting COVID-19 in a nationally televised briefing. His remarks sparked a slew of responses in the media and in the public sphere. This paper will look closely at political cartoons inspired by President Trump’s comments at that briefing (The Whitehouse, 2020, April 23). Connors (2005) notes that “editorial cartoons use a wide variety of symbols to convey messages in a concise manner for readers” (p. 479). This paper will decode the symbolic world of the political cartoons and relate them back to the public discourse that has emerged with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic.