Digital Commons Network^™

Blockade Logic: Settler Consciousness And The Petro-Security Apparatus, Sarah Seroy

Communication ETDs

This study examines contemporary CID legislation and surrounding political rhetoric in Canada and its implications for Indigenous communities. It reveals how settler consciousness is affirmed through such legislation and how discourse rooted in colonial logics serves to strengthen Canada’s petro-security apparatus. Drawing from Teun van Dijk’s (1995) method of Ideological Discourse Analysis and integrating Indigenous epistemologies, it offers a research approach of anticolonial discourse analysis. This analysis reveals CID legislation as a racialized, colonial tool and a form of biopower the settler-state exerts over Indigenous communities. It normalizes settler-state hegemony and justifies the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous communities. This study …

“There Was Nothing Left To Give”: Experiences Of Compassion Fatigue Among Former In-Patient Psychiatric Clinicians, Katie Ladner

Counseling and Psychology Dissertations

Compassion Fatigue (CF) is a state of emotional and physical exhaustion resulting from prolonged exposure to stressful or traumatic experiences, specifically among healthcare workers, and it negatively impacts their ability to provide care to their patients and perform their jobs effectively (Singh et al., 2020). The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the lived experiences of compassion fatigue in mental health clinicians who previously worked in in-patient psychiatric hospitals and their subsequent resignations. This phenomenological research explored participants' understanding and descriptions of their CF experiences in their roles within psychiatric hospitals and how CF contributed to their leaving …

War Photography & The Limits Of Empathy, Andrea Shi

Student Theses and Dissertations

The proliferation of photography, particularly war and poverty photography, has had massive implications for the level of vividness with which Americans are able to picture suffering beyond their doors. The mass atrocities that have occurred since the advent of photography – that is to say, the last 200 years – are so relentlessly circulated that they feel, sometimes, as an inevitable byproduct of human nature. It’s not surprising, then, that a lot of media theory and analysis reduce the dilemma of atrocity photographs to a psychological level. Do they numb us, or do they incite empathy? Are they a call …

The Dehumanization Of Nfl Players In The Media, Destiny D. Farley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This creative thesis aims to bridge the gap in sports journalism by humanizing National Football League (NFL) players, showcasing their lives outside of sports, and exploring their nuanced relationships with the media. NFL players are objectified in the press in a variety of ways, with some common themes including coverage of drafting/trading, performance statistics, salary/contracts, and their overall celebrification. Through an episodic visual narrative podcast, the project grants autonomy back to the players by providing them with a platform to showcase their personalities, discuss media experiences, and share untold stories. This podcast series—featuring a blend of A-roll and B-roll—immerses audiences …

Volunteer Experiences In Outdoor Recreation: Navigating Uncertainty And Belonging, Morgan R. Purdy

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Volunteers play a central role in the operation of outdoor recreation areas, yet their positions often lack formal training, clear authority, and consistent structural guidance. While organizational socialization research has focused primarily on paid employees, less is known about how volunteers in outdoor contexts navigate uncertainty and develop identity through communication. Guided by organizational socialization theory and volunteer communication scholarship, this qualitative study examines two research questions: How do outdoor recreation volunteers manage uncertainty during socialization? And how does volunteering shape their sense of identity and belonging? Drawing on 13 semi-structured interviews and prolonged ethnographic fieldwork within a public land …

Digital Society: Media And Mental Health, James P. Sims

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis examines how contemporary media environments especially algorithmic, mobile, and socially interactive platforms are shaping attention, identity, emotional regulation, and mental health in a mediatized society. While research has documented rising levels of anxiety, depression, social comparison, compulsive media use, and fragmented communication patterns, much of the existing scholarship is quantitative and clinical, leaving a gap in how individuals experience these effects subjectively. This project combines literature grounded in media effects theory with a qualitative documentary film featuring lived-experience narratives from media users, clinicians, and scholars. The thesis argues that the psychological, social, and behavioral outcomes associated with digital …

A Cross-Cultural Analysis Of Mukbang Influencers In China And The United States: Food, Identity, And Cultural Values, Anni Zhang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Mukbang, a type of online eating broadcast which originated in South Korea, has become a widely popular form of digital media practice across different platforms. Although existing studies have examined Mukbang from perspectives such as audience psychology, health concerns, and platform economies, fewer studies have focused on how Mukbang influencers communicate cultural meanings and identity through food-related media contents in different cultural contexts. To address this gap, this study conducts a cross-cultural analysis of Mukbang influencers in China and the United States, focusing on how food, identity, and cultural values are represented in digital media environments.

