Digital Commons Network^™

The Intrapersonal Phenomenon: The Interactional Effects Of Intrapersonal Adjustments In The Organizational Change Of A Small Business, Jennifer Wilkes

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

It is inevitable that change involves varying levels of communication. A relationship may consist of an individual's communication with one's self or with one or more persons. The functionality of a relationship depends on the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the communication of those individuals involved. When change is necessary in any form of organization, the level of communication for each member plays a vital role, especially in a small company. Based on literature and theory, intrapersonal development and influence relies on the structure of one's cultural language. Language structure shapes one's inner speech and self-talk through processes of internalization. The …

Effects Of Social Media On Individual Voting, Noel Albert Bermudez

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

In the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama established social media as an essential part of the campaign toolbox. Twitter, a widely-used social media site, provides a means of creating virtual communities that can instantly send messages and move "followers" to action. This thesis seeks to ascertain if Twitter messages - sent to known supporters by a presidential campaign asking a person to vote - can positively affect that person's likelihood to cast a ballot and, if so, would that vote be for the candidate whose campaign tweeted the message. Media ecology, as proposed by Marshall McLuhan and developed by Neil …

Generational Differences Within A Corporate Workplace, Marie Jakubek

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

The purpose ofthis study is to examine generational diversity issues within the corporate workplace in order to develop strategies that can be employed to increase intergenerational understanding, morale and, improve productivity. The theory used to frame this study is the Communication Accommodation Theory. This theory allowed for a better understanding of specific challenges and opportunities that can occur when working in a multigenerational workforce. It is important for corporations to effectively address these differences in generations and take advantage of the values and expectations of each generation to keep a happy and healthy workplace. Data for this study was collected …

New Perspectives On Audience Activity: ‘Prosumption’ And Media Activism As Audience Practices, Brian O'Neill, J. Ignacio Gallego, Frauke Zeller

Books/Book chapters

Until relatively recently, the subject of social relationships, constituted in and through audience practices, has been a minor part of audience research studies. This chapter explores how social relationships and forms of audience agency change and / or evolve, through the usage of both traditional and ‘new’ media. In a media environment where traditional and new media worlds collide, the potential of audience practices to rework, not only media-audience relationships, but also wider social relationships, is now an important research theme. Two key examples of mediated relationships between social actors in conditions brought about through transformations in media culture are …

Stories Of Journalistic Careers: From Serial Killers To The Changing Nature Of Journalism, Linda Hughes-Kirchubel

Open Access Theses

A career narrative is a story that helps a person define who she is, and how she should act, within the context of career (Meijers & Lengelle, 2012). This thesis is an analysis of three distinct, yet related, career narratives: a metanarrative, a mesonarrative, and a micronarrative. I examine the field of journalism through metanarratives that reflect the sea-change brought about by the advent of the Internet and the production of on-demand news (see 111th Congress, 2009; Rainey & Wellman, 2012; Weldon, 2008). Using the story of two serial killers, I show how the industry has begun to think differently …

Calypso: Effecting Conflict Transformation Through The Indigenous Calypso Art-Form, Edward M. Phillips

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The calypso, which forms an integral part of the carnival celebrations of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is a syncretic popular art-form that has its origin in Africa. The art-form, having been influenced and adapted by the experiences of enslaved Africans in the Diaspora, has been fused in the vortex of plantation society. Today, the music of carnival has evolved considerably, with the calypso becoming one of the cornerstones of the carnival celebration. This paper looks at aspects of the subset of political calypsos that offer commentary on the socio-political and/or economic issues in the Republic of Trinidad and …

Expediency Versus Harmony: Reconsidering The Values Of Collectivist Cultures In Intercultural Communication, Tori Hagy

Undergraduate Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Unleashed From The Shackles: Modern Media's Portrayal Of Mental Illness: United States Of Tara, Kayla Brown

Theses and Dissertations

"[With mental illness] you get a real sense of shame, because your friends go, 'Oh come on, show me the lump, show me the x-rays,' and of course you've got nothing to show," stated famous comedian Ruby Wax. A longtime sufferer of depression, Ruby Wax shares her experiences with others by advocating mental health awareness through television shows and support groups. Wax was one of many other speakers included in Technology Entertainment Design's (TED's) All Kinds of Minds segment. Elyn Saks, another speaker within this segment, overcame many challenges in spite of her condition of chronic schizophrenia. A Yale graduate, …

