Digital Commons Network^™

Breaking The Silence: Autoethnographic Account Of Communication In The Aftermath Of Parental Suicide, Marissa L. Lucero

Communication ETDs

The silence that surrounds the suicide of a parent often masks unresolved feelings of guilt, shame, and powerlessness in families grieving their loss. For children, the long-lasting impact of suppressing communication about parental suicide can endure throughout adulthood. In this autoethnography, I un-salience my voice to reflect on my father’s suicide in the context of my Nuevo Mexicana identity. I assert my Chicana feminist voice through an extraction of gendered and culturally grounded memories, personal journal entries from my childhood, and a review of academic sources on suicide. This thesis is a personal and intellectual engagement with Chicana/o critical theory, …

Reproducing And Challenging Islamophobia In News Framing Of Ilhan Omar And Rashida Tlaib, Two Prominent Muslim Women In U.S. Politics, Saiqa Shahzadi

Communication ETDs

ABSTRACT

Muslim women are frequently misrepresented in U.S. mainstream media and often portrayed adversely as a homogeneous group of women defined and silenced by religious and gender oppression. Scholarly research has documented how this historical pattern of representation ignores their intersectional, complex identities and reinforces the discourse of Islamophobia. This thesis will explore this problem in the case of the first Muslim American women elected to the U.S. House of Representatives: Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). Drawing on theories of media framing, intersectionality, and Islamophobia, the research examined 12 in-depth stories from 2019 and 2023 in three mainstream …

Media Regulatory Dynamics: A Case Study Of Taiwan’S National Communications Commission And Its Implications For Media Independence., Chih-Jeng (George) Huang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In alignment with the US-led regime that champions free speech, the Republic of China (Taiwan) has assumed a prominent role in upholding the freedom of expression stance in East Asia. Rooted in historical origins and institutional conflicts between Taipei and Beijing, Taiwan has established a democratic system, presenting a distinct contrast with the Beijing system, and showcasing an alternative Chinese economy that embraces liberalism. Nevertheless, as Beijing’s influence grows stronger globally, Taiwan’s democratic politics have become increasingly delicate and sensitive. In the winter of 2020, Taiwan faced a critical moment in its control over media freedom, highlighting the ongoing tensions …

Gender Inequality Is Not A "Women Only" Issue: A Case Study Of Egyptian Private News Media, Amira Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

Discrimination in the workplace among different genders is a significant issue in the news media sector globally. This study aims to determine and measure gender inequality in the Egyptian private news media sector through different indicators, including job payments, workload, promotions, media roles, work safety, and work flexibility, especially post-COVID. A mixed approach was used by conducting sixteen interviews and then a survey of 304 private news media sector participants. As inequalities can be a double-faced case, men's and women's perspectives have been considered in the study sample. Through descriptive and statistical analysis, the research findings revealed new insights to …

Police Identity And The Role Of Media In A Contemporary Society: A Look At The Personal And Professional Effect On Law Enforcement, Nedra Lachelle Jones

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Abstract This research study examined the impact of media on law enforcement and the secondary impact of this media on the relationship between law enforcement and the communities they serve. In addition, the study examined whether those perceptions influence police and community interactions and/or behaviors on the daily basis. This study describes the perceptions of police officers both professionally and personally as it relates to media coverage and the changing of their normal police tactics. The specific events that were focused on in this study included the shooting of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri in August of 2014, …

Shaping Of News Values And Frames During War: A Content Analysis Of Israeli And Palestinian Short-Form Video, Madison K. Remrey

Master's Theses

This research looks at the use of short-form video as it pertains to wartime journalism. Specifically, Instagram reels posted by both Palestinian and Israeli journalists are assessed for news values (victim, perpetrator, horse race) and news frames (straight news, conjecture, human interest). Much research has been done on news reporting and even news reporting particularly as it pertains to war. However, with recent growth of short-form video and the use of such to report on war, the landscape of digital warfare is changing. This research aims to assess how short-form video is used to report on Israel and Palestine, two …

Understanding Older People’S Voice Interactions With Smart Voice Assistants: A New Modified Rule-Based Natural Language Processing Model With Human Input, Zhengxu Yan, Victoria Dube, Judith Heselton, Kate Johnson, Changmin Yan, Valerie Jones, Julie Blaskewicz Boron, Marcia Shade

