Digital Commons Network^™

The Pre-Fab Fab Four, Thyra L. Chaney

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

This paper describes the formation of The Monkees as a manufactured boy band and pop culture phenomenon, and the social and cultural context that led to the group's dissolution and lasting legacy in the history of television and popular culture.

Elysium As A Social Allegory: At The Nexus Of Dystopia, Cyberpunk, And Plutocracy, Emre Ulusoy

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Michael Kwet, People’S Tech For People’S Power: A Guide To Digital Self Defense And Empowerment (2020), Gokcen Y. Karanfil

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

No abstract provided.

Ua45/6 Commencement Program, Wku Registrar

WKU Administration Documents

Commencement program for both Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 graduation. The Fall 2020 ceremony was postponed due to COVID-19 gathering restrictions.

The Prospector, May 4, 2021, Utep Student Publications

The Prospector

Headline: The Graduation Issue: Congratulations, Graduates!

Beyond Representation: Disney/Marvel's "Black Panther" As A Womanist Text, Daphne M. Watson

University Honors Program Senior Projects

Disney/Marvel’s Black Panther (Coogler, 2018) is touted as a cultural phenomenon for its predominately Black cast and crew and its portrayal of Blackness and Africa in progressive and noble ways. However, Black Panther’s demonstration of the tenets of Alice Walker’s Womanism bears deeper examination. The superhero movie Black Panther is relevant culturally and scholarly, not only because it broke domestic and international box office records, nor because a predominately Black cast and crew led these achievements, but because these firsts are achieved through a film driven by strong themes of Womanism.

Rewriting Web 2.0 Discourses Of The Local For Socio-Spatial Literacy Theory, Erin Daugherty

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to provide a framework for engaging with two spatial concepts that have been foundational to theorizing literacy across time but have often been taken for granted as passive backdrops to the social action of literacy practice: the notions of “the local” and “the global.” By interrogating the histories, both past and ongoing, of these two spatial concepts as they are interwoven into the sociocultural paradigm of literacy theory, research, and pedagogy, this project identifies new ways that literacy researchers and educators can attend to spatial concepts so as to promote and encourage literacy research and learning that …

Improving Healthy Relationship Skills In College Students, Madison Newton

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Many college students, because of their inexperience, may lack skills to develop healthy relationship behaviors and may not recognize signs of unhealthy or violent relationships. Using Albert Bandura's social learning theory with college students and increasing their knowledge of healthy relationship skills and skills to help friends in danger. This study shared that this method of instruction was successful and the college students were able to complete the learning outcomes of identify examples of healthy and unhealthy relationship behaviors and ways to help a friend in a violent relationship.

Skin Deep: Body Modification And Agentic Identities Among Women With Skin Conditions, Christopher Walonski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores processes of identity construction among women who have skin conditions and body modifications. Analyzing seven semi-structured qualitative interviews, the author examines how individuals affected by skin conditions employ body modification practices to organize their identities and promote feelings of agency across both personal and social domains. Engaging a Bakhtinian dialogic lens, the author argues that body modification may operate as a de-stigmatization strategy that supports individuals with skin conditions in cultivating a sense of self-determination and bodily sovereignty. Shaped by grounded theory, this study’s findings trace relationships between body modification and the development of agentic identities among …

Caring Against The Carceral: How Families Mediate The Social Death Of Incarceration, Jessica Claire

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Incarceration, especially in the United States, is deeply related to issues of racism, poverty, and citizenship. These particular experiences are the result of a history of biopolitical control affecting Black and brown communities and have a quintessential origin in enslavement. Those who are incarcerated are isolated, dishonored, and powerless as a result of the criminalization of race and poverty. These observations led to questions surrounding the particular impact families may have on the experiences of those who are incarcerated. Families of Incarcerated Loved ones, or FOILs, mediate incarceration through intentional socialization which has the potential to counteract the realities of …