Gotcha: What Social Activists Can Learn From Pranksters, Janet M. Bing

English Faculty Publications

It is unfortunate that, even today, feminist messages too often go unheard and feminist issues are too often dismissed by mainstream audiences, partly because feminists continue to be stereotyped as angry and humorless. Yet some social activists use pranks to draw attention to important issues because humor is one strategic way to send messages about sexism to those who may discount ideas presented in a more direct manner. Although there have been relatively few successful feminist pranksters, humor is increasingly being used to convey women's issues in a growing number of feminist blogs and videos. This essay explores pranking and …

Sharing What Works Through South-South Cooperation: The Case Of The Risk Reduction Management Centre Replication Project, Rachel M. Cohn

Capstone Collection

The Risk Reduction Management Centre (RRMC) Replication Project, an initiative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), aims to take a Cuban best practice in disaster risk reduction and adapt it to the local context of five other Caribbean countries. This project differs from most development projects in that the individuals and institutions providing the assistance (in this case technical training and know-how) are themselves from a developing country (Cuba). This model, wherein developing countries provide resources, information, and training to other developing countries, is known as South-South Cooperation (SSC).

This capstone uses the case of the RRMC Replication Project …

The Effect Of Face Threat Mitigation On Instructor Credibility And Student Motivation In The Absence Of Instructor Nonverbal Immediacy, Laura Trad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many years of communication research have shown that an increase in immediacy has been a major factor that affects students‘ perceptions of instructor credibility which in turn affects, both students‘ cognitive and affective learning, student state motivation and a variety of other positive outcomes. However, in order for immediacy to be effective, instructor and student must be in the same location at the same time. With the recent push toward on-line classes, what can we find to act like immediacy in a text based format? This research suggests that face threat mitigation can be used in a text-based environment, to …

Evaluating The Phonology Of Nicaraguan Sign Language: Preprimer And Primer Dolch Words, Julie Delkamiller

Special Education and Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

Over the past 30-years linguists have been witnessing the birth and evolution of a language, Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua (ISN), in Nicaragua, and have initiated and documented the syntax and grammar of this new language. Research is only beginning to emerge on the implications of ISN on the education of deaf/hard of hearing children in Nicaragua. The purpose of this comparative exploratory field study was to evaluate preprimer and primer Dolch sight words and sign language frequency between English, American Sign Language (ASL), Spanish and Idioma de Señas de Nicaragua (ISN). The research focused on word and sign frequencies …

Online Copyright Protection And Innovation International Experiences And Implications To China, Dexin Tian, Chin-Chung Chao

Communication Faculty Publications

Purpose – This study aims to explore the policy-making mechanism of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on innovation and the US practice in identifying policies on online copyright protection and innovation. The research findings provide valuable implications for emerging economies like China.

Design/methodology/approach – For data collection, this study adopted field observation of online interactions. Guided by the democratic paradigm of the civil society, state, and market and the theory of the government’s roles as a broker, advocator, and facilitator, thematic analysis was applied to analyze the 150 purposively selected comments of US internet stakeholders for emerging …

Mothered, Mothering & Motherizing In Illness Narratives: What Women Cancer Survivors In Southern Central Appalachia Reveal About Mothering-Disruption, Kelly A. Dorgan, Kathryn L. Duvall, Sadie P. Hutson, Amber E. Kinser

ETSU Faculty Works

Informed by a mothering-disruption framework, our study examines the illness narratives of women cancer survivors living in Southern Central Appalachia. We collected the stories of twenty-nine women cancer survivors from northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia using a multi-phasic qualitative design. Phase I consisted of women cancer survivors participating in a day-long story circle (n=26). Phase II consisted of women cancer survivors who were unable to attend the story circle ; this sample sub-set participated in in-depth interviews (n=3) designed to capture their illness narratives. Participants' illness narratives revealed the presence of: (1) mothering-disruption whereby cancer adversely impacted the mothering role …

Facing With Non-Nativeness While Teaching: Enacting Voices Of International Teaching Assistants Of Basic Communication Courses, Arata Miyazaki, Kaori Yamada

Basic Communication Course Annual

This paper presents our voices as international teaching assistants (ITAs) of public speaking courses at American universities and discusses how non-native English speaker identity, or non-nativeness is displayed, developed, and negotiated through our inter-actions with both native and other non-native speakers. Regarding our companionship as ITAs of public speaking as a subject of study, we engage in narrative co-construction about our survival in graduate programs. We argue that non-nativeness is not monolithic but is more relational and multilayered than it tends to be assumed. Obtaining a teaching position was an epiphany for our relationship, changing the perceptions about and attitude …

The Rebranding Of The Brooklyn Nets : A Discourse Analysis, Michael Shane Wunderlich

