Digital Commons Network^™

The Machine And The Masses: A Sociolinguistic Study Of Ai Political Rhetoric, Yaseen Tasnif

2026 Spring Honors Capstones Projects

With increased use of and access to generative Artificial Intelligence, or AI, political communications have begun to see its influence, leading to the question of how this AI generated political rhetoric is received. In previous research, AI output has been extensively researched and indexed, highlighting specific qualities such as overly polished speech as indicators of use. Research has also been done on perception and detectability of AI, showing that people can accurately identify AI-generated text, but tend to be overconfident. However, such research has not been done in the context of political rhetoric, which is consumed in different ways than …

2026 Document For Faculty And Staff Scholarship Spring Soirée, Kara Schleck, Diana Symons

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

No abstract provided.

Flirting Motivations Across Communication Media: Face-To-Face Versus Online Context, Charles Afful Maccarthy

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study examined whether individuals' motivations for flirting differ across communication contexts, specifically face-to-face and online interactions. Drawing on Henningsen’s (2004) six flirting motivations – relational, sexual, fun, esteem, instrumental, and exploring – and Walther’s (1996) Hyperpersonal Model, this research tested whether flirting motivations influence the choice of communication medium. Using a quantitative mixed-design approach, 103 participants were randomly assigned to reflect on either a face-to-face or online (social media) flirting experience and completed a structured questionnaire measuring the six motivations. Data were analyzed using a 2 (communication medium: face-to-face versus online) x 6 (motivation type) mixed ANOVA. Results revealed …

Assessing Global Citizenship Pathways In A Communication, Advocacy, And Global Citizenship Classroom In The Midwest, Satveer Kaur-Gill

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

To assess instruction in an undergraduate communication course titled Communication, Advocacy, and Global Citizenship, this qualitative inquiry examined how undergraduate students at a Midwest university engaged with global citizenship as a communicative process by conducting a content analysis of student assignments, guided by three key research questions formulated from four course objectives. The assessment found that place-based learning on global issues enhanced students' understanding of the meaning of global citizenship in a globalized world. Based on a qualitative evaluation of their key assignments, students successfully articulated threads and connections between local community concerns and issues as globally situated communicative phenomena. …

Illusions Of Fairness And Sacrifice, Brady Schwertfeger

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The American West is a shifting landscape. An incongruous expanse of isolation and urbanity, wilderness and extraction, wealth and welfare, clear water and fire. Fifteen years ago, I moved to my mother’s ancestral homeland of Montana, and have been here ever since. Before that, I was born and raised in Texas, both the West and the South (and often something else entirely), depending on who you ask. My experiences in this region have shaped me indelibly, and have inspired this collection of essays built around culture, politics, and justice in the West. “Pinedale, Wyoming” considers the musician as itinerant wanderer …

Good News For The Poor And More: Reclaiming Martin Luther King, Jr.'S Radical Gospel Of Economic Justice In Pursuit Of The Beloved Community, Lester A. Mccorn

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation, Good News for the Poor and More: Reclaiming Martin Luther King Jr.’s Radical Gospel of Economic Justice in Pursuit of the Beloved Community, argues that Martin Luther King Jr.—one of the most transformational American leaders of the 20th century—should be best understood as a central figure within the Black Social Gospel tradition whose rhetoric constitutes a sustained socio-political and theological critique of economic injustice. Moving beyond interpretations that limit King to racial integration and civil rights, this study demonstrates that his preaching confronts the structural realities of poverty, racial capitalism, and militarism as interrelated forms of systemic …

Provoking Generative Ai Futures: Merging Theory And Praxis, Regina M. Luttrell Ph.D., Nick Bowman

Media Studies - All Scholarship

An accessible exploration of the myriad applications and challenges of generative AI for media and communication students, scholars, and practitioners alike.

The latest emergence of increasingly low-cost and scalable AI technologies presents a point of both celebration and concern for the contemporary media and information ecosystem. To this end, this edited volume gathers media and communications scholars and practitioners to engage in discussions and exchange ideas about current trends and developments in the field. Questions this volume asks include: What are the essentials of generative AI from a media and communication perspective? How has generative AI influenced research and scholarship? …

“He Will Always Love Me”: Authentic Romance And Reciprocal Love In Otome Games, Elena Yifei Zhao, Nick Bowman

