Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Framing Fanart, E J. Nielsen

Doctoral Dissertations

My dissertation, “Framing Fanart,” broadly theorizes media fanart, a form of transformative work that is enormously popular, transnational and transcultural, and at its heart an engaged response to a piece of media. Through physical and digital archival research, discourse analysis, and qualitative research methods, I consider specific examples of how fanart functions within these different framings. This work is some of the first to consider fanart broadly as both a lens through which to view patterns of cultural production and a discrete artefact which merits serious consideration as artwork in its own right.

Online Fan Communities: Welcoming Behavior, Brand Community Markers, And Multiple Identities In Sports Fandom, Blaine R. Huber

Doctoral Dissertations

Online fan communities have revolutionized the way sport consumers engage with fellow fans and the sports product. The traditional regional boundaries that once characterized sports fandom have been mitigated by the emergence of new media, social media platforms, and online fan communities. This dissertation explores the non-geographically bound nature of contemporary sports fan communities, examining the evolving dynamics of fan behavior in the digital age. In Study 1, an interactional perspective is employed to explore online fan socialization. The focus is on how new fans' self-presentation influences acceptance within NFL team-specific Reddit communities. Utilizing data mining, textual analysis, and qualitative …

Reconfiguring Digital Citizenship: Civic Hacking, Data Activism, And Democracy Platforms In South Korea, Danbi Yoo

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on ‘civic tech’, the global phenomenon of tech-based voluntary action of citizens emerging with the rise of the culture of openness and sharing and initiatives of open government data. What does the ‘civic’ of civic tech mean? And what makes civic tech democratic and democratizing? These questions have been rarely asked or conveniently understood with Western-based theories and cases of tech-oriented civic actions. Combining critical studies of technology and civic engagement with the emerging scholarship of digital citizenship, I use the concept of digital citizenship as a heuristic tool to examine how digital and data technologies intervene …

"I March To The Beat Of My Own Drum": A Critical Discourse Analysis On Mediated Construction Of Aaron Rodgers' Covid-19 Vaccination Disclosure, Patrick Crowe

Doctoral Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought suffering throughout society and disruption throughout the sports world. In the U.S., there have been politically polarized debates about the best course of action for handling the pandemic, including vaccinations and the appropriateness of other restrictive measures. Amidst the 2021 National Football League (NFL) season, in which the league imposed differing levels of restrictions based on a player’s vaccination status, former MVP and Super Bowl champion Aaron Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19. After his positive test, Rodgers, who had previously claimed he was “immunized” from COVID-19, revealed that his immunization protocol consisted of “alternate” drugs …

Reconciling Self-Censorship: A Qualitative Study Of The Experiences Of University Staff And Administrators, Leigh C. Morales

Doctoral Dissertations

In addition to a global pandemic, the past three years have been marked by racial, social, and political unrest. These circumstances add meaningful context to examine and better understand factors that undermine free expression and contribute to self-censorship among university staff and administrators. To date, few studies have holistically explored the unique experiences of university staff and administrators with self-censorship and how this phenomenon affects their experience on college and university campuses. Understanding why staff and administrators choose to self-censor may allow for a deeper discussion about speech climate and the degree to which colleges and universities implement and uphold …

University Students’ Perspectives Of Visual-Based Cyberbullying On Instagram, Li-Min Huang

Doctoral Dissertations

Researchers have been investigating the cyberbullying phenomenon since the early 21st century. There is a substantial body of cyberbullying studies focused on text-based formats. However, studies revealed that visual-based social media platforms are more powerful than text-based platforms in affecting people’s emotions, causing significant psychological impact. Young adults ages 18-29 use visual-based social media heavily in their daily lives; therefore, visual cyberbullying on various sites has become a critical issue for this generation. Yet, the majority of existing cyberbullying studies focused on age groups under 18. The studies that did investigate this phenomenon among young adults focused mainly on text-based …

Three Essays On The Political Economy Of Cultural Production And Creative Labor, Luke Pretz

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the relationships between capital, cultural production, and creative labor. Essay one theorizes the basis for the intensification of pop music stardom following the introduction of on-demand streaming technology. Prior to the emergence of on-demand streaming, record labels and broadcasters had a mutualistic relationship, wherein the near cost-free music provided by record labels formed the basis for radio broadcasts, which in turn formed the basis for the consumption of that music. Following the emergence of on-demand streaming the mutualistic relationship was ruptured. Broadcasters, in the form of streaming platforms, transitioned to the cost-efficient cultivation of masses of highly …

Productive Women: Gender, Sex, And Labor In The Digital Cultural Economy, Kavita Nayar-Jablonka

