Digital Commons Network^™

Ua42/1 Wku Winter Term Annual Report, Wku Summer Sessions & Winter Term

WKU Administration Documents

Annual report of WKU Winter Term course enrollments, college data, course sections and marketing.

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 14 2013, Several Authors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Graduate Record 2013: Bulldog Adventures, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

SWOSU Yearbooks

The 2013 Graduate Record was produced by the Communications Department.

Antecedents To Mobbing, Anita Lois Lane

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The research examines possible antecedents to mobbing behavior. Mobbing typically occurs following a bullying incident. Dyadic Power Theory (Dunbar, 2004) is applied to the behaviors associated with this phenomenon. Indirect Interpersonal Aggression can be perceived as a communicative strategy to demonstrate control attempts. Those who lack in self-assurance may be more apt to join in with the mob and cultivate mobbing episodes in the adult world. Emerging adults are entering vocational spheres in large numbers. Becoming aware of unethical communicative behaviors that lead to severe workplace and individual consequences is the focus of this study.

Communication Of Emotion In Music, Jesse Paul Huhnerkoch

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The communication of emotion in music has been shown to be dependent on musical structure and emotional prompting with lyrical messages. This study seeks a new approach to researching the communication of emotion in music by creating musical samples that are based upon the sound wave frequency parameters of emotive speaking. An electronic survey containing six different emotive musical samples was conducted to gather listener interpretations of the intended emotional quality. Further research is needed to properly distinguish the parameters of emotive frequencies in order to provide for exposure of the functionalities of this phenomenon.

A New Model: Improving Adult Experiences In The Holy Land With Effective Pre-Departure Information, Resources And Procedures, Sarah A. Loan

Capstone Collection

Since September 11, 2001, Group Travel Directors (GTD) has noted an increase in self-reported anxiety among adult travelers preparing to depart to the Holy Land. This observation has been made by long-term employees both objectively and subjectively by comparing evaluation scores, cancellation percentages, tracking numbers of phone calls from anxious travelers and through staff accounts of conversations with travelers. GTD staff reports that clients often are inclined to make rash decisions based on perfunctory judgments influenced by media coverage.

GTD has collected evaluations from adult travelers for more than twenty years in an effort to better understand traveler perceptions of …

Study Abroad And Identity: The African American Experience, Alicia Ranney

Capstone Collection

Not all students are alike, nor should they be treated as 'one size fits all' in study abroad. Students have different backgrounds, goals, and expectations of what they will gain from an international academic experience. Minority students face different types of challenges in study abroad than their non-minority counterparts.

This paper seeks to answer the question “does study abroad change the identity of African American students?” and examines the challenges of identity and racism and how those two factors may decrease participation rates of African Americans in study abroad. Students from Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan were surveyed before and …

The Roma And Wall Street/Ceos: Linguistic Construction Of Identity In U.S. And Canadian Crime Reports, Theresa Catalano

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Discriminatory practices against Roma (also known as Romanies) occur on a daily basis in many countries around the world through media discourse. This paper investigates the representation of Romanies in U.S. and Canadian online newspaper crime reports and compares this representation to Wall Street/CEOs in crime reports demonstrating how identity of both groups is constructed through a variety of linguistic and non-linguistic strategies. Drawing on Mayr and Machin’s (2012) critical linguistic analysis of the language of crime, this multimodal study incorporates a variety of tools such as Critical Discourse Analysis and Cognitive Linguistics in order to dig below the surface …

Globalizing The Care Chain: Representations Of Latinas In Maid In America, Irune Del Rio Gabiola

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The article examines the portrayal of Latina women as housemaids in the U.S. as depicted in the documentary film "Maid in America" directed by Anayansi Prado. It discusses the social injustice and sacrifices undergone by the Latinas in order to survive in the host country. It also analyzes the image of the Latina as an ideal mother of both her native and host country.

Information Management And Delivery Of The Bible, Paul A. Soukup

Communication

In the Bible, God definitely works through human means, with all their characteristics and even with all their limitations. From the perspective of human communication, the ideas of ‘delivery systems’ or media for the Bible give only a part of the picture. The larger story describes how God’s word in the Scriptures moves from generation to generation in a variety of forms. And that story (looked at as communication) concerns information management: the discovery, preservation, recall, and expression of information. This case study of the delivery system of the Bible in mission will draw on the media ecology approach to …

Coordination And Symbolic Convergence At The Candles Holocaust Museum And Education Center, Jessica Mcdonald

Masters Theses

Using Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) and Symbolic Convergence Theory (SCT), this study examines the ways in which meaning is managed between the messages of the CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center and the visitors of the museum. The research shows that the museum and the museum visitors work together in order to create an overall rhetorical vision of the museum's main message, both within the museum space and beyond. Using the metaphor of conversation, this study demonstrates the three ways through which the museum and its visitors achieve the rhetorical vision: historical conversation, personal conversation, and residual conversation. In …

“Advise Me!” Understanding Undergraduate Student Perceptions Of Learning In Academic Advising, Schyler Simpson

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

This dissertation is a theoretically driven empirical analysis of instructional communication in academic advising. It explores the effects of perceived advisor accommodation on advisee learning. Specifically, it examines whether academic advisors employ accommodation communication that influence affect, cognitive learning, and behavioral learning outcomes in advisees. Four hundred and seventeen students were asked to report on their perceptions of learning through an online cross-sectional survey that addressed communication accommodation strategies employed in the advisor/advisee experience. Results show that behavioral learning (measured by intentions) was significantly predicted by advisor inquiry of school-related content (β = .391, p < .01); advisor attentiveness (β = -.169, p < .01); affect toward advising content (β = .154, p < .01); and cognitive knowledge (β = .244, p < .01)].

