Communication Technology and New Media Commons^™

Offline Social Relationships And Online Cancer Communication: Effects Of Social And Family Support On Online Social Network Building, Namkoong Kang, Dhavan V. Shah, David H. Gustafson

Community & Leadership Development Faculty Publications

This study investigates how social support and family relationship perceptions influence breast cancer patients’ online communication networks in a computer-mediated social support (CMSS) group. To examine social interactions in the CMSS group, we identified two types of online social networks: open and targeted communication networks. The open communication network reflects group communication behaviors (i.e., one-to-many or “broadcast” communication) in which the intended audience is not specified; in contrast, the targeted communication network reflects interpersonal discourses (i.e., one-to-one or directed communication) in which the audience for the message is specified. The communication networks were constructed by tracking CMSS group usage data …

Personal Communication Networks And Their Positive Effects On Online Collaboration And Outcome Quality On Wikipedia, Michail Tsikerdekis

Information Science Faculty Publications

Online collaborative projects have been utilized in a variety of ways over the past decade, such as bringing people together to build open source software or developing the world's largest free encyclopedia. Personal communication networks as a feature do not exist in all collaborative projects. It is currently unclear if a designer's decision to include a personal communication network in a collaborative project's structure affects outcome quality. In this study, I investigated Wikipedia's personal communication network and analyzed which Wikipedia editors are utilizing it and how they are connected to outcome quality. Evidence suggests that people who utilize these networks …

Wet Grain Delivery Advice: A Previously Impossible Extension Challenge Solved Through App Technology, Joseph S. Dvorak, Sam Mcneill, Clint Hardy

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

The delivery of wet grain during harvest is a complex and constantly changing problem about which Extension professionals have been unable to offer more than general advice. By capitalizing on important characteristics of mobile devices, a new app enables producers to fully benefit from detailed information universities have generated on grain drying and costs associated with delivery of grain to different locales. Development of such an app demonstrates the power of apps and mobile devices in allowing Extension to deliver previously unattainable services to its clientele.

A Pilot Test Of A Mobile App For Drug Court Participants, Kimberly Johnson, Stephanie Richards, Ming-Yuan Chih, Tae Joon Moon, Hilary Curtis, David H. Gustafson

Health and Clinical Sciences Faculty Publications

The U.S. criminal justice system refers more people to substance abuse treatment than any other system. Low treatment completion rates and high relapse rates among addicted offenders highlight the need for better substance use disorder treatment and recovery tools. Mobile health applications (apps) may fill that need by providing continuous support. In this pilot test, 30 participants in a Massachusetts drug court program used A-CHESS, a mobile app for recovery support and relapse prevention, over a four-month period. Over the course of the study period, participants opened A-CHESS on average of 62% of the days that they had the app. …

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 Media And Credibility Indicator: The Effects Of Bandwagon And Identity Cues Within Online Health And Risk Contexts, Xialing Lin

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Three studies were conducted to investigate how social media affordances influence individuals’ source credibility perceptions in risk situations. The MAIN model (Sundar, 2008), warranting theory (Walther & Parks, 2002), and signaling theory (Donath, 1999) served as the theoretical framework to examine the effects of bandwagon cues and identity cues embedded in retweets and users’ profile pages for health and risk online information processing. Study One examines whether bandwagon heuristics triggered by retweets would influence individuals’ source credibility judgments. Study Two investigates how bandwagon heuristics interact with different identity heuristics in credibility heuristics on an individual level. Study Three explores bandwagon …

Protecting Online Privacy, Stephanie D. Winkler

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Online privacy has become one of the greatest concerns in the United States today. There are currently multiple stakeholders with interests in online privacy including the public, industry, and the United States government. This study examines the issues surrounding the protection of online privacy. Privacy laws in the United States are currently outdated and do little to protect online privacy. These laws are unlikely to be changed as both the government and industry have interests in keeping these privacy laws lax. To bridge the gap between the desired level of online privacy and what is provided legally users may turn …

Text Messaging Appointment Reminders To Reduce No-Shows: A Pilot Study, Cameron M. Stephenson

DNP Projects

Background: Hospital and outpatient clinic no-show, did not cancel or did not attend rates are a serious problem to organizations across the United States health care system. No-show appointments reduce clinic productivity, wastes clinician time and clinic resources and can be detrimental financially. Bluegrass Pediatrics and Internal Medicine (BPIM) located in Georgetown, KY experiences these problems on a daily basis.

Purpose/Methodology. This quality improvement project consisted of evaluating the effects of text messaging on appointment attendance during 3 clinic weeks of February 2016. The sample was derived from all patients enrolled at BPIM with a scheduled well, established or routine …

Communicative Action And Citizen Journalism: A Case Study Of Ohmynews In South Korea, Seungahn Nah, Deborah S. Chung

Information Science Faculty Publications

Drawing on Habermas’s theory of communicative action, this case study of OhmyNews in South Korea examines how citizen journalism operates in a broad organizational and social context. Through in-depth interviews with professional and citizen journalists, the study reveals that citizen journalism can be well understood at the intersection between the lifeworld and systems. Specifically, the study finds a coexistence mechanism by which citizen journalism competes, collaborates, coordinates, and compromises with professional journalism through communicative action, such as mutual understanding, reason-based discussion, and consensus building.

Using Social Networking Sites During Public Health Crises: Theorizing The Diffusion Of Effective Messages, Sarah Vos

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

During a public health crisis, officials need to communicate with the public quickly and accurately. Social networking sites (SNS) have been identified as an appropriate channel for this type of communication; however, few studies have examined what makes SNS messages effective. Further limiting research in this area is a lack of attention to theoretical constructs that may explain message effectiveness in SNS.

In this dissertation, I propose that diffusion of innovations (DOI) be used to understand SNS and message success on SNS. In doing so, I compare traditional message success (persuasion) to message success on SNS platforms (amplification) and provide …