Doctoral Dissertations

Explicit sex and sexuality have come to figure more prominently in mainstream media and popular culture in recent years, sparking public concern and scholarly debate on how the “sexualization” of culture particularly affects women. Against this backdrop and amidst digitally reconfigured circuits of media production and consumption, ordinary women participate in, and potentially profit from, the commodification of sexual interactions and relationships. This study compares women’s practices in cultures of cam modeling and sugar dating in order to better understand their meanings and contexts. Whether performed in tandem with romantic dating scripts and roles, as is common in sugar dating, …

Enacting A Critical Media Production Pedagogy, James D. Swerzenski

Doctoral Dissertations

This project draws upon earlier calls—particularly in the critical pedagogy, critical media literacy, and cultural production fields—to outline a teaching approach that balances technical media production practices and critical media studies. I refer to this synthesis as critical media production pedagogy. This blending of critical analysis and technical skill, I argue, is especially important at the university level where my research is focused, as students in these courses will likely enter industry fields in which they can influence culture on a mass level. Creating opportunities for a media theory/production synthesis enables students to translate critical ideas beyond the academy and …

The Impact Of #Metoo On Reasons For Sexual Assault Disclosure, Cheryl H. Tien

Doctoral Dissertations

Sexual assault is a long-standing widespread problem. Yet, despite the high prevalence of sexual assault, it is the most underreported crime of all crimes reported to the police (Bureau of Justice, 2018). The #MeToo movement has had a significant impact on the way in which sexual assault survivors disclose their experiences and the reasons they disclose. Disclosure appears to be an important factor in survivors’ healing from their assault, with increasing coping, greater attachment to others, and positive growth cited as effects of disclosure provided that the response to the disclosure is positive to the survivor (Ahrens & Aldana, 2012; …

We're All Friends Here: Examining Transparasocial Interaction On Twitch And Its Effects On Strategic Communications, Alexander Edward Carter

Doctoral Dissertations

In this paper, the author examines advertising on the video game live streaming platform, Twitch. Using a 2 (presence/absence of Transparasocial Interaction) x 2 (presence/absence of self-disclosure by the streamer), this study seeks to gain a better understanding of community perceptions of influencers, and advertising on the Twitch platform, a subject that is only recently becoming a topic of interest for advertising scholars.

Patterns Of Receptivity To The Influence Tactic Of Pseudo-Reasoning, Dennis Neal Mccarty

Doctoral Dissertations

The “bullshit” construct used within social influence involves presenting ambiguous message content as an ersatz substitute for missing reasoning. This pseudo-reasoning combines with clearer source or affect cues that drive the target toward a desired conclusion. Bullshit receptivity (BSR) has presented a popular focus of research, especially considering the use of pseudo-reasoning within viral disinformation (Van Bavel et al, 2020). Most BSR research has involved non-experimental correlational tests with trait-like, individual cognitive variables, their explanation of BSR’s cause remaining limited and inconsistent (Pennycook et al, 2015). However, influence tactics employing bullshit commonly derive their effects from fulfilling targets’ motivated needs …

Sexual Harassment As A Narrative Contest, Christine Vossler

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines how stories shape both the perpetration of sexual harassment and the experiences of victims during and after sexual harassment. During and after the experience of sexual harassment, a narrative contest transpires between the harasser, victim, and others who contribute to the contest by engaging in the formal and informal conversations that follow known experiences of harassment in the workplace. I analyze 22 public statements, interviews, and investigative reports, including statements from men accused of sexual harassment, women who were sexually harassed, and bystanders. A narrative framework, including concepts of narrative believability and story credibility, is used to …

Native America Speaks: Blackfeet Communication And Culture In Glacier National Park, Eean Grimshaw

Doctoral Dissertations

This study is a description and interpretation of a Blackfeet (Amskapi Piikuni) discourse of identity as expressed by Blackfeet presenters as part of the Native America Speaks (NAS) program in Glacier National Park, the longest-running Indigenous speaker series in the National Park Service. The study is based on what Blackfeet identify as being important parts of Blackfeet identity within this particular scene, as well as how they participate in that scene. Primary data include a corpus of 30 Blackfeet programs recorded during the summers of 2018 and 2019. Data were analyzed in response to an overarching research question which guides …

Alt-Education: Gender, Language, And Education Across The Right, Catherine Tebaldi

Doctoral Dissertations

I explore the ideologies of gender, language and education in conservative, Christian Nationalist, and White nationalist mothers groups. I draw on my own family history, as well as on two years of blended ethnographic research in online right wing communities and one year of fieldwork in New Orleans, Louisiana, to look at homeschooling, online schools, and public teachers’ social, linguistic, and educational practices -- what I call Alt-Education. Alt-education is of course a play on alt-right, and refers to the far-right ideology; but it also refers to an alternative to mainstream education, and to education through a broader range of …

Digital Indigeneity: Digital Media's Uses For Identity Formation, Education, And Activism By Indigenous People In The Northeastern United States, Virginia A. Mclaurin

