Abstract

This thesis examines contemporary product launches as communicative events, arguing that they help shape how technological change is publicly interpreted and remembered. Drawing on media ecology and cultural memory, and using Fantasy Theme Analysis as the primary method, the study analyzes Tesla’s 2019 Cybertruck unveiling as a case of symbolic meaning-making at the moment of introduction and in its immediate circulation. The analysis identifies four dominant fantasy themes that organize the launch’s symbolic world and cohere into a rhetorical vision presenting Tesla as a disruptive actor introducing a resilient technology for an already arriving future. It then traces how that vision moves into near-field press and platform coverage, where particular fragments are repeated, narrowed, reframed, and stabilized as early public reference points. The thesis argues that product launches function not simply as promotional events, but as memory-making media events that help organize how societies narrate technological change.

Date of publication

Spring 2026

Document Type

Thesis

Language

english

Persistent identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10950/5045

Committee members

Erik Gustafson, Ph.D.; Brent Yergensen, Ph.D.; Dennis Cali, Ph.D.

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