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined the rebranding of the Brooklyn Nets. A discourse analysis was conducted that observed messages generated by the Brooklyn Nets, selected media sources and fans regarding a number of elements relating to the Brooklyn Nets’ rebrand. Branding is important to businesses and building brand equity and brand associations with the external public is important for businesses looking to succeed in a profit driven world. This is no different for professional sports franchises who also focus on building brand equity and brand associations with sports fans and other members of the general public. By first examining the methods taken …

Idealism And Pragmatism: "Transcendent" Validity Claims In Habermas's Democratic Theory, Richard Van Barriger

Anthós

In her recent article "Realism and Idealism: Was Habermas's Communicative Turn a Move in the Wrong Direction?" Maeve Cooke examines the evolution of Jürgen Habermas’s thought over the past five decades. According to Cooke, Habermas’s so-called ‘communicative turn’ was a necessary step in his philosophy’s systematic attempt to derive a universal norm from the immanent context of human practices and institutions. In her opinion, however, Habermas’s theory is unable to achieve such "transcendence from within" due to the inherent problem of justification in his theory’s treatment of normative validity claims. Cooke believes that despite Habermas’s exhaustive efforts to provide a …

Segmentation In Hispanic-Targeted Marketing, Silvia Irene Medrano

LSU Master's Theses

Hispanic-oriented advertising is a growing area in the advertising industry. Findings reported in this research examined agency strategies for advertising in Hispanic-oriented advertising. Interviews with agency practitioners involved in the planning, creation and media selection provided insight into agency best practices in Hispanic-oriented advertising. In-depth interviews at two Hispanic-oriented agencies revealed that a focus on cultural understanding, client relationships, and opposition of common stereotypes and segmentation practices were key in creating successful advertising that connected to Hispanic mindsets. Research results suggest that growth in the U.S. Hispanic population will not only affect the advertising industry, but will also create changes …

Corporate Use Of Social Media, Viktorya Mirzoyan

LSU Master's Theses

Despite significant and constantly increasing volume of social media use by both individuals and corporate entities, scarce scholastic attention has been paid to practices undertaken by companies and organizations in creating presence on social media, managing social media accounts and communicating with constituents on social media. New social media platforms appear regularly, attracting millions of daily visitors, however, this new type of communication media still lacks in-depth analysis, which would provide guidelines to be used by corporate entities to make their presence on social media most effective. This study makes the first step to analyze possible relationships between companies’ practices …

Polysemy, Plurality, & Paradigms: The Quixotic Quest For Commensurability Of Ethics And Professionalism In The Practices Of Law, Eric Paul Engel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to many, the legal industry is currently suffering from a professionalism problem. The following dissertation is a response to the question, "What can be done about incivility in the practice of law in Florida?" It begins by exploring the literature examining ethics and professionalism, specifically focusing on the role communication plays in the production and reification of patterns of meaning and action. After contextualizing the professionalism problem socio-culturally and historically, the dissertation next provides an overview of some relevant aspects of the Coordinated Management of Meaning (a theoretical communication framework employed to help make sense of the existing state …

Eco-Terrorism Or Eco-Tage: An Argument For The Proper Frame, David Thomas Sumner, Lisa M. Weidman

Faculty Publications

What does the term “terrorism” mean? Is it accurate to lump illegal acts that destroy property but carefully avoid harming people into the same category as acts clearly intended to kill? Is this a difference of kind or just of degree? While we (the authors) don't generally endorse the destruction of property as a method of generating social change, we believe that the destruction of property is fundamentally different from the intentional killing of people; therefore, to label acts of obstruction, trespassing, vandalism, sabotage, or arson as “terrorism” is inaccurate and has the potential to damage one's understanding of real …

Owls Across Borders: An Exploratory Study On The Place Of Online Writing Labs In The Efl Context, Joshua Paiz

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Graduate Student Presentations

The study reported on in this presentation at the 2013 Symposium on Second Language Writing (SSLW) examined the content creation best practices of four content development teams working on the Purdue OWL. Utilizing focus group methods the study sought to examine what strategies developers utilized to overcome the challenges faced while developing L2 instructional content for a global audience. By examining the various drafts of resources before they finally went live on the Purdue OWL, this study investigated the linguistic and rhetorical choices that developers made in an attempt to create content that would be of maximal user to L2 …

Reading The Tea Leaves: The Media And Sino-American Rapprochement, 1963-1972, Guolin Yi

