Digital Commons Network^™

Performances Of An Able, Academic Mind, Caleb Green

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Western culture individualizes issues of public health. This is especially clear in academic life, where the structures of the university disable atypical bodies and minds in order to force them to simultaneously perform the roles of scholar, teacher, and colleague. The university not only fails to accommodate afflicted minds and bodies, it also produces more precarity in the process. This project is a performance ethnography of my time in the academy, starting with my life as an undergraduate being disciplined into academic life, moving toward recruitment for graduate school, and ending with events surrounding the construction of this very project. …

Ua25 Memoranda, Wku Strategy, Operations & Finance

WKU Administration Documents

Memoranda issued by WKU Strategy, Operations & Finance to faculty & staff via email.

• Bookstore
• Staff Excellence Awards
• Campus Update

Ua19/16/2 Athletic Media Relations Press Releases, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

General WKU athletic press releases for 2020.

Mobilizing The Social Power Of Iconic And Performative Texts For Justice And Reform, James Watts

Religion - All Scholarship

In the ten years of its existence, SCRIPT has succeeded in promoting and publishing an increasing variety of scholarship on iconic and performative texts. Culturally specific studies have provided the basis for comparative theorizing about the phenomena. This body of scholarship has put us in a better position to analyze current events involving iconic books and performative texts. It can also enable us to make creative suggestions for strengthening movements for justice and social reform by ritualizing iconic and performative texts. Here, I provide three examples of how to employ SCRIPT research to strengthen contemporary movements for social and environmental …

Sex, Gender, Sexual Assault, And Rape On The Red Pill: A Thematic And Linguistic Analysis, Walker Talton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The digital space has offered fertile new territory to connect with like-minded individuals and discuss anything and everything. This has resulted in the creation of the Manosphere, a collection of men concerned about the state of men and masculinity and how society views and treats men. One of the places online this community has found a home is the popular website Reddit, which offers the ability to create individual pages in which communities can form around and discuss and share information on almost any topic they desire. This study aimed to investigate the ways in which one community on Reddit, …

Hyperreal: Law And The Interpretation Of Visual Media, Amy L. Landers

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Pink Is The New Tax, Eliana Burns

Communication Senior Capstones

Historically women in America have made colossal advances that have proven they are just as capable as men. Women had fought and continued to challenge the system since 1919 with the 19th Amendment giving them a right to vote. However, even with this crucial progression, womens’ oppression can be found all around us only in much more subtle ways such as “ the pink tax”. As of 2020 there are currently no federal laws to outlaw companies from charging different prices depending on which gender they are meant to be marketed to. This rhetorical analysis will first address the concept …

Doing Gender: Cars And Culture In The United States, Adrian L. Zavala

Communication Senior Capstones

This qualitative research study aims to define and describe gender stereotypes and car culture. It will also explain how these stereotypes influence car culture and vice versa. This paper aims to explain how the mass media uses car culture in the United States and imposes gender stereotypes. The mass media I will be discussing includes but is not limited to commercials and magazine adverts. This paper asserts that by portraying what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman, car companies build car culture and use pre-existing constructs of gender for marketing it. According …

Stereotyping Gender Roles: Children's Commercial Advertisement, Lucky J. Mcclelland

Communication Senior Capstones

Heteronormativity gives the individual in our society a binary optional choice: the first choice being the socially accepted ‘norm’ that follows the heteronormative binary, and the second being the socially disfavored choice of being deemed ‘abnormal’ if one chooses to go against this heteronormative binary. In return, we as a socially constructed society then deem the binary option of the ‘norm’ as the culturally preferred ‘good’ choice, while at the same time deem the other binary option of the ‘abnormal’ as the socially constructed ‘bad’ choice. This occurs both intentionally and unintentionally. The purpose behind my area of focus is …

Exploring Artificial Intelligence-Mediated Communication (Aimc) As A Sub-Field Of Communication Studies. A Textual Examination, Md Nurul Karim Bhuiyan

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

From the book "Speaking into the Air: A History of the Idea of Communication," written by John Durham Peters, we understand a notion about developing one’s destiny; people have the freedom to choose multiple paths to follow (Peters, 2012). If we reject this idea, it is also easy for people to come up with distinct explanations. Even though the meaning of the same issues might vary subject to who is interpreting them, the primary concepts can be interpreted as more or less the same. If we study these two--"artificial intelligence" and "communication"- simultaneously, we can assume some characteristics. Thus, this …