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to examine the types of digital media being produced in the Northeastern United States, its content, the goals and motivations of its creators, the processes underlying Indigenous digital media creation, and the desired and projected audiences of Indigenous digital artists and content creators. Resulting findings from this study illuminate long histories of Indigenous use of digital media tied to digital media's development in Indigenous lands. I argue that Native people have been producers and influencers in film and later, digital media, and have underwritten digital production due to its development on Indigenous lands. Through interviews and media …

Sunny Days Ahead: Messages During A Pandemic: Creative Strategies And Themes In Health And Wellness Public Service Ads By The Ad Council, Meenakshi Trichur Venkitasubramanian

Doctoral Dissertations

Public Service Advertising is an essential field of study because of its ability to impact and shape public behavior and community changes. Historically, the advertising industry has come together during the times of world war to form an association, the Ad Council, to help create awareness to the public. Over the past 75 years, the Ad Council has contributed to the various causes by communicating and advertising to encourage better habits and behavior. The Ad Council has collaborated with CDC and COVID Collaborative to communicate the right messages about coronavirus response and COVID-19 vaccine during this pandemic. The purpose of …

A Postfeminist Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of Red Bull Sponsored Female Action Sports Athletes’ Digital Media Representation, Charli Celine Kerns

Doctoral Dissertations

This study applies a multimodal discourse analysis to social media content produced by Red Bull Media House. The aim of the research is to determine what postfeminist sensibilities discourses are used and how in the framing of the female action sports athletes the energy drink company sponsors. Specifically, Instagram posts, YouTube videos, and the biographical web pages about the 23 athletes were analyzed using multimodal discourse analysis. The findings revealed that while action sports have the potential to disrupt dominant discourses around femininity in sports contexts, ultimately Red Bull repackaged the discourses into different narratives.

"It's Like Walking On Eggshells": The Lived Experiences Of Workplace Bullying Bystanders In Academia, Jenilee Williams

Doctoral Dissertations

Over 60 million working adults in the U.S. report bullying experiences (Namie, 2017). However, many organizations fail to actively intervene. Workplace bullying becomes a detrimental process riddled with emotional trauma, confusion, and depleted organizational productivity. Workplace bullying bystanders are pivotal as they impact the trajectory of these issues. Bystanders can either be a target-ally (e.g., offer support or actively intervene), bully-ally (e.g., act as a henchman), or silent-bystander (e.g., ignore the situation). Bystanders contend with their own complex sensemaking processes when witnessing bullying happen to others. Researchers have often examined this role through a post-positivistic lens in the quest to …

“Stick To Sports”: Fan Moral Reasoning Strategies And Subsequent Psychological Well-Being In Response To An Athlete’S Controversial Political Associations, Stephen Warren

Doctoral Dissertations

With athletes actively protesting on and off the court, as well as sports organizations embracing activism efforts like Black Lives Matter, the importance of understanding how sports fans respond to athletes engaging in or being associated with politics is increasing, as well. If part of the draw for watching sports and identifying with teams is the potential to increase psychological health, what happens when fans are presented with political viewpoints within sports that they disagree with? This dissertation uses two studies to explore how fans of the New England Patriots responded to reading an article about a rookie Patriots player …

Aloha Media: Negotiating Kānaka Maoli Representation And Identity In Television, Film, And Music, Colby Y. Miyose

Doctoral Dissertations

In her work on research and Indigenous communities, Māori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999) points out that academic research is a site of contestation, struggle, and negotiation between the West and Indigenous people, and lays the groundwork for Indigenous researchers to write from a cultural perspective that serves their home community. Hawaiian cultural protocols serve as guidelines for my research. This dissertation, then, is simultaneously a critique of settler colonialism in Hawaiʻi and on screen, and as Foucault (1980) puts it, “an insurrection of subjugated knowledges.” (p.81)—an act of decolonial, Indigenous, and anticolonial thought. In this dissertation I argue that …

The Issues Management Process In Nonprofit Organizations, Andrew B. Brown

Doctoral Dissertations

Issues management concepts and processes have been traditionally studied within corporate contexts. Using the tools and best practices of the qualitative paradigm, this dissertation explores the extension of issues management into the nonprofit context through the multi-vocality of nonprofit executives, managers, and board members. The findings suggest that these nonprofit decision makers are employing an abbreviated issues-management process, that nonprofit executives are acting as issues gatekeepers, that nonprofit decision makers value issues management as a tool for integrated public relations and future crisis avoidance, and that nonprofit decision makers approach social issues divergently based on age and experience. The findings …

Emerging Adults’ Experiences As Receivers Of Sexually Transmitted Infection Disclosures From Sexual Partners: A Three-Part Examination, Kayley D. Mcmahan

