Digital Commons Network^™

Ai Usage In The Insurance Industry: Future Or Fad, Carrie Stetler

Honors Projects

AI has garnered the attention of professionals from every industry and Insurance is no different. Join me to analyze the many ways AI is affecting this industry and others, as well as to answer the question, “Is AI really the future?”

An Exploration Of Best Practices For Personal Branding On Social Media In The Fashion Industry, Danielle Brickner

Honors Projects

The purpose of my project was to evaluate the personal branding tactics that are used to be successful on Instagram in the fashion industry. Social media is a growing tool for influencers and brands. Since its creation in 2010, Instagram has become one of the most popular platforms, specifically for the fashion industry as it is centered around photos. This project explores how authenticity, creating a target audience, and utilizing content activities plans can impact one’s success on Instagram. Throughout the project, I used these three criteria on a fashion-oriented Instagram account to determine how these factors can impact post …

Still Lending You The World: The Toledo Lucas County Public Library In The 21st Century, Cade Clem

Honors Projects

This research paper focuses on how the Toledo Lucas County Public Library (TLCPL) has adapted to the 21st century, with an emphasis on the impact of digital materials and the Internet. This paper looks at these changes primarily through three lenses: official policies, services and programs, and internal culture. This paper uses quantitative data to determine if TLCPL has maintained overall growth in areas such as number of cardholders, customer counts, circulation, computer usage, and program attendance. These numbers show that, while not always maintaining growth, TLCPL has adapted quite well to the 21st century, bringing in record high numbers …

Read This: A Content Analysis Framework For Book Recommendation Applications, Cypress S. Payne

Honors Projects

Book recommendation applications combine word-of-mouth recommendations with algorithms that can suggest books based on a user’s account activity, creating a robust system for finding new books to read. Current research on recommendation systems is purely quantitative, focusing on the efficacy of the system, and content analyses are only just beginning to be performed on mobile applications. I use previous content analyses on applications as a basis for creating a content analysis framework for book recommendation applications. This framework can be used to analyze what users find important in book recommendation apps and inform app creators about their users’ wants and …

Researching A Marketing Strategy And Building A Website For Small Business, Trinidad Montez

Honors Projects

Research regarding the process and marketing for the design of a website for a local small business.

Sustainability In Web Development Through Energy Efficiency, Hannah Bebinger

Honors Projects

As global internet usage expands, websites are growing in both size and complexity. Contrary to the common belief that the internet is immaterial and “environmentally friendly”, web pages have significant negative environmental impacts (Frick, 2015). Websites contribute to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and electricity consumption. Considering the current climate crisis, it is crucial that web developers be aware of the impact that their work has on the environment and actively work to improve site energy efficiency. With a lack of regulation and awareness, the environmental impact of websites has remained unchecked despite growing concerns for sustainability. Further research and …

Small Town To The World Wide Web: Designing A Website For A Local Business, Madison Cozzens

Honors Projects

The Raspberry and The Rose is a small business in Medina, OH, and had a multitude of visual communication issues that needed to be solved. But what's an online presence without a website? "Small Town to the World Wide Web: Designing a Website for a Local Business" focuses on fulfilling a local business's need for a strong online presence. It dives into how a user's experience on the website can impact brand loyalty, foot traffic, and overall perception of a business. The ultimate goal of this project is to provide insight into how a non-e-commerce website can impact a business.

Intergroup Dialogue: Affecting Real Change, Lauryn Hulett

Honors Projects

Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) is a course adapted from The University of Michigan. In this Honors Project, a systematic literature review is done from eleven sources in hopes to theorize best practices and areas of improvement amongst applications of Intergroup Dialogue.