¿Y Los Condones? The Rhetoric Of Birth Control In The Latinx Community Of The United States, Carey Vanessa Cuevas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This project aims to explore the current rhetorical strategies used in framing reproductive technologies and how these frameworks influence the sexual health outcomes of Latinx communities. Despite the wealth of information made available to individuals in order to make more informed choices regarding their sexual health, literature supports that Latinx communities are at a perpetually higher risk for poor sexual health outcomes. Additionally, other influences such as mass media, culture, and legislation play roles in how this community engages around birth control and safe sex practices. This project seeks to investigate how entities utilize language in discourse over birth control …

The Role Of Translation In Multilingual User Experience, Tetyana Zhyvotovska

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Examining the intersections of technical communication, user experience, and translation, this study focused on the contexts of a user experience (UX) research center as a site where these intersections occurred and on practices of multilingual users while encountering translated information. In order to explore translation practices in relation to UX and cover the gap in understanding multilingual UX, the study examined how multilingual users worked with translated content, how they acted and reacted to it, and what they experienced during this process. Based on the existing scholarship in translation and usability studies in technical communication, this Dissertation undertook empirical research …

Ancestral Pursuits: A Multicultural Celebration Of Identity & Race, Charlotte Cates Castro

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using critical historical rhetorical methods along with critical race and decolonial theory, this project situates ancestral pursuits as a communication-centered discursive formation by investigating the rhetorical strategies modern biotech and genealogy companies utilize to influence contemporary discourse around identity and belonging and narrate ethnicity and genealogy as acts of consumption. Through direct-to-consumer DNA testing and complimentary services, modern day biotech and genealogy companies like Ancestry and 23andMe market personalized insights into ancestry, genealogy, inherited traits, and health data that promise to connect users to their past, as well as to situate them in present-day society, through a deeper understanding of …

Information Mapping Of Religious Conflict Research In Indonesia: Bibliometric Analysis, Rusmulyadi Rusmulyadi, Susanne Dida, Hanny Hafiar, Soleh Soemirat

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Research on religious conflict is mostly carried out by researchers in Indonesia, but it has not been mapped integratively. Several studies on religious conflict have been published and indexed on the Portal Garuda. The Portal Garuda is a national indexer for scientific publications in Indonesia. This study aims to determine a map of the development of religious conflict research in Indonesia. In this study, several scientific articles on the theme of religious conflict were reviewed. This study uses a quantitative approach with the bibliometric method. The results of the study show that the trend of religious conflict research in …

Medical Populism And Covid-19 Testing, Kristin Hedges, Gideon Lasco

Development Studies Faculty Publications

This paper uses the lens of medical populism to analyze the impact of biocommunicability on COVID-19 testing through a case study approach. The political efficacy of testing is traced through two mini-case studies: the Philippines and the United States. The case studies follow the approach of populism scholars in drawing from various sources that ‘render the populist style visible’ from the tweets and press releases of government officials to media reportage. Using the framework of medical populism, the case studies pay attention to the ways in which coronavirus testing figured in (1) simplification of the pandemic; (2) spectacularization of the …

Whose Expectation? Ideal Beauty And The Cultural Construction Of The American Woman, Ameliea Rose Dulaney

Honors Theses

My research project “Whose Expectation? Ideal Beauty and the Cultural Construction of the American Woman” explores the cultural and political climate of American society over the last four centuries, analyzing how ideal beauty standards have worked in the lives of American women over the years, examining (1) how they have been negotiated by women at different times of cultural and political flux, (2) how, although beauty has long been an integral aspect of feminine identity, it has become even more so with the introduction of new technologies (advertising, tv, makeup, etc.), and (3) how as a result, the definition of …

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story? A Marxist Analysis Of "Hamilton" And Its Relationship To The Broadway Economic System, Alana Ritt