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has expedited the integration of Smart Voice Assistants (SVA) among older people. The qualitative data derived from user commands on SVA is pivotal for elucidating the engagement patterns of older individuals with such systems. However, the sheer volume of user-generated voice interaction data presents a formidable challenge for manual coding. Compounding this issue, age-related cognitive decline and alterations in speech patterns further complicate the interpretation of older users’ SVA voice interactions. Conventional dictionary-based textual analysis tools, which count word frequencies, are inadequate in capturing the evolving and communicative essence of these interactions that unfold over a series …

Researching Emotional Experiences As Discursive Elements – A Suggested Qualitative Method, Magnus Danielson

The Qualitative Report

As scholars in the fields of political science, media research, and social psychology endeavor to understand crucial aspects of emotionality in the media, there is a growing need to methodologically address the communicative and discursive aspects of affective constructions in media texts. This article argues that by breaking down mediated emotional experiences represented through language in a set of identifiable elements, such as subject, emotion type, valence, intensity, proposed action, and object, those experiences could be used as workable and potent units of analysis when studying discursive and ideological media constructs of emotionality. By connecting insights from emotion science, the …

Health Infographics: An Examination Of Breastfeeding Infographics From The World Health Organization, Naadiyahtu Iddrisu

Communication ETDs

This thesis employed a qualitative thematic analysis and the representational, interpersonal, and compositional functions of visual analysis approaches to examine the World Health Organization breastfeeding infographics published between 2019–2023 through the lens of two health promotion models: the Enabling Environment for Breastfeeding Model, and the Social and Ecological Model. A total of 59 infographics were analyzed. The findings revealed that breastfeeding infographics have called for creating an enabling environment that supports breastfeeding by emphasizing breastfeeding as a shared or collective responsibility. Again, mothers were the main target audience of breastfeeding infographics. Also, the use of multiple racial colors - White, …

Columbia Chronicle (05/08/2024), Columbia College Chicago

Columbia Chronicle

Student newspaper from May 8, 2024 entitled The Columbia Chronicle. This issue is 24 pages. Cover story: "The Mental Health Issue: Finding Solutions in a Crisis". Editor-in-Chief: Olivia Cohen.

Media Censorship’S Development In The Information Age: Authoritarian Case Studies In Europe During The 20th And 21st Centuries, Carter R. Linke

Honors Thesis

The Information Age has dramatically changed how people consume information. With the availability of smart devices and the Internet greater than ever before, a population’s ability to receive multiple news reports and instant messaging has continued to prove beneficial to democratic societies. With these same technology improvements, authoritarian governments have been forced to adapt censorship policies to eliminate the Information Age’s push towards the free press. Since the 20^th century, authoritarian countries have introduced policy solutions to the growing connectivity across the globe. From the German Holocaust to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, censorship has aimed to control their …

Putting Forward Sustainability As A Model For Journalism Education And Training, Nancy Booker, Bruce Mutsvairo, Dinesh Baliah, Theodora Dame Adjin-Tettey, Lars Tallert, Jean Mujati

Graduate School of Media and Communications

African journalism practice presents unique opportunities and challenges that require journalists to be equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge, and values to engage in sustainable journalism. Training institutions play a critical role in ensuring that journalists are not only professionally-ready to execute their mandate but also that they can safeguard and promote ethical values in their everyday work. Some of these values include “truth telling, independence, objectivity, fairness, inclusivity and social justice” (Gade, Nduka, and Dastger 2017, 10). Africa, like other regions of the Global South, has several journalism training institutions that provide an opportunity to challenge “hegemonic epistemologies and …

Exploring The Governmental Intervention, Journalistic Approach, And Theories Involved In Reducing Poverty Journalistic For A Special Project – Feature Story On Non-Profit Organization Called Circles In Northwest Arkansas, Trevor Spencer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the 60 years since President Johnson declared the War on Poverty, with close to 40 million people currently in poverty nationwide as of 2022, government measures of the issue, like the Federal Poverty Level and Supplementary Poverty Measure, have continued to be significant determiners for who is constituted as poor. Yet, framing of the poor by sociologists has shifted to a more multi-dimensional approach to who constitutes as poor and how to help them. This means that the definition of poverty is beginning to include a larger set of deprivation unaccounted for in a nation where the definition of …

