Digital Commons Network^™

Correlates Of Social Anxiety, Religion, And Facebook, Lee Farquhar, Theresa Davidson

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

This study examined how religiosity, network homophily, and self-monitoring relate to social and Facebook-specific anxiety, role conflict, and Facebook Intensity. Correlation analyses indicate a connection between Facebook use and anxiety, as well as a link between religiosity and anxiety. We found that Role Conflict correlates with Facebook Intensity, Facebook specific Anxiety, and Social Anxiety. Regarding religiosity, those who prefer aliteral interpretation of the Bible, attend church more frequently, and pray more often have higher anxiety. Facebookers who are higher self-monitors have a less homophilous Facebook network and are less likely to identifytheir religious views on Facebook.

On The Same Page: Combining Service Desks For A Single Point Of Contact, Sally Neal, Susan Anderson, Brian Bunnett, William Weare Jr.

Scholarship and Professional Work

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of American Microtargeting: An Examination Of Modern Electoral Messaging, Luke Dietrik Bunting

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The original intent of this work was slightly different than what follows. In an effort to provide information on the current state of micro targeting, 1 had planned to research the campaign tactics of the 2012 Obama and Romney presidential campaigns in Ohio. This goal quickly became unattainable due to time restrictions and a lack of available interviewees. Several requests for interviews went unanswered, and state political parties were not able to provide adequate information on the efforts of the campaigns. Through searching the Internet for information on campaign officials responsible for the Ohio presence of the Romney and Obama …

The New York Times Influence On Stem Cell Research, Elizabeth Huntley Hamilton

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Stern cells are regarded as holding the secrets to disease eradication and alleviation, longevity, and genetic modification. In the not too distant past, it was considered a futuristic concept meant for the generations to come. Now, in 2014, stern cells are being used in practices for a wide variety of once incurable ailments. The history of stern cells is one of amazing discovery, controversy, and political setbacks. Throughout its exciting journey, print newspapers have provided all the information to its readers, and the potential of stern cells gained popular approval for its research.

Substance Use And Subclinical Psychosis Symptoms, Kelsey Hurm

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Research shows that there may be a connection between substance use and the expression of positive psychosis symptoms, most notably delusions and hallucinations (Stefanis, et al. 2004). While substances such as marijuana have received the most attention in the literature (e.g., Grech et aI.., 2005), other substances such as stimulants (e.g., Curran et aI., 2004), tobacco (e.g., Baeza et aI., 2009), and alcohol (e.g., Compton et aI., 2009) have been implicated in exacerbating the risk of psychosis onset. Further, there is mounting evidence that many psychiatric disorders are not discrete categories but rather the tails of dimensions distributed in the …

Evaluating Agentic Female Job Candidates: The Effects Of Gender And Qualification Of Comparison Candidates, Sarah Grace Kern

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Previous research has demonstrated that agentic women experience backlash in the hiring process when being considered for leadership positions. For example, Rudman et al. (2012) found that when participants evaluated an agentic female target candidate on measures of competence, likability, and hirability, although the female candidate received equal ratings of competence to an agentic male candidate, she received backlash in the form of lower ratings of likability and hirability than the agentic male candidate. In the current study, I investigated whether these backlash effects are consistent when the agentic female target candidate is evaluated in comparison to a male or …

Latinos In America: A Consideration Of Food Accessibility Factors With Implications For The Indianapolis Community, Abigail C. Robison

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Studies discuss personal choices or cultural influences of food consumption, but they may not integrate these findings with the accessibility of food. These factors cannot be ignored when considering the health of populations. Understanding the intricate relationship between food choices and food accessibility is vital to the realm of urban public health. This paper attempts to investigate these relationships and relate the findings to the local sphere, in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Take It But Don't Fake It: Using Self-Awareness To Reduce Fabrications On Personality Tests, Rebekah Lynn Hale

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Applicants have been shown to fake responses on personality tests when applying for a job to appear as if they have characteristics most similar to ones that management defines as ideal for the given position. The purpose of this study was to propose and test a method to decrease faking on personality tests. Participants took a cognitive ability test, an emotional intelligence measure, and personality scales online. In the second part of the study, participants read an accountant job description and then either played a hand-held game (control condition) or filled out a biographical questionnaire (treatment condition) designed to increase …

Message Framing In Political Advocacy Campaigns: A Media Study Of The 2014 Scottish Referendum For Independence From The United Kingdom, Christine Willette Todd

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Message framing is considered to be an important aspect in delivering a simplified and unified message in public relations. The use of media in political advocacy messaging is often the greatest influence in affecting voter interpretations and perceptions. According to several researchers (Hallahan, 1999; Putnam & Majia, 1992; Entman, 1993), message framing is used by various organizations to simplify complex ideas or gain emotional currency in political advocacy campaigns.