Rey-Ifying A New Heroine: Interrogating The Curriculum Of Femininity In Star Wars Films, Rebekah S. Morgan

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The Star Wars film trilogies are a cross-generational phenomenon. Due to its powerful and pervasive nature, the messages within Star War’s films must be problematized. As a cultural artifact, Star Wars was used to explore the representations of women across time and three generations. Using a conceptual framework based on cultural curriculum studies and feminist theory, this study explored the significance of Star Wars as gender text by interrogating the representations of women in the Star Wars film saga and what these representations teach about gender and femininity. By focusing on the themes of agency, empowerment, and identity, this work …

Examining Communication Patterns And Identity In Families With Children Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing, Amber L. Alvey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

“Deafness in the context of the hearing family attacks the backbone of the family structure, namely communication” (Ahlert & Greeff, 2012, p. 402). There is a link between communication and identity, specifically the role of communication on identity (Jung & Hecht, 2004). The purpose of this study is to better understand the experiences of families with children who are deaf or hard of hearing by investigating the relationship between family communication patterns and identity. In this study, I conducted in-depth interviews with the parents of children who are hard of hearing to investigate family communication patterns and identity. Using Family …

"It's None Of Your Damn Business" : Communication Among Newlyweds Regarding Family Expansion Preferences, Kiersten Koehler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As newlyweds begin their new adventure as a married couple, the discussion of family expansion is inevitable. This thesis seeks to understand how newlyweds discuss their plans for family expansion among each other and to others by applying the theory of communication privacy management. Ten newlywed couples were interviewed regarding their experiences navigating the topic of family expansion and reproduction. Specifically, the couples were asked about preferences for privacy and control, and what expectations the couples have when disclosing information about their preferences for family expansion. The data demonstrated that communication privacy management may not look the same among each …

Hear Me Roar, Abigail R. Seethoff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Hear Me Roar, a compilation of personal essays interspersed with short forms, grapples with the nuances of compliance versus autonomy in the context of the male gaze, beauty standards, and pop culture. The collection also explores what it means to treasure something—another person, an object—and how to express and deepen that affection.

The Home As A Site Of Family Communicated Narrative Sense-Making: Grief, Meaning, And Identity Through “Cleaning Out The Closet”, Kendyl A. Barney

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study utilized communicated narrative sense-making theory to explore the process of sorting through a deceased loved one’s belongings and changing the home after loss (referred to as “cleaning out the closet”), as the site of family communication and storytelling. Through storytelling, families make order of the disordered experience that is bereavement by negotiating meaning, identity, and family. The stories told about and within the process of “cleaning out the closet” elicit rich insight on each family’s experience with bereavement, loss, and life with each other. “Cleaning out the closet” narratives shed light on the interactions that occur between family …

The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary: An Exploration Of Changing The Discourse On Conservation, Arielle Ben-Hur

Pitzer Senior Theses

In 2015, the Northern Chumash Tribal Council submitted a National Marine Sanctuary Nomination to establish the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary– a means by which to ensure the protection of one of the most culturally and biologically diverse coastlines in the world. On October 5, 2015, John Armor of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) responded to the nomination, adding it to the inventory of areas NOAA may consider in the future for national marine sanctuary designation.

In my thesis, I explore how the nomination of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary acts as a platform from which Traditional …

Defying The Odds: Exploring The Ways First-Generation College Students Enact Resilience, Paris Lauren Nelson

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

This thesis examined the experiences of first-generation college students in the context of higher education. This thesis was framed by the communication theory of resilience to discover how first-generation college students enact five processes of resilience: crafting normalcy, affirming identity anchors, maintaining and using communication networks, employing alternate logics, and foregrounding productive action. First-generation college students face academic preparation, financial, social capital, personal, and college completion adversities that may necessitate engagement in resilience processes. Participants (N = 8) participated in focus groups and interviews where they discussed messages from family, peers, and university faculty and staff involving reactive and proactive …

