Digital Commons Network^™

How Should We Regulate The Internet? A Proposal, Natalie Petruzelli

The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research

With the invention of the internet providing newfangled methods of spreading information around the world, misinformation has also found home in these pathways, disrupting the general public’s ability to discern fact from fiction and creating divides in society. Regulation must be enacted to stop the effects of misinformation, but the efforts of technology companies and the general public have been insufficient thus far. Regulatory control of the internet and its content should be the responsibility of the government, based on their constitutional right to intervene under certain circumstances and the fact that previous efforts by other parties to mitigate misinformation …

Sociocultural Factors Of Female Sexual Desire And Sexual Satisfaction, Matysen Evensen

Intuition: The BYU Undergraduate Journal of Psychology

Historically, research on the human sexual-response cycle has not accounted for individual differences in gender and context. As a circular female response cycle was introduced in the latter end of the 20th century, differentiation between male and female sexuality was embraced, and individual variation between women became commonly known for the first time. As part of this historical shift, sexual desire became an integral part of the sexual experience (Basson, 2000). Most research on female sexual desire focuses on low desire and diagnosable conditions, but, among researchers, there is a growing consensus for additional focus into the roots of female …

Dating App Use Among Rural Men Who Have Sex With Men And Its Relationship To Hiv Prevention And Risk Behaviors: A Mixed-Methods Analysis, Lauren Bineau, Danielle Lambert, Natalia Truszczynski, Nathan Hansen, Carolyn Lauckner

Center for Health Equity Transformation Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION: Men who have sex with men (MSM) in rural areas have limited access to HIV prevention and education resources. Given the growing usage of mobile dating apps among the wider MSM population, this research sought to explore their use among MSM in rural areas and their potential for delivering HIV prevention information.

METHODS: Participants were recruited from different areas of the rural Southern USA. This mixed-methods study consisted of an online survey (n=85) and follow-up qualitative phone interviews with 20 survey respondents. The survey assessed dating app use, sexual behaviors, and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) awareness, usage, and attitudes among …

Leveraging Social Network Analysis And Supervised Machine Learning To Study Coordination In Online Information Campaigns, Tuja Khaund

Theses and Dissertations

Online social networks (OSNs) are a major component of societal digitalization. OSNs alter how people communicate, make decisions, form or change their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Thus, they can now impact financial systems and political communication at scale. As one type of OSN, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. serve as outlets for users to convey information to an audience as broad or targeted as the user desires. Over the years, these social media platforms have been infected with automated accounts, or bots, that are capable of hijacking conversations, influencing other users and manipulating content dissemination. Although …

The Impact Of Human Factors And Maintenance Documentation On Aviation Safety: An Analysis Of 15 Years Of Accident Data Through The Pear Framework, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Natalie Zimmermann

Publications

Regardless of the type of maintenance performed on aircraft, instructions are to be used to provide the aviation technicians completing the maintenance activities with guidance on, and an outline of, the maintenance items to be performed and completed. However, the use of instructions does not guarantee the correct and proper completion of the maintenance activities as the instructions may be erroneous and/or maintenance personnel can misunderstand, misinterpret, or improperly follow the procedures outlined. Resulting maintenance errors can potentially result in aircraft accidents, as illustrated by Air Midwest Flight 5481. With the purpose of understanding how human factors associated with written …

Media Analysis Of Conflict In Chinese-Zambian Engagement: From Zaffico To The Covid-19 Discrimination Controversy, Nicole Mazurova, Pokai Tsao, Taurence Chisholm Jr.

