Communication Technology and New Media Commons^™

Must Stay Woke: Black Celebrity Voices Of Dissent In The Post Post-Racial Era, Lily Kunda

Institute for the Humanities Theses

In today’s racially charged climate there is an expectation that black celebrities cry out #BlackLivesMatter, get on the field to #TakeAKnee and be #UnapologeticallyBlack whenever they are in the spotlight. This climate transcends what was once seen as a post-racial America— a time where the media portrayed race as no longer being an issue— and encourages black celebrities to address racism. Prior research on black celebrities by Sarah J. Jackson, Ellis Cashmore, bell hooks, James Baldwin and others acknowledges the historical burden placed on black celebrities to publicly discuss racism and represent blackness in order to challenge dominant narratives. Today, …

Social Media: On Tech-Caves, Virtual Panopticism, And The Science Fiction-Like State In Which We Unwittingly Find Ourselves, Michael Major

Theses

Making use of three historic philosophical thought experiments, this paper blends psychological perspectives with philosophical reasoning to show how social media is corrupting our perception of reality, the result of which is ultimately detrimental to society as a whole. This is accomplished by first using Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” to analyze and discuss the ways in which social media is limiting humanity’s access to real knowledge. Next, Michel Foucault’s analysis of punishment in its social context, Discipline and Punish, is used to discuss the ways in which social media is adversely affecting our behavior. Finally, Robert Nozick’s “Experience …

Acceptability Study And Pilot Rct Of A Guide To Understanding Reproductive Health For Ladeez (Gurhl) Code: An Hiv Risk Reduction App Intervention For Black And Latina Young Women In New York City, Sonia K. Gonzalez Gladstein

Dissertations and Theses

Background: Young Black and Latina women suffer from higher sexually transmitted disease (STD) incidences than White women, increasing their susceptibility to contracting human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The adoption and widespread usage of mobile devices has contributed to the public’s ability to access available information at all hours, including information on sexual and reproductive health (SRH). Despite a growing body of mobile health literature, there is limited understanding of how mobile-based sexual and reproductive health interventions for use by young adult Black and Latina women could improve sexual health knowledge and connection to clinical care.

Methods: This pilot randomized controlled trial …

Post-Truth Overexposure: Media Consumption And Confidence In Institutions, Nicholas Papazian

Sociology Senior Seminar Papers

Does increased consumption of media affect how the public views the institutions of government and media? This study analyzes the relationships between time spent consuming television and Internet, where a respondent gets their news from (television vs. Internet), and confidence in these institutions. I predict an inverse relationship between exposure to television and Internet and confidence in media and government. I further hypothesize that people who get their news primarily from the Internet have less confidence in these institutions than those who get their news from television. I test this relationship using a sample of 370 respondents from the 2016 …

Consuming Digital Debris In The Plasticene, Stephen R. Parks

Theses and Dissertations

Claims of customization and control by socio-technical industries are altering the role of consumer and producer. These narratives are often misleading attempts to engage consumers with new forms of technology. By addressing capitalist intent, material, and the reproduction limits of 3-D printed objects’, I observe the aspirational promise of becoming a producer of my own belongings through new networks of production. I am interested in gaining a better understanding of the data consumed that perpetuates hyper-consumptive tendencies for new technological apparatuses. My role as a designer focuses on the resolution of not only the surface of the object through 3-D …

Modeling The Consumer Acceptance Of Retail Service Robots, So Young Song

Doctoral Dissertations

This study uses the Computers Are Social Actors (CASA) and domestication theories as the underlying framework of an acceptance model of retail service robots (RSRs). The model illustrates the relationships among facilitators, attitudes toward Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), anxiety toward robots, anticipated service quality, and the acceptance of RSRs. Specifically, the researcher investigates the extent to which the facilitators of usefulness, social capability, the appearance of RSRs, and the attitudes toward HRI affect acceptance and increase the anticipation of service quality. The researcher also tests the inhibiting role of pre-existing anxiety toward robots on the relationship between these facilitators and attitudes …

Digital Mindfulness: An Emerging Field Of Inquiry And Practice, Sherri Henderson

Mindfulness Studies Theses

This two-part paper explores digital mindfulness as an emerging field of inquiry and practice into the integration of technology and contemplative practices. The first part surveys the growing research on the effects of technology on health and well-being. Investigating Buddhist teachings leads to a more balanced and aware approach towards integrating mindfulness with the digital world. Digital mindfulness encourages meaningful engagement while online. It also encourages thoughtfulness, awareness and intention. Digital mindfulness also reshapes and encourages conversations in our homes, schools, and proposes digital responsibility and digital citizenship. The second part of the paper proposes a framework for a workshop …

