Digital Commons Network^™

Barriers To Health: Understanding The Barriers Faced By Community Intervention Projects, Vera Landrum

Master's Theses

Health disparities affect significant portions of the population and are most often experienced by marginalized communities (Wilkin, 2013). Health disparities are also impacted by geographical location, and hunger often affects rural areas (Dutta, Anaele, & Jones, 2013; Rural Health Information Hub, 2017). This study aims to understand how nonprofit organizations focused on addressing food insecurity disseminate information to members of the local community and how the input of community members impacted the overall food insecurity campaign. This study was conducted by interviewing five nonprofit directors and conducting three focus groups with clients of the. aforementioned organizations. The author found that …

Departments And Disciplinary Gatekeeping: The Sociolinguistics Of Spanish In Us Academia, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

In his contribution, José del Valle looks at the intersection of the sociolinguistic study of Spanish in the US and the transformations of Spanish language departments in higher education. Del Valle traces the history of the institutionalization of Spanish teaching and study and its effects on linguistic research’s position within Spanish departments. Shifts in approaches to the use of language in social practice, and the growing demands on language units to act as service departments for language learners, has isolated scholars in those institutional homes from broader integration into sociolinguistic research.

Moving Away From The Alt-Right: How The Proud Boys Utilize Image Conscious Populist Media To Re-Brand White Nationalism, Christina Blankenship

Communication ETDs

Unite the Right, deemed a ‘failure’ by major media outlets, generated two important developments: One, it highlighted the increased public mobilization of the Far-Right, challenging the established notion that such groups existed only in online spheres and two, gave factions the motivation to disassociate from the Alt-Right’s message and carve out an identity for their own. This project examines the Proud Boys, a ‘men’s group’ formed in 2016 by Gavin McInnes. In studying the group’s online blog (The Proud Boys Magazine), this project demonstrates that while the group tried to distance themselves, much of their success in generating …

The Imitation Game | Vr Concept, Alyssa Brown

Research and Creativity Symposium

Virtual reality is recognized as an immersive technology that separates its user from their current, fixed reality. VR is still very young. The shoes that it is expected to fill are waiting patiently in the future, knowing its potential has yet to be reached. The VR concept that I introduce with my project, fills these metaphorical shoes. The user is not aware of a heavy headset weighing down on their face. Instead, they are projected into darkness, and expected to quickly adapt. I present, through photographs that I have taken and edited, a void, much like the black dreamscape in …

A Guide For Creating Great Vr Storyboards: Planning To Make Your Virtual Vision A Reality, Cristina Montemorano

Research and Creativity Symposium

Virtual reality technology has grown in popularity due to increased industry production and innovation. However, the creation of quality content to run on these systems has lagged behind in comparison to the design of the physical equipment required to access virtual environments. How does one go about designing quality VR content? Originally created as instructional material for students in Brenta Blevins’ DGST 301E class, this infographic walks readers through the brainstorming and storyboarding process of creating virtual reality projects. This guide is useful for a wide audience of content creators as they take inspiration from other content mediums, think spatially, …

Spartan Daily, April 22, 2020, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2020

Volume 154, Issue 36

Baton Rouge Slam!: An Obituary For Summer 2016: A Critical Performance Ethnography Of Eclectic Truth Poetry Slam, Joshua Hamzehee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This critical performance ethnography presents the theory, methodology, and practice surrounding the fieldwork, scripting, and performance of Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016. As participant-observer, director, and co-performer, I unpack social drama, performance ethnography, and slam culture by employing a lens rooted in critical race theory. Local poets permitted me to de- and re-contextualize their interviews into ensemble scenes and theatricalize their slam poems about the recent summer’s charged events. One year later, this involved and embodied process of ethnographic bricolage became the ensemble cast performance of Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016. Community members and …

"Do N'T Stop Believin'"In A Pair Of Socks: How The Sopranos Shapes Our Understanding Of Mental Illness, Adam Richard Brockman

Theses and Dissertations

This study rhetorically analyzed the final season of The Sopranos for its argument about

the nature of psychological depression in several contexts and forms. Consisting of nine

episodes, the final season of the series features pivotal moments in which characters confront the

sources of their depression and respond to them in a variety of ways. The study used both an

intertextual analysis and Burkean frames to provide insight into how the final season argues one

might overcome various forms of depression. It specifically considered depression related to

one’s family experiences, their existential concerns regarding death and spirituality, and their

indulgence …

“Knowledge Puffs Up”: The Evangelical Culture Of Anti—Intellectualism As A Local Strategy, Mark Ward Sr.

