Digital Commons Network^™

Insights Into The Accuracy Of Social Scientists’ Forecasts Of Societal Change, Sangsuk Yoon

Management and Marketing Faculty Publications

How well can social scientists predict societal change, and what processes underlie their predictions? To answer these questions, we ran two forecasting tournaments testing the accuracy of predictions of societal change in domains commonly studied in the social sciences: ideological preferences, political polarization, life satisfaction, sentiment on social media, and gender-career and racial bias. After we provided them with historical trend data on the relevant domain, social scientists submitted pre-registered monthly forecasts for a year (Tournament 1; N = 86 teams and 359 forecasts), with an opportunity to update forecasts on the basis of new data six months later (Tournament …

Episode 5: Findings, Plus A Look At Events Following Confirmation, Lauren Durham

A Rhetorical Study of Twitter Discourse about Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Amy Coney Barrett

In this episide, Durham discusses what the research revealed and makes recommendations for further study. She also explores events following Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation.

Episode 4: Barrett As A 'Figure-In-Process', Lauren Durham

A Rhetorical Study of Twitter Discourse about Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Amy Coney Barrett

Durham addresses discourse that portrayed Barrett as a “figure-in-process.”

Episode 2: The Pop Culture Status Of 'Rbg', Lauren Durham

A Rhetorical Study of Twitter Discourse about Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Amy Coney Barrett

In a discussion of the first answer to the research question, Durham focuses on the discourse about the presence and absence of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's iconic appeal in popular culture.

Episode 3: Opposites, Lauren Durham

A Rhetorical Study of Twitter Discourse about Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Amy Coney Barrett

In this episode, Durham discusses the discourse that portrayed Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Amy Coney Barrett as opposites.

Episode 1: About The Research, Lauren Durham

A Rhetorical Study of Twitter Discourse about Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Amy Coney Barrett

Durham explores the significance of the topic; summarizes the academic theories applied in the study; presents the research question; and shares methodology and methods.

People-First Promotion: Rallying Library Workers During Covid-19 And Beyond, Katy Kelly, Christina A. Beis, Ann Zlotnik, Maureen E. Schlangen

Roesch Library Faculty Publications

COVID-19 forced workers around the world to face the realities of closed buildings, precarious employment situations, and challenges to their well-being. This article will showcase how library workers’ resilience during COVID-19 depended on people, not buildings, and a people-first public relations strategy was employed to reveal that distinction. The authors, a team of librarians and communicators, share three pandemic-era communication stories developed to put people at the forefront of initiatives and messaging: a revamped marketing strategy for a research appointment service puts faces to the work and student support; the cancellation announcement of a beloved annual event reveals how the …

The Multi-Sensory Design Of A Synesthete's Everyday Experience, Madeline M. Spicer

Honors Theses

Perception, which can be defined as becoming aware of occurrences in the world through the senses, is different for every person (Merriam-Webster). My thesis deals with perception in the form of a condition called synesthesia and the communication of this condition using graphic design. Synesthesia is a condition that involves the involuntary crossing of the senses, resulting in multi-sensory experiences every time a synesthete absorbs the world and visible language. Utilizing the field of graphic design, I created several projects to communicate my three goals of conducting research on synesthesia, sharing what I experience every day, and educating others about …

Sustainable Stories: Linking Graphic Design And The Environment To Inform, Educate, And Inspire, Shannon M. Stanforth

Honors Theses

The importance of the field of graphic design lies in its ability to communicate with others. It can serve to transcend barriers, to clarify messages, and to deepen universal understanding. Similarly, sustainability encompasses the three spheres of the environment, society and economy—demonstrating its interconnected complexities and multifaceted applications. In pursuing my Honors Thesis, I aimed to develop a project which would reflect the ideals of sustainability while simultaneously serving to educate about the importance of caring for the natural world. Furthermore, my research explores how the disciplines of sustainability and design overlap and interact, searching to discover ways in which …

Promotional Poster: Reception And Celebration, Lucy Bratton, Taylor Wilson

Facing Dayton: Materials to Invite Engagement

Poster promotes celebration and reception for the completion and release of Facing Dayton: Neighborhood Narratives.

Email Invitation, Lucy Bratton, Taylor Wilson

Facing Dayton: Materials to Invite Engagement

Invitation sent via email, inviting people to reception and celebration for the completion and release of "Facing Dayton: Neighborhood Narratives."

Reception Invitation, Lucy Bratton, Taylor Wilson

Facing Dayton: Materials to Invite Engagement

Invitation to reception and celebration for completion and release of "Facing Dayton: Neighborhood Narratives." Invitation is two-sided and folded.

Blog: The Facing Project, Clare Gallagher

Facing Dayton: Materials to Invite Engagement

Seventy University of Dayton students captured the experiences and challenges of living in Dayton by interviewing local residents as part of a national community storytelling project intended to bring awareness about local human rights issues to inspire social action.

