Communication Technology and New Media Commons^™

An Antisemitism Academia Crisis: Communication Failure On Three Ivy League College Campuses, Rickardo W. Shuzzr

Student Theses and Dissertations

The issue of Antisemitism on college campuses in the United States has gained significant attention following the terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7th, 2023. This discriminatory behavior, hate speech versus free speech, and academia's role in the geopolitical climate have sparked protests and raised questions about the responsibility of universities today. It has even led to high-profile presidents from institutions such as Harvard, MIT, and UPenn being called to testify before a congressional oversight committee. These university presidents and others have been the subject of ongoing flak in the public sphere. As a result, there have been …

An Open Conversation: Deliberating Perceptions Of Power Through New Media, Abigail Barnes

Dissertations

This research aims to investigate aims to critically assess how mediated participants utilize new media spheres deliberate upon perceptions of power through rhetorical criticism and critical discourse analysis. Since the conception of social media, users have utilized the platforms to network, negotiate, and dissent from controversies through mediated public deliberation. The present study aims to nuance how Habermas’ original conception of deliberative rhetoric has transformed through new media deliberation. To exemplify this change in deliberative rhetoric, the present study will also critically evaluate online social movements through the case study of the AOC Tik Tok Challenge, responses to online controversies …

From Pantry To Palate: An International Cookbook Unveiling Cultural Comforts Amidst Food Insecurity On Campus, Victoria M. Main

Master of Arts in Media and Communication Plan II Graduate Projects

Food insecurity among international students in higher education is a pressing issue often overlooked by universities. This project addresses this gap by exploring food insecurity among international students at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) through participant narratives, cultural connections, and recipes collected via interviews. Diverse international students were purposively sampled, reflecting various academic disciplines, nationalities, and cultural backgrounds. Semi-structured interviews facilitated the sharing of personal stories and cherished recipes, which were analyzed to identify recurring themes and cultural commonalities.

The project resulted in the creation of the Falcon Food Pantry International Cookbook, compiling culturally resonant recipes to empower students and …

Exploring Demagoguery And Political Rhetoric’S Impact Through Social Media, Avery Palsma

Honors Thesis

Demagoguery refers to political rhetoric and activity that seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people. Demagogues are political leaders, such as Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler, who gain power by using a destructive approach to popular discourse. They influence culture by perpetuating and influencing ideologies, allowing them to take advantage of and fuel a dominating culture. Demagogues are present in today’s culture as the political divide becomes greater. This study aims to explain why demagogues are so influential and how social media might be contributing to their growth. In order to do this, three communication …

Identifying Youth Appeals In Alcohol Alternative Social Media Content Through Framing, Melina Oneal

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Proposed regulations for alcohol advertising prevent beverage companies from targeting people under the legal drinking age. However, similar regulations for alcohol alternative beverages are less explored, which could allow alcohol alternative products to create awareness for alcoholic beverages among youth. Alcohol alternatives beverages, including no-alcohol and low-alcohol products, are increasing in popularity and can function as compliments to alcoholic products to decrease the total alcohol volume consumed or as substitutes for alcoholic products. Framing theory can be operationalized through the Content Appealing to Youth Index, an index of content elements found in research literature to be appealing to youth, to …

The Needs That Instagram Satisfies For People Seeking News & How This Displaces Time Spent With Traditional Media, Madeleine Dunn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines how the current climate of mainstream media is changing, and how this may affect journalistic norms and practices. There are many outlets for consumers to receive news, including traditional media, such as television news, newspapers, magazines, etc. There is also social media. The future of mainstream media outlets, like television stations, newspapers, magazines and radio stations, seems to depend on the growing use of social media sites for the use of getting news. This research will focus on Instagram as an alternative to traditional media, and why people prefer to use this outlet to get their news. …

Reconfiguring Digital Citizenship: Civic Hacking, Data Activism, And Democracy Platforms In South Korea, Danbi Yoo

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on ‘civic tech’, the global phenomenon of tech-based voluntary action of citizens emerging with the rise of the culture of openness and sharing and initiatives of open government data. What does the ‘civic’ of civic tech mean? And what makes civic tech democratic and democratizing? These questions have been rarely asked or conveniently understood with Western-based theories and cases of tech-oriented civic actions. Combining critical studies of technology and civic engagement with the emerging scholarship of digital citizenship, I use the concept of digital citizenship as a heuristic tool to examine how digital and data technologies intervene …

Queer Crises: Movements From Queerness And Feelings Of White Religion In The United States, Austin Williams Miller

Communication ETDs

Anchored by contemporary crises surrounding queer and trans people in the United States, I employ movements from queerness within an affective queer phenomenological framework to understand how arrangements of “white religion” (Schaefer, 2015, p. 63), a process whereby U.S. American Christian forms escape ideology into religious affective economies in the United States, relegate queer people “to the background… to sustain a certain direction” (Ahmed, 2006, p. 31). I assemble a queer rhetorical context analyzing white religious space in documentary film, secular sexual regulation through contemporary U.S. legal contexts around marriage, and settler colonial Christian nationalist political imaginations to critique how …

Canadians Redefining R&B: The Online Marketing Of Drake, Justin Bieber, And Jessie Reyez, Amara Pope Ms.

