Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Enacting Economic Resilience: A Synthesis Of Economic And Communication Frameworks, Timothy Betts, Patrice M. Buzzanell

Communication Faculty Publications

This work examines three frameworks for responding to economic disruption: risk mitigation, systemic recovery, and economic resilience. Specifically, by reviewing the metatheoretical commitments, analytic contexts, and implications of two economic perspectives, represented by risk mitigation and systemic recovery, we argue that current approaches to understanding resilience in academic economics have failed to address ongoing and emergent disruptions in the economic and social world. In response, this work also reviews a possible synthesis of economic and communication frameworks. This review places the economic resilience framework, inspired by the communication theory of resilience, in conversation with extant literature in economics, communication studies, …

Reference-Dependent Choice On Digital Platforms, Joshua K. Kaisen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Throughout this dissertation I explore a significant departure from the standard model of rationality known as reference-dependence. The theory reference-dependence asserts that an individual’s choice is dependent on their frame of reference established through factors divorced from their rational cost and benefit. This behavior is inefficient as individuals fail to rationally optimize their payoffs. This behavior is understudied in natural settings where isolating specific stimuli which may establish a reference is challenging. However, digital platforms contain limited stimuli which are fully observable to researchers and present an ideal setting to study the theory of reference-dependence. Thus, I introduce three new …

Reflections On Innumeracy In The Wild, Ellen M. Peters

Numeracy

Peters, E. (2020). Innumeracy in the Wild: Misunderstanding and Misusing Numbers. (New York, NY: Oxford University Press) 315 pp. ISBN 978-0190861094

This piece briefly introduces and excerpts Innumeracy in the Wild: Misunderstanding and Misusing Numbers, written by Ellen Peters and published by Oxford University Press. Through a state-of-art review of the literature, the book explains how numeric ability supports the quality of the decisions people make and the life outcomes they experience. It presents three ways that people can be good or bad with numbers and how each of these numeric competencies matter to decision making.

Widow Narratives On Film And In Memoirs: Exploring Formula Stories Of Grief And Loss Of Older Women After The Death Of A Spouse, Jennifer R. Bender

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes narratives (written and mediated) about widows’ post-loss experiences—specifically the ways in which these women embody and adjust/adhere to their post-loss widow identities—and whether or not the canonical/formula stories about widows reflect current experiences of widowhood. I look at older widowed women—both those in well-read widow memoirs and also in media portrayals of widows on film. The canonical view of widows as not attractive, not useful, and not interesting needs to be reexamined in light of changing ideas about gender roles and increased longevity. Surely older women have experiences, desires, and goals that encompass more than being socially …

Personality And Process: The Role Of Dyadic Homophily, Christina N. Falcon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper focuses on understanding the development of quality of intra-team processes. Utilizing semester-long project teams, social networks were used to measure the information sharing and coordination between all pairs of members with the teams. Dyadic-level homophily on the personality traits of agreeableness, extraversion, and openness to experience were used to predict the quality of these dyadic processes. Additionally, data from 11 weeks were used to examine whether the personality-process relationships change during the life cycle of the team.

The Uses Of Community In Modern American Rhetoric, Cody Ryan Hawley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the functions of the term “community” in American social and political rhetoric. I contend that community serves as a god-term, or expression of value and order, which rhetors use to motivate actions, endorse values, include/exclude persons, and compensate for modern losses. Informed by the philosophy of Kenneth Burke, I explore the general features of “rhetorics of community,” including community’s ambiguity and status as an automatic good, the relationship between community and modernity, the myth of communal loss, and the uses of community as a site of political unity and contest. I analyze the writings of John Humphrey …

Household Food Waste Prevention In Malaysia: An Issue Processes Model Perspective, Syahirah Abd Razak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Food waste has been a worldwide concern for several decades but this problem is relatively new in the Malaysian context due to the increasing amount of food waste in recent years. Thus, the goal of the study is to provide the basic information of knowledge and involvement level, and their interaction in food waste prevention among households in Malaysia. This study seek to further mass communication research in the area of food waste. The Hallahan’s Issues Processes Model was used within this study in order to determine the relationship between knowledge, involvement, and food waste prevention behavior. The convenience sampling …

Practical Theology In An Interpretive Community: An Ethnography Of Talk, Texts And Video In A Mediated Women's Bible Study, Nancie Hudson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study of social interaction in a small religious group used ethnography of communication as a research method to collect and analyze data from 20 months of fieldwork. As a long-term participant-observer in a women-only interdenominational Bible study, I investigated the group’s patterned ways of speaking, how print and electronic learning materials influenced the practical application of Scripture to daily life, and how the contemporary format for women’s Bible study alters the traditional Bible study experience. Patterned ways of speaking in this setting included group discussions and conversational narratives about religion, motherhood and lack of time. Using affirmations of faith, …