Media Studies - All Scholarship

This study investigates how players construct and articulate emotionally meaningful relationships in otome games. Drawing from 293 open-ended responses from Chinese players, a thematic analysis identified six recurring themes: authentic romance, companionship, shared experience, integration into daily life, game features, and personal growth. The most dominant theme, authentic romance, reveals that players often describe otome boyfriends as emotionally responsive partners who provide validation, support, and affection. Functional descriptions of gameplay mechanics were notably disconnected from other themes (primarily emotional engagement themes). A follow-up analysis of the most popular otome games in the same …

Do You See What I Hear?: The Effects Of Musical Harmony On Cultural Perception And Recognition, Marvin Martin Williams

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study explores whether listeners can identify the differences in harmonic progressions in a musical composition, and, if so, whether those differences can elicit a cultural or social perception of the origins of the music. By investigating how audiences respond to variations in harmony, specifically traditional versus altered harmonic treatments, the research offers a framework for music producers, educators, healthcare providers, and other cultural gatekeepers to better understand and engage with audiences on an empathetic and meaningful level. The underlying hypothesis posits that harmony in music does more than evoke emotion but may inform a cultural interpretation, thus presenting an …

Community Care During Austerity: Mutual Aid And Online Connection Among Disabled Americans, Maeve J. King

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Amidst a mental health epidemic and rising inequality, online communities offer a medium for peer support networks for disabled Americans. Community care, especially in the form of mutual aid, has increased in popularity since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering troubling increases in eugenics-based messaging and disproportionate economic inequality, disabled Americans in particular have leaned into community care. Previous research establishes social media as a hub for resource mobilization and safe space for members of marginalized communities to connect. This research aims to explore the impacts of social, political, and economic unrest on the development of community care and …

Beyond The Episode: A Case For Serial Literacy In Efl Education Classrooms, Julie Intveen, Tim Illigens

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Serial storytelling, characterized by its interplay of vertical (episodic) and horizontal (long-form) narrative structures, offers a unique opportunity for media literacy in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education. This paper argues for the development of a serial literacy framework, a concept that expands traditional film literacy models to accommodate the distinct demands of serialized narratives. By using Inventing Anna (Rhimes, 2022) as a case study, the study explores how serial storytelling fosters engagement with themes of identity construction, ethical ambiguity, and transmedial storytelling. This paper elaborates on serial literacy, considering its implications within foreign language learning contexts. The study …

Spatial Conversations: Opportunities To Share Geographic Knowledge, L. Jesse Rouse, Barbara L. Maclennan, Susan J. Bergeron, H. Franklin Lafone

Anthropology and Geography

For more than twenty years geographers have taken advantage of “new media” to share information, make connections, and expand the “spatial conversation.” As blogs opened the door for informal self-publishing and communicating about narrow, focused topic areas, geographers began to use emerging media platforms to present ideas to a broader audience, more quickly and interactively, as new data and technologies became available. Audio podcasts and videos broadened the platforms for dissemination and provide a greater level of immersion through digital media. Between the open publishing and subscription opportunities, and interaction provided through comments and social media engagement, a dialectic was …

Beheld To Behold: A Rhetorical Theology Of Otherness In Acts, Hannah E. Gross

Masters Theses

The phenomena of otherness foundationally grounds this work. A micro-concept of Martin Buber’s I and Thou Theory, otherness is central to this study particularly as it is rhetorically situated in the work of Acts. The research draws from ideological criticism to produce a rhetorical theology. Findings uncover two primary relational dynamics of otherness: (1) God to the believer to the unbeliever and (2) God to the believer to the believer. These constructions of dialogical engagement in Acts are donned witness and withness, offering keen insight on a rhetorical theology of otherness.

An Axe To The Funny Bone: Curated Instability And Horror-Comedy Intersections In American Storytelling, Samantha Box

Masters Theses

Funny. Terrifying. Subversive.

Horror-Comedy twists and bites at the intersection of two incredibly reactive genres— with both Horror and Comedy being well known for the political and social discourses they embody and reinvent through story. While prevalent in American popular culture, scholarly analysis of this hybrid space barely exists beyond a small number of Film Studies investigations. Despite this lack, Horror-Comedy works continue to be successfully produced. This thesis unpacks the vibrant relationship between fear and laughter in contemporary American storytelling through Horror-Comedy, maintaining a focus on structural dynamics and the audience-disarming results of simultaneously applying horror and humor to …

The Reception Of Neurodiversity Represented Within Netflix’S Wednesday, Anna Stevens

Graduate Theses & Dissertations

This paper explores how neurodiversity is represented through popular media - particularly Netflix's show Wednesday - and aims to discuss the effects this representation could have in regards to how it's received by the public, as well as those who are neurodiverse.