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In a country that long failed to accept, include, and institutionalize R&B music as part of Canadian culture, musical artists Justin Bieber, Drake, and Jessie Reyez have successfully broken-down barriers by having successful careers as racially diverse Canadian R&B artists. This qualitative study surveys the literature on classifications of the R&B genre and of Canadian identities in popular media. The theoretical framework of discourse analysis is used to conduct a brief episodic history of Canadian R&B and to evaluate how the music genre “R&B,” is traditionally associated with people who have "Black" and "American" identities, and how a “Canadian” identity …

The "Othering" Of America: How The Strategic Use Of Crisis And Ressentiment Succeeded In The Trump Era, Laura J. Franklin

Dissertations

The establishment of a crisis theme through public rhetoric often triggers widespread attention, resulting in public concern and media coverage of an issue that could potentially be overblown or deceptive. In right-wing political discourse, this crisis warning is typically delivered by a White male leader with ready access to the powerful news media. An “us versus them” theme often occurs. Within this mode of a hegemonic exclusion, a culture of immigrants or an American minority are often depicted, perhaps aggressively, as a threat: A threat used to motivate, enrage and create the frustrations inherent in ressentiment. This dissertation explores the …

The Power Of The Virtual Platform: A Look Into Fandom Interactions Via Twitter (X), Samantha Hacker

Undergraduate Theses

Using social media to communicate has become increasingly popular since the medium was created. Twitter has been a popular breeding ground for fan communities to form social spaces. Parasocial relationship theory, as well as face negotiation theory, tie heavily into the discussion of fandoms and the creation of safe spaces on the platform. How people present themselves online is entirely dependent on the user and their level of comfort on the app. One fandom in particular that utilizes this app the most is the fan base for the seven-member South Korean boy band, BTS, who in reference to the band, …

Celebrity Affect, Social Media Fandom, And Parasocial Interactions: A Thematic Analysis Of Fan Reactions To Kris Wu’S Sexual Scandals In China, Yan Zhao

Communication ETDs

In this thesis, the rise and fall of a popular Chinese celebrity, Kris Wu, provided the context to examine fans’ negotiation of parasocial and affective relationships in online interactions with the celebrity and other fans. On the basis of a thematic analysis of Chinese fans’ comments on social media before and after Wu’s arrest and conviction for rape and other sexual crimes in 2022, I highlight the fluidity of fans’ positive and negative parasocial interactions and emotional attachments to a celebrity. The analysis suggests how fans can prioritize their continued support and admiration for a celebrity above matters of morality …

The Landscape Does Not Care It Is A Landscape: A Utopian Pessimist Journey In Kentucky., Shachaf Polakow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

These thesis and exhibition, invite the viewers to travel through different places in Central and Eastern Kentucky. The region’s landscape, like many other American landscapes, is often known to the public through the settler colonial lens—a lens that ignores Indigenous peoples’ history in the region. The work in the exhibition is a response to landscape art's history and its complicity with American settler colonialism- art that was recruited to create a new identity for the settlers and for the country from the beginning of the American Colonial Project. Landscape art was a crucial part of this effort, presenting the land …

Perspective And Perception: How Reddit Trip Reports Convey And Offer Different Knowledges About Psychedelic Drugs, Kevin Lawson Nutt

All Theses

Psychedelics drugs are slowly gaining recognition for their potential medicinal value in therapeutic settings in Western science. However, there remains a great deal of hostility and hesitancy toward psychedelics, largely due to the psychedelics’ collective classification as Schedule I drugs in America, which resulted from a history of the drug class’ demonization. Nonetheless, several US states and cities having decriminalized psychedelic drugs in certain contexts, but the general population is relatively naïve to the potentialities psychedelics can offer. This thesis studies trip reports, which are firsthand accounts of individual psychedelic experiences, on Reddit to shed light on the different knowledges …

Mental Health In Sports Media, Samuel Ridgley

Communication & Media Studies | Senior Theses

This paper looks at the increasingly popular conversation surrounding mental health in sports. It provides a glimpse into how common the struggle of mental health can be for many high-level athletes while also examining the narrative and expectations that society and the media have created. The paper also provides examples of prominent athletes from a variety of different sports and delves into their personal mental health experiences in the eyes of the media. The goal of this paper is to show the progression and change of how the media portrays mental health amongst athletes in today’s ever-changing world.

