Digital Commons Network^™

Southern Sustainability: An Examination Of Waste Management Mechanisms Within The University Of Mississippi Community, Haley Clift

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and study local mechanisms surrounding waste management at The University of Mississippi. The research study gathers quantitative and qualitative research to make conclusions about sustainability and recycling practices on The University of Mississippi's campus. The thesis discusses whether those practices are effective for those in The University of Mississippi's community based on the data collected and research conducted. The researcher also offers proposals for the University of Mississippi community based on the research conducted.

The gap that exists in the waste management processes at The University of Mississippi was addressed by blending …

Catholicism Online: How The Church Is Communicating In The Visual Field, Alexandra Barfield

Honors Theses

ABSTRACT

Given the rise and importance of social media in the last two decades, religious institutions, especially the Roman Catholic Church, have an important place online to fulfill their mission and belief of spreading the Gospel message. Communicating this message on social media and with contemporary marketing practices is an opportunity and a challenge for churches, Catholics, and apostolates alike. In this study, I analyze a variety of Catholic-related Instagram accounts and interview individuals involved in Church management and content creation. This primary research is prefaced with secondary research exploring the status of the Catholic Church in the United States, …

50 Years Later: How Title Ix Has Influenced The World Of Sports And The Effect It Has Had On Female Athletes, Catherine Jeffers

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to research the opportunities given to women within sports, and perceptions around their identities in the sporting industry. This thesis highlights the history of Title IX and its’ impact on gender in sports. This thesis also discusses the lack of women’s sports represented in media and the limited number of women in positions of power in sports. Since sports were introduced into modern culture, women have been advocating and fighting for their right to participate in sporting events and forcing even more complex conversations around equal compensation for their play.

Increasing The Student Activity Fee, Alexandria Bea Mabry

Honors Theses

The Student Activity Fee is a five-dollar fee paid by every graduate and undergraduate student at the University of Mississippi through their university tuition. The purpose of the Student Activity Fee is to support any efforts and passions of student organizations to allow them the financial freedom to host intentional programming for students or provide items needed for the function and success of that organization. The Student Activity Fee Fund was estimated to be depleted by Fall 2023. Therefore, in order to protect the Fund, a Student Activity Fee increase to two-dollars per credit hour was proposed to the student …

Communicating Through A Crisis: An Analysis Of The University Of Mississippi's Initial Covid-19 Crisis Communications, Sydney Waitley

Honors Theses

This thesis, in effort to examine modern-day crisis communications, focuses on the analysis of University of Mississippi’s initial crisis communications during the COVID-19 pandemic during March 2020. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the university’s communication efforts during this crisis in order to determine the effectiveness of the University of Mississippi’s initial COVID-19 crisis communications. First, the researcher analyzed historical case studies on three notable crisis communications (the Johnson & Johnson Tylenol Crisis of 1982, the United Airlines Crisis of 2017, and the Crock-Pot Crisis of 2018). From these case studies, qualities of good crisis communications were determined …

Come Close And Listen: Exploring The Intimacy Of Audio Media, Eleanor Kingwell Sharples Hoover

Honors Theses

This thesis aims to demonstrate the power of the audio medium to connect speaker and listener, as a result of the uniquely intimate nature of the medium. By understanding how speakers and listeners connect through audio, the research reveals that the audio medium is a sustainable media outlet, one that is durable despite changes in culture in the media market, that has transformed over time, all while keeping itself within the principal constraints of its original form, that being sound as conveyed to a listener. Three interviews were conducted with individuals situated in different areas of the audio media landscape; …

The Root Of The Problem: Mississippi And The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Matthew Brennan Hendley

Honors Theses

The Root of the Problem: Mississippi and the School-to-Prison Pipeline is a solutions journalism piece about the “schoolhouse to jailhouse” theory, which represents a phenomenon in which grade school students, the majority of which are minority youth, are funneled into the criminal justice system via schools through policies and procedures that criminalize student misbehavior. The piece is an in-depth analysis of the arrival, history, and current state of the school-to-prison pipeline in Mississippi, featuring one specific effort to dismantle the phenomenon in the Sunflower County Consolidated School District in the Mississippi Delta. In addition to this analysis, the piece explores …

The Art And Importance Of Deliberative Rhetoric In Political Communications, Cameron Sadler

Honors Theses

This project explores the use of deliberative rhetorical appeals in political communications. Seven professionals spanning all levels of politics were interviewed about their work as communications specialists and strategists. Their insights further proved the necessity for attention to rhetoric in messaging.

Perilous Place: Personal Stories Point To Possible Solutions To Widespread Flooding In The Mississippi Delta, Jared Poland

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and create journalistic stories highlighting the Yazoo Backwater Pumps Projects relationship to climate change while utilizing narrative storytelling techniques. Before explaining the methodology used for conducting research and interviews, the researcher describes the influence that innovations of mass communication channels have had on the way humans form groups and persuasively advocate for their positions. The researcher describes their historical perspective of mass media innovations that were vital considerations during their discovery and investigation of this politically divisive issue. The researcher more specifically focuses on the innovations that have occurred since the digital …

The Ceibalitas In Uruguay: How Digital Educational Technology Affects Social Cohesion, William Bradford

Honors Theses

Digital Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have become a focal point in improving worldwide education. There have been many studies on the effects of ICT in schools on grades and careers after graduation, but not many have studied the social impact. This study focuses on the Plan Ceibal in Uruguay to see the impact of ICT in schools on social cohesion. The Plan Ceibal was the first Nation-wide one-laptop-per-child (OLPC) program in the world. For this reason, Uruguay can provide a look into the future for other nations as they implement OLPC programs of their own. This study uses data …

Narrative Storytelling In Conjunction With Environmental Journalism, Abbey Edmonson

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the effectiveness of long-form narrative storytelling in relation to environmental journalism. It particularly focuses on effectively communicating the seriousness of climate change on a local level through narrative storytelling. The bulk of the information was gathered through multiple interviews with people experiencing the effects of climate change on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. By using interviews with local people interspersed with scientific data, I hope to be able to show the average reader that climate change is real and it can dangerously affect people on a local level, even in rural states like Mississippi.

