Communication Commons^™

Content Analysis Of Backyard Conservation Websites, Katie George, Sam Holzer

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Backyard conservation program websites are common, but it is unknown how effective they are. The purpose was to create a content analysis of the persuasive techniques/appeals that communication theory suggests are effective.

Burnout In The Nursing Profession: Extant Knowledge And Future Directions For Research And Practice, Sara Labelle

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Burnout is a psychological state resulting from prolonged psychological or emotional job stress, and is a culmination of three factors: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Due to the nature of the “people-work” they must constantly perform, along with a highly stressful and unpredictable work environment, nurses have alarmingly high rates of burnout among members of their profession. Given the importance of research on burnout to understanding the context-specific stressors and challenges of nursing, this review offers a synthesis of research published in the last decade in both nursing and communication journals, with an emphasis on discussing opportunities for …

La Teoría Del “Generolecto” Observada En La Llamada De Lauren De Paloma Pedrero Y Entre Villa Y Una Mujer Desnuda De Sabina Berman, Thomas Tsai

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Created and popularized by Deborah Tannen, the Genderlect Theory explains how through social contexts, men and women have different ways of communicating. According to Tannen, men focus more on status, while women focus more on forming connections. On the other hand, there is also machismo, the behavior and attitude men partake to show that they are “manly” or “superior” to women and others they deem as inferior. Through the literary theatrical works, "La llamada de Lauren" by Paloma Pedrero and "Entre Villa y una mujer" desnuda by Sabina Berman, we can see similarities and differences in the Genderlect Theory and …

Communicating In Crisis Situations, Rick Gorvett, Chris Morse, Julie Volkman

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

Communicating technical information, especially in a crisis situation and particularly when the audience does not share the technical background, is a challenge that actuaries frequently face. This essay describes the dynamics and issues involved in crisis communications and provides some recommendations for actuaries confronting such a situation.

How Responsiveness From A Communication Partner Affects Story Retell In Aphasia: Quantitative And Qualitative Findings, Tyson G. Harmon, Adam Jacks, Katarina L. Haley, Antoine Bailliard

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Because people with aphasia frequently interact with partners who are unresponsive to their communicative attempts, we investigated how partner responsiveness affects quantitative measures of spoken language and subjective reactions during story retell.

Method: A quantitative and a qualitative study were conducted. In study 1, participants with aphasia and controls retold short stories to a communication partner who indicated interest through supportive backchannel responses (responsive) and another who indicated disinterest through unsupportive backchannel responses (unresponsive). Story retell accuracy, delivery speed, and ratings of psychological stress were measured and compared. In study 2, participants completed semi-structured interviews about their story retell …

Role Of Stakeholder Communication In Sustainability Of Indonesia's Conservation Area, Indriyati Kamil, Oekan Abdullah, Herlina Agustin, Iriana Bakti

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Indonesia's environmental policy in the conservation area is carried out by establishing the nature reserve as the highest conservation area in addition to wildlife reserves. The high level of damage in the nature reserve area requires collaboration integrated multi-party. Therefore, preservation activities of nature reserves require stakeholder involvement and multi-stakeholder communication in conservation area management. This study aims to: 1) identify the roles and relationships of stakeholders in preserving the nature reserve area 2) formulating a communication model suitable for conservation of the nature reserve. The research method uses survey methods with qualitative and quantitative descriptive approaches obtained from secondary …

Social Media Usage Patterns: Research Note Regarding The Lack Of Universal Validated Measures For Active And Passive Use, Briana M. Trifiro, Jennifer Gerson

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

The existing literature regarding social media use provides extant evidence supporting the claim that usage patterns ultimately have the capability of impacting users. However, the vast majority of the literature is based upon experimental laboratory settings where participants are observed by researchers. The current article asserts that there is a significant deficiency within the discipline regarding the validated measurement of usage patterns of social networking sites (SNSs) and offers guidance for those who may want to develop a general measure.