Literacy Revolution: How The New Tools Of Communication Change The Stories We Tell, Molly Gamble

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

The transmission of culture depends upon every generation reconsidering what it means to be literate. The way we consider ourselves to be a literate species is changing, which puts us at a unique turning point in human history. Verbal literacy, or the ability to read and write, is slowly being replaced by visual literacy as a primary tool for human communication. As a culture, we tend to underestimate the creative ferment of our increasingly visual world. The linear, structured pathways of traditional literacy are shifting towards a creative and participatory pursuit of unstructured information that emphasize dimensional thinking. The acceleration …

Video Game Engagement, Gender, And Age: Examining Similarities And Differences In Motivation Between Those Who May Or May Not Play Video Games, Joseph Camarata

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to fill a research gap by examining video games to explore whether gender, age, or hours played per week would exert any influence on the information of those who may or may not play video games. Mood Management Theory and Uses and Gratification Theory were used as the theoretical foundation for this study. Four-hundred-three East Tennessee State University students who received the survey via email were asked to voluntarily participate in a survey about their motivations behind playing video games. Results from MANOVA showed that the motivations of male participants on video games were significantly higher than …

Exploring Metacognition, Multitasking And Test Performance In A Lecture Context, Fatma Arslantas

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Multitasking has become more prevalent with recent advancements in technology (Judd, 2014; Junco & Cotten, 2012). Many self-report studies, and the few available experimental manipulations, consistently indicate that media multitasking is related to decrements in learning. The present study extends the current literature by explicitly documenting students’ responses to media-based interruptions to learning. The current study also documents other behaviours students engage in that may or may not be related to multitasking when technology is available during lectures. In addition, the study explores the role of metacognition as a contributor to learning in a media-rich educational setting. In total, 118 …

Thiscollegestory.Com: How Interactive Writing Media Influenced The Way First-Year Students Made Sense Of Their College Transition, Philip Kreniske

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Drawing on insights from Bakhtin (1986) that demonstrated the significance of writing as an interaction, and building on recent developments in narrative analysis that offer insights into narrator’s sense making processes (Daiute, 2014; Lucic, 2013); this research explores how freshmen in an educational opportunity program used interactive writing media to make sense of their transition to college. The exploration involved three main questions and each question concerns students’ development over time:

• First, did college students’ writing in two different media (blogs and word-processed text) differ and did these differences change over time?
• Second, how did the narrators and audience interact …

Understanding How Intentionally Unplugging From Cell Phones Shapes Interpersonal Relationships And The Undergraduate College Experience, Jadelin P. Felipe

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of what motivated college students—the Unplugged Students—to intentionally use their cell phones less and how they understood the impact that unplugging had on their interpersonal relationships and college experience. Nine undergraduate college students from four private schools were interviewed in one-on-one semi- structured interviews. These students, considered non-users, provided a particularly useful perspective as these students made a conscious choice to counteract social norms and experienced both being plugged in and unplugged. Cell phones and the act of unplugging proved to make up a complex and more nuanced topic than …

The On-Screen Water Cooler: Effects Of Televised User-Generated Comments On Cognitive Processing, Social Presence, And Viewing Experience., Jaclyn Ann Cameron

Doctoral Dissertations

Social television combines traditional television viewing and interactions with social media to create a phenomenon that connects otherwise autonomous viewers through a shared viewing experience. This dissertation explores one type of social television: on-screen user-generated comments. Although the practice spans multiple television genres, little is known about its effect on viewers’ cognitive processing of the media, perceptions of the social presence of other viewers, or the viewers’ experience of the media. Two experimental studies explored the effects of on-screen user-generated comments on cognitive processing of the media message, the effect of manipulating the content of on-screen user-generated comments and individual …

Forces At Work: Workforce Perspectives In Print Journalism Amid Paradigm Shift, Stephanie Bernat

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

Print newspapers are in an age of disruption that has radically affected readership, news consumption, news production and news distribution. As such, the industry has experimented with new business models that incorporate online, including blog-style reporting, short-format stories, and investigatory reporting via social media. This experimentation could be identified as a Kuhnian pre-paradigmatic phase of a print news industry in crisis. Meanwhile the workforce of print newspapers is experiencing a disruption of identity as what it means to be a journalist has changed in reaction. Exodus of journalists from print newspapers has been both involuntary through layoffs and voluntary as …