Sermon Studies

The anti-intellectual strain of American evangelicalism, rooted in the populist Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th centuries, has prompted much commentary from the 20th century to the present. Analysis of this anti-intellectualism has gained new currency today as evangelicals, who comprise 1 in 4 Americans, reject theories of evolution and manmade climate change. Scholarship on the subject has focused on the discourses of evangelical leaders at the national level. The present study, based on three years of fieldwork at an evangelical church, finds that an animus against intellectual elites is a potent "local strategy" for constructing a satisfying evangelical …

Developing Intercultural Competency In Public Speaking Classrooms: Strategies Through Mass Media Critical Analysis, Moronke Oshin 9495817

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

There is literature growing number of studies on the increasing student diversity in U.S. colleges and universities as a result of globalization and the impact of advanced technology in the workplace and on society. The question is how well are educators preparing students to become critical thinkers and engaged global citizens with empathy and understanding for each other and their communities? How equipped are educators to help foster classroom environments where students are encouraged to strengthen multiple literacies across cultural boundaries – technological, academic, and personal? This article acknowledges the challenges of internationalizing the curriculum and provides strategies on how …

Communication Skills In Medical Education: A Discourse Analysis Of Simulated Patient Practices, Grace Ellen Peters

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Communication is regarded as one of the most important skills physicians develop. The most common approach for training medical students to be skilled communicators is by way of simulated patients, who are persons hired by a medical school to perform the role of patient for medical students in simulated consultations and assess those students on their communication skills. In this project, I examine how communication skills are conceptualized by looking at how they occur as a practice. My analysis focuses on the Communication Skills Learning Center, an organization designed to train medical students to be skilled communicators through consultations with …

Marrying Science And Experience: An Exploration Of How Multilinguals Interact With And Between Languages And Cultures, Allie Heeg Polzin

MA TESOL Collection

This paper will begin exploring bi- and multilingualism at an individual level. The author will explore previous research written on how the brain processes several languages, how languages might affect individuals emotionally, and how one switches between languages as well as the effects of this, if any. Beyond this, the experience of navigating languages between discourse communities and balancing two or more cultures will be considered. As the title suggests, the science of multilingualism will be married with the diverse individual experience while considering both intrapersonal and interpersonal relations. The author will look at her own experience as well as …

Reasonable Accommodation For Workers Who Are Deaf: Differences In Ada Knowledge Between Supervisors And Advocates, Hayley Stokar

JADARA

Despite the existence of the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), workers who are deaf still struggle with reasonable accommodations in the workplace. The challenges relate, in part, to knowledge and training deficits among hearing supervisors. In order to understand the difference between supervisor knowledge and advocate knowledge around reasonable accommodation, focus groups were conducted with two populations: (1) supervisors in retail and food service who were all hearing, and (2) advocates engaged in training and education around deaf accommodation needs, who were either deaf or hearing. Findings identify similarities and disparities between the groups, highlighting that, while specific legal knowledge …

Comparisons And Contrasts Of Topical And Expository Preaching At The First Free Will Baptist Church Of Tampa From 2005 - 2015, Will Beauchamp

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study compares and contrasts two styles of preaching (Topical and Expository) at the First Free Will Baptist Church from 2005 – 2015. The objective of this study was to find if one method of preaching is more effective, biblical, and preferred for a congregation. The strategy for this mixed research is to deploy multi-choice questions to capture quantitative data on the impact of the sermons on the listeners, and an open-ended question on the application aspect for qualitative data on the listeners’ responses. Based on the results of the listener response questionnaire, recommendations were given based on the sermon …

Understanding The Impact Of Cross-Cultural Communication Between American And Japanese Businesses, Scott Jenkins

Senior Theses

This thesis aims to investigate the cultural differences between American and Japanese society most relevant to successful business collaboration in relation to SIOS Technology Group. First, by providing an examination of the issues SIOS Technology Group has experienced as a company with businesses in both Japan and the United States, this case will provide context for the use of relevant frameworks for researching cultural differences. Second, this thesis analyzes relevant theories of cross-cultural research such as the CAGE Distance Framework, Hall’s Cultural Elements, Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions, and Schwartz’s Cultural Values in order to apply their concepts to SIOS Technology Group’s …

