Digital Commons Network^™

Communication Use In Non-Profit Maternal Health, Marliatou Barry

Student Theses and Dissertations

The promotion of maternal health centrally involves a communication strategy. Effective communication aids in recognizing current issues, determining potential fixes, and persuading others to take action. Therefore, nowadays it is very difficult to dispute the significance of communication in the healthcare industry.In the early 1980s, the World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledged communication as one of the add-on strategies to be employed in promoting health as a result of its pivotal role (WHO, 1984).

This thesis project uses a case study method to explore how non-profit organizations use communication strategies to influence various stakeholders about issues of maternal health. First, a …

Tablets As A Vehicle For Imprisoned People’S Digital Connection With Loved Ones, Andrea Mufarreh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The intersection between criminal justice and technology is fairly understudied, despite increasing technological advancements in the world and within the criminal justice system. A rather recent addition to the technological landscape of prison is the adoption of tablets used by imprisoned people for communication and connection with loved ones and other activities, which is particularly important given the context of COVID-19, a virus which caused a global pandemic from 2020-2022. While the use of tablets by imprisoned people appears to be a new trend, the use of tablets in prison both prior to and during the pandemic has remained an …

Narcommunication: The Messaging, Marketing, And Murder Of Organized Crime, Philip L. Johnson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Criminal actors are widely assumed to maintain a low profile, exerting power through corruption, coercion, and clandestine networks. Scholarship that addresses public action on the part of criminal actors focuses almost exclusively on acts of violence. However, an ample empirical record demonstrates that criminal actors also communicate publicly to broad audiences. To better understand this practice, this project focuses on the phenomenon of narco-messaging in Mexico. The project asks: what do criminal actors say when they speak publicly, and why do they say it?

The core data for this project comes from an original collection of 6,178 narco-messages that appeared …

The Effects Of Deepfakes And Synthetic Media On Communication Professionals, Axel Ebermann

Student Theses and Dissertations

The spread of misinformation and disinformation is regarded as one of the most salient challenges for communication professionals around the world.

Now, a new technology called "DeepFakes" or “Synthetic Media” has the potential to further uproot the infosphere. Artificial Intelligence (AI) will enable the mass creation of synthetic audio-visual content that resembles real videos, in which people will appear to say or do things they never actually said or did.

The existing literature predominantly focuses on three aspects of DeepFakes and Synthetic Media: the technical background, coverage of preexisting DeepFakes and possible solutions to combat the malicious use of the …

How Did Covid-19 Impact The Aviation Industry, Theresa Sonntag

Student Theses and Dissertations

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has been impacted the whole world. One of the hardest-hit industries in the aviation industry. This research investigates how COVID-19 challenged this sector. It focuses especially on how American Airlines and Lufthansa Group got impacted and what they tried to do to recover from this crisis. This paper’s primary focus is on how those two airlines changed their communication strategy and their marketing to regain customer trust and their reputation. It looks at different researchers and their theories to overcome such a crisis like this and discusses different airlines and what they did when they …

Pictorial Communication, Nada Gatalo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The primary goal of my dissertation is to reconcile an anti-intentionalist account of depiction with an intentionalist account of pictorial communication. I begin by providing an account of depiction and then provide an account of communication and, specifically, pictorial communication. Accordingly, I begin by defining depiction, and reject what I call the ``ambiguity view'' which holds that terms like ``depiction'' and ``representation'' are ambiguous. I argue that P depicts O if the design of P visibly manifests O. This definition of depiction sets up the central task for a theory of depiction: to explain how it is possible for a …

Optimizing Communication In Palliative And Hospice Care: A Toolkit For Audiologists, Sherry E. Queen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The prevalence of hearing loss increases with age, with age-related hearing loss (ARHL) being one of the most prevalent forms of sensory decline in older adults. Hearing loss is often overlooked in medical settings including palliative and hospice care. Screening for hearing loss in these settings is rare as is formal staff training on assessing and managing hearing loss in palliative and hospice care. An evidence-based toolkit for integrating audiologists into end-of-life care protocols is presented. This toolkit was developed to optimize communication in palliative and hospice care for patients, caregivers, audiologists, physicians, and other palliative care staff. Effective communication …

Water Gets Lost In The Sea, Sun Gets Lost In The Desert, Rocio Paz Guerrero

Theses and Dissertations

The absence of happiness, the absence of nature, the absence of justice, the absence of absence, which is presence. My desire is to make these voids visible and sensible by connecting to and with others, from our intimate and collective life experiences, with empathy, and by sharing. Through a hybrid of sculpture, installation, and performance, I move within this tense in-between space, asking myself about that void, if it is possible for it to be filled, or if it is perhaps too big, or if it is perhaps too late.