This research adopts an …

Devuélveme A Mi Walkman: A Deep Dive Into Chicano Culture, New Wave And Punk During The 80s In Los Angeles, Michellas Baca

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Throughout this creative thesis/magazine, I explore and capture the essence of Chicano culture in the 80s and the role music played, in its simplest form. This project is heavily inspired by my dad and our shared love for music. Growing up in the 80's, pop culture was all around me, constantly; so much so, I never thought twice about it. As I got older, he told me more stories about growing up in L.A. He told me about breakdancing on Venice Beach and riding his bike under the L.A. River bridge. He would tell me stories about parties and how …

Picture Of Health: Visual And Textual Gendered Ideals And Media Framing On Men’S Health And Women’S Health Magazine Covers, Gracie Marquez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Magazines play an influential role in shaping cultural understandings of health, fitness, and gender, yet differences emerge in how health is framed across media outlets. This study examines how Men’s Health and Women’s Health magazine covers construct and communicate gendered ideals of health through visual and textual elements. Guided by gender role theory and framing theory, this research explores how these magazines frame health in ways that reinforce expectations of masculinity and femininity. Using directed qualitative content analysis, magazine covers published between 2014 and 2024 were coded across visual and textual categories, and chi-square tests of independence were conducted to …

“Like Taking Your Armor Off:” Examining The Communication Challenges Faced By Lgbtq+ Liaison Officers, Emily P. Nicholson

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Policing has been and remains one of the most significant issues facing society in the United States. One response to this issue which has seen a rise in the last decade is the presence of liaison officer programs, which are designed to help improve police relations with vulnerable groups by forging connections with local, identity-aligned organizations and practicing identity-first policing. This study sought to understand what the challenges faced by liaison programs are and what organizational tensions are experienced by police officers in LGBTQ Liaison positions. Following an inductive approach to analysis, participants in the study engaged in a semi-structured …

A Survey Of Health Professions Learners’ Attitudes Towards Social Media In Medical Education: A Substance Use Disorders Education Case Study, Gregory A. Jaffe, Sarah Lawson, William Leach, Mallika Kodavatiganti, Erin Avanzato, Katherine Fesperman, Heather Klusaritz

Department of Family & Community Medicine Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Social media is a ubiquitous part of the modern world and plays a key role in the dissemination of information. While utilizing social media for educational purposes has been repeatedly demonstrated as feasible, it has been underutilized in medical education and remains a critical opportunity to integrate microlearning and stigma reduction curricula.

METHODS: A cross-sectional survey on social media usage, attitudes, and beliefs was sent to medical and nursing students at two large academic institutions within Philadelphia. Descriptive statistics are reported, and non-parametric tests were utilized for exploratory analyses.

RESULTS: Health learners were low consumers of social media, reporting …

Lindenwood Digest, May 13, 2026, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

• Event & Date: The St. Charles County Executive Debate on June 2, 2026; the 2026 Assessment Summit on May 14, 2026; and the Seeing the Unseen session on May 18, 2026. 

• Geographic Grounding: J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts and the Lindenwood Learning Academy (LARC), Lindenwood University, St. Charles, Missouri. 

• Key Honorees/Awards: Candidates Steve Ehlmann, Bill Eigel, and Jason Law; Assistant Registrar Julie Owens; Academic Service Representative Alexander Otto; Director Teresa Cole; Staff Admin Coach Brittany Brown. 

