Communication Commons^™

Exploring Artifacts And Documents In Collective Creativity Workshops Applied To Future Studies, Mathilde Sarré-Charrier

Proceedings from the Document Academy

In a context of uncertainty, organizations use creativity methods to anticipate future challenges in relations with the long-term evolutions of the society. These approaches consist in bringing together people with complementary points of view to multiply the diversity of ideas. This paper focuses on the process of transformation and selection of ideas and artifacts from a collective perspective in the unprecedented circumstances that occurred during the pandemic.

We question how ideas are grounded in the documents and artifacts produced at the key moments of the creative process from the perspective of the facilitators and the participants.

In this paper we …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Dancers, Mackenzie Weakland

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

COVID-19 impacted every person who experienced it. Dancers in particular, were a group of people that were not able to participate in their art form in the way that they were always able to. This project explores how COVID-19 impacted dancers and their ability to learn and grow.

The Queer Performance, Owen Coldsnow

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For my project, I decided to make a documentary focusing on the experiences of queer, University of Akron students appropriately called, “The Queer Performance.” As a member of the LGBTQ+ community myself, it was particularly important to me to document the unique challenges that queer students have to face. One specific challenge that rings true for me is putting on many different personas in different situations, and I wanted to see how this compared and contrasted with other members of the community. According to Goffman’s Dramaturgical Theory, everyone puts on an act when they are around people, but each of …

A Swipe To The Right: Exploring Tinder Use In College Students, Madisyn Smith

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A Swipe to the Right: Exploring Tinder Use in College students set out to explore different ways in which college students used the dating application Tinder . More specifically, the study focused on what kind of relationships college-aged users were hoping to form on Tinder (i.e. committed, casual, or neither) and what factors determined whether these users swiped right versus left on other Tinder users. This study was conducted by way of five qualitative, semi-structured, one-on-one interviews between participant and researcher. While Tinder is commonly thought of as a "hookup app", the results of the interviews proved otherwise; college students …

The Dangers Of Free Speech In The Modern World, Katie Yoak

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In our modern day individuals often feel safe being able to say whatever they want from behind a computer. The ability to say whatever we want online has both positive and negative effects. This digital form of communication can bring out both the best and worst in us. Many people in our modern age take this technology and use it to engage in aggressive behavior that may not normally occur or be seen by as many people. In this modern day of internet aggression I wish to explore how the ability to speak freely online and through social media services …

Guided Toolkit For Virtual Programming, Sienna Mcarthur

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Coronavirus pandemic that has occurred over the last year was a major detriment to the entire world. COVID-19 caused businesses to shut down, people to shelter in place, and restricted in-person gatherings. Specifically, in the event coordinating profession, planners had to pivot their thought process and change how they saw their careers. Virtual events became a reality for most, but some were unsure of where to start the transition.

This research focuses on the importance of continued programming, even virtually, in order to keep positive relationships alive and encourage participants to be engaged from their homes. It also creates …

Legacy Traditions, Abigail Schreiner

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper discusses and examines how I planned and executed a new fall program for Girl Scouts of North East Ohio entitled, “Legacy Traditions.” This program took place in October 2019 at Camp Timberlane in Wakeman, Ohio. The attendance of the camp consisted of girls between the ages of 6 to 11 years old. After seeing there was a need for a program that discussed Girl Scout Traditions while teaching leadership and other core values of Girl Scouts, the program was created in partnership with Girl Scouts of North East Ohio. Girl Scouts is an organization where girls of all …

Performing The Quality Of Imperceptible Interactions Between Individuals: A Technological Challenge Regarding The Collective, Marine Theunissen

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Contemporary technologies allow incredible possibilities of capturing individuals, but a problem arises when it comes to capturing a chorus, that is to say a "collective body" in motion. This proposal will address the problem of the sensitive capture of the quality of the interrelations between individuals, and of their refined interpretation through algorithms to "output” them in other forms. We will address two questions on the subject: how to capture the relations between individuals within a collective? How to create a circular-causal loop, whose artistic material (the digital data) is the interrelations of a collective, without engendering redundancy in their …

Communication Apprehension, Self-Efficacy, And Their Effects On The Utilization Of On-Campus Services, Ashley Mikolay

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

College is a vital time in a person's life and the quality of their experiences usually go beyond just the academic and for this reason it is important that we study these experiences too.