Volunteer Tourism: Fulfilling The Needs For God And Medicine In Latin America, Erin Howell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to understand how short-term medical missions fulfill health needs for their recipients in Honduras, and how in turn, mission participants experience need fulfillment as well. By using the theoretical concept of co-construction of health to see how health needs are or are not met, I conducted a thematic analysis of the Baptist Medical and Dental Mission International (BMDMI) resulting in the following themes: 1.) Mission workers receive fulfillment from their experiences in the mission field. 2.) Mission recipients receive partial fulfillment of needs from the mission. 3). Through a calling, missions are a means to an end. …

Avatar Self-Identification, Self-Esteem, And Perceived Social Capital In The Real World: A Study Of World Of Warcraft Players And Their Avatars, Melissa Watts

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the relationship between people who play massively multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPGs) and their avatars, as well as the impact on players’ self-esteem and perceived social capital in the real world. To examine these influences of online video gameplay, this research investigated gamers who play the popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft (WoW). This study employed an online survey made available on Reddit, a widely-used news, entertainment, and social-networking website, in which all the content is user-generated. The research questionnaire was intended to reveal the bond between MMORPG players and their avatars; the study examined how this relationship …

Trust In People And Trust In Technology: Expanding Interpersonal Trust To Technology-Mediated Interactions, Evgeniya Evgenieva Pavlova Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Trust is necessary for human interactions. It provides the ability to participate in risky behaviors without engaging in a laborious risk-benefit analysis about the situation at hand. The introduction of information and communication technologies has brought about new ways of communicating (e.g., text messaging, video conferencing). Despite the benefits stemming from the ability to communicate through technology, the lower quality and quantity of communication cues exchanged during a technology-mediated interaction can hamper the development of trust.

This study examined the relationship between interpersonal trust and trust in technology during a technology-mediated dyadic interaction and aimed to determine whether interpersonal trust …

A Semiotic Phenomenology Of Homelessness And The Precarious Community: A Matter Of Boundary, Heather Renee Curry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation focuses on the articulation of the concepts of precarity —i.e., temporary, affective, creative, immaterial and insecure labor—and community in an overheating system. My site of inquiry is homelessness broadly, but more specifically the labor of panhandling and the identity of “the panhandler.” I recognize that primary theorizations of precarity have located it as a problem of labor and economy. Others have looked at it from the sociological domain. My work looks at precarity as diffuse across social, political, and communal systems, but primarily as an effect of the problem of overheating as it manifests at varying levels of …

Love And (M)Other (Im)Possibilities, Summer Renee Cunningham

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a performative interrogation of the disagreement and (dis)interest, communication issues, surrounding motherhood in contemporary U.S. culture. Textual analysis of Mary Kelly's Post-Partum Document (PPD) plays a key role in my inquiry. I juxtapose documentation from my lived experiences and academic projects with Kelly's work to build upon the themes and ideas introduced throughout PPD. This project is guided by the concepts love and (im)possibility, and I will argue that, together, they are central to understanding mothering/caregiving as a site of communication inquiry. Love and (im)possibility are inherent to both mothering and communication, but they also are essential …

The Accidental Motivator: Florida's Medicinal Marijuana Ballot Initiative's Impact On The Youth Vote, Robert Winsler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine single-issue voting in the youth population, specifically involving the upcoming medical marijuana ballot initiative to be voted on in Florida November, 2014. Single-issue voting is becoming a more prevalent trend in American politics. The young voter demographic has historically showed the lowest percentage of voter turnout thus giving it the highest potential to influence the outcome of an election if more voters showed up to the polls. This study sought to understand if a single issue such as medical marijuana could be that motivation to go vote. Data was gathered through conducting …

An Examination Of Motives, Experiences, And Behaviors Of Mmorpg Players, Theresa Lynn Woods

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are growing in popularity and use worldwide. This study seeks to explore the motivations and experiences of MMORPG players through an extensive online survey with more than a thousand participants (n=1,422). The findings support a complex relationship between the variables, including the direct effects of motivations and flow on the time invested by players in MMORPG play, as well as the mediated effects of motivation via flow. Causal relationships are examined in addition to the significance of direct and indirect effects on frequency of play, yielding several significant results, including (1) the overwhelming importance …