Producing A Documentary Film On Dish-Ability, A Local Organization, To Examine The Conversation Surrounding Empowering People With Disabilities In Butte, Montana, Emmy Keenan

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

People with disabilities are underrepresented, both in media and real life. Historically, they haven’t always been portrayed accurately and ethically on screen. In everyday life, they are sometimes overlooked, especially when it comes to the workforce. This project employs the core competencies of Technical Communication and uses documentary filmmaking to examine the conversation surrounding people with disabilities. This document serves as a meta-text that accompanies the film, Food for Good, created and produced by myself. It details how I used a lens of communication to follow a local organization in Butte, Montana that empowers individuals with disabilities to prepare …

A Feel For The Game: Ai, Computer Games And Perceiving Perception, Marc A. Ouellette, Steven Conway

English Faculty Publications

I walk into the room and the smell of burning wood hits me immediately. The warmth from the fireplace grows as I step nearer to it. The fire needs to heat the little cottage through the night so I add a log to the fire. There are a few sparks and embers. I throw a bigger log onto the fire and it drops with a thud. Again, there are barely any sparks or embers. The heat and the smell stay the same. They don’t change and I do not become habituated to it. Rather, they are just a steady stream, …

Are These Comments Triggering? Predicting Triggers Of Toxicity In Online Discussions, Hind Almerekhi, Haewoon Kwak, Joni Salminen, Bernard J. Jansen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Understanding the causes or triggers of toxicity adds a new dimension to the prevention of toxic behavior in online discussions. In this research, we define toxicity triggers in online discussions as a non-toxic comment that lead to toxic replies. Then, we build a neural network-based prediction model for toxicity trigger. The prediction model incorporates text-based features and derived features from previous studies that pertain to shifts in sentiment, topic flow, and discussion context. Our findings show that triggers of toxicity contain identifiable features and that incorporating shift features with the discussion context can be detected with a ROC-AUC score of …

No “Me ” Before The Nation: Portrayal Of Nationalism And Religious Identities In Bollywood Movies Created During Modi-Era, Misha Khan

Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzed three Bollywood films, Raazi, PM Narendra Modi, and Gully Boy, that were released during the administration of the current Prime Minister of India, PM Narendra Modi. The research questions focused on the portrayal of nationalism and religious identities in the analyzed films. The recurring theme in all three films remained to be nationalism However, drawing on the past research, this study found an existing intertwined relationship between the portrayed nationalism and religious identities. Other central themes in the films included patriarchy, the notion of Othering, and class hegemony. This study draws added implications through its results and …

Supreme Court Journalism: From Law To Spectacle?, Barry Sullivan, Cristina Carmody Tilley

Washington and Lee Law Review

Few people outside certain specialized sectors of the press and the legal profession have any particular reason to read the increasingly voluminous opinions through which the Justices of the Supreme Court explain their interpretations of the Constitution and laws. Most of what the public knows about the Supreme Court necessarily comes from the press. That fact raises questions of considerable importance to the functioning of our constitutional democracy: How, for example, does the press describe the work of the Supreme Court? And has the way in which the press describes the work of the Court changed over the past several …

"#Does This Count As Poetry?": A Genre Analysis Of Tumblr Poetry, Selena Cotte

College of Communication Theses and Dissertations

This thesis canonizes “Tumblr poetry” as a distinct and separate genre of poetry, closely related to other digital poetry movements but ultimately its own phenomenon. Through historical analysis, the criticism against Tumblr poetry and digital poetry as a whole become familiar in a cycle of negative reactions to changing poets and changing audiences. Through textual analysis of poems found on Tumblr, common attributes and style changes are identified and contrasted with more traditional contemporary poetry, signifying a distinct formal shift. Finally, through a platform analysis, poetry communities on Reddit and Instagram are similarly analyzed and contrasted with Tumblr poetry to …

Role Of Multiple Social Media Platforms In Online Campaigns, Muhammad Nihal Hussain

