Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Impact Of Third Places On Community Quality Of Life, Leo Wayne Jeffres, Cheryl Campanella Bracken, Guowei Jian, Mary F. Casey

Communication Faculty Publications

Older cities struggling with issues of survival focus on jobs and the economy, but competition requires all cities to pay attention to the quality of life that attracts residents. Creating such an inviting environment includes “third places” that foster community and communication among people outside of home and work, yet we have little empirical evidence that speaks to the subject, or their importance for a community’s quality of life. Here we report on a national U.S. survey that asked people to identify such places in their community, producing a wide variety of “third places” that ranged from the most popular …

Nebraska Immigration: Deliberative Polling And Civic Engagement On Broadcast And New Media Coverage, Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, Michael L. Hilt, David C. Ogden, Hugh J. Reilly

Communication Faculty Publications

Data were analyzed from an October 2007 deliberative poll event in Omaha, Nebraska. The focus of pre-event survey questions was on the usefulness of media sources on the coverage of the global immigration issue. The goal of the project was to promote civic engagement of citizens on an important public issue. The focus of post-event survey questions was on attention paid to media. Additionally, a post-event focus group explored public opinion on credibility of various news sources. While the deliberative poll produced some evidence of short-term effects in terms of citizens learning about the immigration issue, attitudes about media credibility …

The Impact Of Third Places On Community Quality Of Life, Leo W. Jeffres, Cheryl C. Bracken, Guowei Jian, Mary F. Casey

Communication Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Warm Ideas And Chilling Consequences, Arthur P. Bochner

Communication Faculty Publications

In the process of writing my academic memoirs spanning a period of more than thirty-five years, I discovered how crucial the work of Gregory Bateson had been to my life as a teacher, a scholar, and a relational partner. In this paper I celebrate Bateson's charming and incisive ideas about how communication works, his deep reservations about the worship of quantification, and his astute analysis of what is at stake when we make epistemological errors in everyday life. Reviewing a turning point in my academic life—a conference held in 1979, I reaffirm the importance of warm ideas and provide a …

Using Communication To Cope With Loss, Paige W. Toller

Communication Faculty Publications

The death of a child is a devastating and life changing event. A child's death leaves parents struggling to somehow pick up the pieces of their shattered life and continue living. In the aftermath of their loss, parents are often surprised and disappointed to discover how difficult it is to talk to one another about their child's death. Likewise, parents may be frustrated to learn that they grieve very differently from their spouse. In many cases, one parent wants to talk a great deal about the child's death while the other does not. In addition, one parent may be more …

Grieving Together And Apart: Bereaved Parents’ Contradictions Of Marital Interaction, Paige W. Toller, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Communication Faculty Publications

The researchers adopted relational dialectics theory (Baxter & Montgomery, 1996) to examine the discourse of 37 bereaved parents. Research questions guiding the study were what dialectical contradictions do bereaved parents experience when communicating with their marital partner after their child’s death and how do bereaved parents and their marital partners communicatively negotiate the dialectical contradictions they experience? Our analysis revealed that bereaved parents experienced a dialectical contradiction between trying to grieve their child’s death together as a couple and apart as individuals. Likewise, parents experienced a contradiction between being both open and closed when talking with one another about their …

Parameter Estimation Validity And Relationship Robustness: A Comparison Of Telephone And Internet Survey Techniques, Cheryl C. Bracken, Leo W. Jeffres, Kimberly Neuendorf, David Atkin

Communication Faculty Publications

With the expansion of telecommunication and online technologies for the purpose of survey administration, the issue of measurement validity has come to the fore. The proliferation of automated audio services and computer-based survey techniques has been matched by a corresponding denigration of the quality of traditional phone survey data, most notably as an outcome of falling response rates. This trend, combined with the introduction of screening technologies and answering machines, represents a barrier to the proper execution of survey research. Whereas the question was once, “can technology-assisted surveys achieve the same level of validity as traditional phone surveys?”, the question …

Editors’ Note: Media And Information Literacy In Theory And Practice, Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, Michael L. Hilt

Communication Faculty Publications

Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education (SIMILE) has published a wide-range of international articles from across the disciplines. As a collection, they represent the growing influence and importance of media and information literacy.

