Communication Technology and New Media Commons^™

Terror Management And The News: An Exploration Into The Effects Of Framing On Mortality Salience, Peter Montwill

Masters Theses, 2020-current

The present study explores the link between Terror Management Theory and the use of its principles within news media. Political news media in the digital age undergoes a variety of framing effects, more specifically episodic and thematic frames of stories. To induce mortality salience, college-aged participants were presented with stories framed from the perspective of an individual’s experience or a general theme of experiences regarding the controversial pro-life topic and a non-controversial hiking topic. These stories are presented in the style of Instagram posts to mirror how college-aged people consume news media. The stories also contain wording designed to induce …

Factors Associated With Technology Adoption By Community-Dwelling Older Adults During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Elizabeth A. Sutton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic brought to the forefront the disparity between older and younger Americans in the utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) when measures such as the COVID vaccine rollout were dependent on technology use. Technology adoption has implications for overall health and the continuation of disparities in technology adoption is associated with poor aging outcomes. The aim of this study was to understand factors associated with technology adoption by community-dwelling older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. A nationally representative sample of 2,954 community-dwelling older adults who completed the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS) COVID-19 Questionnaire was …

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.

Engagement Journalism In Action: Supporting New Yorkers With Long Covid, Sarah Luft

Capstones

What do asthma and long COVID have in common? 1 in 13 U.S. adults are living with them. This report is a recap of my efforts to address the information needs of New Yorkers with long COVID as a student in CUNY's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism engagement program. For my final project, I partnered with THE CITY, a nonprofit news outlet serving New Yorkers, to expand the MISSING THEM project. The report details the what, why, and how of my engagement reporting process, including a community engagement framework, a service journalism series, and lessons to carry forward. You …

Correlation Between Social Media Use And Eating Disorder Symptoms: A Literature Review, Makenna Rose Burger

Kinesiology and Public Health

Importance: Social media is a pervasive influence in modern society presenting many potential public health implications.

Objective: The purpose of this literature review is to synthesize current research regarding social media and eating disorders.

Methods: Primary research was gathered from Google Scholar and OneSearch database resulting in 7 articles. Articles were examined for common themes.

Results: Common themes found in the resulting research is the prevalence of ‘thinspiration’, gamified content, and overlap of eating disorders with other mental illnesses. Several articles found a significant correlation between social media use and the severity of eating disorder symptoms. …

A Content Analysis Of Reddit Comments Discussing Fibroadenoma Appraisal And Decision Making, Hayley Marie Kay Stahl

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Though fibroadenomas are clinically benign in most cases, clinical research suggests that these lesions can cause diagnosis-related physical health complications and psychological distress. However, this research is limited and should be investigated further. Thus, this study aimed to explore how patients appraise their fibroadenoma diagnosis uncertainty. Additionally, this study sought to determine if a correlation existed between appraisal and decision making as well as identify the factors that influence the most common treatment decision: removal. Data was retrieved from Reddit discussions for a content analysis. These discussions were then qualitatively analyzed using codebooks associated with this study’s research questions. Findings …

Media’S Portrayal Of Women And Its Impact On Body Image And Self-Esteem, Hannah Bareis

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project addresses the portrayal of women in media and its damaging effects on body image and self-esteem. It raises two critical questions: What negative impact is media creating on women? What can be done to combat these destructive effects?

According to a study done by Common Sense Media, "American teens use an average of 9 hours of media daily, not including for school and homework" (Common Sense Media, 2015). This data, along with many others, shows the severity of media exposure to teens. This has brought a valuable discussion to the table. How has this impacted female body image, …

Evaluating Va Nurse Acceptance Of Virtual Healthcare Technology During The Coronavirus Outbreak, Francesca Bryan-Couch

Doctor of Nursing Practice Scholarly Projects

At a regional Veterans Administration (VA) hospital, nurses performing case management were unable to perform face-to-face visits with patients due to coronavirus. Care coordination and discharge planning efforts occurred through telephonic case management to preserve personal protective equipment and reduce transmission rates through social distancing. Trust and rapport between patients and nurses were reduced without personal contact. Peplau’s theory of interpersonal relations described six nurse roles and three phases of relationship development required to create therapeutic nurse-patient relationships. Connectedness was a key concept considered to be the path to a successful meaningful therapeutic nurse-patient relationship (Hrabe, 2005).

To evaluate current …

Remote Data Collection: How Broadband Connectivity Affected The Conversion Of Physical Performance Testing To The Remote Setting During Covid-19: A Research Assistant's Assessment, Ramyar Eslami

University Honors Theses

The GET FIT Prostate and Exercising Together trials conducted by Dr. Kerri Winters-Stone incorporate exercise intervention for cancer survivors during or after completing their therapy. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the laboratory assessment of both studies was conducted in-person. However, the transition to remote assessment was required due to the safety precautions of COVID-19. Protocol outcomes for administering tests like the short physical performance battery (sPPB), which includes the 4m usual walk (4MW; m/s), chair stands (CS; sec), and standing balance measurements, were completed via a video conferencing interface called Cisco Webex.