Book Review: Ecologies Of Inequity. How Disaster Response Reconstitutes Race And Class Inequality, Abel Traslaviña-Arias

Critical Disaster Studies

In Ecologies of Inequity: How Disaster Response Reconstitutes Race and Class Inequality, Sancha Doxilly Medwinter gathered diverse stories about how various migrant communities had to overcome not only disaster but also the overlapping networks established by those who were supposed to support them in 2012 in New York City. Medwinter portrays this contested post-disaster landscape through a thorough data recording of 120 individuals affiliated with various groups: racialized migrants or locals, tenants or property owners, local or external helpers, and those from wealthy or impoverished backgrounds. Ecologies of Inequity refer to the spatialized networks of organizational and interpersonal relations …

External Funding Bulletin July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025, Office Of Research And Creative Activity, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Sponsored Programs Bulletins

No abstract provided.

“No Man Is An Island:” A Critical Discourses Analysis Of Newspaper Reporting On The Marshallese Community In Northwest Arkansas, Johana Vazquez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study was to examine local newspaper coverage of the Marshallese community in Northwest Arkansas from 1998 to 2017 and analyze discourses that could be attributed to linguistic bias, stereotypes, and Pacific transnationalism. This analysis examines how marginalized immigrants are portrayed in local news coverage using a critical discourse analysis (CDA). The study analyzes the labels and metaphors used in the coverage of Marshallese immigration, adapts the Stereotype Content Model for a discourse analysis, and compares the experiences of Marshallese in the area with larger scholarly work on Pacific transnationalism. The researcher analyzed 11 published pieces from …

Political Discoveries In A Žižek Substack Project Critical Digital Studies, Edward Sankowski, Betty J. Harris

International Dialogue

This review essay analyzes Slavoj Žižek’s recent turn to Substack as a publishing platform, examining both his motivations and the philosophical and political implications of this medium for contemporary critical theory. Sankowski and Harris argue that Žižek’s Substack writings continue long-standing themes in his work—anti-capitalism, ecological crisis, updated Communism, and the cultural dimensions of ideology—while also revealing notable shifts, including heightened pessimism about historical progress and new reflections on environmental catastrophe. The authors assess the advantages and pitfalls of Substack for intellectual discourse, including its circumvention of traditional editorial “censorship,” its contribution to information glut, and its role in fostering …

Communication And Privacy Management Between Female Veterans, Their Military Voluntary Kin, And Biolegal Family Members, Carol Lee Tschampl-Diesing

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Military voluntary kin (MVK) refer to relationships between Service members and/or Veterans that they consider to be “like family,” despite lacking blood or legal ties. The purpose of this qualitative/interpretive communication study was to explore how female Veterans, who are the largest growing population of U.S. Veterans, discursively construct MVK relationships, navigate communication, privacy management, and boundary turbulence with their MVK and biolegal families (BLF). The researcher undertook in-depth interviews with nine female U.S. Veterans who reported having at least one MVK. The researcher posed four research questions, engaging in an interpretive analysis.

Participants described three ways they navigated interactions …

Ddx219.1 Social Media Analysis And Marketing Strategy Example 5, Sae University College

Exemplars

This project involved creating a suite of social media content tailored to the student’s chosen creative project. The work is exemplary for its consistent visual style, platform-specific content design, and alignment with the strategic goals defined on Project 1.

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Chinese Women’S Rising Refusal Of The Family : The Problems, The Resistance, The Post-Family And Post-Capitalist Work Imaginaries, Peier Chen

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

A new generation of Chinese women is questioning the family by examining internal contradictions in parent-child relationships, particularly in how intimacy and care are enacted, while also challenging the legitimacy of the family institution that underpins gendered divisions of labor and hierarchies. Some of them are revealing the problems within the family and refusing patriarchal marriage and family as their daily act of resistance. Their resistance extends beyond the family, into their workplaces, where gender division and hierarchies are also at work. This emerging phenomenon presses us to theorize today’s family problems, especially concerning those related to women’s gendered oppression, …

Think Piece: New South Korean Framework For Conceptualizing Nonkoreans?: Taehanoegugin And The Politics Of National Boundary-Making, Min Joo Lee