Recipes For Anger Appeals: A Systematic Review, Tianen Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Although there is an increasing use of anger appeals in communication research, scholars have yet to fully explore the causes of anger. Anger is elicited in situations where individuals perceive that their desired goals are blocked or needs are not fulfilled (Harmon-Jones & Harmon-Jones, 2016). Using Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs model (Maslow, 1943), the current study aims to systematically review communication studies on anger appeals to synthesize and categorize the violations of goals/needs that have been studied or utilized to elicit anger. A comprehensive literature search was conducted in eight relevant databases: ProQuest Dissertation & Thesis Global, Web of …

Boundaries And Infomediaries: A Qualitative Study Of The Information Practices Of Community Health Workers, Robert M. Shapiro Ii

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Despite successful efforts to treat and manage diseases, public health officials have recently begun a campaign to refocus efforts toward initiatives to alleviate the pressures that are often referred to as social determinants of health. In eastern Kentucky, and in other geographical regions labeled as health professional shortage areas or medically underserved areas, issues stemming from social determinants are compounded with health care systems that are often lacking the human resources to meet basic medical needs. One strategy has been to utilize volunteers and paraprofessionals such as community health workers to lessen the burden on the primary care and hospital …

Supporting Safety Culture In Academia: Safety Communication Barriers, Emily Faulconer, Chelsea Lenoble

Publications

In the last decade, we have heard of multiple disturbing academic laboratory accidents resulting in significant injury and property damage. When these hit headlines, it can spur self-reflection across academic institutions. The unfortunate truth is that safety in academia tends to be problematic. Accidents happen regularly even if they do not make headlines, with post-accident analyses typically revealing systematic safety failures. As a result, the concept of safety culture has come into the spotlight.

The Impact Of United States Of America College Education On The Japanese Students’ Keigo Toward Their Senpai, Manami Matsuoka

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of the study is to research whether studying abroad experiences in the United States of America affect keigo usage of Japanese college students toward senpai. 58 Japanese college students in Japan and the United States of America completed a 25-item survey. Honorifics usage of both Japanese college students in Japan and international Japanese students in the United States were tested. The Results revealed that study abroad experiences influenced/changed international Japanese students’ original communication style and keigo usage toward senpai.

Critical Media Literacy And Cultural Autonomy In A Mediated World, Bill Yousman, Lori Bindig Yousman

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

We live in mediated worlds. Every waking hour of our lives finds us close, physically and mentally, to some sort of media content: Television, radio, movies, magazines, billboards, blogs, YouTube videos, websites, and social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and Pinterest. Media scholars have been researching the ubiquitous role that media play in our lives for decades, but the current media environment is unlike any seen in history, as developments in digital technologies have produced a veritable onslaught of words, images, and sounds that can be accessed anywhere, at any time; all from a device that most of …

"Good Job, But Bulgarian": Identifying "Bulgarian-Ness" Through Cultural Discourse Analysis, Nadezhda Sotirova

Communication, Media, and Rhetoric Publications

By using cultural discourse analysis and ethnography, naturally occurring talk and interviews were examined for local constructions of “Bulgarian-ness” in order to formulate explicit and implicit cultural propositions about being “Bulgarian,” and cultural premises about being (“Bulgarian-ness” as problematic) and emotion (anger, frustration) as connected. This article illustrates the notion of the phrase as a local cultural symbol within Bulgarian discourse that evokes deep cultural meanings for a way of being (“Bulgarian-ness” and the West/East dichotomy), emotions (frustration, hopelessness), and a social world (the “Bulgarian situation”) as continuously negotiated in relation to conceptualizations of “Balkanism.”

A Social Media Strategy For An Academic Department, Stephanie Buermann, Heidi Everett, R. Jeffrey Ringer, Traci Anderson, Alex Davenport, Eddah Mutua

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This essay describes the process one communication studies department used to develop a social media strategy. That process involved identifying the audiences to be reached, establishing goals and objectives, conducting an audit to identify possible message posts, and selecting posts to reach our goals and objectives. The resulting strategy involves posting messages two to three times per week targeted toward specific audiences and reflecting twelve objectives. A calendar was created to guide the posts. Future research will assess the effectiveness of the strategy.

