Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Social Media And Society: An Investigation Of How Female Athletes Use Instagram, Kathleen Amore

University Honors Theses

Athletes increasingly leverage social media so they can share experiences first-hand, sell products, and promote their personal ideas and skills. Female athletes can become empowered through Instagram's ability to give a 'voice' to the object through captions, as well as its' ability to generate revenue through endorsements. Female athletes who find the most success on Instagram often post content that highlights their sexuality and personal life over their sport. Their success is found through a form of 'self-objectification', which can be seen as empowering and/or regressive to women’s sports. To explore this tension, my research project focused on the intentions …

You Need This: Global Fast Fashion, Environment, And Consumption Culture, Alexandra Lamm

Student Work

In looking at how global production of clothing has increased and shifted, we see the impacts in places like workers rights, environmental issues and cultural consumption. Although vastly different, through examination we will see how all are intrinsically linked. We have reached a truly global economy, and even when threatened with negative consequences of mass consumption in our daily lives, the road to actual change in the fashion industry becomes harder in time due to our dependency on the industry as a whole.

Respawning Jihadist: Isis Recruiting Through Online Gaming Communities, Alexander J. Ham-Kucharski

Student Work

The purpose of my research is to educate and bring awareness of ISIS’s (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) recruiting programs through social media and video games. As stated by Lakomy (2019): “Cyber jihadis nowadays rightly perceived as a rising threat to international security” (2019, p. 383). ISIS targets individuals as young as teenagers through games such as Call of Duty, Far Cry, Halo, ARMA3, and Grand Theft Auto as to recruit those from the Western world for their Jihad. ISIS Recruiters use these platforms to attract initiates via the gaming world through imagery that …

Systemic Barriers That Exclude Bipoc Authors From Literary Awards And The Proposed Solutions To Evoke Change, Devyn Yan Radke

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

This research aims to 1) provide an in-depth analysis of the National Book Award (NBA), with a focus on Lisa Lucas, her commitment to diversity, and how it has impacted the awards, 2) identify the systemic barriers BIPOC authors may experience that are setbacks from being recognized in literary awards, and 3) the importance of diversity in book publishing professional executive positions.

Governmental Persuasion Strategies On Social Media During Covid-19: A Comparative Study Of The Us And China, Fan Wang

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

This study compared persuasive strategies of the governments of the U.S. and China during a public health crisis using social media messages. Collecting data with R and Python from two national public health sectors' official accounts on Twitter (N = 1,630) and Sina Weibo (N = 3,554), the researcher investigated how the organizations' messages reflected Cialdini's seven principles of persuasion and whether other emergent messaging patterns occurred. According to the different phases that the two countries had gone through during the pandemic, the researcher also conducted a pooled times series analysis to investigate the relationship between the frequency of daily …

International Cross-Media Adaptation: A Case Study Of The Witcher, Alexa Schmidt

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

As consumer media habits further diverge with the introduction of new technologies and social spaces, literature has increasingly been adapted in new mediums. Adaptations of written works have the exposure and visual appeal to draw in a larger audience than the pages of the original would.

This research question is extremely relevant to the shift the industry has made with the introduction of new technologies for cross-media storytelling through video games, film and television. Increasingly, publishers, like Level 4 Press, look for stories that will translate well into a TV series or movie, and cross-media stories and adaptations have been …

The Rise Of Xr Storytelling And The Contribution Of Consumer Accessibility, Cost Efficiency, & Intrinsic Value To Feasibility, Sarah Moffatt

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

This research assesses the current state of XR (extended reality) publishing and its feasibility within an exceptionally virtual landscape. Feasibility is measured upon the challenges and opportunities posed by accessibility, cost efficiency, demand, and intrinsic value.