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

This paper examines the role media plays in polarising views and escalating tension. The cases studied reflect the competing perspectives on Chinese engagement in Zambia, from the courtship of Chinese investment to rising anti-Chinese sentiment. Based on a comparative media analysis of English and Mandarin news articles about the ZAFFICO and COVID-19 discrimination controversies, we argue that the multi-layered polarisation in Zambia’s media landscape amplifies existing identity-conflicts. Framing—the tone, word choice, and selection of detail—in articles changes with the positionality of the media outlet and shapes the discourse around the cases. Sensationalisation, misinformation, and divergent frames contribute to conflict between …

Public Health Agencies Outreach Through Instagram During Covid-19 Pandemic: Crisis And Emergency Risk Communication Perspective, Aqdas Malik, Laeeq M. Khan, Anabel Quan-Haase

FIMS Publications

Background: Governmental and non-governmental institutions increasingly use social media as a strategic tool for public outreach. Global spread, promptness, and dialogic potentials make these platforms ideal for public health monitoring and emergency communication in crises such as COVID-19.

Objective: Drawing on the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication framework, we sought to examine how leading health organizations use Instagram for communicating and engaging during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We manually retrieved Instagram posts together with relevant metadata of four health organizations (WHO, CDC, IFRC, and NHS) shared between January 1, 2020, and April 30, 2020. Two coders manually coded the analytical …

The Power Of Video Games: How Celeste And Hellblade Address Mental Health, Victor M. Ortiz

Communication Studies

The media has the power to educate audiences on topics through effective storytelling. This paper shows how video games as a medium possess unique potential to affect players through interactive experiences. Two video games titled Celeste and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice serve as examples of social cognitive learning through media exposure. This paper conducts a content analysis on the two titles. From the analysis, we learn the stories in Celeste and Hellblade aim to help those who play them learn how to cope with mental health problems such as depression and anxiety. The literature review section discusses past research done on …

Uncovering Roots Of Systemic Oppression Within Law Enforcement: A Qualitative Study Exploring Why Police Officers Discriminate Against The Black Community, Alexandra Bouziotis

Dissertations

“Uncovering roots of systemic oppression within law enforcement: A qualitative study exploring why police officers discriminate against the Black community.” Rationale for this study is to uncover behavior and psychological reasons to uncover why police discriminate and oppress the Black community with little consequences for their actions. The dominant explanation for this trend uncovers previous research addressing oppression and the structure of institutions such as law enforcement that have relied heavily on past policies and tactics protecting an institution in the United States that has rarely been challenged. Recent riots and civil unrest against law enforcement institutions and dominant laws …

The Unheard Voices And Privilege Of A Killer: An Analysis Of Conversations With A Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, Allison G. Jones, Emma L. Mabe

Communication Studies

This analysis of Conversations with a Killer explores representations of Bundy’s victims and the depiction of Bundy himself. This paper will focus on how the documentary is an example of white male privilege and gender inequality through its erasure of the victims’ identities and perpetuation of a celebrity-like narrative of Bundy.

Are Kinesiologists Ready To Communicate? Merits Of A Practicum Course On Plain Language Communication, Jafra D. Thomas, Cameron N. Christopher, Winston Kennedy, Bradley J. Cardinal, Caroline N. Smith

Kinesiology and Public Health

The submitted presentation material summarizes a project presented at the 2021 American College of Sports Medicine Virtual Annual Meeting and World Congress on Exercise is Medicine®. The project which the presentation is based on is titled, “Towards Knowledge Translation in Kinesiology: Investigating Barriers and Identifying Opportunities - Part 1.” The uploaded documents consist of the following material: (a) the presentation abstract, and (b) a copy of the e-poster presented at the virtual event. Please follow the social media profiles of Dr. Jafrā Thomas, for timely project updates (e.g., ResearchGate dot net and GoogleScholar dot com). You may find related work …

The Acceptance Of Social Media Video For Knowledge Acquisition, Sharing And Application: A Comparative Study Among Youyube Users And Tiktok Users’ For Medical Purposes, Rana Al-Maroof, Kevin Ayoubi, Khadija Alhumaid, Ahmad Aburayya, Muhammad Alshurideh, Raghad Alfaisal, Said Salloum

