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Social and Behavioral Sciences

Master of Arts in Communication

Series

2019

Communication

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Information Avoidance In Risky Financial Behavior, Shannon Foglia Apr 2019

Information Avoidance In Risky Financial Behavior, Shannon Foglia

Master of Arts in Communication

Maxing out credit cards, spending savings accounts, and only paying off the credit card minimum each month are all examples of risky financial behaviors that tend to get college students into debt. These risky choices can stay with a student long after college, making them unable to buy a home or achieve financial independence. As one of the last taboos, personal finances are rarely a topic of conversation among students and their social networks. This investigation uses the Theory of Motivated Information Management to understand what makes college students avoid information and communication regarding personal financial behaviors. Results showed that …


Cognitive Processing And Climate Change: The Impact Of Political Ideology On Processing Climate Change Information, Quinn Massaroni Jan 2019

Cognitive Processing And Climate Change: The Impact Of Political Ideology On Processing Climate Change Information, Quinn Massaroni

Master of Arts in Communication

This study addressed information processing for climate change messages from representatives of a political party. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the political ideology of a message source and message sender and its impact on perceived hazard characteristics, negative affective response, and information processing behavior. Hypothesis 1 and Hypothesis 2 posited that when the source and message receiver have the same political ideology, the receiver will experience heightened levels of concern about climate change. Hypothesis 3 and Hypothesis 4 posited that, regardless of the message source, participants are more inclined to heuristically process information. Research …


Trends In American Newspaper Coverage Of Autism, Allison Miller Jan 2019

Trends In American Newspaper Coverage Of Autism, Allison Miller

Master of Arts in Communication

The public's understanding of disabilities is cultivated via several media resources, including news media. Disability scholars often cite negative representations of disabilities in mass media, yet analyses of newspaper journalists' coverage of autism remain scarce. The present study explores the frames, stereotypes, stigmatizing cues, and individuals cited in news coverage of autism through a content analysis of The New York Times and USA Today coverage of autism from 2013-2016. The findings revealed that episodic frames are consistently utilized to discuss autism. References to abnormal social tendencies and coupling autism with adverse circumstances were the most common stereotypes in newspaper coverage. …