(Re)Constructing National Memory In Neoliberal Chile Through Patricio Guzman's The Cordillera Of Dreams (2019), Mica Barrett

Scripps Senior Theses

One of the most renowned Chilean exile filmmakers is Patricio Guzmán. Best known for his documentary work regarding the Allende years, Guzmán has continued to make films regarding his homeland in the decades following his initial exile.

The Cordillera of Dreams is the concluding film in a trilogy exploring the natural lands of Chile and their relationship to physical remnants of the human past. The initial and most renowned film in the series, Nostalgia for the Light, centers the Atacama Desert and Chileans’ relationship to the geography as a gateway to revealing artifacts of Chile’s recent history of genocide …

A New Era Of Policing: Uncovering Ways Officers Believe Community Relations Can Be Restored, Bradi Kai Kooyman

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The present study qualitatively investigated law enforcement officers’ opinions on creating more positive relationships with community members and how news media can play a role in deteriorating community attitudes and perceptions of law enforcement officers. A total of six participants were selected to participate in a forty-five-minute interview. Participants were asked questions regarding positive and negative factors in their relationship with their communities, local and national law enforcement portrayals in news media, reforms needed within law enforcement, beliefs toward community policing, and factors that lead to success in their relationships with citizens. This study discovered that building trust, implementing community …

Strangers Switching Their Identities: Cultural Identity Management And Performance On Social Media A Qualitative Analysis Of International Students’ Intercultural (Ex)Change Processes And Perceptions Regarding Their Stay In The United States And Countries Of Origin, Vivian Kretzschmar

All Theses

In this globalized world, cross-country travel for education has been a prevalent (5.6 million students identified as international students in 2020) and ever-increasing (with a predicted increase of 250% by 2030) trend through the past decades. The sojourn impacts the students’ experience of the new culture and the ensuing shocks and adaptations. The understanding of something as complicated as culture, trying to be integrated into a new culture, and its perception to individuals, of course, have their ways of distinct communication trends through social media.

The struggle of maintaining and changing one’s cultural identity and adaptation across cultures has been …

Black Female Athletes’ Use Of Social Media For Activism: An Intersectional And Cyberfeminist Analysis Of U.S. Hammer-Thrower, Gwen Berry's 2019 And 2021 Podium Protests, Ariel Newell

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Much attention has been paid to Black male athlete activism both historically and in the contemporary movement for black lives. Black female athletes have also made historic contributions as activists, and they continue to do so. However, Black female athlete activism has not always been acknowledged or heard. This is a problem, as Black women in American sports and society face overlapping racial and gender inequities and injustices that distinctly marginalize and oppress them. However, some Black female athlete activists (BFAAs) have begun using social media to challenge media narratives about themselves, to redefine what it means to be a …

Enacting A Critical Media Production Pedagogy, James D. Swerzenski

Doctoral Dissertations

This project draws upon earlier calls—particularly in the critical pedagogy, critical media literacy, and cultural production fields—to outline a teaching approach that balances technical media production practices and critical media studies. I refer to this synthesis as critical media production pedagogy. This blending of critical analysis and technical skill, I argue, is especially important at the university level where my research is focused, as students in these courses will likely enter industry fields in which they can influence culture on a mass level. Creating opportunities for a media theory/production synthesis enables students to translate critical ideas beyond the academy and …

Reinventing Child Labour: A Contemporary Analysis Of Children's Participation In The Digital Labour Economy, Bayan Kojok

Major Papers

This major research paper explores the historical shifts in labour and childhood, highlighting children’s ongoing implication in the capitalist market. My focus is influencer marketing, the newest form of digital work. The onset of social media and the introduction of the “influencer” is a cultural and political-economic shift that has expanded the definition of labour, whether this form of labour is widely recognized or not. The Instamom has emerged from this redefinition of labour; these individuals have curated influencer status by advertising their life as a mom on social media, particularly Instagram. This becomes problematic as children are inherently involved …

Weathering The Storm: Navigating Urban Ecologies Of Communication In Times Of Crisis, Austin Hestdalen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explores cities as urban ecologies of communication in which crises emerge and are given significance within the dialogic relations cultivated among public actors attempting to make a living, together, within the shared historical-cultural contexts of everyday life. To describe cities as urban ecologies of communication is to describe them in terms of urban communication and its interdisciplinary foundations in the study of rhetoric, philosophy, planning, policy, architecture, sociology, geography, and media. The first chapter introduces the challenges of urban risk and crisis management within the complex ecologies of communication constituted by cities and reviews how ‘risk’ and ‘crisis’ …

