Digital Commons Network^™

A Quantitative Content Analysis Of Media Framing Of Illegal Mining In Ghana, Ebenezer Ato Kwamena Aidoo, Patrick Ansah, Fredrick Daoyenikye, Maame Aba Afful

Faculty Scholarship

Illegal mining in Ghana has attracted considerable public and policy attention due to its far-reaching environmental, social, and health consequences. Our study examines how Ghanaian news media frame illegal mining, the tone of media coverage, and the stakeholders represented in news narratives. Using a quantitative content analysis, 800 news articles were sampled from six widely read media outlets, Daily Graphic, Ghanaian Times, TV3 Ghana, GTV, Joy FM, and Citi Newsroom. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was employed to examine differences in framing, tone, and stakeholder representation across outlets. Findings indicate that news organizations emphasize distinct frames, resulting in varied …

Research On The Modeling Of Intelligence-Driven Cyberspace Public Opinion Security Situation Awareness Empowered By Digital Intelligence, Jinjie Ye, Fanglu Luo, Zhiyong Shi

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance] The shaping of online public opinion security situational awareness is a key approach to governance. In digital and intelligent era, integrating digital intelligence empowerment with intelligence-driven theory holds significant theoretical and practical value for enhancing the capability and effectiveness of online public opinion security situational awareness. [Method/process] This study, based on a thorough explanation of the core concepts of digital intelligence empowerment and intelligence-driven theory, systematically analyzes the internal logic of shaping network public opinion security situation awareness through digital intelligence empowerment and intelligence-driven approaches, then constructs and interprets a model for shaping network public opinion security situation awareness …

No One’S Child: Regulatory Gaps And The Wellbeing Of High School International Students (Hsis) In Homestays In Ontario, Canada, Patricia Quan

Critical Internationalization Studies Review

No abstract provided.

“I Never Really Thought That Would Be Something To Talk About With My Doctor”: Developing A Theory-Led Decision Aid For College Students’ Substance Use Disclosure In Healthcare, Hayley Stahl

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

College students who use drugs face compounding barriers to disclosing substance use to healthcare providers, including uncertainty about health consequences and stigma-driven identity concerns. Existing disclosure tools address neither barrier in an integrated fashion. This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study examined how constructs from the Theory of Motivated Information Management (TMIM; Afifi & Weiner, 2004) and Stigma Management Communication (SMC; Meisenbach, 2010) theory suggest factors influencing substance use disclosure among college students and shape their lived disclosure experiences. In Study 1, simultaneous-entry multiple regression analyses revealed that communication efficacy was associated with information seeking, perceived benefits of disclosure were linked to …

The Study Of How Sensory Marketing Techniques Used By Beauty Brands Influence Engagement And Consumer Perception On Social Media Platforms, Particularly By Evoking Specific Consumer Emotions, Eeshani Juthani

Digital Marketing Theses

This study describes how a consumers' attitude towards beauty products on social media is affected by sensory marketing techniques and cues. This study also examines how sensory marketing tactics and elements such as sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste affects the way a consumer engages with content on social media platforms like Tiktok and Instagram.

Making Digital Connections: Extension Educators’ Perceptions And Use Of Qr Codes, Kobina D. Fanyinkah, Jefferson D. Miller, Casandra Cox, Will Doss

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

While Extension educators recognize the potential of digital tools for outreach, there are still barriers to adoption, effective implementation, and acceptance. The goal of this study was to evaluate Extension educators’ perceptions concerning quick-reponse (QR) codes in outreach activities, including their effectiveness, integration, and barriers faced when using them. The study used a qualitative approach in the form of semi-structured interviews of twelve Extension professionals purposely sampled from the Ozark region of the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service. Participants perceived the effective use of the technology to be related to their target clients’ age and technological proficiency. Additionally, Extension professionals reported …

Tales Of The Empathic Support Provider: How Emerging Adult Women Make Sense Of Providing Empathic Support To Female Friends, Emma R. Eslinger

