Digital Commons Network^™

Experiences Of Appalachian People With Conflicting Christian And Lgbtq+ Identities, Zacharias Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the experiences of six LGBTQ+ individuals living in Appalachia who have felt conflict between their LGBTQ+ and Christian identities. Using data from six one-on-one intensive interviews, the study examines the various kinds of conflict participants experienced, the strategies they used to manage those conflicts, and the role that Christianity played in their lives. The author found that participant conflicts were grounded in struggles to find acceptance from others while living authentically, to reconcile ideological disputes with the church, and to accept themselves as LGBTQ+ and/or Christian. Included among their various management strategies were finding accepting people and …

Masculinity Crossing Borders: An Analysis Of Acting Like A Man In Chicano Culture, Victoria Rivas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The current thesis examines the representation of Chicano masculinity in four films: Mi Familia (1995), A Better Life (2011), End of Watch (2012), and How to be a Latin Lover (2017). It uses cultural studies as a theoretical framework and methodology to explore the evolution of Chicano masculinity enacted by Latino actors in Hollywood films. Findings indicate that although the representation of Chicano masculinity has changed over the years, it remains negative. Including Latino actors in films to portray Chicano characters does not necessarily translate to accuracy. Limitations are addressed and suggestions for future research are provided.

Parents’ Perspectives Of The Effectiveness Of Family Treatment Court, Stacy Marie Gretz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Walking The Walk: Ex-Prisoners, Lived Experience, And The Delivery Of Restorative Justice, Allely Albert

Articles

Although the role of prisoners and ex-prisoners has recently received significant attention in restorative justice research, the literature typically treats them as the ‘offending’ party within restorative justice processes. This article instead focuses on ex-prisoners as facilitators of restorative justice, highlighting their ability to lead such programmes. Using a case study from Northern Ireland, the article examines the way that experiences of incarceration have directly influenced practitioners’ skills and their ability to uphold restorative justice principles. It is contended that qualities developed and honed in the prison environment ultimately translate to unique characteristics that can improve the restorative process. As …

Owning The Police: Crime Data, Copyright, And Public Information, A. Jay Wagner

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Online crime maps, which plot law enforcement crime data, promise to promote civic engagement and increase government transparency. This study reviewed the websites of the 250 largest U.S. cities and found 65% host or link to a crime map, and that 116 police departments entered into agreements with crime mapping companies that provide the companies preferred or exclusive access to local crime data, curtailing public access and use. This study examines the legal tactics used by commercial mapping companies to maintain information control, explores recent examples of legal battles over the data, and proposes solutions, including targeted public record law …

The Rattler (Volume 112, Issue 4), St. Mary's University

The Rattler (Previous issues)

Founded in 1919, The Rattler is the student voice of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. The newspaper documents campus life, academic and social issues, student opinion, and local and national events as they relate to the University community. Content typically includes news articles, editorial commentary, arts and culture coverage, sports reporting, and advertisements.

The Current - Volume 34 Issue 4, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald: Our Changing Hill, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Magazine edition of the College Heights Herald for the period September 5 - October 4, 2023.

• Anderson, Alexandria. Letter from the Editor – Change
• Dobberstein, Molly: The Hill Going Forward: Campus Changes & Improvements
• Anderson, Alexandria. WKU Innovation Campus Rethinks Business Development
• Reed, Bailey. New Courses on the Hill – Child Welfare, Mock Trail, Disability in US
• Murray, Debra. I Feel Really Lucky – Katherine Lennard
• Stone, Damon. Photojournalism Program to Change Curriculum

Rooted In Grant County, Jenna Gerig

Public Relations Student Projects

Because the goal of this campaign is to promote Grant County assets, initial research sought to assess communication throughout the county, gather insight on the impact of churches, and accumulate information on how to best retain its college students. Research also sought to identify the personas of Grant County residents to discover their values and beliefs. Additional research helped determine the most appealing assets, including churches and nonprofits, universities, parks and venues, events, and affordable living. Additionally, a survey was conducted to understand why students who attend colleges in Grant County choose to leave the county upon graduation.

