Communication Commons^™

The Diverse City: Can You Read All About It In Ethnic Newspapers?, April Lindgren

Journalism Publications and Research

The ethnic diversity in Canadian cities has been accompanied by rapid growth in the number of ethnocultural newspapers serving immigrant, ethnic and racialized communities. What role do these newspapers play in shaping how different groups see each other? This study examines how three ethnic newspapers published in the Greater Toronto Area portray residents other than their target audiences. Data are presented on the extent to which other groups are covered in the news and the nature of that news coverage. The results suggest that the Korean, Russian and Punjabi-language publications examined in the study paint only a limited picture of ...

Want To Understand Local News? Make A Map, April Lindgren, Christina Wong

Journalism Publications and Research

Critics have suggested that scholars seeking to advance journalism studies must adopt a more multidisciplinary approach to research, one that looks beyond the strict confines of sociology, history, language studies, political science, or cultural analysis. This paper argues that the geography of news coverage is a valuable starting point for scholars who wish to understand what local news gets reported, why and how it gets reported, and the potential consequences of such news coverage. The work of the Local News Research Project at Ryerson University is introduced to illustrate how maps that reveal the geospatial aspects of local news can ...

Women In The Field: What Do You Know?, Ann Rauhala, April Lindgren

Journalism Publications and Research

Although more women than ever work in Canadian media, their participation in journalism seems misunderstood or underexplored. That was the message emerging fromWomen in the Field, a symposium hosted by the Ryerson Journalism Research Centre in 2011. More than 200 journalists and journalism students gathered to discuss dilemmas facing women–from covering high-risk events to balancing parenthood with careers. Participants discussed equality in newsrooms, asking whether women are fairly represented and whether they cover news differently from men. This narrative literature review reports on what scholars know about the state of women in Canadian news by identifying common lines ...

Toward Press Council 2.0: An International Review Of Models Of, And Alternatives To, The Traditional Press Council, Ivor Shapiro, Lisa Taylor

Journalism Publications and Research

This paper presents an overview of preliminary results from a comparative study of existing press council models in Canadian provinces and similar democracies abroad. Gathering information by a combination of survey and qualitative-interview methodologies, we are analyzing the relative effectiveness of, and difficulties faced by, varying models of councils. Among the issues to be analyzed are: how existing models of Canadian press councils compare with one another, and with models operating in other democracies; how various stakeholders define the purpose(s) of press councils; the difficulties faced by existing and defunct provincial news councils in achieving their various goals; whether ...

95th Connecticut College Commencement Address, Howard Gordon

Commencement Addresses

Emmy-winning television writer and producer Howard Gordon told the Class of 2013," The fictional characters I create live in the same crazy, complicated world as the rest of us. How they navigate through the world is what makes them compelling. How you navigate your way through the world is what will make your story compelling.”

The best way to do it, he told the Class of 2013, is to heed the sage words of advice printed on the poster in his office: “Work hard and be nice to people.”

He apologized for "what may sound like fortune-cookie philosophy," but said ...

Race, Class, Risk And Trust: Risk Communication In Post-Katrina New Orleans, Bruno F. Battistoli

Mass Communications - Dissertations

The main focus of this study is on risk communication about dangerous environmental events in post-Katrina New Orleans, and the influence that race and class have on that process. It seeks to determine the assessment of New Orleans residents of the various possible sources of risk information that are available to them, and how race and socioeconomic class affect their level of trust in those sources. A 37-question telephone survey was conducted in Orleans Parish by the Public Policy Research Lab at Louisiana State University in June and July of 2012. There were 414 completed surveys, with 278 landline telephone ...

The Other September 11th: El Mercurio Media Coverage After The Chilean Coup Of 1973, Valeria A. Gurr‐Ovalle

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA)

This thesis provides an exploratory overview of the role the El Mercurio newspaper played along with the military after the Chilean coup of 1973. The study reviews the contents of the newspaper’s front pages, including their coverage of the events during the coup. The thesis will show how the paper revisited its coverage each year on the September 11th anniversary, beginning with the years dominated by the military government, from 1973 through 1990, and continuing through the transition to democracy, from 1991 through 2007. The primary method used in the course of this examination is a content analysis, which ...

