Digital Commons Network^™

A Study Of Epistemic Modality In A Television Interview., Papiya Chakrabarty

Student Works (2010-2019)

This research explores the use of modals such as will, would and shall which are epistemic in nature in an interview from America’s MTP (Meet the Press) of the present millennium which involves five politicians as speakers. It applies a qualitative approach and is a corpus based lexico-grammatical research which plans to identify the modality and its frequency in only one type of discourse. The research tests aims to test why speakers use epistemic modality and how committed they are towards their views, opinions which become truth propositions when involved in a question and answer session with other participants of …

Emerging Interpersonal Norms Of Text Messaging In India And The United States, Robert Shuter, Sumana Chattopadhyay

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

This study examines whether there are emerging interpersonal norms of text messaging—an etiquette (“textiquette”) of texting—that guide its use in India and the United States. One hundred and thirty-seven participants recorded multiple text messages sent and received in specially designed text logs. Each log secured data on the following dimensions: (1) the context in which a text was sent and received/read; (2) who each participant was with—and the reaction of this person(s)—when the participant sent or received/read a text message; and (3) what constitutes impolite text messaging behavior. Results reveal emerging interpersonal norms of text messaging in both countries that …

"Everybody Goes Down": Metaphors, Stories, And Simulations In Conversations, L. David Ritchie

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recent work has shown that many problematic aspects of metaphor use and comprehension can be resolved through an account that includes both relevance and perceptual simulation. It has also been shown that metaphors often imply stories, and that stories are often metaphorical. Previous research on narratives has focused primarily on stories that appear either in formal literature or in structured interviews; this essay focuses on stories that occur as an integral part of conversation. It extends recent work on metaphor comprehension to show how use and comprehension of stories in natural, informal conversations can be usefully analyzed in terms of …

Media Effects: Cultural Appropriation And Attitudes Towards Cosmetic Surgery, Darlene Shauntanese Lee

Wayne State University Dissertations

The current study investigates media's influence on Caucasian women to culturally appropriate the physical features generally ascribed to African American women through non-surgical and or surgical cosmetic procedures and vice versa. Participants were 26 African American women and 54 Caucasian women who had previously undergone either non-surgical or surgical cosmetic procedures. Results indicate that African American women were more likely to culturally appropriate than Caucasian women. For African American women high media exposure to cosmetic surgery media messages played a significant role in the cultural appropriation process. Results also indicated that Caucasian women culturally appropriate at the same level, whether …

Designing For Multicultural And International Audiences: Creating Culturally-Intelligent Visual Rhetoric And Overcoming Ethnocen, Bridget Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Various cultures interpret visual rhetoric differently; therefore, technical communicators must adjust their rhetoric accordingly by creating effective visual rhetoric for their international and multicultural audiences. Although there is a great deal of research in the field regarding how to create effective visual rhetorical rhetoric, this research often fails to take into international and multicultural audiences into consideration. Many visual rhetoric solutions proposed in technical communication involve 'catch all' approaches that do little to communicate to people of non-Western cultures and can even serve to offend or confuse international and multicultural audiences. These solutions are generated by a globalization mindset, but …

Source Representation And Framing In Childhood Immunization Communication, April Raneri

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has indicated a strong interest in knowing who is being represented and how information is being represented in the communication about childhood immunization. This study uses a two-part analysis to look at source representation and framing in childhood immunization communication. A quantitative analysis of articles from the New York Times and USA Today were examined for their source representation, their use of fear appeals, through the Extended Parallel Processing Model (EPPM), and the use of frames, through the application of Prospect Theory. A qualitative semiotic analysis was conducted on 36 images that appeared on www.yahoo.com and www.google.com to find …

The Effects Of Power Distance, And Gender On The Use Of Nonverbal Immediacy Behaviors In Symmetrical And Asymmetrical Power Cond, Vincent Santilli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous cross-cultural research in nonverbal immediacy indicates that nonverbal immediacy behavior varies across cultures, and some researchers have suggested that power distance might serve as a moderating variable, however no research has systematically set out to determine whether that is the case. This study assessed the perceived use of nonverbal immediacy under symmetric and asymmetric power conditions, as well as gender, in three cultures: Brazil, Kenya, and the United States. Quantitative data was collected from 527 participants who completed a nonverbal immediacy measure and an individual power distance measure under either a symmetric or an asymmetric power condition. Results related …

Protean Storytellers: Journalists' Identities In An Uncertain Future, Lourdes Miriam Cueva Chacón