"Standing In The Gap": Combating Sexual Abuse In The Protestant Church, Hayley N. Carter

Honors Projects

Sexual abuse in the Christian Church has been a problem for many decades, and scholars have written extensively about sexual abuse occurring in the Catholic Church. However, abuse occurring in the Protestant Church has not been given that same attention. In 2017, the #MeToo movement went viral and has inspired many sexual abuse survivors to share their stories. I will argue that the Protestant Church should acknowledge the #MeToo movement’s accomplishments, and that this acknowledgement would lead to positive changes in how it approaches sexual abuse. I also will discuss financial abuse, which is a correlating behavior along with sexual …

An Analysis Of Appearance-Based Assumptions In Content Creation, Emily Andersen

Honors Projects

The purpose of this project is to uncover assumptions and stereotypes held against college majors through content creation. Is it natural to stereotype and label people? Is it harmful? Most may think that is true, while others may believe that is being judgemental. Can others tell what major a student is by a first glance or a brief conversation? Is it the way they dress, their star sign, or political beliefs? These are all examples of stereotypes I believe could influence an assumption. What kind of thoughts goes into these stereotypes from a sociological perspective? Answers are discovered through a …

Exploring Popular Music's Affect On Popular Culture Through The Media Format Of A Podcast, Alicia Kobasic

Honors Projects

This project covers the development of a podcast titled "The Podcast" where topics relating to popular music and popular culture and how they affect one another are discussed. The project discusses existing research into the topics as well as the development process of the podcast. It delves into each episode and what was learned through the research into the episode and how the episode was recorded and shared. it also talks about the effectiveness of a podcast as method for delivering research.

Silence In The Business World, Andrew Nedeljkovic

Honors Projects

This is a research-based paper focused on the uses of silence in business. Silence in this context refers to practices like meditation and mindfulness, rather than silencing the voices of underrepresented groups. This paper looks at the benefits that silence can have for American businesspeople and their firms. It compares the understanding of silence in the United States to the understanding of silence in other cultures.

Space Science And Social Media: Automating Science Communication On Twitter, Maia Williams

Honors Projects

This project analyzes how social media is used to engage general audiences in astronomy and space science, as well as ways to improve engagement through automation. Tweets from five space science organizations were sampled. The engagement rate for each tweet was calculated from the number of interactions it received. Accounts that tweet more per day had more followers, and accounts with more followers received more interactions. This project also investigated how to build a Twitter bot to automate science communication. Using NASA Application Programming Interfaces, a Twitter bot was written in Python to tweet images taken by the NASA Mars …

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story? A Marxist Analysis Of "Hamilton" And Its Relationship To The Broadway Economic System, Alana Ritt

Honors Projects

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s mega-hit Hamilton: An American Musical has been both a critical and academic darling since its premiere in 2015. A historical retelling of America’s inception through the eyes of an oft-ignored founding father, the musical weaves together a diverse cast and hip-hop musical stylings in order to tell the story of “America then, as told by America now.” While many critics and scholars alike have praised the musical for putting an exciting and accessible twist to American history, others have argued that the musical is not nearly as “revolutionary” as it claims to be. This essay is designed to …

Best Practices For Voter Engagement Within Higher Education, Alyssa Tomins

Honors Projects

It is imperative that higher education institutions learn more about how to recruit members of younger generations to participate in future elections. Young people have historically voted at low rates, but that trend has started to change in recent years as more resources are being devoted to voter engagement among young people. This leads to the interest of understanding what best practices and strategies have academic institutions utilized to advance voter engagement on their campuses. This qualitative study analyzes these best practices and strategies at 84 colleges and universities, all of whom are members of The Andrew Goodman Foundation Vote …

Investigation Of The "Cultural Appropriation" Of Yoga, Olivia Bartholomew

Honors Projects

With our world becoming increasingly globalized and cosmopolitan, practices that were once very traditional and spiritual are much different when they confront Western societies. Many yoga instructors and practitioners around the world are concerned about the issue of cultural appropriation within their practice. The researcher defines cultural appropriation to mean the process of a dominant culture manipulating aspects of a marginalized culture for its benefit. Traditionally, yoga comes from India, but it has become popularized throughout the world in our recent human history. Through interviews with nine yoga instructors, each from different yogic traditions, who teach in a variety of …

The Shape Of Trafficking, Abigail Shifley

Honors Projects

“Much of the popular writing on human trafficking has been anecdotal or sensationalistic, and most scholarly publications are either general overviews of the problem or critiques of the literature” (Weitzer 2014).

