Digital Commons Network^™

Memes, Themes, And Rhetorical Schemes: Analyzing The Themes And Rhetorical Devices Used By Meme Creators In American Political Internet Memes In The First Week Of The Ukrainian-Russian War, Edward B. Zimmerman

Communication Theses

Internet memes carry news messages to mass audiences through social media platforms. In seconds, global events can be transmitted to millions of users in the form of an image with text overlayed. Despite the power of memes, there has been little scholarly research devoted to the selection mechanism of meme-makers. As both audience and creator, meme-makers’ craft and consume messages capable of influence. Grounded in work on rhetorical analysis and framing, this study examined memes posted to conservative and liberal affiliated Reddit communities in the wake of the first days of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The analysis focused on the themes …

The Contribution Of Saudi Female Journalists In Newspapers: Before And After Saudi Vision 2030, Razan Aljohani

Communication Theses

This study examined the contributions of female Saudi journalists to traditional newspapers between 2014 and 2018 and analyzed the impact of Saudi Vision 2030 on their work. The findings indicated that Saudi female journalists predominantly discussed local affairs and social issues, while their coverage of political, economic, and women's issues was limited. After the implementation of Saudi Vision 2030, female journalists' contributions to political and economic matters, women's rights and issues, and social issues such as unemployment and terrorism decreased. However, coverage of Islamic movements and religious extremists remained consistent before and after Vision 2030 and was mostly featured in …

The Identity Of Yoga: Contemporary Vs. Traditional Yogic Discourse, Octavia Nasr

Communication Theses

Modern yoga is a multibillion-dollar economy that penetrated many fields, from fitness to healthcare. Yoga’s popularity shows its relevance and adaptability. However, scholars found that modern yoga is synonymous with postural yoga. In this thesis, I establish that yoga’s identity is rooted in the Eight Limbs of the iconic Yoga Sutras of Patanjali ––postures being one of the limbs constituting yoga’s identifiers. Then, I link the yogic postural shift to the truncation of yoga’s identifiers in teacher training curricula. I argue that modern yoga schools focus more on postures and downplay the other limbs, especially the first two – ethical …

“Better Than We Found It”: A Persuasive Narrative & Its Impact, Alexandra Holzworth

Communication Theses

This study examined Maren Morris’s music video for the country song “Better Than We Found It” and her audiences’ response in 672 comments left on her Instagram post of the music video. The study focused on narrative persuasion throughout the video in support of the Black Lives Matter movement, immigration reform/the DREAM Act, and the importance of being good stewards. A thematic analysis was conducted on the music video followed by qualitative and quantitative analysis of the Instagram comments. Results showed that overall commenters expressed support for Maren Morris as an artist and for her music video’s message. Results also …

Hijacked Christianity: How An Aberrant Eschatology Enables A Grievance Culture That Supplants Christian Grace For An Extremist Meritocracy, David Sharp

Communication Theses

The Evangelical participation attack on Capitol Hill that happened on January 6th, 2021, that almost toppled American Democracy, was an eye-opening experience to the dangers of radicalization. For this paper, the central question is, do recent evolutions to Christian Eschatology (Premillennialism/Postmillennialism) give exigence to the radicalization of mainstream American Evangelicalism via a Dominionist ideology? This study is a rhetorical criticism that will examine sermons of four prominent Neo Charismatic around the time of the 2020 National COVID Lockdown Announcement and the Capitol Hill Insurrection. This study uses a Constant Comparative Method (CCM) to inductively identify the possible themes, and a …

Mammies, Sapphires, And Jezebels Don’T Marry: Televised Media, Black Stereotypes, And Low Marriage Rates, Aysha Labon

Communication Theses

Black women are one of the most progressive minority groups in the U.S. in terms of business and economics. While they may excel in the area of career, Black women hold the lowest rates of marriage in the country. The goal of this study was to uncover what role, if any, do media stereotypes of Black women play in the marriage gap. Findings suggest that Black men and Black women are, perhaps dismissing one another in terms of romantic relationships because of the images they see on television. 11 self-identified single, heterosexual, Black women were interviewed for the study and …

Jammu And Kashmir During The Communication Blackout: A Textual Analysis Of Indian News Coverage, Akansha Sirohi

Communication Theses

This study examines the news coverage of Jammu and Kashmir conflict during the communication blackout of 2019. Using comparative analysis, it explores right-leaning, left-leaning and neutral newspapers to examine how political leanings affected the news coverage and asks whether the coverage challenges the actions by the central government amid limitations of press freedom in Jammu and Kashmir. The findings indicate the ideological leanings of the newspapers affected the news coverage during the communication blackout and the news overwhelmingly supported the central government’s nationalist ideologies and relied on government officials for information. However, a few stories, primarily in the left-leaning Hindu …