All Works

YouTube and TikTok have gained increasing recognition as social network sites to support online knowledge acquisition, sharing, and application via social media platforms in the medical field. This study examines which aspect of TikTok and YouTube stimulates doctors, nurses, and any other YouTube and TikTok in the medical setting, to rely on them as sources of knowledge acquisition and sharing to keep their medical repertoire updated. A hybrid model is designed to investigate users’ acceptance of YouTube and TikTok as social media platforms. The model focuses on four main external factors: Content richness, innovativeness, satisfaction, and enjoyment. These factors are …

Designing A Replication Study In Kinesiology: Lessons From The Field, Ruben A. Montoya Vega, Regina F. Hockert, Emma L. Cutner, Jafra D. Thomas

Kinesiology and Public Health

The submitted presentation material summarizes a project presented at the 2021 Cal Poly Virtual BEACoN Symposium. The title of the project which the presentation is based is, “Towards Equitable Communication: Explorations to Guide Knowledge Translation in Kinesiology.” The uploaded file document presents the presentation abstract, student testimony, as well as suggested citations for individual aspects of the presentation material. Please follow the social media profiles of the faculty mentor to the project, Dr. Thomas, for timely project updates. You may find related work from this lab group published to Cal Poly Digital Commons under the Kinesiology and Public Health section …

Training Novices To Evaluate The Quality Of Physical Activity Promotion Material: Results Of A Pilot Study, Ethan N. Tse, Savannah A. Longoria, Cameron N. Christopher, Jafra D. Thomas

Kinesiology and Public Health

The credibility and usability of lay physical activity promotion material are a persistent problem (Thomas & Cardinal, 2020, TJACM). These quality issues deter the material in promoting health literacy, a major predictor of prevention-oriented health behaviors (e.g., regular exercise, U.S. National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy). Few studies, however, have evaluated the quality of lay material over time (Thomas et al., 2018, Quest). PURPOSE: In order to conduct a repeated-measures study of the quality of physical activity promotion web articles for lay adults, one experienced researcher (JDT) trained undergraduates on how to use the Suitability …

Cyber Social Threats 2021: Ai, Covid-19 Vaccine, Detection And Countering Strategies, Ugur Kursuncu, Jeremy Blackburn, Yelena Mejova, Megan Squire, Amit Sheth

Publications

In recent years, online platforms have been utilized for promoting harmful content and behavior such as extremism, harassment, mis/disinformation, human trafficking, genderbased violence among others affecting our society, often leading to real-world events. Such content and behaviors are inherently complex, making the recognition of these narratives challenging for researchers as well as social media companies. The Cyber Social Threats (CySoc) Workshop 2021 aimed to facilitate a rich forum for researchers and practitioners from both academia and industry in the areas of computing and social science, to discuss novel avenues for research on interdisciplinary aspects of harmful communications on social media, …

The Causes Of Surface Condensation And Mould, And The Responsibility Of Relevant Parties To Alleviate Them, Joseph Little

Reports

All over Ireland large numbers of people live in unsanitary conditions suffering poor indoor air quality, surface condensation and mould. Where the occupants are tenants the cause of the conditions and identification of the parties responsible can cause much stress. Condensation and mould growth on the internal surface of a room are caused by a combination of factors due to specific conditions. In severe cases, one of these factors may lead to surface condensation and/or mould growth, but in general, surface condensation and/or mould growth occurs when two or three of these occur together. Even though multiple causes and shared …

Understanding The "Social" In "Social Media" An Analysis Of Twitter Engagement Of Pulmonary And Critical Care Fellowship Programs, Sheetal Gandotra, Nancy H Stewart, Dina Khateeb, Puneet Garcha, W Graham Carlos, Christopher L Carroll, Viren Kaul

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Social media is ubiquitous as a tool for collaboration, networking, and dissemination. However, little is known about use of social media platforms by pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship programs.

Objective: We identify and characterize pulmonary and critical care fellowship programs using Twitter and Instagram, as well as the posting behaviors of their social media accounts.