Through my research, I …

A Tale Of Two Companies: The Importance Of Public Relations Amidst The Shift Towards Corporate Activism, Olivia Schwab

Honors Theses

By comparing the controversies that stemmed from Papa John’s John Schnatter and CrossFit’s Greg Glassman, some obvious public relations strategies stand out, including but not limited to understanding an audience, adapting to a changing environment, establishing a crisis communications plan, and taking controversial stands on issues close to the audience’s hearts. Most importantly though, if companies preach messages of social change, they must follow up on their stances with corrective action to do their best to help facilitate it in society.

While examining the history of corporate activism, it is clear why and how some corporations become the victims of …

Whose Expectation? Ideal Beauty And The Cultural Construction Of The American Woman, Ameliea Rose Dulaney

Honors Theses

My research project “Whose Expectation? Ideal Beauty and the Cultural Construction of the American Woman” explores the cultural and political climate of American society over the last four centuries, analyzing how ideal beauty standards have worked in the lives of American women over the years, examining (1) how they have been negotiated by women at different times of cultural and political flux, (2) how, although beauty has long been an integral aspect of feminine identity, it has become even more so with the introduction of new technologies (advertising, tv, makeup, etc.), and (3) how as a result, the definition of …

Controversy, Coverage And Cancel Culture: The Daily Mississippian's Reporting Of The 2018 Ed Meek Controversy, And Related Findings, Mason Thomas Scioneaux

Honors Theses

As this thesis reflects a body of work completed by a journalism student near the conclusion of a journalism education at the University of Mississippi, I approached research and writing in that way. I interviewed three people, for an hour each, and the things I learned in those interviews greatly affected the conclusions I reached with this thesis. My full transcripts from those interviews are located in Appendices A-C. I also did a lot of scouring through articles of The Daily Mississippian from fall 2018 and otherwise; I looked at every single edition of the paper from that semester, both …

Sealds: A Quantitative Content Analysis Of #Donttrashyourvote On Twitter, Viviek Patel

Honors Theses

Public relations research has slowly integrated with the study of advocacy organizations, but little research has integrated this and social movements. Using the pyramid model of mobilization-driven relationship-building social media based advocacy, this study employed a quantitative content analysis to examine the prevalence of previously identified communicative functions in social media messages by SEALDs. Unlike previous research on advocacy and health organizations, action messages were the most common. This study also investigated the influence of message type on audience engagement through retweets. The results indicate that information tweets had the most retweets. This study also analyzed how social movements recruit …

Women Trailblazers In The Local Oxford Community: Real And Relevant Stories Of Six Unique Paths To Success, Karsyn S. King

Honors Theses

Women Trailblazers In The Local Oxford Community is a collection of six women’s stories in six different fields and their unique paths to success, all showcased through written and visual elements in a multi-modal website. The goal of the project was to have a diverse compilation of women from a variety of backgrounds, ages, careers, and experiences. The trailblazers represented include a woman in the STEM field (science, technology, engineering, math) who is the only female on the biomedical engineering staff, a first generation college student who now holds the second highest position in higher education academia, a local woman …

An Outside Gaze On The Relationship Between Indigenous Groups And The Media, Nicole Daoust

Honors Theses

Indigenous groups around the world faced similar challenges. Many of these issues stem from stereotypes, one-sided stories, and overall lack of representation in the media. Without a voice or ally, they are often treated as second class citizens. For my research, I analyzed how the media affected public perception of indigenous people. I specifically focus on four groups: The Aboriginals of Canada, the Māori, Native Americans, and the uncontacted tribes of the Amazon.

Investigating The Glass Ceiling: How Women In Top Media Management Shattered The Glass Ceiling, Jessica Frenshea Love

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores the successful experiences of women in top media management and their attitudes toward factors of the glass ceiling to identify which factors they perceive as most important, those that remain prominent, and other factors that may have aided in their success. The glass ceiling is the “unseen, yet unbreachable barrier that keeps minorities and women from rising to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements” (Cotter, Hermsen, Ovadia, & Vanneman, 2001). This ceiling persists for women in top media management, despite increased feminization in these fields. Previous studies conclude that family …

Thin Is In: A Content Analysis Of Images In Women's Magazines From 2009-2011, Jennifer Kate Wilson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many research studies have shown that women constantly compare themselves to the models they see featured in women's magazines, and in turn, develop body image issues, negative mood changes and even eating disorders. The majority of findings show that women often develop these serious side-effects because they are bombarded with images of mostly thin models. Yet editors of women's magazines continue to choose women much smaller, in most cases at least six times smaller, than the average sized American women to feature. It is very unusual to see fashion spread in a women's magazine featuring a model close to the …