Thinking About Engaging North Korea: A Study On The Framing Of The U.S. Human Rights Public Discourse In The Washington Post And New York Times Between 2001 And 2017, Rachael M. Rudolph

History and Social Sciences Faculty Journal Articles

North Korea said in January 2019 that it was exploring ways to engage the human rights issue. This was a much welcomed announcement because the issue must be addressed in order for the two countries to reach a formal, comprehensive peace agreement and the lifting or easing of unilateral sanctions. This study utilizes framing as an analytical tool to examine how the North Korean human rights discourse is framed in the United States for the purpose of identifying the salient rights‐based issues covered in two traditional media outlets, namely, the Washington Post and New York Times. Next, it reframes the …

Bridging Rhetoric And Pragmatics With Relevance Theory, Brian N. Larson

Faculty Scholarship

In this chapter, I bridge rhetoric and pragmatics, both of which concern themselves with language-in-use and meaning-making beyond formal syntax and semantics. Previous efforts to link these fields have failed, but Sperber and Wilson’s relevance theory (RT), an approach to experimental pragmatics grounded in cognitive science, offers the bridge. I begin by reviewing Gricean pragmatics and its incompatibility with rhetoric and cognitive science. I then sketch RT, but importantly, I identify revisions to RT that make it a powerful tool for rhetorical analysis, a cognitive pragmatic rhetorical (CPR) theory. CPR theory strengthens RT by clarifying what it means to be …

Patient-Centeredness In Electronic Communication: An Evaluation Of Patient-To-Healthcare-Team Secure Messaging, Timothy P. Hogan, Tana M. Luger, Julie Volkman, Mary Rocheleau, Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Anna M. Barker, Kim M. Nazi, Thomas K. Houston, Barbara G. Bokhour

Communication Faculty Journal Articles

Background: As information and communication technology is becoming more widely implemented across health care organizations, patient-provider email or asynchronous electronic secure messaging has the potential to support patient-centered communication. Within the medical home model of the Veterans Health Administration (VA), secure messaging is envisioned as a means to enhance access and strengthen the relationships between veterans and their health care team members. However, despite previous studies that have examined the content of electronic messages exchanged between patients and health care providers, less research has focused on the socioemotional aspects of the communication enacted through those messages.

Objective: Recognizing the potential …

Communication And Family Identity: Toward A Conceptual Model Of Family Identity And Development Of The Family Identity Inventory, Kaitlin Elizabeth Phillips

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Families serve as a primary socializing agent in the lives of individuals (Soliz & Rittenour, 2012), and the first social identity individuals have in their lives. Given the complexity and importance of identity—and family identity specifically, the goal of this study is to identify the various dimensions of family identity that scholars and practitioners should account for in their work. Through a two-study exploratory sequential mixed-method design I investigate what constructs comprise a conceptual model of family identity, and I develop a corresponding inventory of Family Identity. Through this process, I will also assess the relationships among these communicative processes, …

Tools Of Change: Equipping Nonprofits With The Tools To Inspire Change, Nicole Irons

Masters Theses

Whether I am working for a small nonprofit in Indiana or at an elephant sanctuary in Cambodia I have seen consistent areas of struggle and shortcomings in nonprofit organizations. After years of working in different organizations the struggles nonprofits consistently face are a lack of resources in three main areas. These main areas of struggle are: visibility, funding, and people. The idea then occurred to me of why? And while these resources seem to appear unconnected, what if they all stem from one problem? Could we create a tool (or set of tools) to help alleviate these main struggles? Is …

Communicatively Constructing The Bright And Dark Sides Of Hope: Family Caregivers’ Experiences During End Of Life Cancer Care, Jody Koenig Kellas, Katherine M. Castle, Alexis Johnson, Marlene Z. Cohen

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

(1) Background: The communication of hope is complicated, particularly for family caregivers in the context of cancer who struggle to maintain hope for themselves and their loved ones in the face of terminality. In order to understand these complexities, the current study examines the bright and dark sides of how hope is communicated across the cancer journey from the vantage point of bereaved family caregivers; (2) Methods: We analyzed interviews with bereaved family caregivers using qualitative thematic and case oriented strategies to identify patterns in the positive and negative lived experiences when communicating about hope at the end of life; …

Waves Of Feminism And The Media, Tayllor Blair Johnson

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

The feminist movement has gone through many different stages, three to be exact. Each stage, or as they are called in the academic world, “waves”, had its own history and unique defining qualities. Media played a role in the movement in the past, and continue to do so today. My research focused on how the two, feminism and media, intertwine with one another and the affect the movement had, and continues to have, on mainstream media. With the recent news of sexual assault allegations in the media industry, the two seem to go hand-in-hand, now more than ever before.