Methods: We identified all adult and pediatric pulmonary, critical care medicine (CCM), and combined pulmonary and critical care medicine (PCCM) programs in the United States using the Electronic Residency Application Service. We searched for Twitter profiles for each program between January 1, 2018, …

On Predicting Personal Values Of Social Media Users Using Community-Specific Language Features And Personal Value Correlation, Amila Silva, Pei Chi Lo, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Personal values have significant influence on individuals’ behaviors, preferences, and decision making. It is therefore not a surprise that personal values of a person could influence his or her social media content and activities. Instead of getting users to complete personal value questionnaire, researchers have looked into a non-intrusive and highly scalable approach to predict personal values using user-generated social media data. Nevertheless, geographical differences in word usage and profile information are issues to be addressed when designing such prediction models. In this work, we focus on analyzing Singapore users’ personal values, and developing effective models to predict their personal …

The Local Accountability Journalism Tracker, Sandy Mui

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Local Accountability Journalism Tracker curates local news stories in the United States that resulted in substantial accountability or change. Published on a Tumblr website, each local news story includes a blurb detailing what the story was about as well as the accountability or change that followed the story’s publication. News stories must meet the following criteria for inclusion:

1. Be published by a news outlet in the United States;
2. Cover a social issue or criminal activity at the local level;[1]
3. Lead to heightened awareness (whether local, national, or international) in the general public about the social issue or criminal …

Zooming In On Zoom Fatigue: A Case Study Of Videoconferencing And Zoom Fatigue In Higher Education, Chandra Kaye Massner

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how faculty and students in higher education experience videoconferencing in online courses and why they feel fatigue. Zoom fatigue, the exhaustion users feel when communicating through videoconferencing platforms, is a recently identified phenomenon associated with the extensive use of synchronous videoconferencing communication. The research employed a qualitative case study approach to investigate how faculty and students experience videoconferencing and Zoom fatigue in online courses at a small liberal arts university in Appalachia. Document review, qualitative surveys, and in-depth interviews informed the case study. Faculty and student respondents reported dissatisfaction with …

The Reset: Connecting Internal Crisis Communication Strategy With Post-Pandemic Remote Worker Populations Through An Employee Engagement Framework, Erin Leigh Black

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In the post-pandemic workforce, unprecedented events are the new normal. Although the remote worker revolution has been rumored for decades, in early 2020, the idea became an instant reality when global governments closed their borders, instituted lockdown, and ordered citizens to shelter-in-place (Weideman & Hofmeyr, 2020). Given the global shift in work, organizations have an immediate need to communicate with the crisis-ladened, post-pandemic, remote workforce; however, there is a sizable gap in research between internal crisis communication and the post-pandemic remote worker population. Through a phenomenologically based, interpretive analysis of current strategic and crisis communication research and frameworks, this project …

Critical Thinking As A Pedagogical Approach: Using Critical/Cultural Studies To Analyze Music Videos, Lukas John Pelliccio, Timothy Brown

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Teaching undergraduate students how to critically analyze a text is an important experience. However, it is not easy to do this because readings are often dense, and the process of writing and presenting a critique can be challenging for some students. In light of this, we have developed an assignment where students critically analyze music videos for their ideologies. In the assignment, students select three specific overt or latent content pieces from a music video and explain how those manifestations influence a particular ideology in a paper. Then they are asked to show the music video to their peers and …

Art Intervention Amid A Pandemic: A Pentadic Analysis Of The Vermillion Street Piano, Bailey Quanbeck

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

The Vermillion Street Piano was an art intervention introduced to the community of Vermillion, South Dakota during the COVID-19 pandemic. By applying Burke’s (1945/1962) pentad to this artifact and analyzing the scene-act ratio, I argue that the materialistic (i.e., scenic) constraints surrounding the piano meaningfully shaped and motivated the community experiences facilitated by the instrument. As street art situated in an outdoor, unsupervised location, the piano invited creative engagement from the community while suffering damages. The scenic challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic both augmented the therapeutic experiences offered through this art piece and presented risks for community members seeking interaction. …

