Communication Technology and New Media Commons^™

Design And Test The Effectiveness Of Interpretive Signs Using Eye Tracking And Biometric Data, Hadara Gordon, Wendy Miyazaki

Baker/Koob Endowments Awarded Projects

Recreational trails on forested lands should satisfy the needs of recreationists, safeguard important habitats, and maintain the natural environment (Kortenkamp et al., 2021). Appropriate management is critical because of the increasing number of visitors. Signs are a cost-effective method to reduce the negative impacts on visitors and enhance visitor experiences (Brown et al., 2010). This research aimed to investigate how visitors pay attention to signs, view the trail surrounded by trees and behave in a natural space.

Educating The Multi-Ethnic Population On The Municipal By-Laws: City Of Windsor, Mohammed Shiblee

Major Papers

Although more difficult to articulate than implement, educating the multi-ethnic populace about municipal by-laws is among the most difficult tasks for any Canadian administrative institution, whether provincial, federal, municipal, or even grassroots. When considering such circumstances, the present state of the Corporation of the City of Windsor, or the City of Windsor as a whole, offers both a challenge and an opportunity. In terms of challenges, Windsor is home to a vibrant, multi-ethnic community comprised of local, diaspora and minority populations, which often encounters various socio-cultural obstacles concerning the understanding and upholding of municipal by-laws. From an opportunity standpoint, the …

Assessing The Threat Of Social Media To National Security: Information Operations In The 21st Century, Brendan M. Cullen

Senior Theses

The ubiquity of social media has enabled an unprecedented amount of personal data to be accessible to various entities. Social media platforms leverage this data to optimize algorithmic recommendation systems, persuade users to engage, and promote monetization. The social media ecosystem’s business model demands continuous engagement and the relentless collection of user data to grow and scale. Not only is social media massively popular around the world, but it has integrated heavily into users’ daily lives. This integration is driven by social platforms’ deliberate architectures and affordances. The intentionality of social media can be exploited by state and non-state actors …

Impact Of Social Media  On Public Perception Of Government Covid-19 Response Efforts, Taher Taher

Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to understand this phenomenon to provide insights into how governments can perform better in times of crisis regarding social media and its impact on public opinion. This research aims to understand how social media impacts public perception of government COVID-19 response efforts by studying Facebook comments, likes, and reactions (emoticons).

The study was based on data gathered from Facebook comments on the daily infographic COVID-19 statistics from the official site of the Ministry of Health and Population. The sampling frame is the 52 weeks of 2020, January to December, through random sampling resulting in 546 comments. The …

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 …

Presidents And Media During Initial Federal-Level Hurricane Relief: A Study Of Presidential Crisis Communication Efforts, Emily A. Ball

Honors College Theses

Public relations serves a huge role in almost every sector, including politics. Crisis communication, a subset of public relations, is very important in a setting that constantly undergoes crises. The response to these crises matters a great deal on the federal level because the outcomes can affect such a wide variety of policies and even elections. Because of this, I wanted to focus on one type of crisis that every president is almost guaranteed to face: hurricanes. To examine the effectiveness of federal-level crisis communication, I look at Bush, Obama, Trump, and Biden’s responses to the worst hurricane during their …

Surveillance Culture And Potential Resistance Of Social Media In Egypt, Dina Refaei

Theses and Dissertations

Social media companies have become dominant over their users. With digital capabilities that enable them to monitor, analyze and process users’ data, they are able to restrict users’ activities in accordance with their own policies. The present study examines the potential for users to encounter social media policies – specifically, privacy and content moderation policies imposed over activities on these platforms. The surveillance culture model is proposed to highlight surveillance perceptions among users and determine the factors that might affect users' intention to resist social media policies. A sample of 547 Egyptian social media users were surveyed. The findings showed …

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 …

Integration Of Blockchain Technology Into Automobiles To Prevent And Study The Causes Of Accidents, John Kim

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Automobile collisions occur daily. We now live in an information-driven world, one where technology is quickly evolving. Blockchain technology can change the automotive industry, the safety of the motoring public and its surrounding environment by incorporating this vast array of information. It can place safety and efficiency at the forefront to pedestrians, public establishments, and provide public agencies with pertinent information securely and efficiently. Other industries where Blockchain technology has been effective in are as follows: supply chain management, logistics, and banking. This paper reviews some statistical information regarding automobile collisions, Blockchain technology, Smart Contracts, Smart Cities; assesses the feasibility …

Relationship Between Gmdss Modernization And E-Navigation Strategy, Yijun Liu

Maritime Safety & Environment Management Dissertations (Dalian)

No abstract provided.