The present study seeks to identify the main framed messages that are currently being implemented in two political advocacy campaigns in the United Kingdom as conveyed by the UK news media. …

Eritrean Resettlement In Indianapolis, John Andrew Traylor

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This project has been designed to look into the challenges of resettlement for Eritreans moving to live in Indianapolis. The discussion of this work follows the footsteps of research on refugee resettlement by asking and responding to some of the common questions surrounding resettlement: why choose to resettle; what is a refugee'S initial response to entry into a host country; what is the resettlement process like; how does a refugee cope with their resettlement difficulties; and what are the prospects for future generations? This work will provide answers to these questions by analyzing the case of three resettled immigrants living …

An Evaluation Of The East Indianapolis Food Desert, Angelina Qin

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The Indy East Food Desert (IEFD) appears to suffer from many common conditions noted by various scholars as food desert identifiers. Yet, its situation still remains unique. Though there is a prevalence of minority populations, low-income households, and low-education attainment levels, there are also factors of low-access, poor food options (within the limited food outlets in the neighborhoods), and poor eating habits which shape the situation of the community. In an attempt to alleviate the food desert problems, the Indy East Food Desert Coalition (IEFDC) was formed. IEFDC partnered with Butler University's Center for Urban Ecology in order to assess …

Chronic, Lethal Versus Acute, Non-Lethal Threats: A Look Inside The Memories Of Cancer Patients At The Time Of Their Diagnosis, Angeline M. Modesti

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Consequentiality, affect, and rehearsal are also important components that help contribute to the recall of autobiographical memories. Traditionally, these features have been assessed in public dramatic events in the past such as the Challenger explosion and the 9/11 terrorist attack. In opposition to these traditionally studied events, the present study examined the effects of these features on five different private events. An analysis of these different experiences was assessed to determine the role of consequentiality, affect, and rehearsal play on memory recall. These three components were assessed in five different events during different points of the lifetime. Adults diagnosed with …

Revolutionizing The Revolution: An Examination Of Social Media's Role In The Egyptian Arab Spring, Needa A. Malik

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

By asserting that no revolution occurs singularly, I propose that revolutions occur in a multiplicity. Within the framework of the Arab Spring Revolutions, another revolution has been occurring concurrently: a social media revolution. This revolution is taking place in the digital, social media age. It is a revolution that has been tweeted, facebooked, recorded, documented and shared instantaneously on platforms that obeys few lines of political sovereignty. Revolution and political action can now truly be shown from the perspective of the common citizen. Activists have discovered a greater platform for their voices to be distributed and causes promoted. The Arab …

Clearing The Smoke: Understanding Organizational Change Communication And Misalignment In High-Risk Contexts, Laura E. Young

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Recent economic turbulence in the United States has resulted in budget cuts for many city-funded organizations, including high-risk organizations such as local fire departments. Budget cuts trigger organizational change and create uncertainty among employees, which is a major concern for high-risk organizations. This dissertation examined internal communication practices used during organizational change in an urban fire department and the influence of organizational structure and culture on communication satisfaction. This robust case study used a multi-method approach including interviews with middle managers (i.e., district majors), and focus groups and channel preference surveys with full-time firefighters from lower level ranks (i.e., firefighters, …

The Wrong Complexion For Protection: How The Government Response To Disaster Endangers African-American Communities. By Robert D. Bullard And Beverly Wright. New York: New York University Press, 2012. 304p. $35., Robin L. Turner

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Dr. Robin Turner's review of, The Wrong Complexion for Protection: How The Government Response to Disaster Endangers African-American Communities. By Robert D. Bullard and Beverly Wright. New York: New York University Press, 2012. 304p. $35.