Because Potato, Candice Evers

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This thesis project explores the phenomenological qualities of the internet; asking, since the internet is difficult to grasp, what other modes of investigation might we have available? Using an investigative framework set forth by Jack Halberstam, this thesis declines to come to knowledge solely through understanding the formal, the structural, the highly visible and mainstream. The literature that I have gathered provides a range of modes for interrogating the simultaneously central and inconsequential subject of my thesis itself: the potato. Juxtaposing the physical, political and material conditions of the potato the internet’s least academic mode of knowing: the meme. Analyzing …

(Un)Matched: Racialized Narratives Of U.S.-Based Japanese Men, Masculinity, And Heterosexuality In Online Dating Apps, Keisuke Kimura

Communication ETDs

In this study, I documented and examined U.S.-based Japanese men’s narratives about their day-to-day experiences in and across online dating contexts. Through the analysis of narratives, I critiqued how multilayered differences (i.e., race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and more) working with dominant social structures affect their everyday experiences within the spectrum of power, privilege, and marginalization in the transnational space. Specifically, the overarching purposes and goals of this study were to better understand U.S.-based Japanese men’s online dating experiences and to critique the relationalities of how Japanese men’s narratives (i.e., micro-level context) and their beliefs/attitudes within and between cultural communities …

The Great Resignation: A Content Analysis Of News Sources' Portrayals Of The Covid-19 Labor Shortage., Mackenzie Williams

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

When workers left the labor market in large numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic, proclamations of a labor shortage emerged extensively throughout the news. In this study, I analyze the coverage of the worker shortage among three news sources with different political orientations. Several themes emerged from analyzing a total of 75 articles. The findings showed that the perspective shown in the article, the cause of the labor shortage, restaurant worker portrayal, support of solutions, and opinion of the labor shortage all differed based on the political identity of the news source. This research supports previous findings that show there is …

Black Occularity, The White Gaze, And Color-Blindness In Shonda Rhimes' Bridgerton, Daniella Ruiz Cantu

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The white gaze, or the assumption that the default reader or observer of a piece of media is white, affects the way that people of color are shown on television. This research project uses the hit Netflix show Bridgerton to study the way that modern-day representations of people of color both challenge whiteness and white supremacy, while also reinforcing the white gaze. This is done through the examination of works by George Yancy, Laraine Wallowits, Frantz Fanon, Laura Mulvey, Kristen J. Warner, and Cheryl I. Harris on the white gaze, the male gaze, narrative conventions of soap operas and telenovelas, …

Queer And Trans Prison Voices: A Podcast Archive On Prison Abolition, Josefine Ziebell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project is located at the intersection of Critical Prison Studies, Gender Studies, Sound Studies, and American Studies. It highlights the importance of sonic modes of anti-carceral resistance by featuring the recorded voices of incarcerated people through the creation of a sonic archive of prison writings. By integrating that sonic archive into the podcast medium, this project functions as a digital archive for incarcerated voices, consisting of two tracks: a collection of short-spoken readings by queer and transgender incarcerated authors, and podcast-style interviews with activist scholars, organizations, and sound artists working towards prison abolition. In this paper, I establish …

Indie Developers And The Queer Content Renaissance In Video Games, 2013-2017, Shane Michael Hansaruk Mr.

Major Papers

Queer content in video games has existed since the 1970s, but as time and technology have progressed, so too have the potential for queer content in video games. During the mid-2010’s, a sudden increase in the number of games with queer content began, lasting between the years 2013 and 2017. This research project examines this period in great detail to determine the cause of this drastic increase. Through examining queer games literature, two queer games databases, and two select titles from this period, I determine that independent, or “indie” developers, have a substantial impact on the increase of queer games …

Children’S Film Media’S Influence On Gender, Race, And Identity, Sara M. Kovis

Communication Senior Capstones

Whether conscious of it or not, media images have been working our entire lives to construct our attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions of the world around us. What is the significance of the relationship between media consumption and how we interact in society? Applying communication theories and research into traditional and digital media is vital in understanding the realities around us. It explains where societal norms and values stimulate and how they trigger new behavioral changes. Ideologies are the mixed concepts and elements that create meaning in society. Today, people's ideological feelings produce pre-dated ideologies rather than their ideas. These are …

Women In American Pop Music: Christina Aguilera’S Impact On Cultural Narratives, Chin Wai (Rosie) Wong

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Pop music as a mainstream medium is often more enjoyed than critically studied. Former studies and literatures point out a major issue that many American female pop music artists face. These artists are often confined in a box that reduces their full human-being attributes to a narrowed view, where their identity is portrayed in a diminishing and inaccurate way. Despite this narrowed narrative of what a woman should be, this box has become a norm that many female artists must adhere to in order to achieve mainstream success. This paper responds to this phenomenon by analyzing Christina Aguilera’s music, spanning …