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Journalism is undergoing a crisis period and, even though publishers, journalists and scholars do not agree about the future of news media industries, certainly they agree that what was once the dominant model of journalism is now changing drastically. Journalists are facing dynamic and changing environments that demand from them to develop new skills and to perform new roles. This is the environment where the new generation of journalists is forming, forcing them to rethink their future careers. For this research students' narratives where collected to determine the rhetorical ways in which students articulate their identity as journalists, what were …

Facilitators And Obstacles Of Intercultural Business Communication For American Companies In China: Lessons Learned From The Ups Case, Hongmei Gao, Penelope Prime

Faculty Articles

This article analyzes how the execution of business strategy for global enterprises is shaped by the dual challenges of communicating in a different national culture and working in a changing economic environment. The article develops a framework from the UPS case in China to illustrate the key components of strategy for US companies operating businesses in China. The article proposes that Chinese-American communication effectiveness can be achieved through overcoming five obstacles: cultural multiplicity, relationship/ task orientation, time concept, business style difference, and language use, while utilizing five facilitators:pragmatism, gender equality, English, American pop culture, and a "big country mentality."

Citizenship In The Humanities And Social Sciences: A Selective Bibliography, 2000-2009, Wayne State University School Of Library And Information Science, Winter 2010 Lis 7160, James E. Van Loon, H.G.B. Anghelescu

School of Information Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Citizenship in the Humanities and Social Sciences is a selective bibliography consisting of citations to works published during the years 2000-2009 on citizenship-related topics in the humanities and social sciences. Primarily consisting of books/chapters and scholarly journal articles, the bibliography also includes other materials (case studies, reports, dissertations, and working papers) for which scholarship, authority and relevance have been established. Most cited works are published in the English language, although articles published in other languages using a Latin alphabet are also included. Citations were retrieved during January-March 2010 from a variety of aggregated databases accessed through the Wayne State University …

Current Policy Developments In European Media Literacy, Brian O'Neill

Articles

In August of 2009, the European Commission issued a formal recommendation on media literacy adding to a series of initiatives underway since 2006 to build a comprehensive European media literacy policy (Commission of the European Communities 2009). Media literacy is now a well-established concept referring to the ability to critically understand and use media in a variety of contexts (see Aufderheide 1997). Recognising that the way people use media is changing and that the volume of information received is enormous, the Commission notes that all citizens need to have the ability to access, analyse and evaluate images, sounds and texts …

"Do It For Me, My Dear": Structuration And Relational Dialectics Among Mother-Daughter Dyads In Lebanese Arranged Marriages, Khaled Nasser

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research applied a two-step triangulation approach to the study of mother-daughter communication in arranged marriages among the religious Sunnis of Beirut, Lebanon. Combining the theory of structuration and relational dialectics in one theoretical framework, the study investigated the role of mother-daughter interactions in the socialization of the daughter into the marital experience. The study investigated the process of marital socialization by first surveying 199 mother-daughter dyads, representing 398 individuals. In the second step, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 families (three interviews per dyad), randomly selected out of the 199 surveyed pairs. The dyadic data analysis of the surveys …

Similarities And Differences In Self-Disclosure And Friendship Development Between Fact-To-Face Communication And Facebook, Pavica Sheldon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This research identified the patterns of self-disclosure between face-to-face and Facebook friends’ interactions. A survey of 317 participants was conducted to compare the hypothesized relationships among social attraction, self-disclosure, predictability and trust in three types of relationships: recently added Facebook friend, exclusive Facebook friend, and an exclusive face-to-face friend. Data was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM), multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), t-tests and correlations. Results indicated that individuals reporting high levels of social attraction also reported having greater self-disclosure with their latest added Facebook friend, exclusive Facebook friend and an exclusive face-to-face friend. This supports a theorem of Uncertainty …

Gloria E. Anzaldúa’S Decolonizing Ritual De Conocimiento, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s work makes up one of the many Chican@ works that contribute another history, a history repressed by the national discourses on both sides of the border. Influenced by antecedents of U.S. Hispanic Literature who superposed “official” history with another history, Chicano activists had already enacted a retrieval of pre-conquest histories to revive their people’s historical consciousness. As Saldívar-Hull states in “Mestiza Consciousness and Politics: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/ La frontera,” the publication of Borderlands/ La Frontera distinguished itself from the Chicano movement’s as it unveiled the curtain that hid the Aztec goddesses and kept aspects of pre-conquest history …

Refugees As People: The Portrayal Of Refugees In American Human Interest Stories, Sarah Steimel