Both Sides Of Our Mouths: Contemporary Legends As A Means Of Dissent In A Time Of Global Modernism, Gerald D. Abbott Jr.

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

The legend is a permanent fixture of human societies. Though the legends themselves are permanent, their functions and meanings can fluctuate as the context in which they are told and retold shifts. As societies move through history, certain authoritative institutions create narratives that direct those societies and frame debates within them. Issues neglected by these institutions yet experienced by members of the population can be said to be unconstructed. Social problems that have achieved some level of construction inevitably provoke those who dissent from those constructions.

In these situations, members of a society look for alternative means for talking about …

Organizational Response To Perceptual Risk: Managing Substantial Response To Unsubstantiated Events, Elizabeth L. Petrun

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Analysis and perceived severity of risk influences organizational decisions to anticipated threats. As economic development and technology improve our standards of living, they also create new challenges to conceptualizing concrete and abstract threats. Organizations that face new threats, along with agencies that oversee these organizations, produce tightly coupled systems that increase risks for direct, indirect, and future stakeholders (Perrow, 1999). Natural disasters, political misbehavior, organizational corruption, financial collapse, food and water contaminations, chemical or nuclear accidents, international tension, to name a few, all present risks and challenges. Unfortunately, many of these situations endanger the lives and well-being of persons. The …

Ua35/11 Honors Program, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Records created by and about the Honors Program. Includes brochures, awards programs, student handbooks, newsletters and research publications.

The Nature And Perceived Influence Of Lifestyle Discussions With Older Adults In Primary Care, Shoshana H. Bardach

Theses and Dissertations--Gerontology

The Nature and Perceived Influence of Lifestyle Discussions with Older Adults in Primary Care Rationale: A healthy diet and physical activity help with disease prevention and disease management and can promote quality of life regardless of the age at which an individual begins engaging in these behaviors. Despite the value of these health behaviors, many older adults do not follow lifestyle recommendations. Given that older adults frequently interact with the healthcare system, primary care providers are well situated to counsel older adults to improve their health behaviors. Unfortunately, we do not know how to most effectively engage in this counseling. …

Technology Innovations In Publishing: New Directions In Academic And Cultural Communication., Elisabeth Tappeiner, Kate Lyons

Publications and Research

Over time, publishing technologies have not only influenced how people read, but also how knowledge is evaluated and authority is established. Social and mobile technologies represent relatively recent developments that have transformed the trade publishing world, but the extent to which they have affected academic publishing remains an open question. This article examines the rapid and disruptive transformations in the trade and digital publishing world, discusses how these developments have already intersected with the work of academics and considers how these changes might continue to transform the dissemination of academic research in the future.

Child Sexual Abuse In The Media: Is Institutional Failure To Blame?, Jane Long Weatherred

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a longitudinal content analysis study of child sexual abuse (CSA) in the United States national news media from 2002 through 2012. It finds that the U.S. national news media have shifted their focus from individual level causes to societal level causes for CSA. This shift has implications for changes in institutional policies and child protection laws throughout the country.

Mental Health On Youtube: Exploring The Potential Of Interactive Media To Change Knowledge, Attitudes And Behaviors About Mental Health, Caroline Belser Foster

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation first examines the mental health content on the video-sharing site YouTube as a foundation for exploring the ways the mental health community (members and associates of the National Alliance on Mental Illness) have used, and may use, YouTube in the future for information seeking, social support seeking, information providing, and social support providing. Using a content analysis of a systematic sample of YouTube videos produced by the YouTube search engine for the terms 'mental health' and 'mental illness,' this study highlights types, topics and formats of mental health related content, including types of mental illnesses, as well as …

That's News To Me: An Exploratory Study Of The Uses And Gratifications Of Current Events On Social Media Of 18-24 Year-Olds, John Vincent Karlis

Theses and Dissertations

Social media is a dominant news source among the college-age demographic (18-24). Inherent in news consumption on social media is current events, that is, news that has individual relevance, societal relevance and is time constrained. This study adds to the existing body of uses and gratification literature. This one-shot exploratory study is the first of its kind, examining the "what" or different dimensions of news and the "why" or uses and gratifications that 18-24 year-olds use current events on social media. It also looked at the factors predicting recall of current events on social media.