The Making Of Transpacific Video Art, 1966–1988, Haeyun Park

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is the first English-written study that narrates the development of video art through a transnational and inter-regional analysis of Japanese, Korean and Asian-American artworks from the ‘60s to the ‘80s, which played a central role in establishing video as a truly international visual language. My transpacific approach to video art contests nation-based studies of art history and challenges the transatlantic narrative of video art in Anglo-American art historical literature, which has focused on the relation between video art in Western Europe and North America. I articulate the Transpacific as a geopolitical and an intellectual model of interaction between …

Through The Screen: Disability, Aging And Technology, Shoshannah E. Buxbaum

Capstones

The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally altered what it means to stay connected. These are stories of how technology has shaped the lives of people with disabilities and seniors in Utah. This half-hour audio documentary, accompanying images and text delve into everything from getting hooked up to the internet for the first time, to the hurdles and expanded opportunities of remote work.

https://shoshannah-buxbaum.medium.com/through-the-screen-bb14b1c992ca

An Exploratory Study Of How Millennials Approach And Communicate Mental Health In The Workplace, Johanna I. Seitenbach

Student Theses and Dissertations

Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting more than 300 million people. As more millennials take on leadership positions, it is important to understand how companies are currently addressing mental health in the workplace and compare this to how millennials approach the subject. The quantitative analysis completed through this study helped to determine what a mentally healthy workplace looks and feels like for millennials. Companies are increasingly investing in mental health initiatives for several reasons: to increase brand recognition, to improve company culture, to mitigate potential lawsuits, and to increase employee engagement and retention. This survey assessed how …

The Patterns And Prosecutions Of Media Leakers, Julia M. Lipkins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper examines the cases of government employees who are responsible for the disclosure of confidential information to the press, known as media leakers. I claim that the government and media leaker engage in a series of patterned responses, which leads to both the disclosure of information, and prosecution of the leaker. More specifically, I demonstrate how the government’s executive branch manages a game of leaks, in which ‘illegitimate’ leakers are separated from elite officials who also leak, but are often spared from prosecution because they are considered ‘legitimate’ players of the game. Although the boundaries surrounding ‘legitimate’ and ‘illegitimate’ …

Unarticulated Constituents And Theories Of Meaning, Jesse Rappaport

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work is an investigation into a phenomenon introduced by John Perry that I call ‘totally unarticulated constituents.’ These are entities that are part of the propositional content of a speech act, but are not represented by any part of the sentence uttered or of the thought that is being expressed - that is, they are fully unarticulated. After offering a novel definition of this phenomenon, I argue that totally unarticulated constituents are attested in natural language, and may in fact be quite common. This raises fatal problems for a prominent theory of underspecification defended by Jason Stanley, according to …

Writing For Strangers: Structural Transformations Of The Public Letter, 1640-1790, Shang-Yu Sheng

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines public letters in England during the period spanning the English Civil War to the French Revolution, showing how authors employed the printed epistolary form to imagine different relations with the “stranger readers” who constituted the nascent reading public. I employ a formalist approach to analyze the various rhetorics made possible through the public letter’s framed structure, focusing on the assemblages of the narrative positions of letter writer, addressee, and reader. Each chapter describes a mode of the public letter in socio-spatial terms: spectacle, network, community, and public. Building on studies in book history and print culture, this …

Song Rhythm Development In Zebra Finches, Julia Hyland Bruno

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates song-rhythm learning in songbirds. Songbirds have been studied extensively in mechanistic investigations into the sensorimotor underpinnings of the cultural transmission of learned vocalizations. While several studies identified forebrain song-system neurons that generate rhythmic song patterns, we know little about how song rhythms are learned. The first part of the dissertation describes methods for detecting and analyzing birdsong rhythm patterns, and demonstrates their utility for identifying the role of song rhythms in social interactions. Results suggest that rhythm plasticity in zebra finch song may provide a potential vehicle for communication. Controlled song-learning experiments further found that developing zebra …

Communicationists And Un-Artists: Pedagogical Experiments In California, 1966-1974, Hallie Rose Scott