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study combines discourse analysis and narrative analysis (Yin 2007) to examine top US newspapers’ coverage of refugees in American human interest stories. I find that the refugees are presented (a) as prior victims; (b) as in search of the American Dream; and (c) as unable to achieve the American Dream. As human-interest features, the stories provide a largely positive portrayal of individual refugees and their families. However, the human interest stories also depict refugees as current victims of the American economic crisis; deeply frustrated by their inability to achieve the American Dream. Together these discourses represent a narrative of …

Spartan Daily December 3, 2009, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily (School of Journalism and Mass Communications)

Volume 133, Issue 47

Developing A Heuristic For A Workplace Challenge: Discovering The Contributions Of Business, Psychology, And Sociology To A Rhetorical Workplace Situation, Erin Nicole Marks

Theses and Dissertations

I am the Safety Coordinator for approximately 300 retail stores throughout the United States. I frequently have to visit store locations in order to gain the cooperation of all store personnel in acting safely, preventing safety hazards, and maintaining compliance with workplace safety regulations. I must persuade store management to change their behavior in a way that improves the safety culture of their store. To do this, I must maintain an appropriate balance of being a caring corporate communicator and being an authoritative corporate representative. I need to be able to analyze each communication situation so that I can produce …

The Beat: December 2009, Centracare Health

The Beat

• "Each employee is an important part of CentraCare"
• Family photography program launched in NICU
• Pediatric walk-in care to open Jan. 11
• Reaching patients with limited English proficiency
• CentraCare physician serves as primary care consultant
• Tree of Hope event scheduled
• See Yourself in a Whole New Light
• Home kidney program receives award
• 2009 Memory Walk raises more than $56,000
• Koosmann joins CentraCare

Prescribed Reading: December 2009, Centracare Clinic

Prescribed Reading

• Welcome to our new provider
• Welcome to these new employees
• Recognition for years of service
• Jolkovsky to lead new Palliative Care Service
• CentraCare Clinic - Melrose open house planned
• Employee of the quarter winners
• Mandatory online education or employees
• Kudos to . . .
• Pediatric Walk-in Care opens Jan. 11
• Year-end reminders
• Condolences to . . .
• Congratulations to . . .
• Reaching patients with limited English proficiency

Dynamic Dialogue: A Multi-Perspective Approach Towards Cultural Competence, Daria C. Crawley, Rex L. Crawley

Organization Management Journal

Interculturalism and race relations are becoming more complex as America becomes more diverse. Recent attention focused on universities’ admissions programs aimed at diversifying the student body only convey a segment of campus efforts addressing diversity. Curriculum development initiatives speak to diversity concerns through course topics centered on issues such as race and gender by stimulating conversations among students and the instructor. This article presents two models for integrating dynamic dialogues/conversations about race across academic curricula. These perspectives shed insight into the challenges of communicating in an intercultural environment. One model highlights attempts at integrating dynamic dialogue programmatically and the other …

An Investigation Of The Persuasive Effects Of Rhetorical Questions, Message Framing, And The Elm In Promoting Responsible Cell Phone Usage, Robert James Glenn Iii

Dissertations

This study evaluated persuasive messages that advocate support for a ban against cell phones while driving using Petty and Cacioppo's Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion as its theoretical framework. Seven hypotheses were tested using a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design assessing the influence of need for cognition (high vs. low) in tandem with the variables of message framing (gain vs. loss statements) and message form (questions vs. statements) upon assessments of elaboration (ME), cognition message value (CMV), message effectiveness ratings (MEF), and attitude toward the prescribed behavior (ATPB).

A significant main effect was found for message framing as …

Necropolitics And Contemporary Hungarian Literature And Cinema, Ryan Michael Kehoe

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Necropolitics and Contemporary Hungarian Literature and Cinema" Ryan Michael discusses aspects of the concept of necropower (Mbembe) applied to contemporary Hungarian literature and cinema. Kehoe argues that his analysis provides models of postcolonial "aesthetic acts" that disrupt, destabilize, and ultimately subvert the global regimes to which Achille Mbembe refers. Accordingly, Hungary's status as a postcolony is discussed within the context of Steven Tötösy de Zepetnek's and David Chioni Moore's contention that the parameters of postcolonial cultural analysis need to be expanded to account for Central and East Europe's transition out of the Soviet sphere of influence. Further, …