Through market analysis of past and ongoing XR storytelling projects, as well as qualitative methods which include industry interviews and public surveys, it has been found that publishers would do well to first adopt augmented reality storytelling methods before venturing further into virtual reality storytelling. Because augmented reality is generally more accessible and cost efficient, its adoption contributes to increased …

Book Deserts Of Litlandia: A Case Study Of Book Deserts In The Literary City Of Portland, Oregon In Relation To Book Waste From It’S Largest Independent Bookstore, Megan Jessop

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

The goal of this project was to look at book waste from a local independent bookstore, Powell’s Books, in Portland, Oregon and compare local donation and literacy programs—such as Little Free Libraries (LFL), Children’s Book Bank, and programs with the Multnomah County Library (MCL) to see if there were books or print materials that were being thrown away, recycled, and/or turned into pulp that could have been utilized in other ways towards literacy efforts. Through a process of interviews with staff at Portland’s largest local independent bookstore, MCL, a LFL steward, and Children’s Book Bank, as well as analysis of …

A Remote Environment’S Effect On The News Consumption Of College Students, Amelia R. Webb

Anthós

This study investigates how PSU Honor Students' news interactions have changed with the shift to a remote environment. After conducting four interviews, it found that students' news exposure increased in a remote environment. This change caused students to be more aware of the news's mental health impacts, and they adjusted their news interactions accordingly.

How To Escape 130 Years Of Being Unnatural, Incompetent, And Unviable: American Women Presidential Candidates Take To Social Media, Izabella Becherer

University Honors Theses

For 130 years, American media coverage on women in presidential races remains unchanged despite the drastic difference in women's rights. While male candidates receive commentary on their policy, women often fall into discussions about their hair, their hemline, or their husband. Three core narratives about women then stem from their media characterization: unnatural, incompetent, and unviable. Unnatural, in that women, by nature, are not meant to be in political office. Incompetent, implying women are not smart enough for political office. Unviable, arguing that America is not ready to elect a female or females are "unelectable". The key to escaping this …

Book Readers Who Are Buccaneers And Buyers, Rachel Noorda, Kathi Inman Berens, Chris Kenneally

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

These readers buy, subscribe to, and borrow books at higher rates than the general population. They engage at higher rates in fan fiction and discover new authors across multiple media, including streaming movies and television. These readers are also pirates.

Immersive Media and Books 2020 is the first study to capture data expressly about how people engage with books, video games, film, and TV. The final report focuses sharply on reader behavior across a wide range of demographic groups, based on surveys conducted before and during the pandemic.

Co-authors Dr. Rachel Noorda and Dr. Kathi Inman Berens probe especially for …

Diversity And Representation In Oregon’S Battle Of The Books, Catharine Brown

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

This paper will examine the Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB) reading lists for the last five years, evaluating the diversity and representation within the books. An initial survey of the titles chosen for the OBOB reading list from 2016-2021 suggests that there has been more of an effort to choose diverse books in the most recent years, indicating that the titles being chosen are responding to the greater call for decentering whiteness within United States literacy programs. Literacy programs encourage students to read outside of the classroom. The competition-style program Battle of the Books offers game-based learning and allows …

How Does Oer Meet Our Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Goals?, Jenny Ceciliano, Lisa Notman, Karen Bjork, Jaime R. Wood, Scott Robison

Open Education Week 2021

Eliminating textbook costs through the use of Open Educational Resources may seem like a simple change, but it's one that can have a big impact. Research has shown that using OER in place of traditional textbooks helps to create more equitable and inclusive learning experiences for marginalized students. In this workshop, learn more about how OER is a DEI tool and how PSU faculty are using OER in their courses.

The Pacific Sentinel: March/April 2021, Mini Issue, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Vivian Veidt

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter From the Editor
• Royalty Notwithstanding
• A Man, a Plan, and a Virus
• United We Stand?
• Dreamhouse and Other Horrors
• The Art of the Podcast

The Pacific Sentinel, February 2021, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Vivian Veidt

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter from the Editor
• Georgia On Everyone’s Mind
• A Minimum Requirement of Neutrality
• An Unspoken Norm
• Pigs Saving Lives
• COVID-19 Affecting the Workplace
• Why Did President Trump Kill Federal Inmates on His Way Out?
• Reconstructing America

Entertainment-Education Behind The Scenes: Case Studies For Theory And Practice, Lauren B. Frank, Paul Falzone