• Institutional Context: The Lindenwood University Employee Digest for May 13, 2026, details a modified summer distribution schedule and facilitates university-wide review of the …

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Incorporating The Use Of Puppets And Puppetry-Based Approaches In Nutrition: A Scoping Review Of Interventions, Basil H. Aboul-Enein, Nada Benajiba, Majd Jan, Sarah Ali Alasmari, Patricia J. Kelly, Stephen F. Gambescia, Elizabeth Dodge

College of Nursing Faculty Papers & Presentations

Puppetry-based activities could serve as a low cost and manageable intervention in improving health-related outcomes. This review aims to identify the research to date and gaps in practice of the role and application of puppetry interventions in nutrition education. A scoping review was conducted using the PICOS framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, identifying studies across eight databases between January, 1980 and July, 2025.Twenty-five studies were identified, with the majority (n = 19) aimed at pre-school and school-aged children. Fifteen studies used quasi-experimental, pre-post designs. The use of hand and finger puppets was common, as well as videos and puppet theatre. …

“Una Vita In Maschera”: Exploring Modern-Day Venetian Carnival Through Photographs, Amy Hecht

Honors College Theses

This project aimed to explore the historical and cultural significance of Carnival in Venice, the festival preceding Lent that is characterized by a temporary breakdown of the social order. The main elements of Carnival include mask-wearing, elaborate costumes, and artistic showcases, especially theater and street performances. In particular, the 16th-century practice of commedia dell’arte is revived during the Carnival, featuring iconic masked characters and humorous storylines. In the current global political climate, where people are more divided than ever, Carnival is an escape from the drags of everyday life. Masses of tourists visit Venice during Carnival to experience the unique …

Shimmer Methodology: May 2026 Cultural Studies Association Of Australasia, Lola Montgomery

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

This webinar presents an overview of the contemporary state of creative-practice research and autotheory before introducing Shimmer, an emerging methodological framework developed through creative practice, postgraduate supervision, and reflective inquiry. The presentation argues that while creative-practice research has successfully established creative work as a legitimate form of knowledge production, and autotheory has legitimised lived experience as theoretical material, both traditions leave relatively under-theorised the embodied moment through which insight first emerges.

The significance of the work lies in its contribution to ongoing debates around embodiment, affect, intuition, and knowledge production within creative-practice research. Shimmer proposes a language for understanding …

The Brain Breakdown: Bringing Neuroscience To A Broader Audience, Katharine Buehrig

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Neuroscience is a rapidly growing field, which needs to continue becoming more accessible and understandable to younger generations. Expanding access to neuroscience through different modes, such as podcasts, brings the discipline to a broader audience. Podcasts allow listeners to follow an outlined learning path they can pursue on their personal timeline. High school students often do not have access to neuroscience specific materials within their standard science curriculum. To address this knowledge gap, I collected questions about neuroscience from high school students across four schools in the United States to develop an understanding about what they are interested in learning. …

Carrying Home Across Oceans: Embodied Adinkra Memory, Decolonial Resistance, And Diasporic Life Of Sankɔfa And Gye Nyame, Anthoniet Essien Christian

Theses - ALL

In this thesis, I explore how Ghanaian Adinkra symbols, particularly Sankɔfa and Gye Nyame, function as living expressions of memory, spirituality, and belonging within diasporic life. Drawing on autoethnography, story circles conducted at Pentecost International Worship Centre (PIWC) in Syracuse, New York, and embodied experience, the study examines how these symbols move beyond decoration to become active tools for remembering, resisting, and reconnecting with ancestral knowledge. Through everyday practices such as dress, ritual, worship, and digital expression, Sankɔfa and Gye Nyame carry memory across generations and geographies, shaping how diasporic subjects understand home, identity, and faith. The research shows that …

Feminization, Fetishization, And Gender Hierarchy: How Trans Women Are Represented In Porn For A Cishetero Audience, May Van Linden

Theses - ALL

Trans people, especially trans women, are a highly-targeted minority group and suffer rapidly-increasing discrimination, often predicated on the notion that trans women are dangerous sexual deviants. Further, trans women are often fetishized in their day-to-day lives, regularly manifesting as abuse. At the same time, demand for porn featuring trans women has skyrocketed, but literature about trans women in porn remains extraordinarily lacking in both quantity and quality. My research critically examined how trans women are represented in mainstream internet pornography consumed by a cishetero audience. I performed textual analysis of internet porn featuring trans women through a theoretical lens of …