Transitioning to remote testing determined the validity of remote …

Relationship Between Social Media Screen Time, Sedentariness, And Bmi Among Young Adults, Helen Golod

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Obesity has quickly become an epidemic that affects adults and youth not only in the United States, but also increasingly elsewhere in the global community. Research suggests that most children and adolescents spend a significant amount of time indulging in screen-based leisure, especially on social media. Such behavior may also be linked to sedentary lifestyle, which can impact an individual’s body mass index (BMI). There is a lack of understanding concerning how sedentary behavior moderates the relationship between screen time spent on different types of social media and BMI among young adults in the United States. To address this research …

Exploring Health And Risk Information Seeking In The Context Of Covid-19: Testing The Comprehensive Model Of Information Seeking And Risk Information Seeking And Processing Model As Competing Explanatory Models, Xianlin Jin

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Facing a pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the public feels uncertainty and fear. To cope with the pandemic and reduce uncertainty, the public needs accurate and prompt information. By theoretically and empirically comparing the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking (CMIS) and the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model (RISP), this dissertation aims to unpack the core mechanism of health and risk information seeking. Built on the two models, the author proposed an Integrated Model and explored which variables are the significant predictors of health and risk information seeking.

The author recruited 729 adult participants and analyzed 394 completed …

An Evaluation Of A Web-Based Tool To Improve Feeding Practices And The Home Environment Among Parents Of Low-Income Minority Preadolescents At-Risk For Childhood Obesity, Katrina F. Mateo

Dissertations and Theses

Background: Web-based/mHealth interventions may be an engaging approach to promote positive dietary-related behaviors among parents of youth at-risk for childhood obesity. Importantly, childhood obesity research highlights the role of parents as a key support mechanism in improving child dietary outcomes. Intervention INC is a childhood obesity intervention that comprises a unique, interactive web-based child nutrition comic aimed at improving dietary behaviors among urban Black/African American (AA) and Latino preadolescents, and also weekly online parent newsletters (with feeding tips, healthy printable recipes, links to coupons to support healthy eating/feeding and health-promoting local/community events, and access to the child nutrition comic) to …

An Experimental Analysis Of Voice Volume For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Arturo Garcia

Thesis Projects

Inappropriate prosodic production is an often observed, but rarely treated, communication skill deficit for individuals with autism. Expanding on previous literature, we conducted a functional analysis on the voice volume responses (VVR) of two children with ASD utilizing similar procedures to those from Edgerton and Wine (2017). Further, we evaluated the efficacy of using visual feedback from an app and a function-based treatment to decrease inappropriate VVR and increase appropriate VVR. Results of the functional analysis indicated loud VVR was maintained by social negative reinforcement (escape from demands) for one participant and by both social negative and automatic reinforcement for …

Hear Me Roar, Abigail R. Seethoff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hear Me Roar, a compilation of personal essays interspersed with short forms, grapples with the nuances of compliance versus autonomy in the context of the male gaze, beauty standards, and pop culture. The collection also explores what it means to treasure something—another person, an object—and how to express and deepen that affection.

Analysis Of Information Value Chains For Gout Self-Care Management, Maranda Russell

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

This value chain analysis study sought to identify information needed by gout patients to successfully manage their disease, leading to a model for information extraction from patient health records. A scoping review was conducted to identify the types of information needed by gout patients. The findings of each included study were divided and analyzed according to the stages of the care delivery value chain. The results of the review were then used to create a gout information value chain as criteria for annotating the information deemed important for gout patients contained in publicly available patient education materials according to the …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Motor Planning With Core Vocabulary: A Behavior Analytic Account, Alison Judith Karnes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) increases, it is important for practitioners to continue to improve evidence-based practices (EBP) for the treatment of ASD symptoms (i.e., impairments in social communication and repetitive behaviors and restricted interests; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). It is estimated that 30-50% of individuals with autism do not acquire functional speech (Wodka, Mathy, & Kalb, 2013). These individuals would make appropriate candidates for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC; Mirenda, 2003). One form of AAC is the speech-generating device (SGD). Over the last ten years, tablet-based technologies including iPad minisⓇ have been emphasized in the …

The Role Of Online Support For Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer Patients And Survivors, Bevin J. Nixon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The rate of thyroid cancer diagnosis has risen, and researchers' findings point to improved diagnostic testing and overdiagnosis as well as increases in actual incidences as the reasons behind this rise. With improved treatments and testing methods, the number of thyroid cancer survivors has also increased. Thyroid cancer presents challenges to coping and can cause significant stress in an individual's life. More specifically, anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) creates complicated challenges for patients and survivors. The problem is patients need support during diagnosis and treatment when adjusting to their 'new normal' and may be reaching to Internet based social support groups …

Where Trying To Conceive Becomes A Community Effort: A Digital Ethnography Of Online Infertility Forums, Megan Burns

Sociology Honors Papers

Online forums for women using in vitro fertilization (IVF), or similar assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), provide a useful setting to further evaluate and understand women’s expectations of motherhood, the relationship infertile women have with physicians and biomedicine, and their interactions on the forums. Some critics of ARTs consider them a tool of oppression in a pronatalist state. The pressure and desire to become a biological mother leads the women with access to these technologies to use them regardless. Through digital ethnographic research on four online ART forums, this research examines the intersection of altruism and self-interest in the ways forum-users …

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 …

Orthodontists’ And Patients’ Preferences In Website Design In The Selection Of An Orthodontic Practice: A Comparative Study, Taylor R. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: To determine which website characteristics are preferred by orthodontists, adult patients, and parents of patients.

