Digital Commons Network^™

Design And Analysis Of Scalable Video Streaming Systems, Musab S. Al-Hadrusi

Wayne State University Dissertations

Despite the advancement in multimedia streaming technology, many multimedia applications are still face major challenges, including provision of Quality-of-Service (QoS), system scalability, limited resources, and cost. In this dissertation, we develop and analyze a new set of metrics based on two particular video streaming systems, namely: (1) Video-on-Demand (VOD) with video advertisements system and (2) Automated Video Surveillance System (AVS).

We address the main issues in the design of commercial VOD systems: scalability and support of video advertisements. We develop a scalable delivery framework for streaming media content with video advertisements. The delivery framework combines the benefits of stream merging …

What Is This Music? Auteur Music In The Films Of Wes Anderson, Lara Rose Hrycaj

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the different types of music featured in the films of contemporary American film director Wes Anderson utilizing Claudia Gorbman's concepts of auteur music and auteur melomane. This analysis establishes the music in Anderson's films as auteur music and Anderson himself as an auteur melomane - a director with a passion for music. To establish Anderson as a melomane, it is important to look not only at the different types of music found in his films but also the different ways that the music is used within the films and his collaboration with …

Examining The Use Of Spirituality As A Form Of Social Support In Computer-Mediated Communication, Kristopher Micheal Paal

Wayne State University Dissertations

Social Information Processing Theory (Walther, 1992) suggests that individuals can develop and sustain relationships in online contexts even with limited cues present. With more individuals using computer-mediated communication (CMC) for relational processes, there is an increased need for examination of how communication is used with fewer cues present. Due to its contributions to holistic health, spirituality is a dimension of support which also necessitates increased examination as well. The present study examines how CMC can be used for the relational purposes of spiritual and social support in online communities. Messages from two separate online bereavement communities were analyzed to discover …

Maximizing Resource Utilization In Video Streaming Systems, Mohammad A. Alsmirat

Wayne State University Dissertations

Video streaming has recently grown dramatically in popularity over the Internet, Cable TV, and wire-less networks. Because of the resource demanding nature of video streaming applications, maximizing resource utilization in any video streaming system is a key factor to increase the scalability and decrease the cost of the system. Resources to utilize include server bandwidth, network bandwidth, battery life in battery operated devices, and processing time in limited processing power devices. In this work, we propose new techniques to maximize the utilization of video-on-demand (VOD) server resources. In addition to that, we propose new framework to maximize the utilization of …

Reading The Tea Leaves: The Media And Sino-American Rapprochement, 1963-1972, Guolin Yi

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation aims to find out what role(s) the media in the United States and China played in their historic rapprochement from 1963 to 1972. In order to examine how they covered the major events that affected Sino-American relations, I select seven elite U.S. media and two Chinese official newspapers to study. These media include: the New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, CBS, ABC, NBC, People's Daily, and Reference News,

The study is based on the assumption that media, instead of reporting the information "objectively," have the ability to affect the content they deliver and set the agenda for …

The Role Of Online Social Media In The Acculturation Process Of North Korean Refugee Young Adults In South Korea, Sung Mi Han

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate media's influences on the acculturation of North Korean refugee young adults in South Korea, especially focusing on identifying the role of online social media. The study examined the acculturation and media patterns of the refugee young adults and found evidence that the use of South Korean media and North Korea-related media enhanced the acculturation domains of South and North Korean cultures, and therefore the utilization of both media as a whole can facilitate the pluralism model of acculturation. Specifically, a series of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that South Korean mass media use …

Impacts Of Oral Language Proficiency, Television And Internet On Acculturation Of Taiwanese College Students, Huang Yu Lin

Wayne State University Dissertations

The majority of recent cross-cultural research with regard to the media's impact on acculturation has been aimed at Chinese immigrants' acculturation by the media in the United States with relatively little attention to Taiwanese college students' state of change in acculturation by various media sources while acquiring English as a second language. There are significant numbers of studies on assimilation to the host culture by both the ethnic and host media; however, there is a paucity of literature based on the one-dimensional media impact on a particular demographic group which can be easily traced to various types of media affecting …

A Study Of The Effect Of Organizational Communication Cultures On Interorganizational Collaboration Of Crisis Response, Laura Pechta

Wayne State University Dissertations

Recent history has indicated that crises are becoming more frequent rather than exceptional events. Dozens of organizations, often with very different missions, methods, technologies and cultures, are called upon to coordinate activities in order to mitigate the crisis and assist in recovery efforts. Although several interorganizational coordination perspectives and strategies have been proposed, they have neglected to examine how different organizational communication cultures of crisis response organizations involved in an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) may affect crisis collaboration efforts. Previous studies have also disregarded the important distinction between crisis coordination and crisis collaboration and the challenges and benefits of each …