Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Media Censorship’S Development In The Information Age: Authoritarian Case Studies In Europe During The 20th And 21st Centuries, Carter R. Linke

Honors Thesis

The Information Age has dramatically changed how people consume information. With the availability of smart devices and the Internet greater than ever before, a population’s ability to receive multiple news reports and instant messaging has continued to prove beneficial to democratic societies. With these same technology improvements, authoritarian governments have been forced to adapt censorship policies to eliminate the Information Age’s push towards the free press. Since the 20^th century, authoritarian countries have introduced policy solutions to the growing connectivity across the globe. From the German Holocaust to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, censorship has aimed to control their …

Healing A Generation; Implementation Of Higher Education Curricula For Venezuelan Journalism Students Living Under Structural Violence To Promote A Transition Into Democracy, José Luis Jiménez-Figarotti Prof.

The SUNY Journal of the Scholarship of Engagement: JoSE

Venezuela's sociopolitical landscape has deteriorated significantly over the past decade, culminating in a profound humanitarian crisis. This ethnography, conducted from 2015 to the present, explores the experiences of a study group comprising 2000 Venezuelan communication college students, aged 17 to 25, who navigate structural violence while striving for quality higher education. The research employed a multifaceted approach, encompassing interviews, focus groups, and observations. Additionally, this qualitative study examines the outcomes of implementing an interdisciplinary journalism curriculum grounded in human rights and media activism, complemented by online sessions and an environmental education component. This educational project aims to foster critical thinking …

Exploring Demagoguery And Political Rhetoric’S Impact Through Social Media, Avery Palsma

Honors Thesis

Demagoguery refers to political rhetoric and activity that seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people. Demagogues are political leaders, such as Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler, who gain power by using a destructive approach to popular discourse. They influence culture by perpetuating and influencing ideologies, allowing them to take advantage of and fuel a dominating culture. Demagogues are present in today’s culture as the political divide becomes greater. This study aims to explain why demagogues are so influential and how social media might be contributing to their growth. In order to do this, three communication …

When Ballots Are Blank: Write-In’S Serving Local Government And The Implications For A Healthy And Vibrant Democracy, Thomas J. Ruter

School of Business Student Theses and Dissertations

Our democracy depends on having a supply of candidates running for elected office, but in some instances, no one wants to run. This phenomenological study asks what the effects on a healthy and vibrant democracy are if ballots are blank and the seat is filled through write-in or appointment. Rooted in democratic theory, this study explores small, rural city elections where write-ins won election. Understudied, local governments are responsible for decisions affecting the lives of millions of people each day. Workforce scarcity, the alienation of young Americans from politics, government bashing, nasty campaigns, threats of physical harm, and other barriers …

Prophetic Dissent In Dark Times: The New Poor People’S Campaign And The Rhetoric Of National Redemption, Stephen E. Rahko, Byron B. Craig

Faculty Publications - Communications

In this paper, we offer an analysis of an important social movement challenging the fantasy of Christian nationalism: the new Poor People’s Campaign, and specifically the rhetoric of the Bishop Dr. William J. Barber II. We argue that Barber’s rhetoric represents a source of dissent against Christian nationalism through his strategic use of the jeremiad. Barber’s progressive jeremiad offers a distinctively moral narrative that recovers the radical Christian legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ultimately, we argue that Barber’s jeremiad advances a distinctive narrative of American national redemption through democratic renewal and reconstruction.

American Vibe Check: Based, Mid, Or Cringe? Measuring Gen Z’S Attitudes And Perceptions About American Democracy, Bethany Perryman

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Democracy is a concept, process, and practice, and American democracy is a specific flavor of it. Public opinion is influenced and shaped by mass media, and messages about American democracy emerge in a web of powers and among power dynamics. These messages include the actions and relationships of the American civic system with its citizenry and the world. Generation Z is a socially, culturally, economically, and politically unique population in American life, who form their own perceptions and attitudes about American democracy based on their experiences and with the ecosystem of communication and interaction they have with mass media messages. …

How The Taiwanese Podcast Bailingguo News Framed The 2019 Hong Kong Movement: A Framing Analysis Of The Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill, Yu-Fei Chiu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nowadays, people can access different types of media to get information. Podcast is one of them and became more popular in recent years. In Hong Kong, the anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill movement took place in 2019. In this research, we are looking for the frames that Kylie and Ken as the hosts of the Taiwanese podcast - Bailingguo News used when they talked about the movement. The researcher applied framing theory to conduct this study, using textual analysis to analyze five episodes that mentioned the movement on Hong Kong from Bailingguo News. The researcher extracts the themes in the podcasters' …