Who Really Cares: A Critical Textual Analysis Of Television Portrayals Of The Fictional “Black Lady Therapist” Post-Pandemic, Tiara Johnson

Dissertations - ALL

Given television’s capacity to shape audience perceptions (Bryant & Oliver 2009) and help our cultural understandings of mental health (McMahon-Coleman & Weaver, 2020), both academic and industry research on mental health depictions and stigmas on television have increased. However, with the growing crisis and need for mental healthcare within the Black community over the past 15 years, this research uses a critical qualitative textual analysis to explore television's portrayal of fictional Black Lady Therapist (BLT) as a main character, and how these depictions counter and support stereotypical depictions of the Black woman and how these depictions can be used to …

Agency At The End Of History: Time, Terrorism, And Technologies Of Innocence In Engaging The Far Right, Gabriel Gr Herring

Theses - ALL

This thesis explores the way political rhetorics of time, morality, and political violence play out in visual representations of the far right in the United States via maps. In Out of Joint: Power, Crisis, and the Rhetoric of Time, Nomi Claire Lazar argues that governments and political movements use temporal-rhetorical frameworks to generate political legitimacy by associating their movement with time, which is generally understood as natural. I argue that every temporal-rhetorical frame also implies a set of moral codes which are understood to be materially true, despite the fact that our experiences of time are only ever aim-dependent and …

Rewriting The Script: Representations Of Virginity In Teen Dramedies (2019-2025), Sophia Elizabeth Condemi

Theses - ALL

Over the past three decades, youth sexual activity has steadily declined, with members of Generation Z (those born between 1997 to 2012) reporting lower rates of sexual activity than previous generations, and in many cases, delaying their first sexual experiences. This shift raises the question of whether contemporary teen television reflects these changes in sexual behavior. This thesis examines ten popular teen dramedies that aired between 2019 and 2025 on streaming video services to see whether new scripts surrounding virginity emerge or if traditional narratives persist. Using qualitative textual analysis guided by sexual script theory and relational dialectics theory, the …

Laughing Through The Pain: How Dark Humor Meme Culture Normalizes Collective Trauma Among Young Adults, Rusul Abbas

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper examines how young adults use dark humor memes to cope with collective trauma, and whether that humor helps people process painful experiences or gives them a way to avoid dealing with them. Using qualitative content analysis and Huntington's (2013) visual rhetoric framework, three memes from Instagram were analyzed across topics including the COVID-19 pandemic and school gun violence. The analysis found that dark humor memes do not function uniformly. Some help people name and sit with fear, while others package trauma in ways that make it easy to consume and just as easy to ignore. The paper argues …

Resilience In Recreation: Stories Of A Changing Climate, Casey L. Auberle

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

As the impacts of climate change become increasingly prevalent, the outdoor activities that bond us to our local communities and environments are under threat. In Missoula, MT, drought, rising temperatures, and wildfire smoke change what it means to fish, ski, run, and recreate in our town. In a series of Q&A style podcasts, environmental philosophy graduate student Casey Auberle creates a platform to share stories of a changing climate through the lens of local recreators and climate activists. Capturing these voices invites us to consider our relationship with nature on both an individual and communal scale, to find unity in …

A Qualitative Analysis Of The Challenges And Prospects Of Communicating Scientific Information About Gmos To Farmers In Kenya, Joseph J. Olomy, Abraham K. Mulwo

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The increasingly polarised public debate surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMOs) often lacks sufficient expert input, leading to heightened public fears and misconceptions. This prompts the questions as to how effectively scientific information on genetically modified foods (GMFs) is communicated to the general public. This study presents findings from interviews with eight crop scientists involved in GMF crop research in Kenya, with the objective of assessing the challenges and opportunities of communicating GMF research findings to the public, and especially to farmers. The participants were selected using a snowballing technique, where the initial participants were identified based on their active engagement …