Pretty Princess And Hurdling Heroes: A Content Analysis Of Walt Disney Studio Movies, Jessica Noll

Communication Studies

This study investigated the portrayal of active and passive behaviors of male and female characters in Walt Disney Studio original animated films. It was hypothesized that males would exhibit more active behaviors than their female counterparts and that females would exhibit more passive behaviors than their male counterparts. The results indicated that both of these hypotheses were supported. The study also found that the least likely interaction of male and female characters was when the male character was being passive and the female character was being active. The most likely was male characters performing active behaviors and female characters performing …

A Formative Evaluation Of A Smartphone Application For Couples: The Affectionate Gesture Planner, Patrick Robert Bortz

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

The Affectionate Gesture Planner (AGP) is a smartphone application (i.e., “app”) that aims to increase relationship satisfaction for couples in long-term relationships by prompting couples to complete loving acts for each other on a daily basis. The AGP app is informed by concepts from social exchange theory and the investment model (Rusbult, 1983), which predict that increasing the mutual exchange of beneficial investments to the relationship improves the quality and stability of the relationship. The present study is a formative evaluation on the prototype of the AGP app. Based on participant feedback, the AGP app will be improved prior to …

Social Grief: A Grounded Theory Of Utilizing Status Updates On Facebook As A Contemporary Ritual, Celese Catania-Opris

Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

The popular Social Networking Site, Facebook, offers its users the ability tocommunicate with others from all over the globe. Individuals can create a virtual identity for themselves enabling members to call, message, and locate others in a matter of seconds. The number of Facebook users appears to increase; yet, the number of members who die daily is not normally accounted. Facebook now permits the memorialization ofthe deceased’s profile. This allows members to continue commenting, sharing photos and videos, and visiting the deceased’s Facebook page. This trend led to the central question of this study, “What benefits, if any, are individuals …

Informational Efficiency And The Reaction To Terrorism: A Financial Perspective, Nicholas Roland

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to measure the message terror organizations hope to convey using the financial markets as a proxy of measurement to determine patterns within the marketplace and the effects on the terrorists’ ability to deliver a desired message due to the increased use of digital devices and access to instantaneous news, seen over the past decade. Using death count, geographic location, and event type, this study identified 109 attacks between 1985 and 2015 to be analyzed against 5 market indices and 5 securities. Measuring the effects within a 10-day sample window from the time of the …

Cyber-Psychopathy: Examining The Relationship Between Dark E-Personality And Online Misconduct, Andrew D. Nevin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Currently, there is a lack of research investigating how the unique structural conditions of cyberspace may influence the expression of ‘dark’ personality and the role of such e-personality in explaining instances of online misconduct. Using a theoretical framework of context-dependent personality, this study seeks to fill a gap in the literature by using self-report survey data to explore whether the internet may decrease, increase, or intensify the expression of psychopathy. Quantitative data analysis in this study shows that when controlling for social context, internet users exhibit higher levels of psychopathy online than offline, which is especially pronounced in male subsamples. …

Exploring The Influence Of Smartphone Technology Within The Context Of Marriage: An Intervention Study, Joshua Shea Borrelli

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Abstract The introduction of smartphones and their use into the everyday lives of a significantly large population has changed the way people communicate and interact. The purpose of this study is to examine any possible negative or positive effects smart phone use may have on partner satisfaction and couple-communication within a married/partnered couple. Participants were divided into a control group and an experimental group. The constructs of communication and relationship satisfaction were measured through a repeated-measures design. The Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS) was used to measure relational satisfaction, and the Primary Communication Inventory was used to measure partner communication. …

The Influence Of Cultural Attitudes And Norms On Smartphone Use, Technostress, And Life Satisfaction, Miki S. Nolin

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Video Chatting On Idealization And Disillusionment For Long Distance Dating Couples, Laura Kusisto

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

Previous research indicates a high rate of long distance relationships, especially among young adults. Yet, research in this area is lacking, particularly regarding the role of video chatting. Through the lens of the media richness theory and the hyperpersonal model, this qualitative study explores how video chatting impacts idealization and disillusionment in young adults’ long distance dating relationships. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with both partners of six heterosexual couples. Data was analyzed using the constant comparative approach and following the basic framework of open, axial, and selective coding used in grounded theory research. Results indicate that video chatting …