A 2017 report estimated 24.9 million people were victims of human trafficking globally. Of those 24.9 million, 71% are women and girls and 25% are under the age of 18. Research on human trafficking is limited, and training is lacking within organizations essential to the fight against human trafficking. Additionally, members of the public are typically ignorant of the true nature of human trafficking, which is multifaceted and much …

Répresentations De La Banlieue Dans Le Cinéma Français Contemporain, Yaw Owusu Sekyere

Honors Projects

Inhabitants of the poor French banlieues are rejected and isolated from the larger French society, who refuse to acknowledge their marginalization. As a result, the cycle continues where no political change is made. The French film genre, cinéma de banlieue, seeks to explain the perspectives of the underrepresented and marginalized groups within France. This honors project analyzes the representations of the banlieue through the films of La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz), Wesh wesh qu’est-ce qui se passe ? (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche), Bande de filles (Céline Sciamma), Divines (Houda Benyamina), and Banlieusards (Kery James & Leïla Sy). These films focus on the …

The Colombo-Venezuelan Border Through The Lens Of The Colombian Press, Diego Rafael Grossmann

Honors Projects

The Colombo-Venezuelan Border Through the Lens of the Colombian Press examines the dominant Colombian press coverage of crises of sovereignty at the Colombo-Venezuelan border, Venezuelan migration, and the February 2019 attempt to introduce humanitarian aid into Venezuela, as seen in El Espectador and El Tiempo’s coverage from the period of August 2018-November 2019. Through theories of nations and power, this thesis reveals the divergent editorial lines and dominant narratives within each newspaper’s construction of the relation between the Colombian and Venezuelan nations, states, and their people. The study details how both newspapers construct different “truths” through divergent constructions of …

Reactions Of Faith Groups To Hate Speech On Campus And Subsequent University Responses, Rachel Feldman

Honors Projects

Nationally, hate crimes committed against an individual because of their faith have been on the rise since 2014. In Northwest Ohio alone, the incidence of reported hate crimes as doubled. This study focused on students of many different faiths who have experienced hate speech on Bowling Green State University's campus. It also addressed past university responses to these incidents and whether students felt supported by these efforts. Two research questions were addressed in this study: Have students experienced hate speech on campus that was directly linked to their religious preference? Does Bowling Green State University need to change its reaction …

The Art Of Promotion: An Exploration Of Public Relations And Dance, Shannon Cleary

Honors Projects

This PR proposal is a guideline that can be successfully implemented into the BGSU Dance Program’s promotional efforts, specifically publicizing the annual Winter Dance Concert. Through inventive social and multi-media efforts, innovative collaboration with community and campus partners, and interactive updates to the Dance Program promotional efforts, this campaign will target and reach BGSU students, faculty and staff, Wood County community members, prospective BGSU students, local media and K-12 students in Wood and Lucas County. This proposal will mold a declining program into a thriving and engaging dance environment at BGSU.The implications for the field of dance and PR are …

The Art Of Promotion: An Exploration Of Public Relations And Dance, Shannon Cleary

Honors Projects

This PR proposal is a guideline that can be successfully implemented into the BGSU Dance Program’s promotional efforts, specifically publicizing the annual Winter Dance Concert. Through inventive social and multi-media efforts, innovative collaboration with community and campus partners, and interactive updates to the Dance Program promotional efforts, this campaign will target and reach BGSU students, faculty and staff, Wood County community members, prospective BGSU students, local media and K-12 students in Wood and Lucas County. This proposal will mold a declining program into a thriving and engaging dance environment at BGSU. The implications for the field of dance and PR …

It Is In The Cards: An Analysis Of Greeting Card Selection Through Identity And Personality, Emily Topilow

Honors Projects

In this exploratory study, personal and social identity were analyzed for their effect on how consumers choose greeting cards. Factors, including personality, relationships, and identity will be qualitatively analyzed to understand people’s buying habits. Certain factors, including gender, personality, relationships, type of card, and frequency of receiving and giving cards, will be qualitatively analyzed for frequency. The two theories analyzed were the Social Identity Theory (SIT) and the Identity Theory (IT).