The Data Driven Body, Kimberlyn P. Konen

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper examines how wearable fitness technologies function as persuasive digital tools that shape cultural understandings of health. Through a qualitative rhetorical analysis of popular devices such as Fitbit, Apple Watch, Garmin, and WHOOP, the study explores how interface design, data visualizations, notifications, and marketing materials communicate implicit messages about wellness. Rather than acting as neutral measurement tools, fitness trackers promote specific values, including quantification, discipline, optimization, and self-surveillance. Findings reveal that these devices define health through numerical metrics, encourage consistent productivity, frame wellness as competitive performance, and use emotional feedback to reinforce success or failure. Additionally, marketing imagery promotes …

Please Don’T Kill Big Bird: The Crusade Against Public Broadcasting, Paige Meyer-Draffen

Whittier Scholars Program

The sword and shield conservatives wield in their crusade against the CPB are contradictory constructs that represent the hypocrisy, greed, and monopolistic inclinations that underpin the efforts to kill public broadcasting. The Shield that conservatives stand behind is the rhetorical defenses employed to degrade the institution of Public Broadcasting. Arguments like protecting the American Family in the culture wars from programming like PBS’ Tales of the City (1993), or accusing NPR of being a biased, inaccurate journalistic outlet, and reducing PBS and NPR to only serving “wealthy, white, urban liberals and progressives, who generally look down on and judge rural …

The Perception Of Single Mothers On Romantic Reality Television, Rachel A. Bliss

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper examines how single mothers are represented on romantic reality television, focusing on Love Island USA and the storyline of contestant Huda Mustafa. Using a qualitative content analysis of episodes one through seven, this study looks at how motherhood is framed through Huda’s self representation, the reactions of other islanders, and the show’s editing and production choices. The findings show that Huda presents motherhood as a central and meaningful part of her identity, while also navigating fear of judgment and possible rejection in a dating environment. Other contestants largely respond with support and acceptance, which challenges common stereotypes about …

Developing An Effective Integrated Marketing Communication Game Plan For Today’S Consumers: Examining Marketing Methods That Work And How To Make The Proper Strategy Adjustments To Remain Relevant In The Future, Michele M. Wisnesck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a seasoned marketing professional, I’ve seen marketing trends and gimmicks come and go, but more critically, I’ve seen consumers shift their behavior in significant ways. The guiding research question for this project asks: With the constantly evolving marketing and consumer landscape and regular use of AI agents like ChatGPT or Google Gemini, how can marketing and communication professionals remain relevant? In short, the answer to this question is that integrated marketing communication (IMC) practitioners must adapt to ongoing consumer behavior changes brought on by technology advancements while leveraging a combination of traditional persuasive techniques, a variety of modern marketing …

The African American Pulpit And The Reconstruction Of Narrative Ground In The Black Community, Nathaniel Cox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how the African American pulpit serves as a living wellspring for rebuilding stories, memory, and identity, a task made urgent by centuries of erasure, from the trauma of the Middle Passage to the ongoing reverberations of that violence. My central claim is that African American preaching, when viewed through the insight-rich frameworks of Gadamer, Burke, and Frankl, becomes not just a form of speech, but a lifeline. It helps reclaim "narrative ground": the deep roots of meaning, belonging, and shared purpose that nourish a wounded people and allow genuine flourishing.

The journey unfolds across six movements. Chapter …

Qualitative Analysis On Cancel Culture And Family Vloggers: Examining Child Welfare And Digital Accountability On Youtube, Alyson M. Hardy

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This study uses qualitative content analysis to examine how cancel culture on YouTube highlights concerns about children’s rights and parenting ethics in family vlogging. It focuses on YouTube channels 8 Passengers and DaddyOFive. The research analyzes selected videos and audience comments to identify recurring patterns in parenting practices, child treatment, and public response. The study explores how disciplinary moments, emotional distress, and monetized family content are interpreted by audiences and framed within broader ethical debates. Findings show that viewers frequently express ethical concern, empathy for children, and distrust of their parents, while also calling for accountability and regulation. Rather than …