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

This Open Access book tracks the latest trends in the theory, research, and practice of entertainment-education, the field of communication that incorporates social change messaging into entertaining media. Sometimes called edutainment, social impact television, narrative persuasion, or cultural strategy, this approach to social and behavior change communication offers new opportunities including transmedia and digital formats. However, making media can be a chaotic process. The realities of working in the field and the rigid structures of scholarly evaluation often act as barriers to honest accounts of entertainment-education practice. In this collection of essays, experienced practitioners offer unique insight into how entertainment-education …

Racial Gatekeeping In Country & Hip-Hop Music, Cervanté Pope

University Honors Theses

In mass communication, gatekeeping refers to how information is edited, shaped and controlled in efforts to construct a "social reality." One way it presents itself is in regard to racial inclusion and equality, and despite the headway we’ve seemingly made as a society, we are still lightyears away from where we need to be. Because of this, the concept of cultural property has become even more paramount, as a means for keeping one's cultural history and identity-preserved. Blacks and whites similarly attempt to protect or preserve facets of their culture they feel belong to them. What’s different for both of …

The Pacific Sentinel, November 2020, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Vivian Veidt

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter from the Editor
• Drones and Robots Battling
• COVID-19
• PSU’s First Homelessness and Housing Insecurity Study
• The Ziplock Diary
• Constitutionally Speaking
• God May Be Dead, but the Christian Left Isn’t
• A True Professional
• Black Is King

Eco-Publishing In The Book Industry: An Interdisciplinary Case Study With Patagonia Books, Julie A. Collins

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

The purpose of this study is to explore eco-publishing in the book industry with an interdisciplinary approach: I will address eco-trends in human movements and essential industries; provide an overview of the book industry’s recent efforts to determine their environmental impact; and explore eco-publishing in practice by presenting findings from a case study of Patagonia Books featuring an interview with their publisher Karla Olson. This analysis of environmentalism on a broad scale gives us the ability to see how trends outside the industry may affect how we define the goals of publishing, and of particular publishing houses. Patagonia Books is …

The Pacific Sentinel, June 2020, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Jake Johnson

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter from the Editor
• The Shift to Remote Learning
• Added Punishment (Analysis)
• Oregon Reopens
• Remarks from the Author on “Josh Cohen”
• Kill the Death Penalty
• Grateful PowerPoint Grad
• Virtual Commencement Blues
• Postpone Don’t Cancel
• Neoliberalism Is the Disease
• No Time to Change
• Why You Should Bake Sourdough
• Skateboarding During Quarantine
• Virus of Nihilism
• The Trolls Have Killed Cinema… Maybe
• Tiger King for a Day
• Cultural Food Appropriation
• Unions on the Silver Screen

The Representation Of Rape And Sexual Assault Within News Media, Katherine E. Layman

University Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to observe how the framing of rape and sexual assault within The New York Times has changed from 1980 to 2020. To achieve this study, I conducted a content analysis of 150 New York Times articles divided into three separate time periods and taking 50 randomized articles from each timeframe. The first data set was taken from 1980-84 to provide a baseline to work from. The second set is from 1993-97 to encompass significant legislative changes about sexual violence. The final data set is from 2016-2020 and provides the most recent conversation about rape …

Ethics And True Crime: Setting A Standard For The Genre, Hazel Wright

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

True crime is a genre that has existed for centuries, adapting to social and literary trends as they come and go. The 21st century, particularly in the last five years, has seen true crime explode in popularity across different forms of media. As the omnipresence of true crime grows, so to do the ethical dilemmas presented by this often controversial genre. This paper examines what readers perceive to be the common ethical problems with true crime and uses this information to create a preliminary ethical standard for true-crime literature.

A comparison of the ethical concerns raised in scholarly sources with …

A Major Motion Picture Or Just A Picture? An Analysis In Movie Tie-Ins Vs. Original Cover Art, Vivian Nguyen

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

It has been believed that the needs of consumers who are primarily readers versus moviegoers greatly differ; those who are readers are more likely to purchase a book that features the original cover art, while those who are mostly moviegoers gravitate toward movie tie-in covers. This paper examines the accuracy behind that belief by calculating the number of book sales from NPD BookScan, as well as collecting survey data from participants across all reading activity levels.