525 college-aged students were surveyed to examine their purchasing habits of greeting cards. The results showed that the identity of the card giver and the identity of the card …

An Examination Of Sound Resource Libraries And Their Applications At Bowling Green State University, Madeleine Grimm

Honors Projects

In this applied research project, I have explored the uses and limitations of sound resources at Bowling Green State University for student projects. My goal has been to create a stock music library for students on campus to have easy access to for class projects and portfolio work. In this project I address: How can a university best manage its stock music and sound resources; are there any standards for best practices or outstanding examples? What sound resources currently exist for student use in general and at BGSU? How are these sound resources currently managed at BGSU? What are the …

Why Study Language? Discussing Language And Its Influence On Gender Discrimination, Katelyn Eisenmann

Honors Projects

An applied research project, with the culminating piece being a panel discussion that focused on the ways in which language use and structure contribute to attitudes and perceptions of gender within our society, and the politics that surround concepts of gender.

Understanding Humor In Female Leadership, Lillian Hollar

Honors Projects

This research investigates the relationship between humor, gender, and leadership effectiveness. To explore the relationship between these factors, I asked individuals what they thought about the relationship between humor and their experiences with female leaders. For this research, female is defined as a person who identifies as a woman. Humor is defined as the act of making jokes to elicit a response. My research focuses on the relationship between humor and female leadership as measured by individuals’ attitudes. The results show that some people believe there is a correlation between humor and female leadership, but does not prove conclusively that …

Technology And The Marginalization Of Older Adults: How Politeness Theory And Stereotype Embodiment Interact In Older Adults' Technology Use, Keefe Watson

Honors Projects

Marginalization of older adults is a long-time and pervasive fact of society. Technology use can make older adults feel less marginalized by connecting them socially, such as with communication technologies. However, older adults on average are less technology literate than younger adults; this can add to feelings of marginalization. In this study, I analyzed structured open-ended interviews and found unexpected instances of marginalization towards older adults related to technology; for example, older adults are most likely to withstand marginalized comments from their own adult children and family members. I applied politeness theory and the stereotype embodiment model to the coded …

The Keepers: A Collaborative Constructive Narrative Podcast, Shay Carroll

Honors Projects

This is a fictional podcast series that presents a story that is completed through roleplaying. The structure follows that of a video game, with the main characters, or "players," interacting with a set plot while deciding their own course of action. I act as the narrator for the story, controlling the plot and setting as well as non-player characters, or "NPCs." For the purposes of consistency and making sure the characters do not do anything that would be considered too over-powered or unrealistic, I have chosen to use the rule guide and statistics modifier system presented by Wizards of the …

Communicative Solutions To The United States' Political Polarization, Codey Albers

Honors Projects

In 2016, political polarization in the United States reached levels unprecedented in the last three decades. This paper analyzes over thirty sources in an attempt to explore the extent to which the political divide exists in the US, to discover some possible reasons for the severe polarization, and to offer a list of possible solutions to the problem, solutions that everyday citizens can enact to contribute to a more open, discursive, and respectful society where all views can be heard, respected, and where democracy can thrive. Using a critical communication approach, this paper explains complex communication theory using language accessible …

Media Erotics & Adaptation: A Comparative Textual Analysis Of Carmilla, Rebecca Wait

Honors Projects

This project is concerned with understanding the different ways in which Carmilla (1872), a gothic novella, and it’s 2014 web series adaptation differently approach the same basic narrative, especially with regards to their respective representations of individuals who identify as sexual and gender minorities. One of the major functions of importance in this study was to understand the temporality and cultural conditions, which lead to the perceived need for a postmodern adaptation of a pre-modernist text. Through textual analysis, the author compared J. Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1872) to Jordan Hall's adaptation (2014). In this analysis, significant differences existed between …