The …

The Magic Behind Success: What Can Business Leaders Learn From Magicians Regarding Creativity And Communication?, John Logan

Honors Projects in Communication

The following research demonstrates the connection between the art of magic and the world of business. More specifically, it explores the overlap between the innovation and communication techniques magicians use when creating new ideas, developing a routine, performing, and a parallel comparison on what it takes to run a successful business. The capstone will first look at what the "magician" is including the types of tricks they perform. It will then analyze the entrepreneurial magicians and their creative process behind developing new routines. Finally, it will examine the verbal and non-verbal communication techniques magicians use to connect with their audience …

Distributed Cognition In Cancer Treatment Decision Making: An Application Of The Decide Decision-Making Styles Typology, Janice L. Krieger, Jessica L. Krok-Schoen, Phokeng M. Dailey, Angela L. Palmer-Wackerly, Nancy Schoenberg, Electra D. Paskett, Mark Dignan

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Distributed cognition occurs when cognitive and affective schemas are shared between two or more people during interpersonal discussion. Although extant research focuses on distributed cognition in decision making between health care providers and patients, studies show that caregivers are also highly influential in the treatment decisions of patients. However, there are little empirical data describing how and when families exert influence. The current article addresses this gap by examining decisional support in the context of cancer randomized clinical trial (RCT) decision making. Data are drawn from in-depth interviews with rural, Appalachian cancer patients (N = 46). Analysis of transcript …

Fundamentals Of Library Instruction, Darren Sweeper

Sprague Library Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Towards A Practical Communication Intervention, Florentin Smarandache, Stefan Vladutescu

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

The study starts from evidence that several communication acts fail, but nobody is called to intervene and nobody thinks of intervening. Examining different branches (specialties) of the communication discipline and focusing on four possible practices, by comparison, differentiation, collating and corroboration, the current study brings arguments for a branch of the communication discipline that has as unique practical aim the communicational intervention, the practical, direct and strict application of communication research. Communication, as discipline, must create an instrument of intervention. The discipline which studies communication globally (General Communication Science) has developed a strong component of theoretical and practical research of …

A Rhetorical Analysis Of Messages To America By Osama Bin Laden, Meredith Taylor

Honors Projects

The purpose of this paper is to analyze bin Laden’s argumentation and rhetorical techniques in three speeches addressed to the American population. Persuasive techniques that were used will be described as well as the historical context surrounding the timing of each speech’s release. These speeches will be examined using Campbell and Burkholder’s “Three Stages of Rhetorical Criticism” as outlined in the second edition of Critiques of Contemporary Rhetoric.

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.

The Divorce Decree, Communication, And The Structuration Of Coparenting Relationships In Stepfamilies, Paul Schrodt, Leslie A. Baxter, M. Chad Mcbride, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Mark A. Fine

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Using Giddens’s (1984) structuration theory, this study explored the communicative processes surrounding the divorce decree in coparenting relationships in stepfamilies. Participants included 21 adults who were coparenting children in stepfamilies who completed diary entries of all interactions with coparents over a 2-week period, and who completed follow-up interviews. Results revealed two structures of signification with respect to the divorce decree that enabled and constrained coparenting interactions. The first signification structure was one in which the decree was framed as a legal document, dictating the rights and responsibilities of parenting, especially with respect to child access and financial issues. The second …

The Role Of Foreign Languages In Educating Lawyers For Transnational Challenges, Vivian Grosswald Curran

Articles

In a world in which every other country seems intent on teaching English to their youth, and in which the United States educational system does not place a high priority on teaching foreign languages, the American law student, dean and professor may doubt if foreign language knowledge is anything more than marginally helpful to law graduates. Similarly, educators at the primary school level may not be likely to assess foreign language education as warranting a greater allocation of scarce public resources.

The usefulness of foreign languages to the United States lawyer gradually has been gaining increased recognition in the profession, …