Analysis revealed that though there is a slight difference in amount of preference based on reading group, overall participants overwhelmingly preferred the original cover …

Pottermore, A Case Study: What Publishers Can Learn About Developing Interactive Transmedia In The Post-Web Age, Megan Crayne

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

15 years after the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Rowling’s magical world would be transformed into an interactive, playable website called simply Pottermore. It included all the elements that dominate successful interactive transmedia: exclusive narrative content that brought readers into the storyworld, spaces for members to create and build virtual communities, interactive gameplay, and additional forms of transmedia available for purchase. Then in 2015, Pottermore Publishing launched a major redesign of Pottermore in the face of declining eBook and audiobook sales.

By comparing and contrasting the three versions of Pottermore (Old, New, and now Wizarding …

Beloved And The Water Dancer: A Longitudinal Study Of Book Reviews From 1987 And 2019, Tiffany Watson

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

There is a trail of profoundly pessimistic opinions on the state of book reviews and critics from Lorentzen to Hardwick to Marshall and McCarthy to Poe to Pope.

In earlier drafts, I tapped into that same despair. I considered calling this essay "The Death of the Book Reviewer". I must admit I was committed to the allusion more than to the truth of such a statement. Because, as I read each essay which laid out the faults of the then most-recent form of book reviewing, I came to the conclusion that if the book reviewer is to die, it is …

Identifying And Connecting With Diverse Sff Readers, Denise Morales Soto

Book Publishing Final Research Paper

Science fiction and fantasy is one of the most abundant genres today, projected to gross $590.2 million in the adult fiction market in the year 2020. However, despite its growing popularity and its large reader base, it still predominantly caters to white men; something that could be detrimental to the industry. This paper aimed to show how science fiction and fantasy (SFF) publishers can learn more about their non-white reader demographic and how they can potentially increase their interaction with their diverse audiences. I conducted a study of social media interaction by compiling Twitter posts over the course of four …

The Pacific Sentinel, May 2020, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Jake Johnson

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter from the Editor
• Ongoing Crisis in Yemen
• Coronavirus Updates
• Squashing Coronavirus Will Take Time
• There Is No “Chinese Virus”
• An Unequal Pandemic
• Do Not Go Gently Into That Pandemic
• The Coronavirus Outbreak Reveals the Flaws of Our Social Safety N
• Language, Thought, Freedom, and the Soul
• Stop Going on Twitter
• Crocheting COVID-19
• Isolation in the Time of Coronavirus
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons Review
• Mysteries, Wonder Boys, and Other Phenomena

The Pacific Sentinel, April 2020, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Jake Johnson

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter from the Editor
• Rolling Back Water Protection
• Relatively Speaking
• Oregon Responds to Coronavirus
• The Case Against Joe Biden
• Sounds Terrible
• Views on the Decline of Civilization
• An ASMRticle
• In Defense of Radicalism
• nîpawistamâsowin: The Boushie Family Stands Up
• Sunless Shadows Complicates the Murderess
• Martin Eden’s Class Struggle
• The Quiet Compassion of The Good Place
• Portland’s First eSports Bar Creates Community

Lifecycles Of Digital Files And Staff Labor At Ooligan Press In Portland, Oregon, Kathi Inman Berens

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

This Sidebar is an overview of the human process of creating, sorting, storing and preserving digital files in the lifecycle of one book made by Portland State University's Ooligan Press. Ooligan is a teaching press staffed by students pursuing master's degrees in the Department of English.

The Pacific Sentinel, March 2020, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Jake Johnson

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter From the Editor
• Safe Together?
• Vaccination: Spreading Misinformation Spreads Disease
• Impeachment? What Just Happened?
• Vote Local
• Under the Red Lights
• Homeschool Pride
• The Utopia of Animal Crossing
• Not Too Cold to Canvas for Bernie
• The Top 5 Shoegaze Albums of 2019
• Nick Fish’s Untimely Death and Enduring Legacy
• Harry Styles Is a Mess
• Dump Those Dumplings in My Mouth
• The Real Horror of The Turning is Its Disappointing Story