Asia Pacific Perspectives

Taehanoegugin is a newly coined Korean term that gained popularity around 2018 when a television program of the same name began airing on one of the Korean cable networks. It is a mixture of two independent and preexisting terms: the first part of the word, Taehan (대한), refers to the Republic of Korea; the latter part of the term, Oegugin (외국인), means foreigner. Hence, translated, the term means the Republic of Korean-foreigners. The term gained popularity enough to be adopted by other television entertainment programs and a sector of the government. What can we make of the term’s popularity? Does …

Embracing Uncertainty And Resisting Suspicion In The Faculty-Student Relationship, Natalia Rybas

Feminist Pedagogy

This critical essay discusses the suspicion and distrust appearing when educators think that students can (mis)use generative AI tools. The essay argues that education is rife with relations of inequality, reminds us that technologies are never neutral, and explores using uncertainty as a method of resistance to suspicion about students. The suspicion grows from the relations embedded in higher education because power, privilege, and oppression shape the experience of teaching and learning. Technological innovations, such as AI, carry power relations embedded in their designs and assumed uses, making all participants of the learning process vulnerable and disrupting the process itself. …

The Reciprocity Of Misfortune: The Little Tradition Of Disasters In The Philippines, Greg Bankoff, Bianca Angelien Aban Claveria, David Lozada Iii, Camille L. Silva

History Department Faculty Publications

Just as there is a great and little tradition in religion and civilization, there is a great and little tradition in disaster. This article explores the origins of community resilience in rural areas of the Philippines based on local reciprocity and cooperation and how ­ these customary practices form the basis of national disaster risk-­reduction policies. The endless strug­gle to feed and shelter a family and contend with repeated hazards, whether natu­ral or human-­induced, promotes collective action. There is a need to cooperate with neighbors, a web of dyadic and community relationships born out of necessity that constitutes a “reciprocity …

Problematic Smartphone Use Experiences Of Students, Gbolahan Olasina

The African Journal of Information Systems

Smartphones extend people's opportunities by improving their daily living and well-being. Hence, given the tool’s features and affordances that promote human development, smartphones facilitate the achievement of the individual liberties and freedoms of ordinary people. However, there are serious concerns about the emotional, social and cultural factors underlying smartphone usage patterns and their association with problematic use and depressive behaviors. Therefore, the overriding goal of the research reported on in this paper was to investigate how smartphone use influences individuals’ emotional wellness, interpersonal relationships and sociocultural contexts. Existing academic literature indicated that there was a need to investigate the intricate …

The Lack Of Representation Of Black Women In The Sports Industry & Media, Rylan A. Harvey

Theses (2016-Present)

This thesis examines how Black women navigate and thrive within white, male- dominated sports media and industry spaces, utilizing the frameworks of Black Feminist Rhetoric and Co-Cultural Communication Theory. Using rhetorical and media discourse analysis of public figures, including Jemele Hill, Maria Taylor, Pam Oliver, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams, the study examines how Black women employ communicative strategies such as assimilation, accommodation, and separation, alongside rhetorical acts of voice, resistance, and representation, to navigate systemic inequities. These cases illustrate how language, credibility, and identity function as tools of survival and empowerment within institutions designed for exclusion. Findings reveal that …

Plastic Makes Perfect: An Analysis Of Plastic Surgery As Rehabilitation In Early To Late 20th Century Prison Populations, Jack West

The Ozark Historical Review

As early as 1910, journalists from around the United States reported on the cause-and- effect relationship between a criminal’s physical appearance, their offenses, and the plastic surgeons willing to help them. These surgeons were interested in changing the physical “causes” of criminality to sever the mental roots of crime, inferiority, and anti-social attitude. This paper examines the use of plastic surgery programs as reform in prison through the lens of popular newspaper and journal articles and argues that public perception and reaction revealed in these articles shaped the prison program’s journey from its underground beginning to its eventual demise.

"Elements Don’T Mix!": Unearthing Racial Scripts And A Rhetorical Economy Of Whiteness In Disney And Pixar's Elemental, Linsay M. Cramer, Gabriel A. Cruz

Communication, Media, and Culture

Using a narrative rhetorical approach, we map how Disney and Pixar’s 2023 film, Elemental, sustains a rhetorical economy of whiteness, as theorized by Asen and Kelly, which emphasizes the degree to which rhetorical constructions of racial difference are foundational to whiteness and economic systems. We identify and critique how Elemental discursively contributes to a system of exclusivity for those within the bounds of whiteness concerning economic mobility via racial scripts. Created and produced during Joe Biden’s United States (U.S.) presidential term (2021–2025), Elemental offers a metaphorical tale that engages the fractious, politically conservative anxieties concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) …