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

A network of experimental workshops, classes, and schools foregrounding interdisciplinary, non-hierarchical, and process-based approaches to teaching and learning emerged in coastal California between 1966 and 1974. These initiatives embodied a new pedagogical approach that I call “communication pedagogy,” in which students were taught to exchange ideas and collaborate, rather than to produce objects. Analyzing three central case studies, Anna and Lawrence Halprin’s Experiments in Environment workshops, Ant Farm’s proposals for learning networks, and Allan Kaprow’s ‘Happenings’ course, I argue that communication pedagogy helped to foster a new paradigm for artistic practice: the artist as facilitator and network-creator. By the mid-1970s …

A Hybrid State/Event Driven Communication-Based Control For Dc Microgrids, Yusef Esa

Dissertations and Theses

The U.S. electric power industry is undergoing unprecedented changes triggered by the growing electricity demand, and the national efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, there is a call for increased power grid resiliency, survivability and self-healing capabilities. As a result of these challenges, the smart grid concept emerged. One of the main pillars of the smart grid is microgrids. In this thesis, the technical merits of clustering multiple microgrids during blackouts on the overall stability and supply availability have been investigated.

We propose to use the existing underground distribution grid infrastructure, if applicable, during blackouts to form microgrid clusters. …

Gendered Expression Online: Exploring Gendered Communication On Facebook And In A Collaborative Editing Task, Christina M. Shane-Simpson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

College students are increasingly using digital media, such as social network sites (SNSs) and collaborative editing tools (Wikipedia), as identity exploration tools, aligning or distancing themselves from their offline selves through the online affordances of anonymity and agentic choice. The opportunities for gender fluidity available online (Armentor-Cota, 2011) provide college students with opportunities to experiment with and manipulate varied identities in a safe space where consequences of confronting identity norms may be less severe (Turkle, 1996; Shaw, 1997). Similarly, restrictive offline gender differences may diminish in online spaces, favoring a more flexible and androgynous enactment of gender (Martin, Cook, & …

Language-Mixing In Discourse In Bilingual Individuals With Non-Fluent Aphasia, Avanthi Paplikar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Language-mixing (LM) as defined by Chengappa (2009, p. 417) is an “intra-sentential phenomenon referred to as the mixing of various linguistic units (morphemes, words, modifiers, phrases, etc.), primarily from two participating grammatical systems”. LM is influenced by grammatical, environmental, and social constraints (e.g., Milroy & Wei, 1995; Bhat & Chengappa, 2005). Researchers have suggested that LM in patients with aphasia is a communicative strategy used to achieve successful exchanges between speakers; the effectiveness of this mixing, however, had yet to be demonstrated quantitatively.

In the current study we investigated whether LM is present in bilingual speakers with aphasia, and if …

Birds Do It, Bees Do It, And Even Electric Fish Do It: Cultural Transmission Of Maze Learning In The African Weakly Electric Fish, Gnathonemus Petersii (Mormyridae, Teleostei), Ann Tomaszewicz

Theses and Dissertations

In this study, the ability of a maze-experienced, weakly electric fish to transmit spatial information to an inexperienced conspecific through exposure via paired training in a maze is evaluated using maze trial latency, electric signals discharged within the maze and the subsequent effect of training on molecular markers of memory.

Status Signaling And The Characterization Of A Chirp-Like Signal In The Weakly Electric Fish Steatogenys Elegans, Caitlin E. Field

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Sensory systems are critical to both exploratory and communicatory processes, the study of which is critical to our understanding of how animals perceive and respond to their environments. In weakly electric fishes the electrosensory system is utilized for both of these purposes. One type of communication, status signaling, is widespread across taxa and frequently hormonally modulated. This hormonal modulation keeps the signal honest, wherein the status of the sender and the production of the status signal itself are both hormone dependent. We investigated exploratory and communicatory strategies of the electromotor system in pulse-type gymnotiforms, with a focus on status communication …

It-Enabled Coordination In Electronic Markets: An Experimental Investigation Of The Effects Of Social Communication On Group Buyers, Alexander Pelaez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coordination, and the mechanisms by which coordination occurs, represents a significant area of study for economic research, and information technology. Technology enhances communication in both speed and quantity of information and when aligned with appropriate tasks can improve decision-making and task performance. Examining the effect of technology based coordination mechanisms on market platforms provides insight into outcomes as represented by buyer surplus and task completion as well as behaviors, such as network structure and emotional attitudes in economic experiments. Drawing on theory from economics and information systems, larger buyer groups should be able to obtain better prices and extract higher …