Viral Stories In Spanish And English: A Qualitative Analysis Of Narrative Perceptions Regarding Infant Immunizations Across Major Ethno-Linguistic Communities, Zeynep H. Elshaer

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to analyze the varying perceptions among Hispanic (Spanish-speaking) and Anglophone communities regarding vaccines and more specifically infant immunization practices, in order to identify common or diverging patterns of communication, information dissemination, and narrative discourse. Currently, medical messaging and health policy is largely formulated without thorough attention to the different ways diverse or minority ethno-linguistic communities may interpret the information, thereby leading to deficiencies in effective communication practices between individuals and healthcare providers or policymakers, and outright opposition between informal and formal public health messaging. This evaluation was conducted in order to broaden the current …

The Development Of A Couple Observational Coding System For Computer-Mediated Communication, Martha S. Rackets

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

Many romantic couples integrate text and computer-mediated communication (CMC) into their relationship dynamics, both for general relationship maintenance and for complex dynamics such as problem solving and conflict. Romantic couple dynamics are interactional, dynamic, and sequenced in nature, and a common method for studying interactions of this nature is observational analyses. However, no behavioral or observational coding systems exist that are able to capture text-based transactional couple communication. The main purpose of this dissertation was to develop an observational coding system that can be used to assess sequenced computer- mediated, text-based communication that takes place between romantic partners. This process …

Deindividuation In Anonymous Social Media: Does Anonymous Social Media Lead To An Increase In Non-Normative Behavior?, Shayn S. Davidson, Amy Bradshaw Hoppock, Rebecca A. Rohmeyer, Joseph Keebler, Christina M. Frederick

Publications

This research presents several aspects of anonymous social media postings using an anonymous social media application (i.e., Yik Yak) that is GPS-linked to college campuses. Anonymous social media been widely criticized for postings containing threats/harassment, vulgarity and suicidal intentions. However, little research has empirically examined the content of anonymous social media postings, and whether they contain a large quantity of negative social content. To best understand this phenomenon an analysis of the content of anonymous social media posts was conducted in accordance with Deindividuation Theory (Reicher, Spears, & Postmes, 1995). Deindividuation Theory predicts group behavior is congruent with group norms. …

Learning Wakanda: Assessing The Responses Of African-American Children And Their Caregivers Toward Concordant Educational Media, Cameron L. Coleman

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Screen-based educational media, as an extension of the schooling process whose history has mirrored brick and mortar institutions, have traditionally espoused narratives of Eurocentricity, shifting relatively recently to multicultural yet simultaneously raceless narratives. While many viewers have learned from and been inspired by these media, the enthusiastic response to the film Black Panther (2018), as demonstrated by financial earnings and sustained social media energy, revealed an intense yearning in the Black community for media positively centering the strengths and successes of Black lives. Launched from the sociocultural fervor for Black concordance in media, and extending concordance into the educational media …

Ensemble Storytelling: Dramatic Television Seriality, The Melodramatic Mode, And Emotions, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Communications: Faculty Publications

This chapter considers seriality in contemporary television dramas in light of arguments that most popular culture falls within melodrama as modality (to include legal shows, police and detective programs, westerns, and medical series), instead of narrow genres, such as soap operas. The recent success of fully serialized dramas is a noteworthy development, producing highly popular and highly regarded programming. The traditions of melodrama, including its deep commitment to the uses of emotionality, address story worlds and audiences in terms of social relations, in contrast to psychological realism’s more individualized and inward turning tendencies. “Ensemble Storytelling” explores three specific strategies available …

The Good Ol' Days: How Sociopolitical Climate Influences Motivations To Seek Historical Nostalgic Media Experiences Versus Non-Nostalgic Media Experiences And The Outcomes Of Those Experiences, Samantha Rosenthal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Nostalgia is a complex cognitive and affective experience and has been described by some as a "social emotion" (Goulding, 2002; Merchant & Rose, 2013; Wildschut et al., 2006). Through nostalgic media experiences, people can develop connections to prior eras or periods in society which are accompanied by a range of emotions and feelings. Perceptions of the past are influenced by experiences in the present. Because of this, it is possible that people's perceptions of their current political climates and society play a role in how they seek and react to media experiences, including nostalgic media experiences. Considering how the political …