Which War Stories Get Told? How The Identifiability Of Villains And Victims Impacts Media Coverage Of Conflicts, Anna D. Sène

Political Science Honors Projects

In the last decade, armed conflicts have been proliferating around the world. While most conflicts still get covered in the mass media, some have received more international attention than others. This disparity in attention can affect the resolution of conflicts and the support victims can get to rebuild their lives. This study seeks to answer the question of why some armed conflicts receive more media coverage than others. I hypothesize that journalists cover conflicts with clearer victims and villains more than conflicts with more vague victims and villains, because clear victims and villains provide stronger narrative frames and fewer actors …

Are They Tools? Anglophone West African Countries’ Students’ Misconception Of Media Literacy And Critical Thinking For Combating Misinformation, Muhammed Jamiu Mustapha, Mutiu I. Lasisi, Victor Vladmirovich Barabash

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This study examines the media literacy and critical thinking levels of students of West African higher educational institutions as tools for combating misinformation in the sub-region. Data analysis using the mediation approach revealed differences in students' understanding of media literacy and critical thinking and partially predicted their efficacy in combating misinformation. This stems largely from a misunderstanding of media literacy and critical thinking concepts as tools, as well as a lack of adequate provision for teaching the concepts and considering them as strategic tools for combating misinformation in the region. The study recommends concrete policy and managerial solutions to the …

A Most Despicable Hoax: Women, Crime, And Newspapers In Depression-Era St. Louis, Nancy Stiles

Theses

This paper delves into the captivating saga of Nellie Muench, a St. Louis housewife whose life intersected with the burgeoning celebrity culture, evolving media landscape, and shifting gender dynamics of the early 20th century. Muench's involvement as a co-conspirator in the 1931 kidnapping for ransom of a wealthy doctor propelled her into the spotlight, where she navigated media manipulation to attempt to craft her own narrative. Secretly obtaining a baby and passing it off as her own child to gain jury sympathy and blackmail a rich paramour took interest in her case to sensational tabloid (and legal) heights. Drawing from …

The Current - Volume 34 Issue 12, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Representation Of The Fall Of Kabul In Pakistani And Afghan Media, Amir Hamza Marwan, Madeeha Naz

Faculty Research - Journal Articles

The fall of Kabul signified the termination of the democratically elected government in Afghanistan and reinstated the Taliban as the prevailing authority in the country. The ascension of the Taliban in Afghanistan holds significant importance considering the profound suffering experienced by both Afghanistan and Pakistan. This study looks at how well-known Pakistani and Afghan television channels, specifically Geo News, PTV News and TOLO News, covered the fall of Kabul in 2021 for eight days. The study utilizes content analysis as a research methodology. The authors’ primary aim was to determine if the selected television channels offered their viewers coverage of …

The Current - Volume 34 Issue 11, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Peace Has No Deterrent Effect: The Handling Of Violence Against Lampung Tv And Lampung Post Journalists (2022) By Press Organizations, Aryo Subarkah Eddyono, Jessica Rosa N. P.

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

In 2022, Lampung Post and Lampung TV journalists experienced violence while covering. The perpetrator was a member of the security unit when he wanted to ask for clarity regarding certificates in the 2017 Complete Systematic Land Registration Acceleration Program (PTSL) at the National Land Agency (BPN) of Bandar Lampung City. The BPN security guard confiscated work tools and forced journalists to delete coverage such as photos or videos, until finally forcibly expelling journalists by pushing and closing the BPN building gate. This research aims to find out why such violence can occur and how the role of press organizations resolves …

News Deserts And Voter Turnout: How Local News Shortages Decrease Voter Participation, Lauren Penington

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

How does local news impact a county’s registered voter population, associated voting patterns, and political participation? Electoral turnout is one of the most studied topics in political science, and substantial research exists into demographic factors — including race, age, and socioeconomic status — that influence an individual’s likelihood to vote. Recent studies have begun to examine the impact of societal factors — such as the internet, social media, and news — on an individual’s ability to and likelihood of fulfilling their civic obligation. This paper explores the relationship between expanding news deserts and decreasing voter turnout, proposing that as a …

