Digital Commons Network^™

Static, Yet Fluctuating: The Evolution Of Batman And His Audiences, Perry Dupre Dantzler

English Theses

The Batman media franchise (comics, movies, novels, television, and cartoons) is unique because no other form of written or visual texts has as many artists, audiences, and forms of expression. Understanding the various artists and audiences and what Batman means to them is to understand changing trends and thinking in American culture. The character of Batman has developed into a symbol with relevant characteristics that develop and evolve with each new story and new author. The Batman canon has become so large and contains so many different audiences that it has become a franchise that can morph to fit any …

Ark Ruffians Comic Book, Lily Nishita

Art and Design

This is a written report documenting the research, story, sketch, and drawing phases for the illustration of a comic book.

Toward A Rhetoric Of Scholar-Fandom, Tanya R. Cochran

English Dissertations

Individuals who consider themselves both scholars and fans represent not only a subculture of fandom but also a subculture of academia. These liminal figures seem suspicious to many of their colleagues, yet they are particularly positioned not only to be conduits to engaged learning for students but also to transform the academy by chipping away at the stereotypes that support the symbolic walls of the Ivory Tower. Because they are growing in number and gaining influence in academia, the scholar-fans of the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Buffy) and other texts by creator Joss Whedon are one focus of …

Exploring The Factory: Analyzing The Film Adaptations Of Roald Dahl's Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Richard B. Davis

English Theses

Film adaptations are becoming more popular and past critics and scholars have discussed films based on dramas and novels. However, few have explored the children’s literature genre. In discussing such a topic, it takes more than just debating whether the novel or book is better. A discussion on what elements have been maintained, removed, or added in such an adaptation has to be made along with its success or failure. With this in mind, Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and its two film adaptations will be explored along with an analysis of film adaptation theory to …

Political Cartoons And Graphic Novels: A Study Of Political And Social Commentary In Comics, Daniella Orihuela-Gruber

Journalism

No abstract provided.

An Experimental Comparison Of Middle School Students' Motivation And Preference Toward Text- And Graphic-Based Programming, Stephen E. Williams

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to compare seventh-grade students' motivation and preference toward text-based programming using Visual Basic, and graphics-based programming using Robolab. Motivation was defined by the My Class Activities questionnaire using the dimensions of interest, challenge, choice, and enjoyment. Preference was determined through team and individual student choice. This study was conducted with 122 students from three 6-week technology education classes. This study examined two hypotheses. First, middles school students will be more motivated when using a graphics-based programming language than text-based as measured by the My Class Activities survey. The second hypothesis for this study …

In Dreams, Jesse Bickel

Theses

Dreams are a nightly phenomenon that everyone experiences. They are full of vivid imagery, imagination, and emotion. Using dreams as a rich source of inspiration I created wooden objects and furniture for the bedroom, the place where dreams occur. Even though dreams vary from person to person, there are common themes that can be found regardless of culture or gender. I tried to combine those themes with unique and specific imagery from my own dreams. Capturing the intangible quality of dreams proved to be difficult. A dream is like a memory, at times clear and intense, or contrastingly brief and …

Eganwo: The Graphic Novel’S Escape To Digital Media, Brian P. Kowalczyk

Theses

Comics are beginning to rise in popularity today, but there is still a significant portion of society that rejects comics as an art form. The main objective of this project was to develop a product for the comic book industry with which they could tap into and benefit from a broader online audience. This project attempts to further what recent success the comic book has had in other forms of media other than that of print, such as movies, videogames, and motion graphics. Reaching out to new demographics on the World Wide Web and combining the comic book experience with …

Modification Of Nancie Atwell's Reading Workshop For Implementation In A Homogeneous Group Of Struggling Adolescent Readers, Marilyn Ludwig Pickett

Masters Theses

The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the effectiveness of Nancie Atwell's reading workshop in motivating homogeneously grouped, struggling adolescent readers in a public school setting. This naturalistic, personal narrative describes the Atwell workshop and the modifications made to it for implementation with this group of students. Atwell, a noted reading educator, uses specific strategies to teach the heterogeneously grouped students in her private school in Maine. Her students' independent thinking skills and personal connections to text are remarkable. Since I do not teach in the same environment as Atwell, I modified Atwell's strategies to meet the needs …