Materials and Methods: 1,000 active members of the American Association of Orthodontists and 750 active orthodontic patients/parents were sampled. Participants rated the importance of website characteristics, indicated presence of those characteristics on the current website, and ranked sample website images. Preferences were compared between orthodontist and the patient/parent group using t-tests and sample websites were compared using ANOVA models and Tukey’s adjusted post-hoc tests. Significance level was set at 0.05.

Results: 11 of the 16 website features showed significant differences between patients/parents and orthodontists. …

Adult Nursing Students’ Perceptions Of Social Presence In Facilitator-Created Subject- Specific Videos In An Online Nursing Course, Jamie Anne Marcus

Theses and Dissertations

The literature established that online instruction consists of cognitive, teaching, and social presence. Studies on the element of social presence linked text-based delivery of instruction with learners’ feelings of isolation and disengagement. This research findings prompted this facilitator creation of five-to-seven-minute companion videos that aligned and complemented weekly text-based learning modules to ascertain students’ perceptions of these videos as a medium for channeling social presence.

Post-video viewing surveys yielded responses to pragmatic and emotional questions. Pragmatic questions were aimed at the visual impact of professor’s delivery of information. Emotional questions gauged the students’ feelings of connectivity with the facilitator. Triangulated …

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 …

Do Marketing Strategies Impact Condom Sales In Uganda?, Meyhar Mohammed

Master's Theses

What attracts people to buy condoms? HIV/AIDS remain one of the biggest health dangers of the world, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. A lot of efforts have been pursued in the past two decades to drastically reduce prevalence of HIV and increase awareness about preventive mechanisms. In order to prevent relapse of success achieved so far, it is important to recognize transformation of consumer behavior due to growth in social networks, education and awareness over time. There are a lot of behavioral triggers captured by social marketing interventions in the field of public health. In an attempt to investigate the role …

Designing Effective Messages To Promote Future Zika Vaccine Uptake, Jeanine Guidry

Theses and Dissertations

The Zika virus is associated with the devastating birth defect microcephaly, and while a vaccine was not yet available in early-2017, several were under development. It is imperative to identify effective communication strategies to promote uptake of a new vaccine, particularly among women of reproductive age. Moreover, though the Zika outbreak has received much social media attention, little is known about these conversations on Instagram. The purpose of this dissertation, therefore, was to understand current Zika-focused communication on Instagram and to inform effective communication strategies to promote future Zika vaccine uptake intent.

The study aims were: (1) explore Zika conversations …

Toddlers And Technology: An Examination Of How The Digital Surround May Be Related To Prototypic Vocabulary Development And Social Interactions During Play, Hannah Biarnesen Hutcheson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to examine how the digital technology that surrounds young children may be related to prototypic vocabulary development and Social interactions during play. Twenty-six families in the Northwest Arkansas region with children between 15-36 months of age participated in the study. Thirteen children attended a campus preschool, six children attended a grant-funded local preschool, and seven children, all from the Northwest Arkansas area, were part of an earlier home-based study. The materials for the study included a developmental-technology use questionnaire and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories. Archival videotaped play sessions with the seven home-based children utilized a “Little …

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 …

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 …

Case Study Of Learning And Instruction For Members Of An Online Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Support Group, Heather Rae Gilmore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research has shown that individual members of traditional support groups gain a sense of identity and community and feelings of respect and support. Online support groups provide individuals avenues to find medical information and thus learn more about a given condition or illness. Little has been studied about the learning and instruction that occurs in online social support groups, especially in groups about chronic pain. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of members who participated in one open social support group. Siemen's constructivism theory served as the basis for comprehending the learning …

College Students’ Use Of Social Media To Communicate About Alcohol And Drinking Behaviors, Jenna E. Reno

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Social networking sites (SNSs) are an increasingly popular channel for communication among college students. Often students disclose more freely via social networking sites than they would in other situations. These disclosures commonly include information about engaging in risky health behaviors (e.g., binge drinking). Study 1 examined students’ impression management goals and self-presentation tactics specifically related to self-disclosures of drinking behavior on SNSs. Findings suggest that students use differing self-presentation tactics across various SNSs in order to achieve their impression management goals and to avoid consequences associated with disclosing about risky health behaviors to certain audiences. Study 2 sought to develop …

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 …