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

The current study explored the stories and reflections of 33 emerging adult women who made sense of their empathic support provider (ESP) identity in the context of female friendships. From the standpoint of the retrospective storytelling heuristic, within communicated narrative sense-making theory, participants told stories about their ESP identity, including how they provide support to others and reflect on the benefits of drawbacks of serving in this role (CNSM, Koenig Kellas, 2022). Under Proposition 1 of CNSM theory, meanings, values, and beliefs (MVBs) that ESP women expressed in this role were depicted as key takeaways gathered. Findings illuminated how ESP …

What Is Media Authenticity?: A Guide To Detecting Authentic Media Literacy, Kawan Yarbrough

Theses

This project seeks to answer the question of what media authenticity is, as it relates to different forms of popular media such as social media and content creators, content consumers that also actively post on social media, Reality Television and also touching base on how Artificial Intelligence has infiltrated the lives of many. Aside from discussing academia that has been published on this topic prior, my project will additionally include a quick guideline for being able to detect inauthentic media, and give quick points and recommendations for people that have no active media literacy training of any kind that can …

Da Mosang Tarsier Series: Developing Digital Bullying Prevention Materials For Filipino Parents Of Grade School Students, Rudy M. Danganan Jr., Ann Christine V. Braga, Maria Kristina S. Alfonso, Romelito Manuel D.S. Clorina, Ma. Regina Hechanova

Children and Families

Bullying remains a significant public health and educational concern worldwide and is particularly prevalent in Philippine public schools, with Grade 7 students identified as a vulnerable group. Although the Anti-Bullying Act of 2013 (Republic Act No. 10627) mandates school-based policies and procedures, persistent implementation gaps underscore the need to strengthen home–school partnerships and equip parents with practical, culturally grounded response strategies. This paper describes the development of the Da Mosang Tarsier Series, a set of digital psychoeducational comic strips designed for Filipino parents of Grade 7 students. Guided by a user-centered design (UCD) framework, the project began with a Generative …

Black Americana: Packaging Black Critique For White Consumption, Sean Bloemetjie

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this project, I extend the theorization of Black Americana, a conservative, racialized mass media project where Black celebrities, through the assertion of the American-ness and promotion of the American empire, engage in the containment of Blackness and Black people. Historically, Black Americana was conceptualized by Michele White around the online marketplace for racist, caricatured, slavery-era memorabilia, but I argue that this practice has morphed and evolved into a prominent form of mediated Black subjugation by Black elites. Utilizing Whitney Houston’s performance of the national anthem as a case study, I argue in the introduction that, by insisting upon her …

The Narrative Dynamics Of Special Books By Special Kids Youtube Videos And Comments: A Study Of Disability Rhetoric And Public Narrative Engagement, Jessica Louise Allee

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Digital media has expanded disability advocacy and community building by enabling accessible, visual storytelling and connection. Special Books by Special Kids (SBSK), a YouTube channel using interview-based disability storytelling, foregrounds people’s experiences with disabilities in the videos, while inviting viewers to interpret, identify with, and respond in the comments. As a participatory storytelling space, SBSK offers a site for examining how disability meanings are constructed, negotiated, and transformed through narratives, multimodal practices, and audience uptake, while revealing how dominant disability rhetoric or ableist discourse that positions people with disabilities as burdens, inherently deficient, or socially devalued, can be reproduced, complicated, …

Chi Meta-Project Ecosystem Overview - Spring 2026, David B. Smith

Publications and Research

This paper offers a high-level account of the Center for Holistic Integration’s (CHI) meta-project ecosystem as visualized in the included system map. CHI provides an organizational structure framed around persistent meta-projects that support and extend individual initiatives across curriculum, scholarly and applied research, infrastructure, artistic production, AI development, cultural inquiry, and external partnerships. Rather than presenting the map as a static inventory of projects, the paper examines how its core domains function as living systems through which knowledge, tools, documentation, participants, and collaborations can accumulate over time. It also considers how CHI-mediated connectivity, institutional integration, and external funding allow the …

Exploring Primary Care Providers’ Compassionate Care And Their Evidence-Based Practice With Death, Grief, And Loss: Patient Experience And Perspective, Kathryn Krzykala