That Almond Smell: Seven Short Stories, John J. Mccormack

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

No abstract

Music In Motion: The Synthesis Of Album Design And Motion Graphics For Downloadable Music, Ryan Mott

Theses

In an age when downloading media is increasing at an exponential rate, static album art has become obsolete. Current digital album artwork does not take advantage of the available technology. Nor does it provide the user with an integrated experience. Previous attempts at linking music to moving imagery have resulted in uninspiring "visualizer" plugins. These types of media player add-ons do not produce emotionally or narratively relevant imagery for the user. Furthermore, the limited selection of downloadable media that includes a digital booklet, separates the booklet contents from the album cover. More importantly, these disconnected elements do not compensate for …

From Picture To Word To The World: A Multimodal, Cultural Studies Approach To Teaching Graphic Novels In The English Classroom, Shannon Renee Mortimore

Dissertations

Sequential narratives such as comics, graphic novels and Manga (Japanese-style comics) have long been popular in youth culture. Recent attention has shifted to the potential of utilizing these alternative texts in the secondary classroom, yet very little information for English teachers exists regarding how to engage students in close, careful, and culturally informed analysis of these works. While there is a long tradition of thoughtful analytical teaching about literary texts, when it comes to the study of various media with strong image content, language arts teachers often may not know how to proceed. Indeed, preconceptions about the legitimacy of comics …

Ultrakinetic Features Of Anime Texts: Revisioning Composition Theory And Exploring Visual Rhetoric Pedagogy., Karen Ware 1973-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Our contemporary culture is laden with a glut of visual stimuli: advertising, packaging, television, film, the internet, digital-camera-wireless-web-access-mobile-phones. In a world filled with visually rhetorical media, it is imperative that the field of Composition continue to embrace the theorizing and use of visual rhetoric an apt (if not vital) pursuit. It seems a responsible choice to select visual texts and/or visually rich writing assignments in order to address the current fabric of public/private communication. Furthermore, such texts can potentially set the student reader (viewer/writer/designer/composer) at ease in the sometimes daunting task of becoming a "college writer" and subsequently a professional …

Stigma Cities: Dystopian Urban Identities In The United States West And South In The Twentieth Century, Jonathan Lavon Foster

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examines how historical events and representation of those events relative to the wider historical context have allowed the media, opinion setters, and the ordinary public to use the names of San Francisco, California, Birmingham, Alabama and Las Vegas, Nevada as denigrating adjectives and the effect of this usage on those cities. Exploration of Birmingham’s image as a racist city, San Francisco’s as a gay Mecca, and Las Vegas, Nevada’s as an adult playground or sinful city serves this purpose. These case studies support a central argument that the nature of place-based stigmatization’s influence depends upon ever-shifting cultural values …

The Quest Of Childhood Memory, So Yeon Yang

Theses

An articulation of my experience is found in my artworks. The works are confessional because their themes are based on my autobiographical traces. Each piece of artwork represents a personal situational narrative in itself. The creation of life size underwear and outfits in plastic - the whimsical, transparent, and glittery images of cutout silhouettes depict hidden desire as well as nostalgia. Because dresses possess distinctive nuances such as activeness, fantasy, and intimacy, I will research a variety of styles along with different poses and gestures to explore their expressions. By interpretation and analysis of the object - the artwork produced, …

A Brand New Bond: Shifting Strategies For 007 In The Age Of Conglomeration And Convergence, Katherine C. Skophammer

Institute for the Humanities Theses

Financial success would seem to be the logical goal of the film industry. If the current narrative formula reaps financial rewards for a film franchise there should be no impetus for change. Yet, that is exactly what happened to the James Bond franchise in 2006, with the release of the prequel Casino Royale. Sony Corporation and the Bond film :franchise traversed similar paths. In 2005, Sony purchased MGM, which held the Bond library as well as the rights to future Bond film productions.