Doctoral Dissertations

Each year in the United States, over 20 million cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are diagnosed, mostly among those in the developmental period of emerging adulthood (ages 18-29). Research on STI disclosure to romantic and sexual partners has increased over the last two decades, but this research has (a) generally lacked a developmental and theoretical focus, (b) not examined disclosure recipients, and (c) not been systematically and critically synthesized. To address these limitations, I conducted a three-part examination. First, I systematically reviewed the STI disclosure literature and summarized findings, critical limitations, and future research and intervention directions. Next, I …

In Our Very Blood: The Use Of Social Media In The 2018 West Virginia Teachers' Strike, Everette Scott Sikes

Doctoral Dissertations

The 2018 West Virginia teachers’ strike exemplifies the changing shape of social movements and events of dissent and protest in the digital age. The use of information communication technologies (ICT) and social media have changed the ways such events develop and unfold. These technologies offer new tools for organizing and strategizing, for generating large numbers of participants, and for communicating crucial information while reducing temporal and spatial barriers. The teachers’ strike presents an opportunity to increase our understandings of these issues and to widen the scope of research in the field of information sciences to include the impact of ICTs …

Makerspace Models And Organizational Policies For Technological Inclusion, Christine Olson

Doctoral Dissertations

In the early part of the 21^st Century, discourses about the “Creative Economy” rose to prominence resulting in educational, economic, and policy initiatives supporting what became known generically as “makerspaces.” As interdisciplinary sites where arts, technology, design, and entrepreneurship meet, makerspaces were heralded as transformational organizational models for learning and innovation. This dissertation explores the social arrangements opened and foreclosed by makerspaces through ethnographic case studies of how different institutions introduced and adapted makerspace models from 2013-2019. Using a communicative ecology approach (Foth & Hearn, 2007), this study interrogates the structures and practices that shape participant experience of these …

Nation Brand, National Prestige, And The Social Imaginaries Of The Advanced Nation In South Korea, Jung-Yup Lee

Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation focused on how the discourses and institutions of nation branding and public diplomacy reshaped the social imaginary of the nation. Following the trajectory of the nation branding discourse in South Korea in the first fifteen years of the 21st century, I examined different moments of the re-imagining of the nation by multiple agents with regard to nation branding and public diplomacy. Firstly, I examined how the news media played a crucial mediating role in importing and disseminating the globally emerging discourse of nation branding in collaboration with private and public think tanks in the early and mid 2000s. …

Military-Themed Video Games And The Cultivation Of Related Beliefs And Attitudes In Young Adult Males, Greg Blackburn

Doctoral Dissertations

Military themed games have been broadly critiqued as ideological vehicles that support western military institutions and militaristic attitudes. At the heart of these critiques is a concern for the potential influence these games may have on their audience, yet little empirical evidence exists to either support or refute that concern. Using cultivation theory as a general framework, this study investigates whether associations between playing military themed video games and military-related thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes can be found in an online, national survey of 410 young adult men. Consistent with cultivation theory’s predictions, significant associations between the use of military themed …

Politeness Theory: Compliance And Paralinguistic Cooperation, Jamie Jacqueline Osborn

Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

This manuscript is comprised of three research studies focused on politeness, shame, and cooperation. Study one is a pretest to develop stimuli for the subsequent experiment. The stimuli are comprised of messages that vary by both the type and degree of politeness. There are two types of politeness: regard for another’s identity and regard another’s independence (autonomy). There are also two degrees of politeness: presence and absence of regard. Presence of regard is considered politeness and absence of regard is considered impoliteness. This creates four conditions: identity politeness, autonomy politeness, identity impoliteness, and autonomy impoliteness. This study included exemplars …

Becoming A Mom: Intersectionality And Fashion Consumption For Millennial Latinas And The Role Of Social Media Influencers, Leslie M. Cuevas

Doctoral Dissertations

When it comes to motherhood for women of color, the topic of women empowerment is scarce, and the media mostly portrays Latinas through traditional ethnic stereotypes. The advent of social media has presented women the opportunity to engage in identity formation as they exercise empowerment in choices and self-monitoring online. A good example of this transition in power involves fashion influencers who use their personal influence to change the meaning of motherhood, making it more accessible and realistic to women in general. However, a lack of diversity remains within the influencer industry as white women are the majority. Drawing upon …

The People Who “Burn”: “Communication,” Unity, And Change In Belarusian Discourse On Public Creativity, Anton Dinerstein

Doctoral Dissertations

The main intellectual problem I address in this study is how everyday communication activates the relationship between creativity, conflict, and change. More specifically, I look at how the communication of creativity becomes a process of transformation, innovation, and change and how people are propelled to create through everyday communication practices in the face of conflict and opposition. To approach this problem, I use the case of communication in modern-day Belarus to show how creativity becomes a vehicle for and a source of new social and cultural routines among the independent grassroots communities and initiatives in Minsk. On one level, I …