Dissertations

Research on primary care providers’ (PCPs) education regarding Death, Grief, and Loss (DGL) remains limited. Specifically, data is lacking regarding patients' perceptions and opinions on what they need and expect from their PCPs regarding grief and loss. This exploratory mixed-method study comprised 146 participants who had experienced death and non-death loss. It examined participants' perceptions of 1) PCP compassion, 2) PCP utilization of evidence-based grief and loss practices, 3) their own level of comfort discussing DGL with their PCPs during medical visits, and 4) their personal grief and loss experiences. The findings revealed that PCPs' grief-informed evidence-based treatment, as reflected …

Rhetorical Physics And The Laws Of Language: A Comparative Analysis Of President Trump And President Macron At The United Nations 2025, David Edmund Allen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The paper features a textual analysis of the UN speeches made by the US President Donald Trump and by France’s President Macron. President Trump’s speech was made in the absence of a teleprompter and lasted almost an hour. President Macron’s speech was representative of a more standard diplomatic speech. Both speeches are analyzed using a variety of models and techniques. The analysis incorporates an exploration of Manin’s link of Zipf’s law to concepts from information theory and algorithmic complexity, Tao’s concepts applied to power laws, ‘E pluribus unum’, out of many, one, plus a completely new application of Villermaux’s universal …

Self-Help Or Hype? How The Public Seeks And Uses Health And Self-Help Information, Bailey Fraser Dr., Joanna Pozzulo Dr., Emily Pica Dr.

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

The rapid growth of the global wellness industry and increased availability of health information through social media and self-help resources have raised concerns about the public’s ability to evaluate credible health information. This study examined how adults in Canada and the United States use health information, what they consider qualifies information as evidence, and their reading behaviors related to physical and mental health, including self-help books. A total of 96 participants completed an online survey assessing health information use, criteria for evidence, reading habits, and self-help book selection. Participants reported using health information primarily to make personal health decisions and …

Using Amish Scribes’ Newspaper Letters To Portray The New Wilmington, Pa, Amish Settlement, Kristin Park

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

In studying distinctive ethnoreligious communities, it is preferable to listen to and analyze the voices of members themselves. This paper interprets the professed values, activities, and priorities of an understudied, hybrid Andy Weaver / Old Order Amish settlement using Amish scribes’ letters to two Amish and one non-Amish newspaper. Quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the newspaper letters discovered dominant themes of emotional expression, illness and accidents, visits, weather, and work and compared their prevalence across the newspapers. Amish newspapers were more emotionally expressive and highlighted members’ illness and injury while the non-Amish newspaper primarily focused on visiting, weather, and …

The Meme Event: Memefication, Memory-Making And Political Resistance In The Biafra Digital Discourse, Chimaobi Dick Onwukwe

Theses - ALL

In this thesis, I examine the Biafran digital commemoration on May 30th every year—Biafra Commemoration Day. Specifically, I examine how the Biafran digital commemorative culture functions as memorialization and political action. Drawing on theoretical reserves from modern meme studies and performance studies, I propose a theory of “meme event”—a coordinated digital practice that encompasses not just memetic content but the larger ecology of its creation, circulation, strategic timing (May 30th), and strategic deployment. The rallying slogan “We don’t die, we multiply” serves as the anchor around which the meme event revolves, circulating both memetic content and non-meme posts. This theoretical …

Online Rights Defense Among Chinese Americans Against Racial Aggression In The U.S. During The Covid-19, Fangzhu Lu, Wenshan Jia

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose

This study investigates how Chinese American communities responded to heightened racial discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic by utilizing social media platforms to safeguard their civil rights, articulate collective concerns, and mobilize resistance against racial aggression.

Methodology

Through qualitative case study analysis, the research examines the social media activities of six advocacy organizations, including three X accounts (WashTheHate, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Asian Americans Advancing Justice) and three Instagram accounts (Stop AAPI Hate, Stop Asian Hate, Advancing Justice: AAJC). The analysis focuses on the content strategies and communication mechanisms employed to counteract racial hostility.

