Digital Commons Network^™

An Africentric Reading Protocol: The Speculative Fiction Of Octavia Butler And Tananarive Due, Tonja Lawrence

Wayne State University Dissertations

This examination of Africentric speculative fiction (ASF) applies an Africentric reading protocol to selected works of Octavia E. Butler and Tananarive Due. Butler's Parable Series and Due's African Immortals Series are examined using seven elements of Africentric narrative specific to cultural speculative fiction. Finally, I discuss the implications of using an Africentric reading protocol as an example of cultural analysis that can be adapted to the textual analysis of culturally specific works of fiction.

Effect Of Goal-Setting And Self-Generated Feedback On Student Speechmaking, Luke Lefebvre

Wayne State University Dissertations

This investigation examined how goal setting strategies and self-generated feedback from video affects student grade improvement on subsequent speaking occasions. Students (N =140) across ten course sections were conveniently assigned to experimental conditions manipulating video use and goal setting strategies. Significant and meaningful main effects of anticipatory goal setting combined with self-generated feedback from video were obtained when compared to unstructured video replay, only goal setting, and self-reactive goal setting with self-generated feedback from video. Implications for these findings are examined along with the potential of video as an instructional technological tool for student learning in the introductory course.

Distributed Cinema: Interactive, Networked Spectatorship In The Age Of Digital Media, Erik Wayne Marshall

Wayne State University Dissertations

Digital media has changed much of how people watch, consume and interact with digital media. The loss of indexicality, or the potential infidelity between an image and its source, contributes to a distrust of images. The ubiquity of interactive media changes aesthetics of images, as viewers begin to expect interactivity. Networked media changes not only the ways in which viewers access media, but also how they communicate with each other about this media. The Tulse Luper Suitcases encapsulates all of these phenomena.

Online News Media Use And Political Tolerance, Jessi Mccabe

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between online news media use, selectivity in media content, and political tolerance. Tolerance develops as result of exposure to a diversity of ideas and perspectives, which the media provide. Online news use encourages and requires users to selectively expose and navigate through information based on personal choice. Online news permits individuals to choose information based on personal opinion and preference in ways traditional forms of mainstream media do not allow. Therefore, it was expected that online news use and selectivity in media content would negatively relate to tolerance.

A total of 305 participants were surveyed …

Argument Construction, Argument Evaluation, And Decision-Making: A Content Analysis Of Argumentation And Debate Textbooks, Neil Stuart Butt

Wayne State University Dissertations

Critical thinking abilities, especially the advanced critical thinking abilities required for decision-making, are important to both individuals and democratic policy making processes. Previous studies have indicated that argumentation and debate instruction can improve critical thinking abilities, but there are reasons to believe that current approaches are not as effective at developing decision-making ability as they could be, in part because they focus too heavily on argument construction, rather than argument evaluation and decision-making. In order to test which approaches to teaching argumentation and debate best encourage decision-making abilities, researchers need to know which elements are included in current argumentation and …

Media Effects: Cultural Appropriation And Attitudes Towards Cosmetic Surgery, Darlene Shauntanese Lee

Wayne State University Dissertations

The current study investigates media's influence on Caucasian women to culturally appropriate the physical features generally ascribed to African American women through non-surgical and or surgical cosmetic procedures and vice versa. Participants were 26 African American women and 54 Caucasian women who had previously undergone either non-surgical or surgical cosmetic procedures. Results indicate that African American women were more likely to culturally appropriate than Caucasian women. For African American women high media exposure to cosmetic surgery media messages played a significant role in the cultural appropriation process. Results also indicated that Caucasian women culturally appropriate at the same level, whether …

The Intersection Of Image, Rhetoric, And Witnessing: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Abu Ghraib Prisoner Abuse Scandal, Elizabeth Jane Durham Smith

Wayne State University Dissertations

This project looks at the Abu Ghraib Prisoner Abuse Scandal and the ways those figured in the notorious images were named as "bad apples" to explain the shocking scenes to a mainstream American collective as well as expands more traditional understandings of witnessing through the examination of this complex moment. Beyond the narrowly legal and political issues, the photographs from Abu Ghraib also raise questions about how images of atrocities are received, interpreted, and contested with this project rephrasing the question "what do we see when we look at the images from Abu Ghraib?" to that of "what did we …