Communication Commons^™

Instattack: Instagram And Visual Ad Hominem Political Arguments, Sophia Evangeline Gourgiotis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to examine the visual political ad hominem arguments used on Instagram during the 2016 presidential campaign. Using Walton’s (2007) five subtypes of ad hominem arguments, this study analyzes the “attack ads” posted on Instagram from five of the 2016 presidential candidates into each subtype. This project seeks to understand how ad hominem arguments within political rhetoric function when they are visual. This study uses Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) theory of modality and Rose’s (2012) compositional interpretation to analyze compositional structure of the image and parallels this analysis with ad hominem subtypes.

Findings reveal …

Designing The Haptic Interface For Morse Code, Michael Walker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two siblings have a muscular degenerative condition that has rendered them mostly blind, deaf and paraplegic. Currently, the siblings receive communication by close range sign language several feet in front of their vision. Due to the degenerative nature of their condition, it is believed that the siblings will eventually become completely blind and unable to communicate in this fashion. There are no augmented communication devices on the market that allow communication reception for individuals who cannot see, hear or possess hand dexterity (such as braille reading). To help the siblings communicate, the proposed communication device will transmit Morse code information …

Rupturing The World Of Elite Athletics: A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Suspension Of The 2011 Iaaf Regulations On Hyperandrogenism, Ella Browning

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2011 the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) published the Regulations on Hyperandrogenism, a health policy banning female athletes from track and field competition if their natural levels of testosterone were found to be higher than those of most female athletes. In 2014, Dutee Chand, a sprinter from India, was banned from competition based on these regulations. She appealed her ban in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and as a result the 2011 IAAF Hyperandrogenism Regulations were suspended for two years. The issues at stake in the suspension of these regulations are, at their core, rhetorical issues …

“Black Americans And Hiv/Aids In Popular Media” Conforming To The Politics Of Respectability, Alisha Lynn Menzies

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines narratives about racialized gender, sexuality, and class through media images of black Americans with HIV/AIDS. Through textual analysis of media sites featuring HIV/AIDS and blackness (The Announcement, Precious, and Marvelyn Brown’s website, www.marvelynbrown.com), this project analyzes how the politics of respectability—a set of precepts that govern how black men and women can present themselves in public spaces to align with white ideals of gender and sexuality—construct black people in media representations of HIV/AIDS. This work examines how respectability politics deployed in media representations of HIV/AIDS and black Americans reclaim notions of acceptable black sexuality …

Digital Integration, Jacob C. Boccio

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence is an emerging technology; something far beyond smartphones, cloud integration, or surgical microchip implantation. Utilizing the work of Ray Kurzweil, Nick Bostrom, and Steven Shaviro, this thesis investigates technology and artificial intelligence through the lens of the cinema. It does this by mapping contemporary concepts and the imagined worlds in film as an intersection of reality and fiction that examines issues of individual identity and alienation. I look at a non-linear timeline of films involving machine advancement, machine intelligence, and stages of post-human development; Elysium (2013) and Surrogates (2009) are about technology as an extension of the self, …

Drop, Cover, And Hold On: Analyzing Fema's Risk Communication Through Visual Rhetoric, Samantha Jo Cosgrove

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project seeks to understand the relationship between visual rhetoric and power structure between FEMA’s Earthquake publications and their audience. Research shows images leave a longer impression on readers than text, causing more studies to focus on visuals rather than just text in technical communication. Author uses Critical Discourse Analysis to analyze the images in relation to text, design, and intended audience to determine what information is being privileged. It is determined that homeowners are being privileged with information over non-homeowners, established through a collection of images and image types. The lack of information for non-homeowners could result in injury …

Book Review: Remembering Genocide, Tony Barta

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

When Maps Ignore The Territory: An Examination Of Gendered Language In Cancer Patient Literature, Joanna Bartell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cancer patients report having a high need for cancer information. Several studies show that the majority of patients surveyed report preferring information from the American Cancer Society (ACS). Ranging up to 129 pages, the ACS’ Detailed Guides (DG) are widely distributed throughout the United States, and offer patients an authoritative guide to help patients navigate the difficult terrain of the cancer journey. This dissertation examines the ACS’ cervical, endometrial, ovarian, penile, prostate, testicular, and vaginal cancer guides. Through a rhetorical analysis of the 7 guides, it was shown that the ACS DGs in question foster gendered narratives that strictly limit …

Spiritual Frameworks In Pediatric Palliative Care: Understanding Parental Decision-Making, Lindy Grief Davidson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Parents of seriously ill children are charged with making complicated medical decisions, and many of those decisions are made during their children’s hospitalizations. As medical staff seek to support parents, it is important for them to understand what resources parents are drawing upon for decision-making. This project explored parental decision-making by examining the following research questions: RQ1: What resources do parents draw upon to make medical decisions for their seriously ill children? RQ2: How do parents enact their spiritual or religious frameworks in clinical settings when faced with medical decisions for their seriously ill children? Methods of research included ethnographic …

In Search Of Solidarity: Identification Participation In Virtual Fan Communities, Jaime Shamado Robb

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study questions the way sports fans create (a sense of) community through online conversations. Here, ‘community’ and ‘internet’ are seen as invitational terms that suggest an authentic social interaction. By examining the language used by fans to sustain a sense of solidarity in the virtual realm, this study questions the ways in which rhetoric frames the situation. Participation in the virtual space relies on practices of identification derived from physical engagements. By using a rhetorical approach, this study illuminates the way individual participants operationalize a rhetoric in virtual conversations that spiritualize the fan’s experience at the base of a …