Visual Messages Of Conflict Reporting On Twitter: Visual Frames And Ethical Standards, Hasan Karademir

Theses and Dissertations

This comparative study employs the theoretical frameworks of framing and hierarchy of influences model to analyze the ethical forces affecting journalists on Twitter and simultaneously their visual frames constructed in their images on Twitter. It investigates the portrayal of the Yemen conflict in the personal Twitter accounts of Yemeni journalists who were affiliated with the United States (US) and Qatari news organizations. Several studies have pointed out the graphic war coverage of Arab news organizations whereas scholars argue that US news organizations provide sanitized coverage on war zones (Johnson & Fahmy, 2007; Silcock, Schwalbe, & Keith, 2008; Karniel, Lavie-Dinur, & …

Victim Impact: The Manson Murders And The Rise Of The Victims’ Rights Movement, Merrill W. Steeg

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Répresentations De La Banlieue Dans Le Cinéma Français Contemporain, Yaw Owusu Sekyere

Honors Projects

Inhabitants of the poor French banlieues are rejected and isolated from the larger French society, who refuse to acknowledge their marginalization. As a result, the cycle continues where no political change is made. The French film genre, cinéma de banlieue, seeks to explain the perspectives of the underrepresented and marginalized groups within France. This honors project analyzes the representations of the banlieue through the films of La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz), Wesh wesh qu’est-ce qui se passe ? (Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche), Bande de filles (Céline Sciamma), Divines (Houda Benyamina), and Banlieusards (Kery James & Leïla Sy). These films focus on the …

Educating Public Information Officers In Kentucky, Lori Kent

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This study researched the education and training of public information officers (PIO) within Kentucky. Even though training exists, the effectiveness of prior training and education of currently employed public information officers is unknown. As the formalization and importance of the role has evolved in recent years, it is more important to determine and possibly create proper training and post-secondary courses to prepare public information officers for their role. Interviews were conducted, utilizing standard questions with practicing public information officers throughout the state. Research found inconsistent experience and a lack of training by public information officers prior to obtaining their …

Contributions Of Role-Playing Games: Advantages Of Incorporating Social Media In Disaster Response, Erin Mullin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

After a disaster, emergency managers need to know who needs help, what type of help they need, and how soon they need it. Traditionally, they have relied on 911 calls and ground assessments to collect this information. Because the needs of a population are not able to be identified in a timely manner by ground assessments and because individuals are often unable to get through to 911, many civilians in distress turn to social media outlets as a last-ditch effort to obtain the services they need. Due to the uncertainty concerning the accuracy of social media posts, responding to disaster …

Resisting Industrial Food Systems On The Web: How Non-Profit Organizations Use Digital Technology For Sustainability Education, Aleksandr Segal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the link between how community-based organizations use digital tools with the fundamentally resistance-based philosophy that these organizations have at the core of their mission. It aims to uncover how non-profit organizations (NPOs) that work in community development through food and agriculture use digital tools, and how their digital communication strategies relate to issues of resistance to neoliberalism and industrialization in the food and agriculture sectors.

Using a foundation of existing literature on food and agriculture, climate change and waste management, critical theory, and technology in pedagogy, this thesis will contextualize how non-profits resist neoliberal regimes of de-traditionalization …

"Should Employees Come Back To The Office?": The Effectiveness Of Eliminating Remote Working Policies For Diverse Virtual Teams, Yeju Choi

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

Recently, some corporations, such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Yahoo!, decided to end their remote working policies. While this policy change caused major tension and disruption within, organizations still trumpeted this change, arguing that it would improve collaboration and communication. In order to resolve the potential conflict, this study assessed the effectiveness of their recently changed practice, the elimination of remote working policies. The review of literature, however, determined that this decision did not have enough scholarly-based support due to limitations of the current literature, such as a lack of agreement in conceptualizing virtuality, lack of studies that perceived virtuality in …

Fake News, Political Narrative, & Social Media: A Structuration Approach, Adam M. Housh

Capstone Collection

This research aims to unveil a connection between fake news distribution, readership demand, and social media networks, in this case, Facebook. In this research, fake news is defined as “content that is deliberately false and published on websites that mimic traditional news websites (Johnson and Kelling 2017, p3)”. It is argued that fake news content is not produced at random, but is tailored to particular political demographics and narratives. Exposure to such media not only validates ideological positions, it polarizes political beliefs. Furthermore, Facebook not only acts as an effective distribution medium, but allows individual users to skip structural filters …

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 …

A Content Analysis Of Jihadist Magazines: Theoretical Perspectives, Catalina M. Udani

Honors Undergraduate Theses

During its violent spread across the Middle East, the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) amassed both a local and international following in large part due to its usage of emergent media distribution. Beginning in 2014, ISIS’s Ministry of Media published an English-language magazine, Dabiq, disseminating its issues through online platforms. Dabiq and its successor Rumiyah both serve as propagandistic recruitment material for ISIS’s international community as well as broadcasting the message of the jihadist movement to ISIS’s enemies. This study analyzed ISIS’s publications using a qualitative content analysis in order to identify jihadist recruitment strategies through the perspectives …

Open Source Micro Diplomas: New Credentials For New Learning, Jack F. Powers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The standard model for college in America—a four-year bachelor’s degree that teaches critical thinking, analytic reasoning, and written communication skills—is unaffordable and unattainable for most Americans. Only about a third of citizens aged 25 and over have achieved a baccalaureate degree or better. Two-thirds are left behind in precarious jobs that pay substantially less and that are losing ground. Everyone from politicians to parents repeats the mantra of “college for all”, but the reality is more like “college for the socio-economically gifted.”