'Why Don’T You Just Go Back Where You Came From?' Or 'Slight Yams': 'Pangs' Of Regret And Unresolved Ambivalence In Joss Whedon’S California, Tereza M. Szeghi, Wesley Dempster

English Faculty Publications

Joss Whedon’s two longest-running television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS) (1997-2003) and Angel (1999-2004), which together constitute the “Buffyverse,” often focus on questions about the degree to which past actions bear on one’s present moral character. Particularly in the case of reformed demons and vampires, regret for past sins weighs heavily on the present and motivates current benevolent and heroic deeds.

For the ensouled vampire Angel most especially, the need to make amends for centuries of sadistic cruelty and bloodshed stamps him with his ever brooding-personality and his nearly ceaseless attempts to balance the scales—while knowing that the scales …

Salesperson Networking Behaviors And Creativity: Exploring An Unconventional Relationship, Michael T. Krush, Raj Agnihotri, Gerrard M. Macintosh, Ashish Kalra

Management and Marketing Faculty Publications

A great deal of emerging research explores the antecedents and outcomes of salesperson creativity. However, relatively fewer scholarly endeavors have delved into assessing the social antecedents of salesperson creativity. Addressing this issue, the current research focuses on the link between one critical social antecedent in sales research, namely that of networking behaviors, and creativity among salespeople. Specifically, we include customer and professional networking behaviors and study their direct, interactive, and curvilinear effects on salesperson creativity. Empirical findings show that professional networking as well as customer networking are positively related to salesperson creativity. Further, we demonstrate the non-linear effects of professional …

Print Versus Digital: How Medium Matters On 'House Of Cards', Patrick Ferrucci, Chad Painter

Communication Faculty Publications

This study utilizes textual analysis to analyze how journalists are depicted on the Netflix drama House of Cards. Through the lens of orientalism and cultivation, researchers examine how depictions of print and digital journalism would lead viewers to see digital journalists as less ethical and driven by self-gain, while also viewing technology as an impediment to quality journalism. These findings are then discussed as a means for understanding how these depictions could affect society.

All In The Game: Communitarianism And 'The Wire', Chad Painter

Communication Faculty Publications

Communitarian ethicists argue that social identity is formed by community relationships, emphasizing the connection between an individual and his or her community. News organizations are part of that community. Indeed, journalism only functions properly in terms of the public and public life, and as part of a larger community. This textual analysis study focused on the breakdown of the fictional Baltimore community depicted in the television series The Wire. Five institutions—the police force and justice system, the labor force, local and state politicians and government, the educational system, and the daily newspaper—have failed, and, in turn, the city is …

The Role Of Public Relations In Social Capital, Weiwu Zhang, Alan Abitbol

Communication Faculty Publications

Public relations research has traditionally focused on how public relations efforts make organizations more effective. Recently, scholars have argued for the broader role of public relations in society. That is, how can public relations be used to improve society rather than simply making organizations more effective? Existing studies have emphasized the relationship between internal public relations and organizational social capital. Lack of scholarly attention has been paid to how public relations efforts affect citizens’ social capital in general. To fill the gap in this area, this study examines how different types of public relations efforts contribute to citizens’ social capital. …

Race Prominent Feature In Coverage Of Trayvon Martin, Erin Willis, Chad Painter

Communication Faculty Publications

This textual analysis examines news framing of the shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman. After studying coverage from The Sanford Herald (North Carolina), The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and The Denver Post, the authors conclude national media perpetuated racial stereotypes, thus heightening the issue of race and making the case more emotional than factual.

Readers outside of Sanford, N.C., had few details about the physical altercation, the heart of Zimmerman’s self-defense claim.

Market Matters: How Market-Driven Is 'The Newsroom'?, Patrick Ferrucci, Chad Painter

Communication Faculty Publications

This study examines whether the award-winning news show The Newsroom depicted on HBO practices what John McManus defined as market-driven journalism. McManus posited that organizations practicing market-driven journalism compete in the four markets he describes in his market theory for news production. This study found that The Newsroom depicts an organization that does indeed practice market-driven journalism, with results interpreted through the lens of market theory for news production.

The Biosemiotics Of Aldo Leopold, Rebecca Potter

English Faculty Publications

Responding to Jean-Claude Gens’ article “Uexküll’s Kompositionslehre and Leopold’s ‘land ethic’ in dialogue,” which appeared in Sign Systems Studies in 2013, this article further develops a direct connection between Aldo Leopold’s approach to ecology and Jakob von Uexküll’s umwelt theory. The connection between Uexküll and Leopold is especially evident in Leopold’s descriptions of animal behaviour that he presents in the first part of his seminal work, A Sand County Almanac. In this work specifically, Leopold illustrates the biosemiotic processes described by Uexküll, and does so with a purpose: to reshape our understanding of the biotic community as a place …

Access, Oppression, And Social (In)Justice In Epidemic Control: Race, Profession, And Communication In Sars Outbreaks In Canada And Singapore, Huiling Ding, Xiaoli Li, Austin Caldwell Haigler