President Barack Obama's Commencement Addresses: Revising The Functions Of Ceremonial Rhetoric, Milene Ortega Ribeiro

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA)

Commencement speakers are typically expected to praise students for their achievements and motivate them for the path that is to come. When the commencement speaker is a President, however, the expectation is different. In times of rhetorical presidency, no presidential address is apolitical, and this project investigated the functions of ceremonial rhetoric in light of the rhetorical presidency doctrine. Close textual analysis of the three most controversial commencement speeches delivered by President Obama, revealed that the challenge of fulfilling the expectations of a commencement address, while also responding to rhetorical problems, required the President to adopt complex rhetorical strategies. The ...

Survivors Of Childhood Sexual Abuse:What Heals And What Hurts In A Couple Relationship, Laura Smedley, Kathy Disney-Fairchild, Stephen Fife, Colleen Peterson

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA)

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a significant trauma that affects a person’s self-concept and ability to form healthy intimate relationships later in adulthood. Approximately 20% of adults who experienced childhood sexual abuse go on to evidence serious psychopathology in adulthood (Harway & Faulk, 2005). Knowledge of how relationship partners affect the healing of the survivor may be very beneficial to couples’ therapists, to survivors themselves, and to their intimate partners. The purpose of this qualitative study is to increase understanding of the survivor’s experience of what is helpful and what is counterproductive in their healing process within the construct ...

Does Movie Viewing Cultivate Unrealistic Expectations About Love And Marriage?, Lauren Galloway

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA)

The present study investigated the connection between romantic movie viewing frequency and endorsement of dysfunctional beliefs for romantic relationships in a university-based sample of 228 participants. Respondents completed a questionnaire in which they reported demographic information as well as responses to the several scales that measure endorsement of romantic ideals. I base this investigation of Segrin and Nabi’s (2002) examination of television viewing habits and proclivity for unrealistic expectations of sex, love, and marriage. Both the current study and the investigation conducted by Segrin and Nabi (2002) support the supposition that media play a part in reinforcing beliefs about ...

Media Bias Through Facial Expressions On Local Las Vegas Television News, Jessica Zimmerman

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA)

Trust in news media has been considered an important base for social order and cohesion in society and is a crucial variable for evaluating news media. Media credibility has been questioned by the audience for some time and the audience’s trust in the media has been slowly diminishing over the years. When a news broadcaster communicates a story on local television news, it is possible for his own opinions and beliefs to leak through nonverbal communication, specifically facial expressions. This presentation explores the four main local Las Vegas television news stations’ anchors and reporters to visually analyze whether facial ...

Coping With Pediatric Cancer: Conversational Methods Utilized By Parents And Children When Dealing With Pediatric Cancer, Chelsi Morgan Walls

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA)

This thesis sought to analyze how parents communicate with their child regarding pediatric cancer treatments. When dealing with pediatric cancer, it is vital that parents and their child communicate about the illness in order to effectively cope with the cancer. Using Uncertainty Management Theory, along with sub-concepts of the theory (i.e., appraisals, inferences, and illusions), this thesis sought to discover which coping mechanism (i.e., affect-management or buffering) would be chosen to manage the illness. Under UMT, appraisals were assessed, resulting in positive and negative appraisal, which indicated whether the individual handled the issue with either an inference based ...

Bridging The Gap: An Invitational Approach To Confucianism And Daoism, David Munson

Communication and Rhetorical Studies - Theses

The idea of cross or multiculturalism in today's rhetorical scholarship is essential because it allows scholars to apply a critical perspective to traditional modes of rhetorical scholarship. Many contemporary scholars, such as George Kennedy, Xing Lu, Roberta Blinkley and Carol Lipson have recently embraced a cross-cultural rhetorical perspective in their works. At the same time, other scholars have critiqued the traditional canon as too limiting and too reliant on notions of rationality, logic, antagonism and truth. Sonja Foss and Cindy Griffin provide one such critique of the Greco-Roman tradition by approaching the idea of rhetoric through an invitational lens ...