How Technology Interacts With Emerging Adulthood Psychosocial Developmental Tasks: An Examination Of Online Self-Presentation And Cell Phone Usage, Samantha Lynn Gray

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation outlines three distinct, yet interrelated, projects aimed at understanding the role of technology in relation to emerging adulthood developmental tasks: individuation & identity development. The first paper provides a context for understanding the developmental tasks of emerging adulthood, and the role that technology may serve in relation to those developmental tasks. This brief review of the literature on emerging adulthood developmental tasks provides a solid theoretical background and history for the theoretical premises proposed for the respective studies included in this dissertation. The second project is an empirical investigation that seeks to understand how the task of identity …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

Overcoming Panethnicity: Filipino-American Identity In A Globalized Culture, Brandon Napenias Oreiro

Global Honors Theses

Filipino-Americans have struggled to create a unique and visible social identity within the United States. Whether it be from their early colonial experiences in America to their more recent status as a ‘minority within a minority’, these groups of individuals are caught in a constantly expanding and increasingly complex identity crisis (Cordova, 1983; Revilla 1997; San Juan 1998). However, due to the effects of globalization and the increased application of technologies such as the internet, new avenues of self-representation have opened up, allowing for the creation of more individualistic and transnational identities that are currently challenging the conventional notions of …

Attributions And Coping Behaviors Communicated Among Bullied Students: An Analysis Of Bullying Blogs, Carly Marie Danielson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Student bullying is a growing and damaging problem in society today. This study investigates the role of bullied students' attributions and coping strategies through Heider's (1958) attribution theory (AT) and Crick and Dodge's (1994) social information processing model (SIP). Rich data are obtained from bullying blogs that showcase how bullied individuals make sense of their experiences online. The important findings that emerge from this investigation relate to similarities in men's and women's attributions and differences in their coping strategies and resources to manage victimization. Additionally, both men and women experienced similar negative outcomes with particular coping strategies and resources, suggesting …

Aesthetically Designed Maps: Development And Perception, Catherine Wang

Graphic Communication

This research explored the creative element of subway map creation in light of its effectiveness. Printed subway maps, used often for metropolitan cities and areas, are limited in physical dimension and scale, carrying minimal information. The New York, San Francisco Bay Area, Tokyo, Paris, London and Moscow subway maps highlight similar design and abstraction that fulfill the basic necessary elements for subway patrons. Over the years since the first metro map for each city was created, maps have become more simplified by removing physical land features and reference points to make way for expanding and new subway lines, stations, and …

Media Portrayal Of Individuals In The Lower Class And Its Effects On Attributions Of Educational Hardships, Krista A. Burke

Communication Studies

This study investigated how media portrayals of individuals in the lower class affect people’s beliefs about educational hardships in lower socioeconomic areas. Specifically, this study looked at the attributions of these hardships to determine if media consumption had an effect on the internality of attributions. It was hypothesized that increased media consumption would be related to an increased tendency toward internal attributions. It was hypothesized that increased media consumption would lead to lower support for policy changes regarding education. A survey was distributed to assess media consumption habits and attitudes toward educational hardships in the lower class. Correlation results yielded …

Mother's Experience Of Social Media: Its Impact On Children And The Home, Abe Van Hatch

Theses : Honours

With the prevalence and accessibility of social media within the last 15 years it has become possible for children to have constant access to their friends and social networks. It is relatively unknown what impact adopting social media has on children and how mothers interpret this. There are gaps in the literature investigating the pervasive effects of modern technology and what meaning mothers ascribe to their children using social media as a method of connecting with the world. The present research aims to explore this phenomenon by investigating the experiences of mothers who have children that have recently adopted social …

Personality Traits And Motivations For Usage Of Online Social Network Sites Among College Freshmen, Jason Paul Rieger

Doctoral Dissertations

Millions of people worldwide log onto social network sites (SNS) every day. Some users have positive experiences while others have negative experiences. The functionality of any given SNS is the same for each user, but the choice of how and when to use certain features leads each user to have different experiences. This study utilized a uses and gratifications framework to help understand what gratification expectations affect the usage of SNS among college freshmen in their first semester. Additionally, the research explored a possible link between individual personality traits of freshmen and gratification expectations as well as a link between …