Findings

The selected organizations used social …

Freshman Student Sleep And Academic Stress Levels: An Empirical Study For Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Julia M. Cortese

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

Receiving an adequate amount of sleep is essential for academic success as it prepares the brain each day for the workload ahead. Sleep deprivation is associated with negative cognitive, emotional, and physical outcomes that may affect academic performance. Currently, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) does not have any form of sleep education or awareness for first-year, first-semester students, which leaves them susceptible to a cycle of sleep deprivation, academic underperformance, and stress. This study examines the relationship between sleep habits and academic stress among first-semester, first-year students of Fall 2023 at ERAU. This empirical study used a mixed-methods survey with eighteen …

National Belonging And Cricket Fandom: Narrative Storytelling By Indian Premier League (Ipl) Teams On Instagram, Aman Misra, Adam William Love

Journal of Global South Sport Studies

This study examines how Indian Premier League (IPL) teams employed narrative storytelling on Instagram during the 2020 edition of the tournament, which was held in the United Arab Emirates rather than in India. Throughout the season, IPL teams used social media, especiallyInstagram, to foster online relationships and construct visual narratives reflecting transnational identity and other forms of cultural symbolism. Using Fisher’s (1985) narrative paradigm and Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) framework for visual narrative analysis, we investigate how Instagram posts from IPL team accounts articulated political and cultural identities. In doing so, the current study provides a novel contribution to …

A Scoping Review Of Sycophancy In Large Language Models: Operational And Theoretical Recognition, Kallen Zhou, Manning Littlejohn, Isabella Garrard

Endeavors: Mississippi State Undergraduate Research Journal

As large language models (LLMs) usage grows across different domains, sycophancy, the tendency for output to align with users, is increasingly being recognized as a primary issue arising from applying LLMs into critical areas. Current research has provided a variety of theoretical definitions, mitigation techniques, and quantification for sycophancy. However, there is little to no consistency across different papers. This scoping review seeks to connect different works on LLM sycophancy by identifying themes in theoretical definitions, measurement methods, and inducement techniques of sycophancy. By analyzing 26 papers (preprints, conference proceedings, and journal articles) from arXiv, ACL Anthology, and Scopus, this …

Lindenwood Digest, June 24, 2026, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

• Event & Date: The Lindenwood University Employee Digest was issued on June 24, 2026, and catalogs upcoming institutional activities including a Youth in Need golf fundraiser on July 27 and Lindenwood Night at the Ballpark on September 18.

• Geographic Grounding: Campus activities, including multiple Learning Academy professional development sessions, are held in LARC 09, Lindenwood University, St. Charles, Missouri.

• Key Honorees/Awards: Employees recognized in the Q2 Moments section include Director of Information Technology Enterprise Systems and Application Development Karin May; Admissions Counselor for Traditional Students Ben Corson; and Financial Aid Advisor (P-R) Kristie Powell.

• Institutional Context: The digest documents operational …

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Navigating Multiple Roles: Communication Strategies Of Indonesian Postgraduate Women In A Patriarchal Collectivist Culture, Shela Kusumaningtyas, Wawan Hadinata, Nur Iman, Yunati Alinda, Adinda Aulia Nurhaliza, Leoni Nindyasari

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

This study examines how Indonesian postgraduate women negotiate simultaneous roles as wives, mothers, workers, and students within a patriarchal collectivist culture. Using a qualitative case study with a constructivist orientation, the research focuses on six postgraduate students at the University of Indonesia who were selected through purposive criteria because they simultaneously managed family, work, and academic responsibilities. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, limited contextual observation, and supporting documents, and were analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding procedures. The findings show that role conflict is experienced not merely as a matter of time management, but as a layered burden …

Redesigning An Intercultural Communication Course To Build Power Skills For An Ai-Augmented Global Economy, Nitin Deckha

International Journal of Emerging and Disruptive Innovation in Education : VISIONARIUM

This case study reports a full redesign of an undergraduate Intercultural Communication seminar in Toronto, repositioning the course to foreground power skills as durable differentiators in an AI-mediated economy. The redesign shifts an asynchronous distance format into a seminar-based model with weekly applied learning, scaffolded assessments, and a four-week COIL partnership with a Turkish university to create authentic intercultural collaboration under real constraints. Students practice creativity, curiosity, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, decision-making, verbal and nonverbal communication, cross-cultural competence, and self-reflexivity, while also learning to use AI tools in ways that remain accountable to disciplinary standards. Assignments include debates, peer assessment, …

