Communication Commons^™

Still Flying: The Communicative Constitution Of Browncoat Fandom As Culture, Jonathon Nicholas Lundy

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In contemporary western culture, fandom is common. Many academics and members of the general public alike conceive of fandom as outside the norms of spectatorship; to be a spectator is to enjoy an interest individually and passively. However, others contend that fandom is a more significant cultural achievement.

This study qualitatively investigated how Browncoats, or fans of the cancelled television series Firefly , communicatively construct their fandom culture. Methods included participant observation, semi-structured interviews, data analysis through Grounded Theory, and a comparative thematic analysis of the original Firefly source texts and Browncoat cultural data in order to discover meaningful themes …

Engaging With The Media, Hamish Mclean, Richard Phillipps

Richard Phillipps

Extract:

Presenting the public face of an organisation is a key role of the public relations practitioner. Often this is done through achieving media coverage for the organisation. The mass media are important because of their reach, their believability, and their timeliness, although the bombardment of information from them can be overwhelming. This chapter discusses a wide range of traditional media - newspapers, radio, television, magazines, and newsletters (see Chapter 12 for new media).

The Metaphysics Of Electronic Being, Michał Ostrowicki [Aka Sidey Myoo]

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "The Metaphysics of Electronic Being" Michał Ostrowicki discusses the electronic environment as a sphere of being. To this end, the notion of the "electronic sphere" is used as a subject of ontological analysis. Ostrowicki postulates that the problematics of the electronic sphere represents a part of ontology and designates it as "ontoelectronics." He makes a distinction made between an electronic image and an electronic being, thus indicating that they differ from each other in their existential status and thereby deny any metaphysical equivalence between the two. This distinction between an electronic image and an electronic being is …

Radio-Television Of Serbia (1989-2009): The Changing Role Of State Tv In A Post-Communist Country, Ivanka Radovic

Masters Theses

This study examined the differences in reporting in Radio-Television of Serbia's (RTS) main newscast, Dnevnik 2, between the period of Slobodan Milosevic’s rule (1989-2000) and the period after the establishment of democracy in Serbia (2001-2009). The data were gathered by the content analysis of 63 RTS newscasts in the period 1989-2009. The research included quantitative analysis as well as additional observations of RTS newscasts noted at the time of coding. The major findings suggest that in the democratic period (2001-2009) RTS newscasts become shorter, more consistent in duration, less dedicated to coverage of state and ruling party officials’ activities, and …

Examining The Relationship Between Ethnic Identity And Spanish-Language Media Use Among Bilingual Hispanics, Using The Media Gratifications And Social Identity Theories, Arminda Munoz

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between Ethnic Identity and Spanish-language media use among bilingual Hispanics following the Media Uses and Gratifications Theory. Participants in survey included 83 undergraduate university students enrolled in entry-level communication courses. Relationships between participants’ bilingual skills, ethnic identity, Spanish-language media use and gratifications outcomes were examined. Research questions focused on participants’ use of English and Spanish media use. Hypotheses focused on testing relationships between ethnicity, bilingual skills and media use. Results of the study are discussed. Conclusions, limitations and topics for further research are addressed.

Representations Of Women Athletes In The Media, Sarah Kustok

College of Communication Master of Arts Theses

This study took a critical historical content analysis of the media’s coverage of women’s athletics through the 1990’s and into the early part of the 2000’s. Not only was there massive growth in the quantity of coverage for women’s sports, but specifically for the U.S. Women’s soccer team. As media depictions showed this particular team displaying both masculine and feminine characteristics on and off the field, the idea of gender fluidity proved to be accepted and cherished by society. It is possible for women to perform or enact traditionally masculine or feminine identities throughout their daily lives. The U.S. Women’s …

Celebrities And Causes: Where Does The Focus Lie In Print Media Coverage?, Amanda Jones

Communication

Recently, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of, and depth of coverage of celebrity lives. Celebrities are now appearing in hard news stories, pictured performing mundane daily activities, and seen supporting various causes. This research explores the increased emergence of entertainment news in the print media by examining the dominance of celebrity coverage in articles involving activist causes. Does print media coverage of celebrity activism focus more on the cause or the celebrity involved? Using the data collected from September 2008 to September 2009 issues of Time magazine, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report, this research …

Ghost Hunting: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The American Media On The Waterboard, William Saas

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

This project looks at popular media hands-on investigations of the waterboard (an interrogation method used in the war on terror, viewed historically as "torture") to discover what I argue are the haunting effects of the second Bush administration's rhetorical war.