Another Nibble At The Core: Student Learning In A Thematically-Focused Introductory Sociology Course, Jay R. Howard, Katherine B. Novak, Krista M.C. Cline, Marvin B. Scott

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Identifying and assessing core knowledge has been and continues to be a challenge that vexes the discipline of sociology. With the adoption of a thematic approach to courses in the core curriculum at Butler University, faculty teaching Introductory Sociology were presented with the opportunity and challenge of defining the core knowledge and skills to be taught across course sections with a variety of themes. This study of students (N = 280) enrolled in 12 sections of a thematically-focused Introductory Sociology course presents our attempt to both define and assess a core set of concepts and skills through a pretest-posttest questionnaire …

Traditional, Democratic, Accountable? Navigating Citizen-Subjection In Rural South Africa, Robin L. Turner

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Nearly two decades after South Africa’s democratization, questions of tradition and accountability continue to trouble the polity as more than 14 million black South Africans remain subject to state-recognized, so-called “traditional” leaders – kings, queens, chiefs and regents. This article deepens our understanding of contemporary governance by exploring the agency of these citizen-subjects through close examination of traditional leaders’ strategies and citizen-subjects’ mobilizations in four rural localities. These cases illustrate how citizen-subjects are working with, against and through traditional leaders and councils, hybrid organizations and independent groups to pursue community development and effective, accountable governance, and show how the present …

Vitamin D An Examination Of Physician And Patient Management Of Health And Uncertainty, Keisa Bennett, Brandi N. Frisby, Laura E. Young, Deborah Murray

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Vitamin D has been a topic of much research interest and controversy, and evidence is mixed concerning its preventive effects and health benefits. The purpose of our study was to explore the decision-making strategies used by both primary care providers and community members surrounding vitamin D in relation to uncertainty management theory. We conducted semistructured interviews with primary care providers (n = 7) and focus groups with community members (n = 89), and transcribed and coded using the constant comparative method. Themes for providers included awareness, uncertainty, patient role, responsibility, skepticism, uncertainty management, and evolving perceptions. Community member …

Gender Mainstreaming In Journalism Education, Margaretha Geertsema-Sligh

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

In a time of swift technological changes in the news media, much of journalism education is focused on preparing students for careers in a new media landscape instead of focusing on gender or other diversity issues. For example, Pavlik (2013, p.213) argued in a recent article that a curriculum that ‘emphasized innovation and digital media entrepreneurship is one of the keys to a robust professional future for the field and students seeking a media career’. Even so, Pavlik (2013, p.217) recognised that most programmes in media education are holding on to an outdated professional model of journalism and mass communication, …

Détournement, Decolonization, And The American Indian Occupation Of Alcatraz Island (1969–1971), Casey R. Kelly

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

On November 20, 1969, eighty-nine American Indians calling themselves the “Indians of All Tribes” (IOAT) invaded Alcatraz Island. The group’s founding proclamation was addressed to “the Great White Father and All His People,” and declared “We, the Native Americans, reclaim the land known as Alcatraz Island in the name of all American Indians by right of discovery” (2). Tongue-in-cheek, the IOAT offered to purchase Alcatraz Island for “twenty-four dollars in glass beads and red clothe.” In this essay, I illustrate how the IOAT engaged in a rhetoric of détournement, or a subversive misappropriation of dominant discourse that disassembles and imitates …

Remembering Radical Black Dissent: Traumatic Counter-Memories In Contemporary Documentaries About The Black Power Movement, Kristen Hoerl

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Contemporary rhetoric about race and racism has been shaped, in part, by popular films. Since the late 1980s and 1990s, Hollywood has provided a variety of what Kelly Madison refers to as "anti-racist-white-hero" films.¹ Movies including Amistad, Cry Freedom, The Long Walk Home, Mississippi Burning, and Ghosts of Mississippi have routinely positioned white protagonists as civil rights heroes who win justice for the black community by punishing or humiliating white antagonists. Each film frames racial injustice as the consequence of closed-minded individuals, rather than as the outcome of the U.S. economic and political system. More recently, the motion pictures …

Feminine Purity And Masculine Revenge-Seeking In Taken (2008), Casey R. Kelly

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

The 2008 film Taken depicts the murderous rampage of an ex-CIA agent seeking to recover his teenage daughter from foreign sex traffickers. I argue that Taken articulates a demand for a white male protector to serve as both guardian and avenger of white women's “purity” against the purportedly violent and sexual impulses of third world men. A neocolonial narrative retold through film, Taken infers that the protection of white feminine purity legitimates both male conquest abroad and overbearing protection of young women at home. I contend that popular films such as Taken are a part of the broader cultural system …

Bizarre Foods: White Privilege And The Neocolonial Palate, Casey R. Kelly

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

No abstract provided.