Attitudes Towards Depression And Suicide: An Analysis Of News Coverage And Online Comments On Nigerian News Sites, Oluwamayomikun Lawal

Communication Theses

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the issue of suicide in Nigeria, based on an analysis of online news articles about suicide as well as posts in response to those news articles. The study examined how the articles framed suicide, including stereotypes about suicide, and how often comments reflected common beliefs/attitudes towards suicide. Twenty-four articles and 168 comments were analyzed. Results revealed stereotypes in language and images in the articles, which often deviated from the World Health Organization responsible suicide-reporting guidelines. The articles cited economic hardship and mental illness most often as causes of suicide, but none of the articles provided solutions …

Stronger: An Examination Of The Effects Of The Strong Black Woman Narrative Through The Lifespan Of African American Women, Verinique Bailey

Communication Theses

The Strong Black Woman narrative and characteristic fosters both positive and negative representations of African American women. This study explores the lived experiences of African American women and their encounters with stereotypes, particularly the Strong Black Woman narrative and characteristic, through their lifespan. By examining three dominant age groups (young adults, middle-aged adults, and older adults) this study analyzed the level of endorsement to the Strong Black Woman narrative in connection to self-care and help seeking behaviors. The article and supplemental documentary contribute to existing research and support the idea that African American women become stronger when they practice self-care …

The Curvy Girl Handbook Vs. The Industry: A Unique Body Image In A One-Track Business, Jessica Wise

Communication Theses

Two years ago, I expanded my growing blog, The Curvy Girl Handbook, into a detailed, hard copy book. As I complete my education, I have yet to present my book for a publisher or consumer. It has been workshopped, revisited, and industry researched. This thesis shows the need for publishers to open their doors to more black female authors.

My study explores the impact of whitewashing in the publishing industry for fitness-related works for women. Following a literature review of the historic portrayals of the curvy figure and the black female body, I employ a quick overview of the publishing …

Content Is President: The Influence Of Netflix On Taste, Politics And The Future Of Television, Alanna Esack

Communication Theses

The evolving television industry relies heavily on the corresponding shift in the audiences that it addresses. New practice for consumption and production, particularly the “disruptive” force of streaming services like Netflix, have been evidenced not only in the methods of the companies themselves but also in the content they have begun to offer. A milestone in the television industry, Netflix’s first original series House of Cards provides an innovative and meaningful installment to the genre of political melodrama, which has its own cultural significance and heritage of mapping audience relations to the media. Analyzing the text, this paper reveals how …

The Chinese Image In Sino-Hollywood Co-Produced Blockbusters During The Era Of Globalization, Zhewen Song

Communication Theses

This thesis explores the global-local interplay among three key players, which are Hollywood, the Chinese government, and Chinese film industry, by analyzing representations of China and Chinese culture in three kinds of modes of film cooperation between Hollywood and China in the era of globalization. Drawing on both the analysis of three factors respectively and the elaboration of tripartite push-and-pull, a spectrum of film collaboration has been built to find out how the leveraging powers work, indicating that the images of China in selected films manifest a shared cultural identity that is hybridized and market-friendly. By further discussing China’s position …

Interactive Social Selling And Relationship Management On Wechat, Ying Sun

Communication Theses

The thesis examined the phenomenon of micro-entrepreneurship, social selling and relationship management on WeChat. I used autoethnography as my research methodology, and the findings contribute to academic area on social selling, micro-entrepreneurship, social marketing, relationship management, and strategic communication. This paper also explored how WeChat users conduct their management strategies and relationship marketing in the common Chinese culture background. Findings revealed that WeChat is an ideal social selling and marketing approach for Chinese individual sellers to accomplish their business goal.

“Beloved Be The Ones Who Sit Down”: Aesthetics And Political Affect In Roy Andersson’S “Living” Trilogy, Ella Tucan

Communication Theses

Roy Andersson’s unique surrealist style and the affect it gives rise to, situated somewhere between deep existential dread and the most absurdist humor, are intimately connected to his staging of action in stacked layers of meaning in deep focus, immobile long takes. A formal reading of his films then gives us a greater understanding of the connection between affect and film style.But the tableau which all but evacuates time in Andersson is not only a stylistic choice: this challenge to traditional structures and temporalities is the formal manifestation of his anachronistic conception of history. I argue that cinematic time is …

Legislation As A Site Of Contested Meaning In United States Congressional Debates, John Rountree