I Will Defend My Self, Emily Ward Hawkins

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines caregiving and motherhood as forms of load-bearing infrastructure. Cultural narratives often portray motherhood through sentimental images of joy, tenderness, and devotion, obscuring the structural labor that sustains family life. This project examines maternal labor as a largely unseen system of support that organizes family life while often remaining backgrounded. Caregiving reorganizes time, space, ambition, embodiment, and future orientation within maternal life. Through sculptural works using architectural materials and construction systems, such as oriented strand board, blueprint racks, metal armatures, and graph paper, the project visualizes caregiving as a structural condition. These materials reference the language of architecture …

Social Media And Health Information Sharing In Nigeria: Trends In Weight Loss And Cosmetic Procedures, Victoria Ochanya Agbo

Student Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the role of social media in facilitating (mis)information on weight loss and cosmetic surgeries in Nigeria. Utilizing the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), the study examines information shared by influencers, audience engagements with such messages, and the factors influencing audience receptivity of the messages. Using a qualitative design, a thematic analysis was conducted on influencer posts and audience responses to such posts across major social media platforms. The findings show that influencers frequently framed cosmetic surgery and weight loss as aspirational lifestyle choices and downplayed the medical risks using means such as testimonials, visual transformations, and authenticity cues. …

"Using A Sledgehammer To Crack A Nut" A Proposal To Re-Frame The Media Industry's Perspective On Generative Ai, Reace Barnett

Student Theses and Dissertations

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) continues to be a divisive topic in the media industry and there are concerns about technical challenges that may affect GenAI’s trustworthiness and reliability. As such, fears of degraded public trust in media products and services have arisen, and while we have a tendency to trust machines, it is clear that public attitudes toward automated decision-making are contentious. Previous research on machine cues found that they are associated with increased perceived objectivity and willingness to disclose information. Conversational GenAI may reduce political polarization, yet many people remain worried about risks such as bias, hallucinations, improper attribution, …

Mindfulness Across Media: Examining The Effects Of Audio, Audio-Visual, And Virtual Reality Mindfulness Interventions On Social Media Mindsets And Psychological Wellbeing, Rashmi Salian

ETDs from 2020-2029

Social media is so deeply ingrained and integrated into daily life that concerns about its impact on psychological wellbeing continue to grow, prompting pressing questions about how to foster healthier and more intentional use of technology. Recent studies suggest that low-agency mindsets toward social media lead users to develop habitual usage patterns and ambiguous information consumption behaviors, both of which negatively impact psychological outcomes. However, limited research is available on mechanisms that could effectively alter these mindsets. This study uses an experimental methodology to investigate whether mindfulness interventions delivered through varying levels of media immersion can improve psychological mindsets toward …

Toward Defining Vulnerability For The Field Of Communication, Adrian Osman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Vulnerability, a common human experience, is still not well-theorized within the field of communication and lacks a clear, discipline-specific definition. This qualitative study examined how vulnerability shapes interpersonal communication, using general systems theory and social exchange theory as guiding frameworks. Through in-depth interviews with individuals who identify obesity as a lived vulnerability, five central themes emerged: awareness and acceptance of vulnerability, experiencing weight-based dismissal in healthcare, weight-related communication in familial and everyday interactions, avoidance and situational disengagement, and support systems – what works and what does not. Findings show that vulnerability acts as a dynamic communicative force, shaping engagement, withdrawal, …

Hand Mapping: Our Sexual Health Is (Not) In Our Hands, Laura L. Ellingson

Feminist Pedagogy

This Original Teaching Activity introduces hand mapping, an assignment based on the body mapping method, in the context of a communication and gender studies course. Hand mapping can be adapted to interpersonal, organizational, intercultural, and media courses that address identities, intersectionality, communication, culture, and power in different contexts and mediums. Students outline their hands on paper and artfully embellish them as a visual representation of important takeaways or lessons they learned in the course in response to the prompt, “Our sexual health is (not) in our hands.” Students write an “artist’s statement” explaining meanings of color, symbolism, and design.