English Faculty Publications

This article investigates issues of social injustice experienced by various oppressed groups in SARS outbreaks in 2003, paying particular attention to medical care workers in Canada and Singapore, with many of them being immigrants from East Asia and Southeast Asia. It identifies communication strategies employed by civic networks, especially nonprofit organizations, to help marginalized groups acquire institutional and literacy accesses so that they could respond more effectively to such injustices in complicated and multicultural contexts. Through combined use of Jost and Kay’s work on the three types of social justice (2010), oppression (Young, 1990), and access (Porter, 1998), this study …

Flipping The Script: Newspaper Reporting Of The Trayvon Martin Shooting, Chad Painter, Erin Willis

Communication Faculty Publications

The purpose of this chapter is to examine newspaper coverage of the George Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin shooting and the frames of race and crime used in the context of newsworthiness. The researchers analyzed 1,177 articles in one local, six statewide, and three national newspapers. The local paper focused on the shooting and the ensuing police investigation instead of social and political issues, and local-interest stories instead of national events. There was virtually no mention of race. Coverage in the six Florida papers was mixed between details of the case and social issues such as Florida's Stand Your Ground law. There were …

The Complexity Of Disability, Chad Painter

Communication Faculty Publications

"The Complexity of Disability" is Chapter 11 in Cross-Cultural Journalism: Communicating Strategically about Diversity. Built on the hands-on reporting style and curriculum pioneered by the University of Missouri, this introductory textbook teaches students how to write about and communicate with people of backgrounds that may be different from their own, offering real-world examples of how to practice excellent journalism and strategic communication that take culture into account.

Alternative Media And Normative Theory: A Case Of Ferguson, Missouri, Mark Anthony Poepsel, Chad Painter

Communication Faculty Publications

This paper, based on in-depth interviews with journalists at alternative and advocacy papers in St. Louis as well as interviews with live streaming protestors, a new breed of citizen journalist, applies six characteristics commonly associated with the alternative press to coverage of the protests and police crackdown in Ferguson, Missouri, between August 9, 2014, and March 2015.

Journalists from the alternative newspaper in St. Louis focused on progressive or radical values less than the literature predicted. The African-American newspaper in St. Louis found itself influencing the national and global agenda regarding Ferguson and the ongoing oppression of blacks in the …

Foul Ball: Audience-Held Stereotypes Of Baseball Players, Patrick Ferrucci, Edson C. Tandoc Jr., Chad Painter, J. David Wolfgang

Communication Faculty Publications

This study experimentally tested whether participants held and/or applied stereotypes of baseball players. Participants were asked to rate white, black, and Latino baseball players based on stereotypes consistently identified in previous literature.

Participants saw a photo of a player and an anonymous paragraph from a newspaper that highlighted a particular stereotype. They were then asked to rate the author's credibility. Black players were rated as higher in physical strength and natural ability, consistent with previous literature concerning how athletes were described. However, white and Latin players were not stereotyped. But participants rated white-consistent descriptions as credible and Latin-consistent descriptions as …

Gender Games: The Portrayal Of Female Journalists On 'House Of Cards', Chad Painter, Patrick Ferrucci

Communication Faculty Publications

This textual analysis focuses on the portrayal of female journalists in House of Cards. The uneven depictions of six female journalists could have a socializing effect on the audience. The researchers argue that the character Zoe Barnes is depicted as childlike, unprofessional, and unethical, while the character Ayla Sayyad is portrayed as a dedicated watchdog journalist. The researchers then explore the ethical implications of these portrayals through the lens of social responsibility theory.

'His Women Problem': An Analysis Of Gender On 'The Newsroom', Chad Painter, Patrick Ferrucci

Communication Faculty Publications

This textual analysis focuses on the portrayal of female journalists on Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom, which premiered on HBO in 2012. The researchers argue that the four main female journalists are depicted as being unprofessional in the workplace, being inadequate at their jobs, and being motherly and weak. While these female journalists have impeccable credentials, stellar resumes, and a genuine interest in disseminating the best possible news, Sorkin and his fellow writers consistently depict these powerful women as inferior to the male characters.

The researchers conclude that Sorkin and his creative team failed in their ethical obligation to the audience …

Bird’S Eye View: Using Twitter In #Clubroesch, Katy Kelly, Hector Escobar

Roesch Library Faculty Publications

For many libraries, social media is usually another platform to share information about library resources and events. For some, the term has become overused so much that the social aspect has fallen by the wayside. Facebook page updates or tweets are only part of what you can bring to and achieve from social media.

In this article we discuss how students communicate with our academic library on Twitter, and how we used conversations to improve library spaces, technology, and services. We will explain the process of tracking and responding to student tweets, as well as the pros and cons of …

Making Oral Communication A Successful Part Of The Common Core, Jon A. Hess

Communication Faculty Publications

Adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represents the first time that oral communication has been included in the curriculum requirements for K–12 education in many states. If done well, this change will provide important benefits to students. However, effective implementation will require collaboration among policymakers, educators, and experts in oral communication.

As educators work to strengthen primary and secondary education in the United States, many agree that schools need educational standards that are grounded in today’s needs and shared across states. The CCSS have emerged as a potential solution, and the majority of states have adopted these standards. …