To Fee Or Not To Fee: Requester Attitudes Toward Freedom Of Information Charges, A. Jay Wagner, David Cuillier

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

This study seeks to establish a foundation for how FOI fees are received by public record requesters, and how fees influence behavior across demographics and requester types. A survey of 330 public records requesters in the United States revealed sharp disparities in how requesters perceive fees. Private citizens, journalists, academics, and nonprofit requesters were more likely to identify excessive fees as a serious impediment, whereas commercial requesters and lawyers did not. The study also found differences in how fees are experienced at the federal, state, and local levels. Findings suggest that fees are particularly problematic for certain requester types, notably …

The Current - Volume 34 Issue 2, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Spartan Daily, September 14, 2023, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2023

Volume 161, Issue 11

The Current - Volume 34 Issue 1, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Police Officers’ Perspectives On The Death Of George Floyd By Minneapolis Police Officers: A Descriptive Study, Janet Henderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On May 25, 2020, four Minneapolis police officers reported to the location where an African American man had been accused of trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill in a convenience store. After being taken outside of the store, the man, George Floyd, was eventually placed in the back of a police patrol car, after he was handcuffed. Saying he was claustrophobic and resisting arrest, Mr. Floyd was removed from the patrol car, and placed on the ground on his stomach. One of the patrol officers, the most senior officer present, and a field training officer, placed his knee on …

Perceived Teacher Confirmation And The Online Classroom: Capturing Student Descriptions Of Experiences With Faculty Online, Ashley Jones-Bodie, Lindsey Anderson, Jennifer Hall

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This study explored and examined students’ perceptions of teacher confirmation, those behaviors that teachers engage in that make students feel confirmed as valuable, significant individuals, as experienced in online courses. With over 450 students’ written descriptions of experiences in online classes across three different universities, this study provides an important initial examination of teaching practices in the online context. While prior research has situated study of students’ perceptions of teacher confirmation in the traditional in-person course experience, the current project extends understanding of teacher confirmation into the online setting. The study provides detailed descriptions, in students’ own words, of specific …

The Antagonistic Anatomy Of Anti-Shippers: A Thematic Analysis, Adrian A. Stone

Student Theses

Within the transformative fandom community is an ideologically-affiliated group known as anti-shippers, whose rhetoric contends that fictional interests are an indication of those held in reality. Anti-shippers focus solely on fictional material perceived to be sexual in nature and make frequent references to pedophilia. This rhetoric is used to justify harassment against individuals who do not share in their beliefs. As this population primarily operates on social media, this study was designed to conduct an exploratory investigation into themes gleaned from posts authored by anti-shippers on Twitter. Utilizing latent content analysis, a total of 187 posts from 222 unique users …

Ethical Dimensions Of Climate And Environmental Issues In Pakistani Media, Shafiq Ahmad Kamboh, Muhammad Ittefaq, Sadia Jamil, Busha Hameedur Rahman

School of Communication Studies - Faculty Scholarship

One of the world’s most disaster-prone countries, Pakistan, is facing a variety of cases of climate and environmental ethics violations by a number of local and regional actors. Advocacy journalism has the potential to publicize these violations and injustices, stimulating democratic dialogue among the public audience that can eventually push leadership to make eco-friendly policies and raise public concerns on international platforms. The present study critically analyses the advocacy journalism coverage of cases of local and regional climate and environmental ethics violations in almost 8000 editorials in mainstream Pakistani Urdu and English language newspapers over two years and examines the …

Public Mediations Of Accountability In The #Metoo Era, Amanda Brand

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Tarana Burke initially launched the Me Too movement to cultivate solidarity among sexual assault survivors in 2006, and public appropriations of this effort have resulted in a kairotic moment of accountability in sexual assault cases. Particularly, the 2017 hashtag, #MeToo populates media platforms as the public invokes it to make sense of sexual assault cases, bearing witness to victim-survivors, assigning blame, or disavowing culpability. Challenging legacies of public denial, #MeToo marks a cultural shift in which victim-survivors are not only speaking out, they are also being heard and believed. I argue that accountability is rhetorically-constructed, negotiated, and imposed through …

People And Power: Person-First Language Usage And The Criminal Justice System, Casey E. Orr

Amplify: A Journal of Writing-as-Activism

Language is power. Word choice and terminology, especially those referring to people, are expressions of societal norms and institutional power. Dehumanizing crime-first terms and labels are abundant and common in criminal justice contexts despite being protested by system-involved individuals and activists. Instead, many advocate for person-first terms wherein identifying language emphasizes an individual’s humanity. With a peace-focused anthropological framework, this paper presents the case for person-first language in criminal justice contexts. It is evident that adopting first-person language usage regarding the criminal justice system is necessary after analyzing and considering the multiple sources, such as the voices of those who …

Fighting The Invisibility Of Domestic Violence, Yesenny Fernandez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Analyzing the invisibility of domestic violence in New York City as 32% of women in the city experience intimate partner physical violence. In this project, domestic violence refers to all different kinds of violence that occur in a home between all the members who live there regardless of whether they are intimate partners or not. The data focuses on all the daily calls received by the New York Police Department (NYPD) and NYC Mayor’s Office to End Domestic and Gender-Based Violence (ENDGBV) regarding domestic violence related incidents such as physical, psychological, emotional, and sexual violence, or murder. Even though many …