Honors Projects

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s mega-hit Hamilton: An American Musical has been both a critical and academic darling since its premiere in 2015. A historical retelling of America’s inception through the eyes of an oft-ignored founding father, the musical weaves together a diverse cast and hip-hop musical stylings in order to tell the story of “America then, as told by America now.” While many critics and scholars alike have praised the musical for putting an exciting and accessible twist to American history, others have argued that the musical is not nearly as “revolutionary” as it claims to be. This essay is designed to …

Exhibitions Of Impact: Introducing The Special Issue, David H. Lee

Publications and Research

The Exhibitions of Impact (EOI) special issue of American Behavioral Scientist consists of six articles from authors in communication studies and rhetoric, public health, medicine and bioethics, memory studies, and art therapy. Each article profiles some exhibition or memorial related to a pressing social issue, including gun violence, racist terrorism, domestic violence, religious fundamentalism, corporations selling harmful products, and how society treats those regarded as cognitively and behaviorally different. First, examples from today’s headlines show a global outcry over racist monuments and artifacts, and a global pandemic, which casts doubt on the future of exhibitions. Historical examples and explanatory concepts …

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 2

Human-Machine Communication

This is the complete volume of HMC Volume 2.

Negotiating Agency And Control: Theorizing Human-Machine Communication From A Structurational Perspective, Jennifer L. Gibbs, Gavin L. Kirkwood, Chengyu Fang, J. Nan Wilkenfeld

Human-Machine Communication

Intelligent technologies have the potential to transform organizations and organizing processes. In particular, they are unique from prior organizational technologies in that they reposition technology as agent rather than a tool or object of use. Scholars studying human-machine communication (HMC) have begun to theorize the dual role played by human and machine agency, but they have focused primarily on the individual level. Drawing on Structuration Theory (Giddens, 1984), we propose a theoretical framework to explain agency in HMC as a process involving the negotiation of control between human and machine agents. This article contributes to HMC scholarship by offering a …

Social Robots As The Bride? Understanding The Construction Of Gender In A Japanese Social Robot Product, Jindong Liu

Human-Machine Communication

This study critically investigates the construction of gender on a Japanese hologram animestyle social robot Azuma Hikari. By applying a mixed method merging the visual semiotic method and heterogeneous engineering approach in software studies, the signs in Azuma Hikari’s anthropomorphized image and the interactivity enabled by the multimedia interface have been analyzed and discussed. The analysis revealed a stereotyped representation of a Japanese “ideal bride” who should be cute, sexy, comforting, good at housework, and subordinated to “Master”-like husband. Moreover, the device interface disciplines users to play the role of “wage earner” in the simulated marriage and reconstructs the gender …

Voice-Based Agents As Personified Things: Assimilation And Accommodation As Equilibration Of Doubt, Katrin Etzrodt, Sven Engesser

Human-Machine Communication

We aim to investigate the nature of doubt regarding voice-based agents by referring to Piaget’s ontological object–subject classification “thing” and “person,” its associated equilibration processes, and influential factors of the situation, the user, and the agent. In two online surveys, we asked 853 and 435 participants, ranging from 17 to 65 years of age, to assess Alexa and the Google Assistant. We discovered that only some people viewed voice-based agents as mere things, whereas the majority classified them into personified things. However, their classification is fragile and depends basically on the imputation of subject-like attributes of agency and mind to …

Moving Ahead With Human-Machine Communication, Leopoldina Fortunati, Autumn P. Edwards

Human-Machine Communication

In this essay, we introduce the 10 articles comprising Volume 2 (2021) of Human-Machine Communication, each of which is innovative and offers a substantial contribution to the field of human-machine communication (HMC). As a collection, these articles move forward the HMC project by touching on four layers of important discourse: (1) updates to theoretical frameworks and paradigms, including Computers as Social Actors (CASA), (2) examination of ontology and prototyping processes, (3) critical analysis of gender and ability/disability relations, and (4) extension of HMC scholarship into organizational contexts. Building upon the insights offered by the contributing authors and incorporating perspectives …

“What’S Your College?” How A University’S Name Impacts Students’ Communication, Christina Coston

Campus Research Month

Despite Generation Z accounting for most college students today, there is a lack of information about Generation Zs and their college experience. This study aims to determine how a college’s name impacts college attending Generation Zs. Specifically, it investigates the impact of the inclusion of a religious denomination in the name of the college. To answer the research questions presented in this study, focus groups and surveys will be conducted. The presentation will focus on the results of the research which is currently being conducted.