Communication Theses

Rhetoric and public policy scholars have shown interest in uncertainty and polysemy in Congress, but they have traditionally treated legislation as a given. Members of Congress disagree about what policy should be, but they also disagree about what any given bill proposes to do. From a rhetorical perspective, I investigate the creation of uncertainty about legislation through the 2013 Senate debate on immigration. I argue that legislation is inherently ambiguous because legislative debate is consistently pushed behind the language of statutes. Rather than consider statutes unto themselves, members of Congress understand them in terms of the potential acts they sanction. …

The Chromophilic Chromophobe: Transference Of Racial Otherness In Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, Reginald Hill

Communication Theses

Reggie Hill

The Chromophilic Chromophobe: Transference of Racial Otherness in The Royal Tenebaums

In this essay, I will analyze the role that color plays in the construction of cinematic otherness through close textual analysis of Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums. Drawing from studies of phenomenology of whiteness and space, and of the effects of color in cinema, I will examine the relationship between characters, their surroundings, and the colors around them in order to highlight a paradox between the ways in which whiteness becomes normalized in the characters, and how what I’ll refer to as Anderson’s “chromophilic” approach to …

Making It In America: How Charles Dickens And His Cunning Manager George Dolby Made Millions From A Performance Tour Of The United States, 1867-1868, Jillian Martin

Communication Theses

Charles Dickens embarked on a profitable journey to the United States in 1867, when he was the most famous writer in the world. He gave seventy-six public readings, in eighteen cities. Dickens and his manager, George Dolby, devised the tour to cash in on his popularity, and Dickens earned the equivalent of more than three million dollars. They created a persona of Dickens beyond the literary luminary he already was, with the help of the impresario, P.T. Barnum. Dickens became the first British celebrity to profit from paid readings in the United States. This research thesis asks how Dickens earned …

Comparative Modalities Of Network Neutrality, Kyle Wrather

Communication Theses

This project examines the ongoing debate over internet content discrimination, more commonly referred to as network neutrality. It offers a new approach to examining this issue by combining a critical, political economy approach with Lawrence Lessig’s four modalities of regulation: policy, architecture, markets, and norms. It presents a critical, comparative case study analysis of how architecture, markets and norms have shaped United States policy along with comparative examples from select international case studies facing similar regulatory issues. Its findings suggest that while each of the four modalities plays a significant role in the regulation and persistence of network neutrality, there …

Untouchable Hunger: Framing Of Childhood Poverty In India, May 2012-April 2014, Amber L. Welch

Communication Theses

The effects of childhood poverty and hunger in India are systemic. Almost half of the county’s children are classified as malnourished—and 47 percent of those under the age of three are underweight (UNICEF, 2014). This thesis analyzes how Indian’s English-language press has portrayed this widespread health issue during the past two years. This thesis also examines how the framing in the English-language press relates to the frames in the Hindi-language press. In light of framing theory, the study has found that the press used three principal media frames to portray child hunger. One frame focused on socioeconomic disparities, a second …

Step Into A Blue Funk: Transversal Color And Derek Jarman's Blue, Daren Fowler

Communication Theses

Derek Jarman’s Blue has a complicated reception and exhibition history. Stuck between his past representational queer cinema and the inability to represent the suffering and death from AIDS, Jarman crafted a film of radical stylistics. It is in Blue’s striking color that a transversality of form, sensation, and visuality occurs, and in so doing, produces a space for synesthetic affectivity and collective desire. This thesis will use those radical formal elements and the history of Jarman and Blue to position color away from the phobic tradition of color theory and towards a flowing site of political rupture.

The Clinton Administration's Use Of Hermeneutic Opportunities In The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights And The Convention On The Prevention And Punishment Of The Crime Of Genocide During The Bosnia And Rwanda Genocides, Kimberly Overmier

Communication Theses

This thesis explores the hermeneutic opportunities in the United Nations’ human rights documents which are used by states, like the United States, to rhetorically circumvent the responsibilities the documents place on U.N. member states. The way these opportunities are strategically used is examined through case studies of the Clinton administration attempts to evade involvement in the Bosnian and Rwandan genocides. News conferences, press briefings and speeches are used to do a rhetorical analysis of Clinton’s strategy in order to determine how that strategy was shaped by the constraints and opportunities of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention …

The Nonhuman Lives Of Videogames, Cameron Kunzelman

Communication Theses

Videogames are not subjects to be operated on, but rather bodies that humans live both with and inside of. In order to reconcile human existence with this nonhuman life, this thesis looks to evaluate the exact relationships developed between humans and assemblages in order to understand how humans are disciplined to return to games time and time again. The recognition of the nonhuman life of videogames necessitates a rethinking of the word “life,” as well as a reformulation of ethics around the new sets of obligations humans have toward videogames if we begin to recognize them as alive.