Predictors Of College Student Support Toward Colin Kaepernick’S National Anthem Protests, Brooke Coursen, Nicole Peiffer, Sakira Coleman, Philip Lucius

VA Engage Journal

Racial discrimination and inequality have perpetuated within the U.S. since its inception. In 2016, Colin Kaepernick initiated the national anthem protests to oppose the oppression of people of color in America. This study was developed in 2018 to identify social determinants of health underlying discriminatory beliefs and behaviors. The objective was to investigate the impacts of college students’ race, gender, political ideology, socio-economic status [SES], NFL interest, patriotism, and general protest support on support for the national anthem protests. We administered paper-and-pencil surveys across locations on the James Madison University campus using a convenience sample. There were 408 participants included, …

Visualizing Politics In Indonesia: The Design And Distribution Of Election Posters, Colm A. Fox

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Where studies have shown that visuals are the primary means of political communication, research continues to focus largely on text-based information. To add to our understanding of visual-political communications, this article analyses Indonesian election posters since the 1950s. Drawing on historical materials and on a content analysis of 4,000 election posters, it asks why election posters have been designed and distributed in particular ways. Findings indicate that in the past, posters used singular, though powerful, social symbols to mobilize demographic groups behind political parties. However, contemporary posters are more visually complex and more candidate-centered, making arguments as to what the …

The Politics Of Media Freedom, Kyong Mazzaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Democratization theories assume that democracy and media freedom go hand in hand. However, in democracies, politicians and individuals who have a stake in political battles often attack journalists. How can political and electoral incentives that are at the heart of democracy create a minefield for journalists? Examining cross-national patterns of censorship and the experiences of journalists in Venezuela, Mexico, and Brazil captured in over 4,600 case narratives, 30 field interviews, and historical documents, I study the circumstances under which political rivalries result in anti-media violence. I show that state and non-state actors are more likely to target journalists as a …

Summoning Laplace’S Demon: The Erosion Of Meaningful Voter Choice In An Era Of Algorithms?, Stephen Bork

Compass: An Undergraduate Journal of American Political Ideas

Precise individual microtargeting threatens to remake the political landscape as thoroughly as it has remade marketing. This paper explores the observed uses to date of political microtargeting as well as the many difficulties, some inherent to politics, of measuring its effects. Considering the philosophical difficulties of predictively removing human choice, it then assesses the observed risks of and some potential remedies to the current trajectory and finds that free electoral choice is not doomed to be written out of the system.

Journalists Vs. Authoritarians: The State Of Press Freedoms In Hungary, Turkey, And Egypt, Allison Lecce

Senior Theses

The 21st century has been partly defined by the regression of liberal democracies paired with the rise of modern authoritarian regimes. This phenomenon is marked by a decrease in civil liberties and an erosion of democratic institutions and practices. A free and independent press is often one of the first institutions targeted by rising authoritarian leaders, due to its nature as a government watchdog. This thesis analyzes the state of press freedoms in different authoritarian and illiberal regimes. It aims to answer the question: what is the correlation between the type of government and the way the government treats the …

Critical Thinking In The Age Of Misinformation: Information Literacy For Citizenship, Tamra Ortgies-Young, Jennfer Lobo Meeks, Barbara Robertson

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

As recent political events across the globe have shed a light on the fragility of democratic values, the role of the University in creating a framework for civic education becomes more urgent. Informed, caring and engaged citizenry must be a goal of higher education. Students currently face the emergence of faulty types of information - such as misinformation and disinformation, which undermines the notion of collective or public inquiry, not only within universities, but also within society as a whole. This challenge must be acknowledged and addressed by academic institutions.

Session presenters will provide an overview of their work, “Critical …

An Examination Of Women’S Rights In South Korea: From “New Women” To Female Idols, Cece Trifoso

History | Senior Theses

Between 2000 and 2022, South Korean popular music and the accompanying entertainment industry contributed to a unique solidarity among young Korean women, whilst also perpetuating harmful stereotypes. The widespread popularity of all-girl music groups from Korea has motivated women around the world, including in Korea itself, to stand on their own and establish recognition without the influence of men. This relatively new era in Korean feminist thought requires historical contextualization in order to fully appreciate and comprehend its impact on a globalized society. The evolution of feminist thought in South Korea encompasses the accumulation of knowledge from various conversations on …