Strong-Tie Social Connections Versus Weak-Tie Social Connections, Mark A. Rademacher, Kevin Y. Wang

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Discussions regarding the strength of social ties relate to social capital theory. As Robert Putnam describes it, social capital theory suggests that social networks have value at the micro (individual), meso (community), and macro (societal) levels. An individual's social network is comprised of multiple, multiplex social ties of varying strengths. Strong ties exist among individuals connected within densely knit, homogenous networks such as those involving kin and close friends. Weak ties exist among individuals connected within sparse, heterogeneous networks such as those involving acquaintances.

Viral Marketing, Kevin Y. Wang, Mark A. Rademacher

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Viral marketing refers to the application of traditional word-of-mouth marketing to the online environment. Originally developed by Steve Jurvetson and Tim Draper in 1997, the term is used to describe online techniques designed to generate peer-to-peer conversation and buzz about a company, brand, product, or service. A message that contains something of value or appeal is diffused throughout members of a given social network, and ideally across networks, in an exponential fashion, much like the spread of a virus in medical parlance. The rapid adoption of digital and social media tools by politicians has led to an increased visibility and …

“We Are Not Free”: The Meaning Of In American Indian Resistance To President Johnson's War On Poverty, Casey R. Kelly

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

This essay examines how the ideograph was crafted through dialectical struggles between Euro-Americans and American Indians over federal Indian policy between 1964 and 1968. For policymakers, was historically sutured to the belief that assimilation was the only pathway to American Indian liberation. I explore the American Indian youth movement's response to President Johnson's War on Poverty to demonstrate how activists rhetorically realigned in Indian policy with the Great Society's rhetoric of “community empowerment.” I illustrate how American Indians orchestrated counterhegemonic resistance by reframing the “Great Society” as an argument for a “Greater Indian American.” This analysis evinces the rhetorical significance …

Media Versus Individual Frames And Horizontal Knowledge Gaps: A Study Of The 2010 Health Care Reform Debate Online, Kevin Y. Wang, David J. Atkin, Tuen-Yu Lau

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

This study explores the relationship between online news coverage, media use, and political knowledge in the contemporary media environment. Using the debate over health care reform legislation in 2010 as the backdrop, content analysis was performed on 1,268 stories from 10 online news outlets over a 1-month period to identify the media frames being perpetuated by more ideologically partisan versus nonpartisan media organizations. A survey was then conducted with 333 participants to investigate media audience news consumption patterns and their individual frames regarding the issue of health care reform. Results suggest that a person’s individual frames held concerning health care …

Synchrony, Complexity And Directiveness In Mothers' Interactions With Infants Pre- And Post-Cochlear Implantation, Mary K. Fagan, Tonya R. Bergeson, Kourtney J. Morris

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

This study investigated effects of profound hearing loss on mother–infant interactions before and after cochlear implantation with a focus on maternal synchrony, complexity, and directiveness. Participants included two groups of mother–infant dyads: 9 dyads of mothers and infants with normal hearing; and 9 dyads of hearing mothers and infants with profound hearing loss. Dyads were observed at two time points: Time 1, scheduled to occur before cochlear implantation for infants with profound hearing loss (mean age = 13.6 months); and Time 2 (mean age = 23.3 months), scheduled to occur approximately six months after cochlear implantation. Hearing infants were age-matched …

Exploring Community Engagement In The Indianapolis Opera Scene, Nicole Vasconi

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Despite its long history, the majority of today's society no longer holds this art form in such high regard. This is especially true for American culture, where opera companies are operating amidst a tumultuous time of foreclosures. The reasons for opera's continued decline in popularity among American audiences is a hotly debated topic for music historians and administrators, but the fact remains that the general public who once regarded opera as popular entertainment now rejects it as paltry and pointless. It is too Like many contemporary American opera companies, Indianapolis Opera and easy to cite the operas themselves as the …

The Ebb And Flow Of Performance Feedback, Chris Thompson

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Researchers have suggested differences between mindfulness and flow in their attentional breadth or focus. Being high or low in attentional breadth is more desirable depending on the situation or the focal task. I sought to better understand mindfulness and flow by seeing how they lessen negative emotional reactions to negative feedback, a process which can hinder performance improvement. In a laboratory experiment 92 Butler University undergraduate students underwent a Tetris performance task; where all participants received the same negative feedback. Measuring for emotional reactions and interest after the negative feedback I did not find significant findings in light of my …