Palestinian Evangelical Christian Music In Bethlehem, Israel/Palestine, Abby Smith

Senior Honors Theses

Often the story of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is portrayed as Jewish vs. Muslim, Hebrew vs. Arab. There is little room in the international dialogue for minorities such as Arab Christians. Though Palestinians have a rich culture of Arabic musical and poetic heritage, they are unable to produce their own new songs. In this study I interviewed three members of Immanuel Evangelical Church on their experiences and opinions on local Christian worship. The findings show that Palestinian Christians may feel unable to write worship music because of a prevalent feeling of inadequacy and a lack of musical training. I propose several …

"Airbnb Go Home:" Tourism Frictions And Short-Term Rentals In New Orleans, Madeline R. Fussell

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines the concerns and conflicts around short-term rental (STR) properties in New Orleans neighborhoods. Using data from collected from critical discourse analysis, semi-structured interviews and social media posts, this paper analyzes the ways the city of New Orleans, residents of the city, STR hosts, and platforms like Airbnb discuss issues of safety, displacement, rising costs of living, as well as responsible STR practices. To understand the complexities of the issues people, have with short-term rental properties, this project approaches STRs from a housing and gentrification lens to understand the role these properties play within in the daily atmospheres …

Spring 2021

Conversations

Dean's Letter: Education in a Time of Pandemic; A Talk with a Journalism Legend; The Virtual College of Communication; Walking the Talk: Internships provide students with the experience they need to stand out in the job market; Dispatches from a Rust Belt Femme: An alumna recalls how DePaul nurtured her self-expression; The Art of Alvin Hollingsworth

Visual Framing Effects Of News Coverage Of Police Use Of Deadly Force On Intergroup Relationships, Lucile Henderson, Riva Tukachinsky Forster, Leora Kalili, Simone Guillory

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

The study examines the effects of visual framing in news coverage of law enforcement use of lethal force. In a 2X2 online experiment, participants read one of four versions of a news story that included visual racial cues (images depicting a Black vs. a White victim) and a delinquent/normative frame—depicting the victim wearing attire that signifies either normative or delinquent behavior (regalia vs. a hooded sweatshirt). Both race and delinquency framing influenced the readers’ stereotype endorsement and feelings toward Black Americans. However, judgment of the police officer’s behavior solely depended on the victim’s race. These findings demonstrate the importance of …

The Guardian, Week Of May 24, 2021, Wright State Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

News articles from The Guardian for the week of May 24, 2021. The Guardian is the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. It has been published regularly since March of 1965.

Explicating The Process Of Communicative Disenfranchisement For Women With Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions (Copcs), Elizabeth A. Hintz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation builds upon the extant literature in fields such as medicine, psychology, sociology, women and gender studies, and communication studies to theoretically explicate and develop a measure of the process of communicative disenfranchisement (CD). This dissertation refers to CD in two capacities: (a) as the phenomenon of CD (i.e., a communication construct and process unfolding over time), and (b) as a theoretical framework (i.e., that builds on CIFC tenets and elucidates the phenomenon of CD) which is abbreviated TCD (i.e., theory of communicative disenfranchisement). TCD enables scholars to assess how talk may disempower and empower again individuals and communities …

Imaginative Rhetorical Invention In The 21st Century: An Analysis Of Afrofuturism And Black Utopian Thought In A Black Lady Sketch Show As An Avenue Toward Black Liberation, Natalie Weathers

Theses - ALL

Inspired by recent events following the deaths of unarmed Black bodies killed at the hands of police officers and white vigilante citizens (Griffith, 2020; Oppel, 2020; BBC, 2020) this thesis seeks to validate the seemingly impossible aspirations of Black struggle and liberation in attempt to dismantle white supremacist ideology and oppression. Grounded in rhetorical theory emphasizing the imagination and canon of invention alongside critical perspectives of Afrofuturism and Black utopian thought, this thesis demonstrates the liberatory power of the Black American imagination within the United States in the 21st century through an analysis of A Black Lady Sketch Show (2019).