At the same time, the modern world of work is evolving into a more complex, technical, and computerized …

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 …

Information Sharing, Transparency, And E-Governance Among County Government Offices In Southeastern Michigan, Lawrence Bosek

All NMU Master's Theses

The Internet has given rise to the availability of information at our fingertips. While the public, particularly consumers, are more commonly described as being the leading users and beneficiaries of electronic information services, businesses and governments are also players in the arena for sharing official information. Information can be easily stored on Internet websites for the public, businesses, and other governmental offices to search and peruse when needed. This study examined the ease of locating county governmental information, such as contact information for public officials and financial reports, and surveyed elected county officials for purposes of identifying how information is …

On Making A Difference: How Photography And Narrative Produce The Short-Term Missions Experience, Joshua Kerby Jennings

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

Short-term missions participants encounter difference in purportedly captivating ways. Current research, however, indicates the practice does not lead to long-lasting, positive change. Brian M. Howell (2012) argues the short-term missions experience is confined to the limitations of the short-term missions narrative. People who engage in short-term missions build assumptions, seek experiences, understand difference, and convey meaning, as a result of this narrative. The process of telling and retelling travel stories is integral to the short-term missions experience. Drawing upon literature on tourism, narrative, development, and photography, this study intends to evaluate the inefficacy of short-term missions through the stories which …

Magnopark, Smart Parking Detection Based On Cellphone Magnetic Sensor, Maryam Arab

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

We introduce a solution that uses the availability of heavy crowds and their smart devices, to gain more result as to where potential parking is possible. By leveraging the raw magnetometer, gyroscope, and accelerometer data, we are able to detect parking spots through the natural movement exerted by the walking pedestrians on the sidewalks beside the streets. Dating back as far as 2013, a very large portion of pedestrians composing the crowds on the sidewalk, possessed at least one smart device in their hand or pocket14]. It is this statistic that fuels our application, in which we depend on crowds …

From Consumers To Creators: Wikistoriograhy And The Consensus Of Collaborative Learning In The Landscape Of Web 2.0, Curran Mcquade

Selected Honors Theses

This thesis reviews the significance of Wikipedia in an approach to internet historiography. Wikipedia incorporates Web 2.0 methods to create a new way to study and revise history through a consensus of multiple users and editors. The argument of the thesis is structured to address some of the qualms many academics have about Wikipedia, examine how historiography functions in an internet driven world, and finally how Wikipedia fits into the puzzle of internet historiography. It concludes that Wikipedia, the largest user-based information site in the world, must be at the forefront of discussion surrounding internet historiography.

Approaching Ideals Through Innovation: Twentieth And Twenty-First Century Mass Media Technology And American Democracy, Elizabeth Brand Cermak

Senior Theses

From the moment our First Amendment was adopted, America’s ideal of democracy has been firmly intertwined with media communications between the President and the citizenry. Over time, technological advancements have altered the way this communication is facilitated, increasing the public’s access to the Office of the Presidency, and visa versa, via new forms of media. Through an examination of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s use of the radio, the first televised debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1960, and Barack Obama’s use of Social Media and the Internet, this thesis will seek to answer the question of whether the …

Bloggers And Their Impact On Contemporary Social Movements: A Phenomenological Examination Of The Role Of Blogs And Their Creators In The Lgbt Social Movements In Modern United States, Bobby K. Huen

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The Internet is a ubiquitous feature in everyday life, but its application to social movements has yet to be completely understood. This phenomenological study examines the lived experiences of bloggers who focused on the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movement in the United States to understand the impact bloggers and their work as online activists have on existing LGBT social movement organization and operation. Data collection is gathered from semi-structured and open-ended interviews with four social movement bloggers using web-conference software over the course of three months. The results of this study indicated that internet has empowered individual activists, …

The Use Of Social Media As A Communication Tool By International Development Organizations: A Case Study Of The United Nations Children’S Fund (Unicef) In Egypt, Inas Taha Abbas Hamad

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates to understand how the United Nations development organizations in Egypt can manage social media as a communication tool to achieve their development objectives. A case study of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Egypt, is introduced. Using the Excellence Theory in Public Relations developed by Grunig (2002), this study examines how social media can contribute to the strategic management of the organization, rather than being a messaging, publicity, and media relations function. Through a content analysis of a number of social media pages of the UN organizations in Egypt, and in-depth interviews with four senior communication officers …