Global Audience Participation In The Production And Consumption Of Gangnam Style, Soo Keung Jung

Communication Theses

This thesis examines the cultural consumption of the Korean music video Gangnam Style in the broader context of the increasing popularity of Korean popular content, often called the Korean Wave, and of complex conditions of transnational consumption. Specifically, it investigates why the music video Gangnam Style gained popularity not only in East Asia but also over the world, how it is circulated, and what conditions contribute to its success. It focuses on the role of the networked audiences and the interactions between the networked audiences and mainstream media through a chronological analysis on the distribution and reproduction process of Gangnam …

Ethics In Photojournalism: Authenticity And Sensitivity In Coverage Of Tragic Events, Minla Linn Shields

Communication Theses

Photojournalism captures moments within an event or space in time that are used to tell a larger story. Photographs are powerful tools for communication because these moments not only represent facts; they also have an ability to speak to viewers on a relatable and emotional level. With this power comes ethical responsibility and natural tension points between photograph, and journalistic practices.

Journalism’s ethics codes group points of discussion specific to photographs into categories of manipulation, privacy, or graphic content. This thesis argues that these issues fall into broader overlapping themes of authenticity and sensitivity. Using visual analysis of four photographs …

Practicing Work, Perfecting Play: League Of Legends And The Sentimental Education Of E-Sports, Neal C. Hinnant

Communication Theses

A growing force in the culture of digital games fandom, e-sports represents the profes-sionalization of digital games play. This thesis examines League of Legends, a prominent game in e-sports, to understand the relationship between e-sports and the ideology of neoliberal economics. Using Clifford Geertz’s descriptions of sentimental education as a model, the author argues that League of Legends and other e-sports texts create an environment where neoliberal economic values can be practiced and explored in a meaningful space. The game as text, the culture of e-sports fandom, and the e-sports broadcasting industry are all examined to reveal the ways …

The Bulgarian Horrors Through The Eyes Of An American Journalist: J. A. Macgahan's Role In The Liberation Of Bulgaria From The Ottoman Empire 1876-1878, Miglena Sandmeier

Communication Theses

The thesis examines the role of an American journalist of Irish descent, Januarius MacGahan, who became known as the “Liberator of Bulgaria.” Evidence presented in the thesis substantially restores MacGahan’s role in the liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire. That accolade was deleted from Bulgarian history by Marxist revisionist historians during the Communist regimes in the 20th Century.

This paper affirms that it was MacGahan’s resolve and passionate outcry against injustice and cruelty he witnessed, that changed the course of European diplomacy and ultimately led to a war that liberated Bulgaria.

Health Safety-Net Crisis: A Case Study Of News Discourse, Cecilia F. Mitchell

Communication Theses

This study is the first to analyze news coverage of a hegemonic struggle over a crisis that threatened to close a Southern safety net hospital. Such closure could have left indigent, African American men and women without health care access. The study utilizes critical discourse analysis to focus on news portrayals of patients and the struggle over whether the hospital would continue to be governed by a majority-Black, public board of directors or a nonprofit, private board recommended by a majority-White civic group. Results indicate that newspaper coverage privileged the elite, White view, while stereotypically representing indigent, Black patients as …

American Masculinity And Homosocial Behavior In The Bromance Era, Diana Sargent

Communication Theses

This study examines and reflects upon the current “bromance” culture that has emerged in American society and aims to conceptualize how media texts relate to masculine hegemony. Attention to current media portrayals, codes of conduct, rituals, homosocial interaction, and constructions of masculinity in American culture is essential for the evaluation of the current era of American masculinity. Mediated portrayals present an ironic position on male closeness, dictate how men should behave towards women and other men, and create real life situations in which these mediated expectations are fostered and put into practice. Textual analyses of the films Superbad and I …

The Reality Of Televised Jezebels And Sapphires: Blogs And The Negative Stereotypes Of African American Women On Reality Television, Safiya E. Reid

Communication Theses

Americans spend an average of 5.1 hours a day viewing television, with reality television as the most prevalent type of programming. Some of the top reality television shows feature African American women in negative and limiting roles. However, little research examines how the stereotypes presented on reality television about African American women are viewed by the audiences of these reality shows. This research seeks to understand how African American women on reality television are discussed by their audiences online, and whether African American women who contribute to blogs resist the negative stereotypes and portrayals.

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 …