Conspiracy, Pragmatism And Style: An Analysis Of Richard Nixon's Antecedent Anti-Communist Conspiacy Rhetoric, Evan L. Johnson

Communication and Rhetorical Studies - Theses

This study is a rhetorical analysis of Richard Nixon's early-career anti-communist conspiracy rhetoric. In conspiracy scholarship, two tracks have emerged: the paranoid style and the political style of conspiracy. Nixon, though, as a tricky rhetor, does not fall neatly within either of those styles, instead he samples from both styles over time and even within single speeches. After synthesizing the two styles into a method, I analyze three early Nixon anti-communist conspiracy texts between 1946-1962 which span those years and cover various genres. Text one is Nixon's "Maiden Speech" to the House of Representatives in 1947. It is ...

'Twas The Night Before Black Friday: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Hegemonic Consumerism In Mediated, Consumptive, And Resistance Spaces, Emily Anne Soule

Communication and Rhetorical Studies - Theses

This thesis analyzes Black Friday media, consumption, and resistance spaces to interrogate the construction of and opposition to the hegemonic consumer. In order to investigate hegemonic consumerism, my work is divided into three chapters in which I perform a rhetorical critique of Black Friday spaces: mediated space, consumptive space, and resistance space. In the first chapter, I analyze mediated space, offering a close analysis of 10 Black Friday commercials to identify mediated constructions of the hegemonic consumer. In the second chapter, I employ ethnographic research to assess consumptive space, specifically the retail space of Target on Black Friday to engage ...

Measuring News Media Literacy: How Knowledge And Motivations Combine To Create News-Literate Teens, Stephanie Craft, Adam Maksl, Seth Ashley

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Developing ways to improve young people’s news media literacy has been the focus of much recent attention among scholars, educators, and news professionals. Common definitions and approaches, however, have been scarce, making it difficult to compare and analyze curriculum effectiveness and research results. This project sought to create a measure of news media literacy that can be used to further our understanding of what constitutes news media literacy and to help validate and improve education and training.

A Study In Sherlock, Rebecca Mclaughlin

Undergraduate Review

In 2010, the BBC launched its newest series, Sherlock. The show was an instant success in the UK, Europe, and the United States. In early 2012, Season Two aired with even greater success. But we might ask why, nearly 120 years after he was first introduced, the character of Sherlock Holmes, along with his companion Dr. John Watson, still captures the attention of TV audiences? My study examines the representation of this fictional male friendship as a popular culture phenomenon both at the turn of the twentieth century and today. Focusing on the representation of domesticity and unmarried men, homosocial ...

"Terrorism" In The Age Of Obama: The Rhetorical Evolution Of President Obama’S Discourse On The "War On Terror", Kelly Long

Undergraduate Review

Since the events that transpired on the morning of September 11th, 2001, “terrorism” has become a part of the vocabulary of modern American culture. The word “terrorism” has become a powerful ideograph—a word or phrase that is abstract in nature, but has a great deal of ideological power—in American culture. This commonly used abstract word can be heard almost daily in the media and within the larger lexicon of American political discourse. Rhetoricians use the word to describe their motives and persuade audiences to align their ideological principles with those of the larger cause. This study examines how ...

Opus: Research And Creativity At Ipfw 2012 Statistical Report, Cheryl B. Truesdell

Opus Reports

No abstract provided.

Constructing A World War Ii America: The Rhetorical Craftsmanship Of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Tiara Kay Foster

Communication and Rhetorical Studies - Theses

I add to existing scholarship an explanation of the rhetorical priming work that Franklin D. Roosevelt employed to overcome isolationism in the United States. Roosevelt asked the American people to trust him through the next great world crisis and used his prior two terms as well as strategic enemy construction as support. He framed the memory of his first two terms tightly and told them what to remember from their shared experiences to formulate an America ready for war. His leadership through the Banking Crisis and initiation of many domestic policies to keep America great were the basis upon which ...