Sony's industrial needs differed greatly from MGM's. MGM continually recycled the Bond formula for 20 films …

How Does Playful Active Learning Motivate Students To Write And Affect Performance In Writing?, Allison N. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines students' writing and how educators can motivate students to write. The problem that this study attempts to examine is the effect that motivation has on student writing. This study used teaching methods that incorporate active learning and guided play into the curriculum. Over the course of a three- week period, a classroom of fourth graders was examined to determine if they could be motivated to write. Surveys, a focus group, in class lessons, and a writing journal were used within this study. At the conclusion of the study, it was determined that playful active learning can be …

Direction Of The Musical: You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, Megan Ann Ahern

Master of Theater Production Graduate Projects

This project entailed the selection, background research and documentation, musical analysis, casting, direction, vocal coaching, and post-production analysis of K.O. Knudson Middle School's production of Megan Ann Ahern's You're A Good Man Charlie Brown. Documentation includes research and analysis of the play, its music, and an evaluation of the musical as a production vehicle for the department of Theatre Arts at Central Washington University. The analysis also includes a discussion as to the non-traditional directorial vision of this production.

The Effects Of Reinforcement Magnitude And Session Length On Stereotypical Behavior Of An Adolescent With Autism, Spiro Kotsios

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Functional Analysis is an important component of creating a treatment plan for individuals with autism. A concern of functional analysis is that it might not match the natural environment in which the problem behavior occurs. Dimensions such as varying reinforcement duration and session length may affect response rates during functional analyses in natural settings. This study investigated if varying reinforcement duration and session length during functional analyses would affect the identification of the function of problem behavior across assessors, and the intervention designed based on the functional analyses would be effective in reducing stereotypic behavior and teaching communicative skills of …

Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: Honing The Hybridity Of The Graphic Novel, Dallas Dycus

English Dissertations

The genre of comics has had a tumultuous career throughout the twentieth century: it has careened from wildly popular to being perceived as the source of society’s ills. Despite having been relegated to the lowest rung of the artistic ladder for the better part of the twentieth century, comics has been gaining in quality and respectability over the last couple of decades. My introductory chapter provides a broad, basic introduction to the genre of comics––its historical development, its different forms, and a survey of comics criticism over the last thirty years. In chapter two I clarify the nature of comics …

Missionaries And Other Stories, Bradford Eugene Tice

Doctoral Dissertations

Bradford E. Tice's debut collection, Missionaries and Other Stories, is a series of stories that attempts to capture the restless spirit of modern America. The characters here are driven by a cause--on a mission to find meaning in a world that no longer makes sense to them. In the title story, two Mormon missionaries set their sights on two vastly different goals, one secular and one celestial, as they go door to door in search of answers to the questions of who they are and what they are made of. Other stories in the collection feature characters who seek understanding …

Modernity, Historical Trauma, And The Crisis Of Ethics Reading Nathanael West's Miss Lonelyhearts After Levinas, Tyler Joseph Efird

Masters Theses

Nathanael West's tragically brief creative career was intensely concerned with the anomie of modern society, especially in the landscape of twentieth-century America. For West, this landscape is one populated by the disintegration of traditional community and the interrogation of values once posited as unassailable. As such, conventional West criticism has read the author as an intractable nihilist. Within the last decade, however, West criticism has taken an entirely new approach. Critics like Jonathan Greenberg and Justus Nieland have attempted to erect an ethical West by placing him within the discourse of modernist antisentimentalism. It is within this critical reevaluation of …

Creating Cultural Monsters: A Critical Analysis Of The Representation Of Serial Murderers In America, Julie Bethany Wiest

Doctoral Dissertations

Serial murder and serial murderers have been the subject of considerable attention in fictional crime shows (e.g, the various versions of "Law and Order" and "CSI") and movies (e.g., "The Silence of the Lambs"), as well as in the print media, since the term and profile for "serial killer" were developed by the FBI in the 1970s. White, American men are frequently identified as being over-represented as serial murderers, but no adequate sociological explanation has yet been developed for this. Biological and psychological explanations are deficient, and the cultural context generally has been ignored in previous studies. Informed by a …

How Do Elementary School Boys Characterize Their Reading Favorites And Behaviors?, Brenda J. Koonce

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a boy crisis in our schools. It also looked at what the boys are interested in and what are they reading. The study investigated the latest research on young boys struggling to read, and their comparison to young girls.

