Digital Commons Network^™

Abracadabra: Key Agents Of Mediation That Define, Create, And Maintain Tv Fandom, David H. Gardner

Communication Theses

From a media industries, fan studies, and emerging socio-cultural public relations perspective, this project pulls back the Hollywood curtain to explore two questions: 1) How do TV public relations practitioners and key tastemaker/gatekeeper media define, create, build, and maintain fandom?; and 2) How do they make meaning of fandom and their agency/role in fan creation from their position of industrial producers, cultural intermediaries, members of the audience, and as fans themselves? This project brings five influential, working public relations and media professionals into a conversation about two case studies from the 2010-2011 television season – broadcast network CBS’ Hawaii Five-0 …

First Impressions, Second Appraisals: Going Beyond The “Paratextual Contract” In The American Televisual Opening Title Sequence, Erik K. Clabaugh

Communication Theses

Much of the existing academic discourse surrounding opening title sequences suggests that they function primarily by providing viewers with information concerning a program’s characters, settings, genre and themes. Such accounts seemingly fail to recognize more nuanced concurrent functions. Utilizing the concept of paratexts originally proposed by Gerard Genette in combination with a neoformalist approach to analysis, this project identifies patterns, narrative components, stylistic elements and various industrial and authorial characteristics within the field of American televisual opening title sequences in order to explore some of these underlying concomitant functions, and classify the segments that perform them accordingly.

Deadly Viper Character Assassins: Cyber Discourse On Asian American Marginalization And Identity, Eileen Wang

Communication Theses

This study examines how Asian Americans articulate their marginalization and identity, as well as other issues related to race, through the use of blogs. Specifically, I look at discourse surrounding the Deadly Viper Character Assassins publication controversy on three different blogs. I draw upon critical discourse analysis (CDA) to compile patterns, themes, and anomalies from the online discussions. This paper highlights key findings, given the scarceness of Asian American voices in public culture, that prompt ongoing discussions about identity and the use of blogs as a platform to speak and conceptualize Asian American identity.

Understanding Diversity: Top Executives' Perceptions Of Racial And Ethnic Diversity In Public Relations, Amber H. Irizarry

Communication Theses

In public relations, minority public relations practitioners are feeling left behind by the profession (Ford & Appelbaum, 2005). Where do top executives stand on employment diversity within their organizations? An online survey of 20 top executives of small-sized public relations agencies explored how top executives’ perceptions of and normative beliefs about diversity practices were related to their future engagement in diversity practices at work. Based on the theory of reasoned action, this explanatory study found that executives’ perceptions of peer endorsement of diversity were associated with greater intention of organizational engagement in diversity practices. Neither perceived benefits of nor perceived …

Friend Request Accepted: A Case Study Of Facebook's Expansionary Network Strategies In India, Devna Thapliyal

Communication Theses

Facebook’s status as the world’s largest social networking platform is well documented. However, studies focusing on Facebook are largely limited to how individuals and businesses use the platform and not on how Facebook expands globally and affects markets and competition in foreign countries. Although international communication scholars have scrutinized the international expansion of major media corporations like Time Warner, Disney and News Corp., analysis on Facebook remains scarce. This thesis seeks to fill in the gap in scholarly research by conducting a meso-level (i.e. organizational level) analysis of Facebook’s expansion into developing countries through the theoretical lens of networks. The …

Image Trends In Corporate Environmental Reporting: Bolstering Reputation Through Transparency Or Widening The “Sustainability Gap”?, Sarah E. Brooks

Communication Theses

As companies discover the monetary benefits of a positive environmental image, a proliferation of green imaging confounds the public sphere. The consequence becomes the disarticulation of terms like environmental excellence, sustainable development, and minimum environmental harm. Because the oversaturation of greening efforts has elicited public distrust, stakeholders need timely and accurate information regarding environmental claims. As a major vehicle for communicating these efforts, corporate environmental reports (CERs) are laden with colorful and sublime images. This study examines the functionality of images found in CERs from 27 industry leaders, applying Sonja Foss’s tenets of visual rhetorical analysis to …