The Portrayal Of Schizophrenia In Television: An Experiment Assessing How Viewer Attitudes Are Affected, Lindsey Jo Hand, Paul Traudt

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Portrayals of schizophrenia in the media have been found to be very negative in nature. This study is an attempt to take research in this area a step further by conducting an experiment measuring attitudes of viewers toward schizophrenia before and after viewing an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit in which a man with schizophrenia is depicted as a dangerous sexual deviant. Participants were given a pretest, viewed the television show and then were given a post-test. The post-test and pretest are identical and consist of questions from the Community Attitudes on Mental Illness (CAMI) scale and …

Politics & Poverty: Is The New Media Changing The Message? An Analysis Of Framing In New Media News, Jessica Wheeler

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

Many media researchers have turned their attention to new media, specifically how the proliferation of blogs has changed the way media inuences the public agenda. Less attention has been paid to how blogs and new media are changing the way news is framed and reported. In a preliminary case study two elements of political news reporting on blogs were explored: 1) Do political blogs focus more on insider information and process news than traditional media’s online news outlets? 2) What implications, if any, does this dierence have on the value of the information in assisting the audience form opinions about …

How Science Is Visually Portrayed In The Media: An Examination Of Science Times, Rachel Toyer, Larry Mullen

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

This poster will illustrate preliminary findings of how science images are portrayed in the New York Times, specifically, the Science Times section that is published every Tuesday and has grown in readership and popularity. Science images, five issues per year, have been coded over the past 34 years since the Science Times section first appeared in print. Our work follows trends that observe types of images, how many images are present, and whether the image is a photo or graphic of some sort.

Distributed Cinema: Interactive, Networked Spectatorship In The Age Of Digital Media, Erik Wayne Marshall

Wayne State University Dissertations

Digital media has changed much of how people watch, consume and interact with digital media. The loss of indexicality, or the potential infidelity between an image and its source, contributes to a distrust of images. The ubiquity of interactive media changes aesthetics of images, as viewers begin to expect interactivity. Networked media changes not only the ways in which viewers access media, but also how they communicate with each other about this media. The Tulse Luper Suitcases encapsulates all of these phenomena.

Volume 12, 2010, Ellen Hazelkorn, Nora French, Wolfgang Truetzschler

Issues

No abstract provided.

Reality Hackers: The Next Wave Of Media Revolutionaries, Aaron A. Delwiche, Evan Barnett, Andrew Coe, Patrick Crim, Kendra Doshier, Christopher Dudley, Ender Ergun, Ashley Funkhouser, Cole Gray, Sarah Hellman, John Key, Christopher Kradle, Patrick Lynch, Shepherd Mcallister, Mark Mccullough, Justin Michaelson, Alyson Miller, Robin Murdoch, Aaron Passer, Maricela Rios, Laura Schluckebier, Raelle Smiley, Andrew Truelove, Richard Bartle, Annalee Newitz, Ekaterina Sedia, Steven Shaviro, R.U. Sirius

Faculty Authored and Edited Books & CDs

Just as the printing press gave rise to the nation-state, emerging technologies are reshaping collective identities and challenging our understanding of what it means to be human.

Should citizens have the right to be truly anonymous on-line? Should we be concerned about the fact that so many people are choosing to migrate to virtual worlds? Are injectible microscopic radio-frequency ID chips a blessing or a curse? Is the use of cognitive enhancing nootropics a human right or an unforgivable transgression? Should genomic data about human beings be hidden away with commercial patents or open-sourced like software? Should hobbyists known as …

Will The Real Elena Kagan Please Stand Up? Conflicting Public Images In The Supreme Court Confirmation Process, Keith J. Bybee

Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media at Syracuse University

What images of judging did the Kagan confirmation process project?

My response to this question begins with a brief overview of existing public perceptions of the Supreme Court. I argue that a large portion of the public sees the justices as impartial arbiters who can be trusted to rule fairly. At the same time, a large portion of the public also sees the justices as political actors who are wrapped up in partisan disputes. Given these prevailing public views, we should expect the Kagan confirmation process to transmit contradictory images of judicial decisionmaking, with a portrait of judging as a …

Illusions Of Control: Media Uses And Preferences Among University Students, Charles Primm

School of Advertising and Public Relations Publications and Other Works

Uses and gratifications theory and the situational theory of publics are used to frame an analysis of media uses and preferences of university students. Results of a survey of university students (n=202) reveal that students reported different levels of use and preference for e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and text messaging with campus leadership and their own instructors. Students who considered themselves more active in campus issues preferred newspapers, magazines and UT websites to obtain more information about the university. Professional recommendations on maximizing communication effectiveness between universities and their students include using UT websites, text messages and campus and …

The Opppositional Framing Of Bloggers, Stephen D. Cooper

Communications Faculty Research

As a new feature of the media system, the blogosphere is an extremely interesting subject for scholarly inquiry. One might spend research time along a variety of lines: why people blog, why people read blog content, the relationship of the blogosphere to the established media outlets, the who/what/when of blog content production and consumption, the subject matter of blog posts, the effects of exposure to blog content, the potential for and limitations on interactions, and so on, for quite a long list. Given that the blogosphere is a recent addition to the media mix, and itself a (presumably) unintended consequence …

The New Abridged Reporter's Privilege: Policies, Principles And Pathological Perspectives, Erik Ugland

Erik Ugland

This Article contends that contemporary arguments about the reporter’s privilege are increasingly situated within a divided framework in which protections for confidential and nonconfidential information are treated as separate interests that lack a shared theoretical justification. This is both a cause and consequence of a broader tendency among judges, legislators, journalists and lawyers to emphasize policy-based conceptions of the privilege that are focused on case-specific calculations of harms and benefits, rather than principle-based conceptions focused on journalistic autonomy and the need for a structural separation of press and government. Policy arguments present the privilege as a narrow, utilitarian device for …

Age, Gender, And Information-Seeking Patterns Following An Urban Bridge Collapse, Patric R. Spence, Kenneth Lachlan, Lindsay D. Nelson, Ashleigh K. Shelton

Patric R. Spence