This study looked to gain knowledge about why some students choose to be involved on campus and utilize services provided by their universities and others do not. To do this we gathered data from students about their perceived self-efficacy and communication apprehension in addition to their level of involvement while in college in the hopes to either find support, or rule these traits out as factors …

Camp Wanake Information Dissemination: Retreatant Literature And Materials, Erica Rymer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Retreat groups are an integral part of nonprofit camp communities. Their attendance and volunteer efforts directly correlate with the success of the organization. Therefore it is necessary to understand why retreat groups visit camp environments and volunteer their time, as well as how they prefer to receive information in order for them to be best supported throughout their experience. It is key, as a nonprofit, to understand the best and most efficient methods of presenting retreatants with information, so that retention is increased and communication uncertainty is decreased. In addition, it is essential to understand the communication processes within the …

A Palimpsest Of Diné Voices, Frances Vitali, Brian C. O'Connor

Proceedings from the Document Academy

We use the idea of a palimpsest to probe and illuminate Hayse's model of communication as a dance - not simply the erasure of a single manuscript but the scraping away of the communication system of an entire people.

Among Navajo (Dine’), oral tradition and oral language still operates within mediated print and digital technologies as a complementarity. There is still a commitment to honoring whose voice is telling the stories in American Indian literature, for colonialist attitudes may still be coded with unchallenged stereotypes, cultural inaccuracies for readers.

Modeling the intersection of Diné culture and Anglo culture – both …

Brunswick Educational Access Television Social Media Campaign, Nicole Rhoades

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This social media campaign is to be executed by student managers within the Brunswick Schools Video Program. The Video Program provides journalistic experience to young students by immersing them in print and broadcast journalism that is provided to the Brunswick-area through Brunswick Educational Access Television.

What Makes A Man?: An Alpha Male’S Fight For Masculinity Against The Media’S Muscular Ideals, Julie A. Yockey

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Previous studies have focused heavily on media effects on women however growing trends in male ideals are finding that men are no longer static observers. The media constructs the ideal male body as lean, strong and muscular and men exposed to these idealized images may experience body dissatisfaction. Therefore, this project explores the effects of media ideals on men and the possible relationship between the media depictions of the muscular ideals and masculinity. Current research analysis shows that exposure to media ideals not only causes body dissatisfaction among men; trying to achieve the perfect body may result in unhealthy behaviors. …

The Religion Of Social Media: When Islam Meets The Web, Zaina Salem

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this feature article is to identify the reasons why some social media users disclose their religious beliefs through sites such as Facebook and Twitter. According to the Pew Research Center, 20 percent of Americans share their faith online. After a series of in-depth interviews, I discovered that for some, religious-related posts serve as personal religious reminders. Others share their religious views on social media to feel a sense of community, or to eliminate stereotypes and ignorance surrounding their religion.

Unfriend?: An Analysis Of Friendship Comparing Subjects’ Perceptions Of Face-To-Face Versus Internet-Mediated Relationships, Matthew S. Harp

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this study was to find out how similar or different peoples’ perceptions are of friendships which are primarily face-to-face and those which are primarily internet mediated. It was hypothesized that, based on qualities which are shared by each respective medium, individuals would not find perceptions of face-to-face and Internet-mediated friendships to be significantly different. One hundred fifty-one undergraduate students at The University of Akron were given a survey developed from a literature review to test how important certain general friendship qualities were to their concept of each type of friendship. It was found that, while all of …