Defining Family: Naming, Orientation, And Redemption In The Case Of Terri Schiavo, M. Chad Mcbride, Karen L. Taas, Paige W. Toller

Communication Faculty Publications

This paper undertakes a detailed analysis of the Terri Schiavo case as it was covered in popular media. Drawing on Burkean theory, we argue a critical issue in the case was a struggle between Terri's parents and husband to be seen as the more legitimate family in order to determine the duration and extent of Terri 's medical care. We discuss how the private debate over Terri's health and the decision to remove her feeding tube entered into the public scenes of legal and political action. This shift to the public scene represented problems for the parties directly involved in …

Book Review: The Wide Turn Toward Home, Scott D. Peterson

Communication Faculty Publications

In "How to Write a True Baseball Story," Richard Peterson employs the ghost of Ring Lardner to dish out advice to a would-be practitioner of the genre. Lardner advises the rookie writer to avoid tall tales of his ball playing youth, games of catch with his dead father, and all the other oh-so-familiar formulas in favor of seeking the simple-and often unpleasant-truth about baseball. Following Peterson's rubric, the introspective protagonists of Winkler's collection would bat somewhere near a cool .500, which is an impressive debut. But truth is not everything in the game of baseball (Just ask A-Rod) and the …

Book Review: Shoeless Joe And Ragtime Baseball, Scott D. Peterson

Communication Faculty Publications

As Harvey Frommer indicates in the new introduction to this old tale, some stories will never go away and the 1919 Black Sox scandal is one of them. In Saying It's So, Daniel Nathan argues that this particular tale has been retold every generation because it is so central to America's culture and history. Instead of letting it go, we've got to dust it off and tell it again (and again) in the form of non-fiction, fiction, and film. Frommer's book, which was recently reissued just 16 years after its last release, focuses on the life and times of …

Editors’ Note: Defining Media And Information Literacy Amid Change, Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, Michael L. Hilt

Communication Faculty Publications

Recent articles in Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education (SIMILE) highlight definitional challenges and opportunities.

His Final Homily: Pope John Paul Ii's Death As An Affirmation Of His Life's Message, Joesph M. Valenzano

Communication Faculty Publications

Every Sunday morning, a member of the Roman Catholic clergy addresses his flock after a reading from one of the Gospels. These homilies ordinarily last between 10 and 20 minutes and allow the priest an opportunity to interpret the Gospel message from that day's reading, as well as discuss how that message relates to contemporary events and issues.

During the final two months of his life, Pope John Paul II provided a longer, more powerful symbolic homily to the world. The message summarized his positions on freedom, suffering, and the dignity of human life.

Pushing Past The Walls: Media Literacy, The “Emancipated” Classroom, And A Really Severe Learning Curve, Adam W. Tyma

Communication Faculty Publications

This essay's purpose is primarily to document the creation process of the Bethesda Program After-School Media Literacy program via a curriculum inspired by critical pedagogy (e.g., Freire, Giroux, Warren). Second, it will conduct a theoretical critique of the project, utilizing the experiences of the project advisor (me). Finally, given the first two sections, this essay will offer a discussion of how this project and the pedagogical process could work in the future.

This Little Piggy Went To Press: The American News Media's Construction Of Animals In Agriculture, Carrie Packwood Freeman

Communication Faculty Publications

This textual analysis examines the representations of farmed animals in national print and broadcast news discourse in over 100 stories published from 2000-2003. Findings show these American news media largely support the speciesist status quo by favoring elite viewpoints and failing to provide balance. Although exceptions are provided, news media often objectify nonhuman animals discursively through: 1) commodification, 2) failure to acknowledge their emotional perspectives, and 3) failure to describe them as inherently-valuable individuals.

A Greater Means To The Greater Good: Ethical Guidelines To Meet Social Movement Organization Advocacy Challenges, Carrie Packwood Freeman

Communication Faculty Publications

Existing public relations ethics literature often proves inadequate when applied to social movement campaigns, considering the special communication challenges activists face as marginalized moral visionaries in a commercial public sphere. The communications of counter-hegemonic movements is distinct enough from corporate, nonprofit, and governmental organizations to warrant its own ethical guidelines. The unique communication guidelines most relevant to social movement organizations include promoting asymmetrical advocacy to a greater extent than is required for more powerful organizations and building flexibility into the TARES principles to privilege social responsibility over respect for audience values in activist campaigns serving as ideological critique.

Talking With Copyright Holders And Pirates: Grass Roots Voices Concerning Chinese Copyright Piracy Of U.S. Ip Products, Dexin Tian, Chin-Chung Chao

Communication Faculty Publications

Through a thematic analysis of 45 in-depth interviews via the theoretical frameworks of the theory of reasoned action and culture change, this study explores the grass roots voices concerning Chinese copyright piracy of U.S. IP products in China. The study found that both the U.S. neglect of the Chinese historical heritage in terms of IPR protection and the traditional Chinese conceptions of private property account for the rampant copyright piracy in China. As the solutions to the issue, readjusted U.S. IPR policies and flexible IP product prices, sufficient media supervision and public education in China, and effective enforcement of IPR …