Using a survey of 896 …

Behind The Mask: An Analysis Of Women's Perceptions And Rationale Toward The Purchase And Use Of Anti-Aging Products, Clair Maureen Williams

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

An exploratory study was done to unveil a more contemporary and intimate look at women and aging in U.S. society. This qualitative research explored what women do, if anything, to confront pressures associated with aging. Purposeful sampling was used to homogenize the participant sample for increased richness of data. Criterion was as follows: women, 50’s age range, married with children, Caucasian, from the Midwest, and who currently use one or more anti‐aging products. In total, 17 women of similar status and background participated in this research. Data collection consisted of in‐depth audio taped interviews followed by immediate transcription. The analysis …

Situating The Study Of Messages About Non-Heterosexual Sexual Orientation In Everyday Ordinary Interactions: A Call For Paradigm Change, Clinton Lee Brown

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study explores the motivations that may orient an individual to another' s sexual orientation. Extant literature has traditionally focused on the ways in which individuals "detect" or recognize another's sexual orientation, but has failed to explore the communicative strategies individuals routinely engage in and the reasons he or she may be interested in another' s sexual orientation. As such, this study fits nicely into the interpersonal and intercultural communication literatures that concern themselves with the social construction of identity, which is an ongoing interactional task to which conversationalists orient. The data for this study was collected during the fall …

The Impact Of Interpersonal Communication On Breastfeeding, Jennifer Alarcon

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The medical community has offered a lot of evidence in support of breastfeeding which has led to many of the leading medical associations (i.e. the American Academy of Pediatrics, World Health Organization) to recommend breastfeeding infants exclusively for the first six months of life and for at least a full year, up to two years or whatever is mutually desirable to mother and child. However, in the United States, many mothers do not follow this recommendation. Research shows that instances of women being unable to breastfeed exist but are minimal. Many people have attempted to address the problem of low …

The Chicana Experience In Indonesia: An Autoethnography And Dialogic Performance Evaluating The Influence Of Cultural Identity And Gender, Bianca Ramirez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study seeks to evaluate how aspects of cultural identity, gender and religion play a role on a Chicana's (mestiza's) experience of studying abroad internationally through an Indonesian conservation program. The experience of traveling to Indonesia, engaging in cross-cultural dialogue, and experiencing adversities prohibiting multiculturalism, influences the ability of the Chicana/o ethnographer to examine cross-cultural parallels in dialect and behavior. I also analyzed the rhetoric contained within the dialogic performances of the mestiza ethnographer's documented experiences. Lastly, the intersections of cultural identity, gender, and class were evaluated to determine their influence on the mestiza ethnographer's ability to successfully engage in …

Tackling Overweight And Obesity: Does The Public Health Message Match The Science?, Katherine Hafekost, David Lawrence, Francis Mitrou, Therese O'Sullivan, Stephen R. Zubrick

Research outputs 2013

Background

Despite the increasing understanding of the mechanisms relating to weight loss and maintenance, there are currently no validated public health interventions that are able to achieve sustained long-term weight loss or to stem the increasing prevalence of obesity in the population. We aimed to examine the models of energy balance underpinning current research about weight-loss intervention from the field of public health, and to determine whether they are consistent with the model provided by basic science. EMBASE was searched for papers published in 2011 on weight-loss interventions. We extracted details of the population, nature of the intervention, and key …

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 …

How Do They Fit In?: Millennials In The Workplace, Carolee Richendollar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In some organizations four generations work together creating a unique culture. Millennials are the second largest generation currently in the workforce. Organizational culture is affected by interpersonal communication. Interviews were conducted with 17 workers between the ages of 19 and 30. Interviews consisted of 22 open-ended questions regarding daily tasks, organized activities, and interpersonal interaction. The perspective of organizational culture was evaluated through personal, task, social, and organizational rituals. Membership categorization was used to determine common vocabulary used to identify with coworkers. Duck’s theory on attraction was used to evaluate interpersonal behavior seeking to determine psychological attractors acting as catalysts …

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 …

Enacting Privacy Rules And Protecting Disclosure Recipients: Parents’ Communication With Children Following The Death Of A Family Member, Paige W. Toller, M. Chad Mcbride

Communication Faculty Publications

Given the probability that the death of a family member will occur before a child has reached adulthood, the purpose of this project was to understand what motivates parents to either talk or not talk about a loved one's death with their children. Using Communication Privacy Management to inductively analyze interviews, we found parents were motivated to talk to their children about death because they wanted their children to be informed. This is reflected in the first primary theme, Recalibrating Family of Origin Privacy Orientation Rules: Motivations for Revealing. Two secondary themes further explained parents' motivations to reveal: death as …

March Madness For Men, Gabrielle P. Jones

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the manner in which the media covers men’s and women’s athletics and how it may affect the public’s perception of women’s athletics. The study also seeks to examine how the hegemonic devices and primes that the sports media use can affect viewers’ enjoyment of women’s athletic coverage as well as the effect that sports fandom plays on viewers perceptions. Using an experiment exposing participants to heavy men’s college and women’s college basketball coverage, the results showed that sports media coverage did not elicit negative perceptions toward women’s athletics.