Product Placement Decisions On-Set, Maria Flavia T. Pulliam

Communication Theses

This thesis is an ethnographic study of the product placement decisions made on-set during the production of a feature film. A concise historical review of the use of products in film and television is followed by an overview of the current research literature. The literature overview reveals a need for specific additional research. The research question which directed the present study intends to add to the existing literature: product placement is part of a creative decision-making process that happens throughout production on-set with filmmakers using products to help tell their story. The method used to approach the research question is …

Playing For Resistance In Mmorpg: Oppositional Reading, Emergence, And Hegemony In The Lineage Ii "Bartz Liberation War", Yoon Sang Cho

Communication Theses

Massively multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG) open new worlds and new societies in the virtual space. Those worlds and societies rapidly expand and become important to the real world. Therefore, to understand them, this thesis examines the meanings and impacts of resistance in the MMORPG worlds and gaming culture from the case of an unprecedented grassroots revolution in Lineage II, which is called the “Bartz Liberation War.” By using the concepts of “oppositional reading,” “emergence,” and “hegemony,” this thesis examines how playing for resistance emerges and becomes dominant and explores the impact of resistance in both the gaming …

Another Brick In The Wall: Public Space, Visual Hegemonic Resistance, And The Physical/Digital Continuum, Daniel Gilmore

Communication Theses

In this thesis I will demonstrate that there is a similarity between the use of physical walls and digital walls as means of ideological dissemination by power structures as well as socio-political protesters. Also, I will show that their use in this manner not only changes the way that both function ideologically, but also changes the environment that these walls are created/exist in as well. The first case study will analyze Banksy’s employment of carnivalesque graffiti as a means of protest. The second case study will analyze the use of digital public space and “walls” created within social media as …

Representations Of Haiti In Western News Media: Coverage Of The January 2010 Earthquake In Haiti, Hillary L. Brown

Communication Theses

On January 12, 2010, the Caribbean nation of Haiti suffered from one of the most devastating earthquake in recent history. The purpose of this study is to explore representations of Haiti in Western news media coverage of the disaster. The researcher utilized Jiwani’s (2006) theoretical framework of common sense stock knowledge to explore the relationship between the Western news media and Haiti, with an emphasis on media framing. Additionally, the method of journalistic discourse analysis was employed as a means of analyzing the 90 article sample. The researcher found that there were several frames that dominated coverage of the disaster …

Engaging Mexican And Mexican-American Mothers In Schools: Using Culture, Acculturation, And The Situational Theory Of Publics To Motivate Parental Involvement, Linda C. Perez

Communication Theses

ABSTRACT

Hispanic parents face several barriers that impede their involvement in their children’s education. This lack of parental involvement negatively affects the academic outcome of students, graduation rates, and college attendance. This study uses the situational theory of publics to determine what kind of public Mexican parents are, and makes recommendations on what is the best way to engage them and motivate them to participate in schools. Seventeen Mexican mothers were interviewed about their views on education and relationships with their children’s teachers and schools. Findings revealed that the main barriers to parental involvement among Mexican parents are work, language …

Remember, Anthony C. Vines

Communication Theses

REMEMBER is a film script that operates within the horror genre but touches upon the subgenre of body horror as well as the sub-subgenre of body modification/alteration. It examines psychological and sociological issues such as identity and acceptance, gender understanding and social assignment.

The story follows five young women who live outside the norms of ‘acceptable’ society. After an accident near a small, isolated, rural town called Tantalus leaves them stranded with strangers, the girls soon find that something is amiss. Having arrived during a tornado just before the towns Founder’s Day festival, they discover there is more in Tantalus …

Thinking Globally, Acting Locally, Discussing Online: The Slow Food Movement Quickens With New Media, Carolyn Bender

Communication Theses

Even with its opposition to “fast” and “globalization,” the Slow Food movement has embraced new media and speed to disseminate information to a worldwide audience. The organization’s use of new and social media is the focus of this ethnographic study to examine the online discourse of the movement through the theoretical lens of international political economy of media and globalization theory. Online interviews via social media and supplemental textual analysis of Slow Food-related online discourse reveals themes concerning time, education and community and shows that participation in the dialogic discussion surrounding Slow Food online varies widely across groups and new …