Social Media And Public Discourse Participation In Restrictive Environments, Jobany J. Rico

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates citizens' use of social media to participate in public discourse (i.e., access, share, and comment on socio-political content) in restrictive environments: societies ruled by a hegemonic government where users face economic and infrastructure barriers to using digital technologies. Theoretical propositions are built inductively from an interpretive case study of how Cuban citizens use Twitter to participate in socio-political conversations. The case study resulted in the identification of nine affordances (i.e., action potentials) for participating in public discourse that Cubans perceive on Twitter. The findings also showed that the identified affordances enabled Cubans to achieve citizen goals: positive …

Int 312: Collaborative Communication Oer Curation, Chealsye Bowley

Curated OER Collections

This OER curation is an annotated bibliography of prospective OER for the GVSU course INT 312: Collaborative Communication, assembled by request from the instructor.

Do Media Literacies Approach Equity And Justice?, Paul Mihailidis, Srividya Ramasubramanian, Melissa Tully, Bobbie Foster, Emily Riewestahl, Patrick Johnson, Sydney Angove

Mass Communications - All Scholarship

It is often assumed that media literacy serves to protect and uphold democratic practice and that media literate citizens are the best safeguards for democracy. However, little attention is paid to defining this practice and its relationship to ongoing inequities within democratic societies. In this essay, we argue media literacy operates from three core assumptions; media literacy creates knowledgeable individuals, empowers communities, and encourages democratic participation. The first assumption draws out an individual’s skills and critical thinking in media literacy practices. The second assumption focuses on the community aspect of media literacy, specifically which communities are best served by media …

Do Media Literacies Approach Equity And Justice?, Paul Mihailidis, Srividya Ramasubramanian, Melissa Tully, Bobbie Foster, Emily Riewestahl, Patrick Johnson, Sydney Angove

Journal of Media Literacy Education

It is often assumed that media literacy serves to protect and uphold democratic practice and that media literate citizens are the best safeguards for democracy. However, little attention is paid to defining this practice and its relationship to ongoing inequities within democratic societies. In this essay, we argue media literacy operates from three core assumptions; media literacy creates knowledgeable individuals, empowers communities, and encourages democratic participation. The first assumption draws out an individual’s skills and critical thinking in media literacy practices. The second assumption focuses on the community aspect of media literacy, specifically which communities are best served by media …

Best Practices For Voter Engagement Within Higher Education, Alyssa Tomins

Honors Projects

It is imperative that higher education institutions learn more about how to recruit members of younger generations to participate in future elections. Young people have historically voted at low rates, but that trend has started to change in recent years as more resources are being devoted to voter engagement among young people. This leads to the interest of understanding what best practices and strategies have academic institutions utilized to advance voter engagement on their campuses. This qualitative study analyzes these best practices and strategies at 84 colleges and universities, all of whom are members of The Andrew Goodman Foundation Vote …

“With Facebook, You Have A Voice:” Neoliberalism And Activism In Mark Zuckerberg’S Georgetown Address, Calvin Coker, Ryan Corso-Gonzales

Faculty Scholarship

In October of 2019, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg streamed a speech from Georgetown University defending the company’s practice of not regulating or rejecting blatantly false political advertisements placed on their site. The speech, part of his “transparency tour” to allay concerns about the growing social power and stunning irresponsibility of Facebook, presents a troubling articulation of “voice” along neoliberal lines that atomizes the individual, separates activism from communities, and conflates activity on Facebook with free expression. In this essay, we use rhetorical scholarship on voice to illuminate how Zuckerberg’s speech both relies on and retrenches neoliberal rationality to flatten difference …

Social World Sensing Via Social Image Analysis From Social Media, Shalin Hai-Jew

NPP eBooks

Social imagery, the visuals shared by users via various platforms and applications, may be analyzed to elicit something of massmind (and individual) thinking. This work involves the exploration of seven topics from various subject areas (global public health, environmentalism, human rights, political expression, and human predation) through social imagery and data from social media. The coding techniques involve manual coding, the integration of multiple social data streams, computational text analysis, data visualizations, and other combinations of approaches.