The study provided evidence of their favorite books and authors. It furnished information on the boys' computer and television time. The study showed how the boys selected books and where they located new books. Percentages were presented about their personal libraries.

Overall, the study investigated how to make classrooms and …

A Historical Analysis Of Physician Dissatisfaction, Lisa Mcdonald

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Given the growing levels of physician dissatisfaction and attrition, this study was conducted to ask what was the historical development of the events that gave rise to the problematic conditions, what are the characteristics of the current daily practice environment that create dissatisfaction, and what are the consequences of physician dissatisfaction? This research was conducted by literature review compiled from both the lay and scientific sectors, however, when possible primary sources were employed. As a science, medicine undoubtedly has improved over the last century. However, this review would suggest that developments in the last 30 years have created a contemporary …

Strategies To Encourage And Support The Reluctant Middle School Male Reader, Wendy L. Poppema

Master of Education Program Theses

Studies (Lee, Grigg, & Donahue, 2007) show that girls outperform boys on reading tests and that boys, especially older boys, are less likely to read for enjoyment in and out of school (Scholastic, 2008). Societal pressure, lack of literacy skills, and lack of motivation are all obstacles that contribute to these findings. In order to raise test scores and the level of reading engagement, teachers, parents, and librarians need to connect these reluctant male readers with books and other reading material that they want to read. Boys prefer non-traditional texts, and though fiction is not a preference, boys crave certain …

Rhetorical Inventions/Inventional Rhetorics: Opening Possibilities, Justin Hodgson

All Dissertations

This work seeks to open possibilities for rhetorical invention, or perhaps more accurately, to indicate how changes in technology (and the essences of technology) are opening radical possibilities not just for rhetorical invention but also for how we speak, how we think, or even how we live in our worlds. It traces shifts in rhetorical invention: beginning from primary oral cultures, which made linkages via a process of 'AND' or divine inspiration, represented by the +, to literate cultures (or print-cultures), which predominantly invent via analogy and discovery, represented by the =, and to electronic cultures, which revel in the …

Deus Ex Machinima: A Rhetorical Analysis Of User-Generated Machinima, Sean Callot

All Theses

Beginning with corporate demonstrations and continuously evolving into today, machinima has become a major expressive art form for the gamer generation. Machinima is the user-centered production of video presentations using pre-rendered animated content, as generated from video games. The term 'machinima' is a combination of 'machine' (from which the video content is derived) and 'cinema' (the ultimate end product). According to Paul Marino and other members of the machinima community, Hugh Hancock, the creator of Machinima.com, first coined the term in 2000. Video productions of this kind have been used in various capacities for the past several years, including instruction …

Co Co Nut, Jiunnfu Su

Theses

This paper is a companion to my thesis film, CoCo Nut. Thesis film is the third animation I made at RIT. From Position (one quarter film) to Noble (two quarter film), the core focus of my story moved from individuality to family; so for my third and last film at RIT, I wanted to make my country the core essence of my story. The idea of my thesis film is about Taiwan, where I was born and raised. It is a story on the importance of cooperation. Due to our unique historical and political background, the two ruling parties of …

Teaching English As A Second Language Students Literacy: A Comprehensive Literacy Model For Monolingual Educators, Kristen M. Rodgers

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This research project, utilizing both primary and secondary sources, provides teachers with effective methods and activities to develop literacy in a monolingual classroom for English as a second language (ESL) students. The literacy methods and activities within this research project are broken into the five components of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension) and writing. The conclusion of this research project provides teachers with the necessary steps to enhance literacy instruction for ESL students.