Myth And History In The Poetry Of Osundare, Christopher Anyokwu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Myth and History in the Poetry of Osundare" Christopher Anyokwu examines the interrelation of myth and history from an African perspective. Anyokwu analyzes the poetry of one of Africa's most prolific and decorated contemporary poets, Niyi Osundare. Osundare is a third-generation Nigerian poet whose work is based on Yoruba oral tradition and informed by Marxist ideology. Osundare's poetry demonstrates the so-called "return-to-roots" neo-traditionalist ethos in modern African writing. Osundare's attitude to myth, ritual, and other African animist categories is intriguingly complex, ambivalent, and giving rise to charges of ideological irresolution and culturo-epistemic bifurcation. As a champion of …

Playwriting In Three Major Nigerian Languages, Isaiah Ilo

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Playwriting in Three Major Nigerian Languages" Isaiah Ilo analyzes the frequency of playwriting in Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba, the three major Nigerian languages, which together hold about a half of the country's estimated population of 140 million. Ilo uses a case study to contrast the importance of the languages, their evolution as literary languages, and their official status with a role in education. Ilo locates the significance of these factors next to an inventory of the plays and a listing of the writers to demonstrate the neglect of the mother tongue by experienced Nigerian dramatists. The study …

The Role Of The Unconscious In Culture: A Review Article Of New Work By Green And Bainbridge, Radstone, Rustin, And Yates, Xiana Sotelo

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Speech Act Disagreement Among Young Women In Iran, Vahid Parvaresh, Abbas Eslami Rasekh

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In their article "Speech Act Disagreement among Young Women in Iran" Vahid Parvaresh and Abbas Eslami Rasekh investigate the effects of solidarity and deference proposed by Ronald Scollon and Suzanne Scollon on the ways in which young women in Iran perform the speech act of disagreement in their own language and culture. Their data has been analyzed using Geoffrey Leech's classification of illocutionary functions which is based on the social goal of establishing and maintaining comity. Special care has also been exercised to take the respondents' points of view into consideration. Parvaresh and Rasekh suggest that in a non-Western Islamic …

Indirect Discourse In German, Russian, And English, Henry Whittlesey Schroeder

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Indirect Discourse in German, Russian, and English" Henry Whittlesey Schroeder analyzes the different tenses of indirect discourse in these three languages. Indirect discourse in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century adopts a different time in English, German and Russian. English indirect discourse reports in the preterit; German indirect discourse hovers in the subjunctive; Russian indirect discourse speaks in the present. The transposition of English indirect discourse allows the character's discourse to surface in a tense identical to the narration. Consequently, the character can corrupt the narration, undermining the narrator's narration and commentary on that narration. German indirect …

Innovation And Multimedia In The Poetry Of Cummings And Mayakovsky, Svetlana Nikitina

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Innovation and Multimedia in the Poetry of cummings and Mayakovsky" Svetlana Nikitina discusses how e.e. cummings and Vladimir Mayakovsky foreshadowed the digital revolution of today in their multimedia experiments in poetry. Although they spoke different languages and lived in different societies, the two modernist poets display similarities in their modernist aesthetics. Both are artists as well as poets who blur the line between the two forms of art. Their synesthesia inoculates them against postmodern disintegration of meaning or form. Although cummings is a staunch individualist, and Mayakovsky the tribune of the collective, they both rebel against traditional …

Myspace, Write Space: An Analysis Of Student Achievement In Texts For Digital Audiences, Stephanie Marie Sauceda

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This thesis study analyzes students’ connection to audience in writing samples, gauging the performance of texts written for an actual audience, the classroom teacher and an implied audience, the web. Using Steven Toulmin’s concepts of intimate and stranger interactions, this study suggests that students may make an intimate connection with the mass web audience, thereby allowing an increase in writing performance. On the other end, students identify assignments for classroom teachers as work for the stranger audience, thus creating a writing performance gap. The following is a discussion of possible factors and elements creating this particular paradox in audience identification.

Sound Matters: Aural Rhetoric In Pharmaceutical Advertising (Toward A Theory And Method Of Auralacy), Michael Hovan

All Theses

As scholarly theories and explorations of visuality continue to grow in prominence within the discourse on multimodal communication, a gap remains in the literature regarding the affective qualities of sound in multimedia messages. The following study attempts to address this gap and likewise propose a theory of auralacy (aural literacy) by examining the audiovisual interactions present in three different pharmaceutical commercials.
This study begins by examining literature regarding Gestalt perceptual theory, with emphasis on its origins, historical developments, and current status in perceptual research. The literature shows that perceptual wholes may be formed visually, tactilely, aurally, or even intermodally. After …