Begin To Play: The Case For Play In Community Engagement In Higher Education, Naomi B. Roswell

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal

Although little is written about the role of play in community engagement in higher education, professors and administrators intuitively grasp its value in building trust and democratizing spaces, but use games thinly. This paper acknowledges the challenges of developing effective community engagement partnerships and demonstrates how and why games based in Theater of the Oppressed deepen and enhance initiatives to dissolve town / gown divisions and enable collaborative knowledge generation. Through an analysis of literature reviews and interviews, this paper makes a case for deliberately incorporating games from Theater of the Oppressed (TO) - to advance community engagement initiatives by …

Social Media Is Causing A Threat To Our Democracy, Chloe Krempasky

English Department: Research for Change - Wicked Problems in Our World

Division between political parties in The United States of America is increasing daily, causing a serious threat to the future of our democracy. People form their own opinions and decide which political party to affiliate with based on childhood experiences or through media outlets. It is more common as technology is advancing that people get their political information through social media. This is starting to become a serious problem. Social media companies are the cause of this, as they create Echo Chambers that only allow people to view content that relates to their political view. There is also Fake news …

Hold The Line: A Guide To Defending Democracy, Hardy Merriman, Ankur Asthana, Marium Navid, Kifah Shah

Open Educational Resources for Social Sciences

This guide is designed to help people from all walks of life—political newcomers as well as experienced activists—take action to ensure that we have a successful election in November 2020. A successful election is one that is:

● Free , in which all eligible voters are able to vote without hindrance, interference, or intimidation.

● Fair , in which all votes are counted transparently, non-partisan rules and laws are followed, and any disputes are resolved without bias towards any particular candidate.

● Respected , by which the loser of the election accepts the results, concedes, and engages in a good …

Challenging Public Rhetoric Justifying Immigrants As ‘Indecent', Aaron Martin, Lisette Lemerise, Riya Chhabra, Sudharshana P. Kanduri, Julia Beleshi

Honors Scholarly Publications

Elites employ various rhetorical strategies in public discourse, including on the topic of immigration. As such, those with influence rely on storytelling to shape views about the narratives related to immigrants as a minority out-group. This has significant consequences, particularly in areas of policy development. Policy shapers have isolated immigrant groups by creating certain ideologically derived criteria well beyond citizenship for them to eventually receive “full American” status. Further, such status first has required immigrants to unduly prove their “worthiness” as exceptional—like being extra hardworking and very law abiding. Our essay seeks to show how foundational rhetoric is often intentionally …

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Debate, Critical Thinking, And Civic Education: Why No One Should Give Up On Burma, Joseph Zompetti

eJournal of Public Affairs

I traveled to Myanmar to instruct indigenous NGOs in critical thinking and democracy promotion. In this paper, I examine the political and cultural context of Myanmar before and after the 2010 elections. Fortunately, given the democratic initiatives since the 2010 election, the activists and organizations with whom I worked are now safely advocating for ongoing reforms and are free from persecution. Specifically, I discuss the training curriculum I presented, and how debate and critical thinking pedagogy help influence the democratic impulses of concerned citizens in Myanmar. I believe this reflection is worthwhile for anyone interested in debate, critical thinking, citizenship, …

Youth And Politics: Is There Space For Youth In Cabo-Verdean Politics?, Aleida Mendes Borges

Journal of Cape Verdean Studies

All over Africa young people face serious economic, social and emotional challenges in their everyday lives as the generation hardest hit by the failures of neoliberalism (Honwana 2012). In the absence of political role models, this so-called ‘waithood generation’, has rejected traditionally understood notions of political participation associated with representative democracy and are taking the role of active citizens moving away from the ‘myopic obsession’ over voting and party systems.

In Cabo Verde in particular, where politics are characterised by vertical relations of everyday political life and citizen-state interactions, this paper analyses young people as a window to understanding broader …

Big Tech Surveillance Could Damage Democracy, Chase Johnson

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2019

Data is often called the oil of the 21st century.

The more tech companies know about their users, the more effectively they can direct them to goods and services that they are likely to buy. The more companies know about their users, the more competitive they are in the market.

Custom-tailored capitalism is what has made Google, Facebook, Amazon and others the richest companies in the world. This profit incentive has turned big tech into a competitive field of mass intelligence gathering. The better and more comprehensive the data, the higher profits will be.

But this business model – what …

Undemocratic And Liable, Noel Kildiszew

Pepperdine Journal of Communication Research

The tragedy of World War II left the world in rubble. In 1945, a continent once controlled by fascist and communist dictators found itself in the process of rehabilitation not only of cities but also of government systems. With Hitler and Mussolini literally out of the equation, the world could seemingly recover peacefully. However, seventy-four years later in 2019, similar problems are beginning to rise out of the ashes of WWII. Under the presidency of Donald Trump, the United States government is beginning to align itself with fascist ideology. Traditionally, fascism creates social and government systems that support a centralized …