An Ethnographic Co-Design Approach To Promoting Diversity In The Games Industry, Florence Chee, Larissa Hjorth, Hugh Davies

School of Communication: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Workplace diversity and inclusion are recognised as integral to the internal and public-facing success of organizations. The games industry worldwide has been notably slow to embrace reforms to bring diverse work cultures into practice. Not only does the industry rank very low in the diversity of its corporate profile but a series of high-profile controversies have underscored major problems with attaining and retaining individual staff and achieving overall corporate diversity. In recent years, a number of games media outlets, organizations and game companies have sought to ameliorate internal social and cultural problems by attempting to facilitate cultural change in the …

Changing And Transitioning Name Narratives: The De.E.P. Standpoints Of Identities, Pauline C. Alvarez

Communication ETDs

The Changing and Transitioning Name Narrative project is a replicated study from the Name Narrative Project (2014) by Montoya, Vasquez, and Martínez. The changing and/or transitioning of names relates to a Decolonial Embodiment Process (DE.E.P.) that speaks to an internal process of how individuals break away from colonial powers. Furthermore, the study highlights nine (eight volunteers and the author’s) Name Narratives to investigate their realities that express an individual experience and shared standpoints. Importantly, the changing and/or transitioning of names is not an act to disrespect parents or name givers, but a profound self-love indication that is represented through materialize …

Ethnography Of Reading Comic Books, Azadeh Najafian

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis explores why adults read comic books. This research used the ethnographic method and interviewing eleven people, four women, seven male, as its primary source. Based on information and common themes gathered from interviews, I built this thesis into one introduction, three body chapters, and a conclusion.

In the first chapter, I argued that comics could function the same as myths and explained this function and related examples under the “mythic effect” name. In the second chapter, I discussed how my informants use reading comics as a means to escape their everyday lives and how sometimes this escapism carries …

Who Said It First? : Linguistic Appropriation Of Slang Terms Within The Popular Lexicon, Rachel Elizabeth Laing

Theses and Dissertations

Linguistic appropriation is an area of study that has been under-researched, even as it has become all the more relevant due to the rapid dissemination of slang and linguistic trends during the digital age. There are clear ties shown between individuals’ and groups’ identity and language. This study specifically examines the appropriation of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and LGBT language by creating an Acceptability of Appropriation scale and assessing potential relationships between linguistic appropriation, intercultural tolerance, and LGBT tolerance. These results are then examined through the lens of the communication theory of identity (CTI) and potential identity gaps that …

The Influence Of Ursula K. Le Guin, Bailey Potter

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

The aim of this research study was to examine how Ursula K. Le Guin and her oeuvre were influential to contemporary and future writers, as well as what her influence was on the literary and publishing communities. Study was conducted through a qualitative interview process with seven Portlanders who have in some way been influenced by and/or who personally knew Le Guin. Using the transcripts from the interviews, I separated the information into themes and wrote out each section, synthesizing interviewee answers and using supplemental information to build my results. Ursula K. Le Guin influenced the literary and publishing communities …

Intercultural Communicative Competence: A Necessary Ability For All, Alvino E. Fantini

World Learning Publications

In today’s world, there is a growing need to promote intercultural communicative competence (ICC) due to increasingly multilingual and multicultural societies. Moreover, more people today have contact across cultures than ever before in human history. For these reasons, ICC has become a national and international imperative and a necessary ability for all. In response, many higher education institutions seek to internationalize curricula; however, often without a coherent plan to provide intercultural education to all students. ICC is promoted primarily through study abroad programs; however, only a small percentage of students participate. Similarly, civic aid organizations in various countries promote ICC …