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation aims to find out what role(s) the media in the United States and China played in their historic rapprochement from 1963 to 1972. In order to examine how they covered the major events that affected Sino-American relations, I select seven elite U.S. media and two Chinese official newspapers to study. These media include: the New York Times, Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, CBS, ABC, NBC, People's Daily, and Reference News,

The study is based on the assumption that media, instead of reporting the information "objectively," have the ability to affect the content they deliver and set the agenda for …

The Role Of Online Social Media In The Acculturation Process Of North Korean Refugee Young Adults In South Korea, Sung Mi Han

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate media's influences on the acculturation of North Korean refugee young adults in South Korea, especially focusing on identifying the role of online social media. The study examined the acculturation and media patterns of the refugee young adults and found evidence that the use of South Korean media and North Korea-related media enhanced the acculturation domains of South and North Korean cultures, and therefore the utilization of both media as a whole can facilitate the pluralism model of acculturation. Specifically, a series of hierarchical multiple regressions revealed that South Korean mass media use …

Examining The Use Of Spirituality As A Form Of Social Support In Computer-Mediated Communication, Kristopher Micheal Paal

Wayne State University Dissertations

Social Information Processing Theory (Walther, 1992) suggests that individuals can develop and sustain relationships in online contexts even with limited cues present. With more individuals using computer-mediated communication (CMC) for relational processes, there is an increased need for examination of how communication is used with fewer cues present. Due to its contributions to holistic health, spirituality is a dimension of support which also necessitates increased examination as well. The present study examines how CMC can be used for the relational purposes of spiritual and social support in online communities. Messages from two separate online bereavement communities were analyzed to discover …

Internationalization As De-Westernization Of The Curriculum: The Case Of Journalism At An Australian University, Rhonda Breit, Levi Obijiofor, Richard Fitzgerald

Graduate School of Media and Communications

Internationalization of the curriculum points to the interdependent and interconnected (globalized) world in which higher education operates. However, while international awareness is crucial to the study of journalism, in practice this often means an Anglo-American curriculum based around Western principles of journalism education and training that are deeply rooted in Western values and traditions. This tendency to privilege Western thought, practice, and values obscures from view other journalism practices and renders Western models of journalism desirable, replicable, and transplantable to any part of the world. This article discusses the engagement of a small group of staff in the process of …

Meme World Syndrome: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The First World Problems And Third World Success Internet Memes, Robert Chandler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis applies the theory and method of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine the ideological components of the First World Problems (FWP) and Third World Success (TWS) Internet memes. Drawing on analytical concepts from CDA and related perspectives, such as multimodal discourse analysis and social semiotics, the paper analyzes the visual and textual elements of a sample of the FWP and TWS memes. The paper argues that the text and images featured in the memes are ideologically salient and discursively construct oppositional binaries between “us” and “them” in terms of wealth disparity.

Defensive Communication Between Professors And Students And Its Effects On Student Outcomes, Alexa Pomerenk

Honors Program Theses

This study investigated the relationship between defensive communication and student outcomes in college classrooms. The researcher hypothesized that students would perceive a greater defensive climate in classes taught by their least favorite professors, and that the defensive climate would encourage the use of coping mechanisms. Defensive communication was also hypothesized to negatively affect student grades, attendance, and course satisfaction and to increase student burnout. Surveys were administered to college students, and results supported all hypotheses. Findings showed that students linked defensive attributes to their least favorite professors more frequently than they did to their favorite professors, and they reported using …

Textual Analysis Of The Portrayals Of The Roma In A U.S. Newspaper, Sabrina Deaton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the media portrayals of Roma in the United States by taking a closer look at ―Gypsy crime‖ articles in a purposive sample of newspaper articles. These newspaper articles give details of ―confidence‖ crimes and name the alleged perpetrators as Roma or members of the ethnic minority group commonly known as Gypsies. A textual analysis was conducted of 23 articles appearing in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel from August 16, 2011 to February 8, 2013 covering fraud charges against several members of the Marks family. This primary evaluation narrowed the initial sample to nine articles that contained references to …

Framing, Public Relations, And Scientology: An Analysis Of News Coverage And A Controversial Organization, Kristy Mcallister

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the most common frames used in news coverage of the Church of Scientology from 2009 to 2013. Using textual analysis, with framing and public relations theories as lenses, this study examined recent news coverage – both print and television – to identify frames used, and the potential public relations crises the Church is currently facing due to this media exposure. Analysis showed three major frames used during coverage, along with their corresponding sub-frames, which highlight certain aspects of the frame: Culture of Abuse (Imprisonment, Controlling, Family Disconnection, Exploitation of Children, Violence, and Financial Abuse), The Information Paradox …