Chimes: March 25, 2024, Calvin University

Chimes

Social media company Fizz makes a buzz at Calvin by Ewan Parker

Understanding Title IX, at Calvin and beyond by Savannah Shustack & Liana Hirner

Calvin's summer H.E.A.L.T.H. Camp expands to include boys by Jacob Westra

Chapel underutilized by faculty due in part to scheduling conflicts, other faith commitments by Nolan Cowan

Women's tennis team finishes non-conference schedule strong by Dillion Baumchen

"Gotcha": A new campus tradition? by Ashley Hamons

Examining Active News Avoidance Across Countries: A Multilevel Moderation Analysis Of News Interests, News Trust, And Press Freedom, Gabriel Miao Li, Fan Liang, Qinfeng Zhu

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Previous studies have identified various individual factors explaining news avoidance, but the understanding of how these factors function within the broader political information environment is limited. This study, leveraging a large-scale cross-national survey, reveals that the relationships between individual news interests, news trust, and news avoidance differ across countries with varying levels of press freedom. In nations where the press is strong and free, personal preferences minimally influence individuals’ active avoidance of hard news. News avoidance is not solely a product of individual-level attributes. Rather, the impact of these individual factors is significantly shaped by the overarching political information environment.

The Rattler ( Volume 112, Issue 6), 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.

Chimes: February 19, 2024, Calvin University

Chimes

Changes to the Student Senate constitution create a new election structure, aim for clarity by Ethan Meyers

The 49507 Initiative's Wayfinder program now accepting student applications by Savannah Shustack

Kill-a-Watt saves enough energy to run two houses for a month by Maya Oeverman

New Zealand sea lion conservation: A Q&A with ecologist Veronica Frans
by Jacob Westra

Calvin's CCW and Campus Ministries teams collaborate during stressful times for students by Nolan Cowan

January Series speaker offered relatable reflections on neurodivergence by Liana Hirner

The Cowl - V. 88 N. 3 - February 8, 2024

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol. 88 No. 3 - February 8, 2024. 24 pages.

Chimes: February 5, 2024, Calvin University

Chimes

Calvin student raises awareness with award-winning documentary by Ashley Hamons

Women's acrobatics and tumbling will begin its inaugural season in 2025 by Dillion Baumchen

Speaker series leans into learning with compassionate conviction by Ewan Parker

The Calvin 50: A fundamental part of chapel worship services by Nolan Cowan

Construction progresses smoothly by Savannah Shustack

Engineering students talk about Calvin's next steps in becoming carbon-neutral by Jacob Westra

Elections 2024: How international students follow politics from home while at Calvin by Ethan Meyers

Reducing Loneliness And Improving Social Support Among Older Adults Through Different Modalities Of Personal Voice Assistants, Valerie Jones, Changmin Yan, Marcia Shade, Julie Blaskewicz Boron, Zhengxu Yan, Hyeon Jung Heselton, Kate Johnson, Victoria Dube

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

This study examines the potential of AI-powered personal voice assistants (PVAs) in reducing loneliness and increasing social support among older adults. With the aging population rapidly expanding, innovative solutions are essential. Prior research has indicated the effectiveness of various interactive communication technologies (ICTs) in mitigating loneliness, but studies focusing on PVAs, particularly considering their modality (audio vs. video), are limited. This research aims to fill this gap by evaluating how voice assistants, in both audio and video formats, influence perceived loneliness and social support. This study examined the impact of voice assistant technology (VAT) interventions, both audio-based (A-VAT) and video-based …

No Ela Without Ella: Understanding The Naming And Crafting Of Gendered Subjectivities In Puerto Rico, Carmín Quijano Seda

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

At the beginning of the 20th century, the official metadiscourses about gendered job titles sedimented the idea that names or indexes pointing to women should be interpreted as unskilled, cheap, or even free labor in Puerto Rico (Azize, 1985; Muñiz Mas, 1998; Baerga-Santini, 1999). For this reason, Puerto Rican women organized and fought for equality in work settings. Furthermore, they became more active in politics and the government. Nevertheless, the Estado Libre Asociado (ELA) and local media discourses and interpretations about women’s labor discouraged them from participating in more senior positions (Acevedo Gaud, 2012).

However, this interpretation seemed to have …

The Cowl - V. 88 N. 2 - February 1, 2024

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol. 88 No. 2 - February 1, 2024. 20 pages.