Theses and Dissertations

Social media that started as a tool that connected high school students has found various uses. We are now connected more than ever. It has altered the way information reaches us. People use social media to learn not only about their family and friends but also to stay updated about news and global events. Organizations use social media to learn about their customers, politicians use it to reach out and influence voters, and protesters use it to plan and coordinate their activities. Social media is playing a central role in various campaigns be it marketing campaigns by companies to political …

Predictive Text Encourages Predictable Writing, Kenneth C. Arnold, Krysta Chauncey, Krysztof Z. Gajos

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Intelligent text entry systems, including the now-ubiquitous predictive keyboard, can make text entry more efficient, but little is known about how these systems affect the content that people write. To study how predictive text systems affect content, we compared image captions written with different kinds of predictive text suggestions. Our key findings were that captions written with suggestions were shorter and that they included fewer words that that the system did not predict. Suggestions also boosted text entry speed, but with diminishing benefit for faster typists. Our findings imply that text entry systems should be evaluated not just by speed …

The Polite Abuser: Using Politeness Theory To Examine Emotional Abuse, Cimmiaron Alvarez

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last few decades more and more cultural attention has been paid to intimate partner violence, especially emotional abuse. Follingstad, Rutledge, Berg, Hause, and Polek (1990) established that emotional abuse fell into six distinct categories, however, little attention had been paid to how abusers can utilize polite communication to hurt their partner. Equally, Brown and Levinson’s politeness theory (1987) had never been applied to problematic communication (Austin, 1990). This study aimed to understand how polite communication can be used as a form of emotional abuse. In-depth, semi structured interviews were conducted with 20 participants who self-identified as having been …

The Role Of Popular Media In 2016 Us Presidential Election Memes, Kyra Osten Hunting

Journalism and Media Faculty Publications

The 2016 US presidential election was marked by the extensive role that social media played in the construction of the candidates as well as by the growth of a number of forms of digital political rhetoric, including memes. The subgenre of popular culture-based political memes that draw on well-known entertainment media, particularly those with large fandoms like the Star Wars and Harry Potter franchises, reveal inequities in gender representation in entertainment media that are replicated when these media become source material for memes. Memes based on popular culture that are designed to celebrate female candidates are disadvantaged by having a …

Research To Practice- Implementing Sign-Infused Intervention As A Novice Clinician, Loren Stoller

LSU Master's Theses

Speech-Language Pathologists often infuse manual signs into oral language interventions for children with various communication disorders. The current study was designed to learn more about sign-infused language intervention by examining one novice clinician’s use of signs during oral language intervention with a child diagnosed as a late talker. The researcher was the clinician, and while a novice interventionist, she was proficient in American Sign Language (ASL) and had five years of experience using ASL with others. The child was 26 months of age at the start of the study, and data collection included three pre-intervention sessions, 12 intervention sessions, and …

Data Mining Of Chinese Social Networks: Factors That Indicate Post Deletion, Meisam Navaki Arefi

Computer Science ETDs

Widespread Chinese social media applications such as Sina Weibo (Chinese Twitter), the most popular social network in China, are widely known for monitoring and deleting posts to conform to Chinese government requirements. Censorship of Chinese social media is a complex process that involves many factors. There are multiple stakeholders and many different interests: economic, political, legal, personal, etc., which means that there is not a single strategy dictated by a single government authority. Moreover, sometimes Chinese social media do not follow the directives of government, out of concern that they are more strictly censoring than their competitors.

One crucial question …

Spartan Daily, March 10, 2020, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2020

Volume 154, Issue 20

Perceptions Of Outreach, Theory, And Practice At Centers For Teaching And Learning, Samantha Dunn

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) and how they are perceived by the instructors and employees who work in higher education. CTLs focus on accessing and assessing faculty and staff while creating programs and research which offers insight into the faculty, instructional, and organizational needs of an institution. The needs that CTLs focus on include the professional, educational, instructional, and, sometimes, personal development of employees. Yet, the theories and practices which drive the research of educational development—specifically CTLs—are fragmented due to the interdisciplinary nature, vast scope, and practical-focus of directors and researchers.

This study builds upon previous …

2020 Iggad Conference Program, Charles Joyner Institute For Gullah And African Diaspora Studies

IGGAD Conference Programs

Program of the 2020 IGGAD Conference: Without Borders: Tracing the Cultural, Archival, and Political African Diaspora.