Promoting Service-Learning Through An Interdisciplinary And Decentralized Faculty Fellows Program, Shannon Cummins, Mitzi J. Ritzman, C. Cecilia Tocaimaza-Hatch, Jodi Benenson, Andrea Mm Weare

Communication Faculty Publications

The adoption of service and community-based learning can be a challenge across campus. Some units or departments might embrace the approach while others believe it can’t be done in their discipline. Despite being shown to offer benefits for learning and retention, recruiting faculty participation in service and community-based learning (SL/CBL) can be challenging. This article describes the origination and first two years’ outcomes of a decentralized faculty fellow program (FFP) across six colleges at a metropolitan university. The first cohort of faculty recruited for the FFP were tasked with serving as a resource for fellow college faculty/staff after collaborating with …

Promoting Service-Learning Through An Interdisciplinary And Decentralized Faculty Fellow Program, Shannon Cummins, Mitzi J. Ritzman, Jodi Benenson, C. Cecilia Tocaimaza-Hatch, Andrea Mm Weare

Communication Faculty Publications

The adoption of service and community-based learning can be a challenge across college campuses. Some units or departments might embrace the approach, while others believe it cannot be done in their discipline. Despite being shown to offer benefits for learning and retention, recruiting faculty participation in service and community-based learning (SL/CBL) can be challenging. This article describes the origination and first two years’ outcomes of a decentralized Faculty Fellows Program (FFP) across six colleges at a metropolitan university. After collaborating with college administration to determine priorities, the first cohort of faculty recruited for the FFP was tasked with serving as …

Redefining Anger For Sexual And Gender Minorities Using Art As A Visual Voice, Kirsten Ranheim

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

Art therapy is an increasingly popular approach for addressing trauma and anger in clinical settings. This literature review explores the connections between art therapy, trauma, gender, and anger, drawing on a range of studies and theoretical perspectives. Background is provided on the history of anger within the context of societal institutions, interpersonal power dynamics, psychiatric nosology, and social justice movements. The review concludes that art therapy is ideally suited as a trauma-informed approach to addressing anger in the therapeutic setting. This is due to the unique opportunities that art making provides for helping individuals express and process their emotions nonverbally, …

Through Her Eyes: Learning And Teaching About Racism Through "To Kill A Mockingbird" And "The Bluest Eye", Sloane Larsen

English Honors Theses

This thesis argues that Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird both merit a place in te United States’ secondary education systems by using use them in the classroom to encourage students to recognize and challenge their biases, perspectives, and choices. One of the many complex questions this thesis addresses is the efficacy of teaching students about racism using such novels. Teaching these novels through Critical Race Theory could help create a new generation of students who are more likely to address and challenge their biases and privilege. At the same time, this approach requires …

The Death Penalty Does Not Deter Murder, Samuel Maynard

Comm-entary

No abstract provided.

Spartan Daily, April 27, 2023, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2023

Volume 160, Issue 37

France Through The Eyes Of African Migrants In Contemporary France, Destanee Timmons

Undergraduate Research Competition

The impacts of French colonization can be felt worldwide. In the continent of Africa, numerous nations have had their native livelihoods turned on its head during and after the second French colonial empire. During France’s regime over several African nations, France has morphed the traditions of the native’s people and forever left its mark on the continent. Years after their independence, many African nations such as Algeria, Senegal, and Morocco are still affected by the changes implemented during the colonial era. These changes such as suppressing local culture in favor of French ideals resulted in internal turmoil and rampant corruption …

Disproportionate Discourses: Analyzing The Media’S Coverage Of Police Brutality, Tatyanah Santiago

Honors College Theses

This thesis examines how the media covers fatal confrontations between minorities and the police. Since the media is a primary vehicle for interpreting events as they unfold, it is important to recognize the ways news coverage frames these violent encounters. This paper focuses specifically on the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO in August 2014 and George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, MN in May 2020. News articles from The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fox News, and CNN were analyzed to see how authority narratives, witness narratives, and character depictions were reported. Three theoretical lenses (Critical Race …

Examining Framing Of Local And National Media Coverage Of Sandy Hook And Robb Elementary School Shootings, Gabrielle L. Debruler

LSU Master's Theses

There have been over 350 K-12 school shootings since the shootings at Columbine High School in 1999 (Cox et al., 2023). Thousands of journalists cover these attacks each in their own way with unique motives. This information goes to the public, and it is up to that person how they want to consume the story and view the shooting. National and local journalists tend to cover school shootings quite differently throughout time with unique frames. The shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary and Robb Elementary Schools illustrate this framing distinctively.

Through a qualitative study of national and local coverage of the …

Gold & Blue, Spring 2023, St. Mary's University - San Antonio, Texas

Gold & Blue

This is the Spring 2023 edition of Gold & Blue which is St. Mary's University's official school publication.