Organizing Disability: Producing Knowledge In A University Accommodations Office, Shelby Forbes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As it is generally conceived, knowledge belongs to the individual: we imagine how a lightbulb suddenly illuminates above the scientist's head, a muse whispers in the philosopher's ear, cogs slide into place as wheels turn in the thinker's mind, and, "Eureka!" an idea is born. As an individualistic experience, knowledge is secure in the repository of the mind, a "steel trap" as it is so often referred, which can only be breached by the most sophisticated and precise methods. From these popular representations of knowledge, one can extrapolate further to conclude that knowledge is not made, it is received. All …

(Dis)Abled Gaming: An Autoethnographic Analysis Of Decreasing Accessibility For Disabled Gamers, Kyle David Romano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Within the context of culture, disability has long existed as a stigmatizing quality (Goffman, 1963). As a result, people with disabilities are often overlooked or completely omitted from various, cultural artifacts. This exclusion of people with disabilities is largely recognized as unproblematic because their disabilities imply an inevitable failing. Through my own experiences as a disabled gamer, I have recognized that video games have also framed gamers with disabilities as problematic. Video games are largely constructed in a one-size-fits-all mentality (Grammenos, 2014), where very specific people, with very specific kinds of bodies, are granted access to play them. Since disabled …

Citizens United, The Marketplace, And Influence, Corin Shanti La Pointe-Aitchison

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the rationale used by the Supreme Court in the 2010 case, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The majority opinion and dissent were dissected and scrutinized for any weaknesses. After careful review and comparison with First Amendment theories and scholarly articles, it was found that the majority opinion and final decision were poorly reasoned and created a dangerous political communication landscape and a weakened Marketplace of Ideas.

Effects Of Task Evaluation Knowledge And Leadership Style On Employee Attitude Toward A Task, Alan Abitbol

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ideally, an employee will attempt to perform a task at his or her best ability in order to complete a work task appropriately. However, there are several factors that affect how an employee approaches a task. Two such factors are the understanding an employee has on how his or her supervisor may evaluate performance of the task and the supervisor's leadership style. This study focuses on the effect task evaluation knowledge (TEK) and different leadership styles have on an employee's attitude toward performing a task. By using a 2x2 (transformational/transactional leadership by limited/increased amount of information communicated) experiment, participants were …

Global Csr And Photographic Credibility: Exploring How International Companies Portray Efforts Through Photographs In Csr Reports, Janel Lynn Norton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We are living in the age of the visual. Imagery is an important element in constructing and deriving meaning through symbols, colors, and context. Images may hold persuasive power, be used as evidence, or simply provide a moment of beauty. Organizations rely on photographs to help them convey an image to their stakeholders within annual reports. Telling an organizations' story through photographs has become an intrinsic part of their efforts to convey sustainability. We live in the age of transparency, and organizations that construct an image that is not truthful will face consequences in today's socially connected and conscious world. …

Mentoring Experiences Among Female Public Relations Entrepreneurs: A Qualitative Investigation, Sabina Gaggioli

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study expands from current mentoring literature within the mass communication field in understanding how mentoring can contribute to the successful careers of public relations entrepreneurial women. While many scholars indicate that mentoring is effective for women, the present study describes how mentoring has affected the women participants' public relations careers and personal lives. In-depth interviews focused on following five research questions: What have been the key contributing factors in the success of public relations women entrepreneurs? How has mentoring helped the women participants achieve their goals in a public relations career and in starting their own company? Which …

Internet Use And Economic Development: Evidence And Policy Implications, Joseph J. Macdougald

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how Internet use impacts four different measures of economic development using several econometric techniques on multi-country panel data. The economic development outcomes investigated are: per capita GDP, per capita export revenues, per capita market capitalization, and societal well-being as measured by the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI). Data from the World Bank, the International Telecommunication Union, and the United Nations –covering 202 countries over the period 1996 to 2007– are combined to allow for empirical investigation using dynamic panel data and finite mixture model estimation techniques on the total sample and subsamples stratified by country income …

Looking Good And Taking Care: Consumer Culture, Identity, And Poor, Minority, Urban Tweens, Elizabeth Edgecomb

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Looking Good and Taking Care: Consumer Culture, Identity, and Poor, Minority, Urban Tweens is an ethnographic examination of how poor, minority, urban tweens (age 7-14) use consumer culture to create and perform their personal and social identities. Although portrayed in mass media as selfish and hedonistic, this work finds tweens creating profoundly social, giving, and caring identities and relationships through consumption. Their use of consumer culture is also a form of political resistance that subverts their place in the age, class, and race hierarchy. These tweens use “looking good” (attention to grooming, style, and behaving respectably), and not name brand …