Digital Commons Network^™

A Mixed-Method Examination Of Social Media Influencers’ Source Characteristics In Sponsored Health Campaign Messaging: An Application Of Psychological Reactance Theory, Lauren Pick

Communication (PhD) Dissertations

Social media influencers (SMIs/influencers) are frequently used for marketing and public relations purposes (i.e., influencer marketing), but can be leveraged to avoid resistance to health campaign messages. Guided by psychological reactance theory (PRT), the purpose of this dissertation was to (a) uncover micro-influencer characteristics that mitigate reactance toward sponsored social media posts, (b) investigate whether influencers induce less reactance than non- influencers when disseminating sponsored health content, and (c) experimentally test whether influencer source characteristics mitigate reactance to sponsored health messaging. In Study One, focus groups with Gen Z Instagram users (N = 12) identified SMI use of controlling, “one …

The Guardian The Month Of May 2025, Wright State Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

News articles from The Guardian for the Month of May 2025. The Guardian is the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. It has been published regularly since March of 1965.

Ua12/2/2 Talisman: Connection, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Spring 2025 Talisman:

• Alali, Cecilia & Ragan Harrington. Connection
• Hardesty, Emma. On a Roll – Dungeons & Dragons
• Muscutt, Carson. Grinding Through Life – Molotov Skateshop
• Cox, Kate. Stopwatch
• Harrington, Ragan. 1 Campus, 7 Strangers – Logan Hesse, Nicholas Basile, Spencer Winterbottom, Alliyah Jones, Alex Gehring, Annie McClurg, Rowan Finley
• Vickers, Abigail. Forged in Combat – Mixed Martial Arts
• Wood-Morris, Oli. Survivors to Neighbors – Bosnian Refugees
• Jordan, Shylin. Severed Roots
• Bivens, Emily. Behind the Screen – Social Media
• Dean, Clarissa. Shear Talent – Shake Rag Barbershop
• Sutton, Avery. For the Love of the Old – Thrift Shopping
• Phelps, Maggie. …

Media Quiteracy: Why Digital Disconnection Belongs In The Media Literacy Curriculum, Katie Day Good, Michelle Ciccone

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In this essay, we introduce media quiteracy, which we use to conceptualize and describe the valuable learning that can happen through the refusal to take up new media or the act of pausing or ceasing its use. We see media quiteracy as an active and generative approach to learning and argue for its inclusion in the media literacy curriculum. We trace the history of critical engagement with technologies within education and then articulate what media quiteracy can look like in practice. We surface and discuss three potential obstacles to teaching media quiteracy, which include the ways in which it …

Cognitive Diagnosis Of Media And Digital Literacy Knowledge Schema In Mexican High School Students, Janneth Trejo-Quintana, Guadalupe E. Morales-Martinez, Betsabe Hernandez-Alvarez

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This research explored the mental representation of media and digital literacy (MDL) in 242 Mexican high school students through a definitional task based on the natural semantic networks technique. The participants defined ten target concepts related to MDL, using verbs, nouns, and adjectives as definers, and then they rated each definer with a scale from 1 to 10. The smaller the number, the lower the quality of the definer to conceptualize the target, while the higher the rating, the higher the quality of the definer to define it. The participants showed a beginner level in MDL despite their daily navigation …

Provision Of Brand Information And Critical Reasoning Predict Advertising Literacy, Eugene Zheng Yao, Alexandra List

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This study investigated students’ critical reasoning about commercials, as an aspect of advertising literacy. Critical reasoning was examined under two different experimental conditions. That is, students were tasked with watching four different commercials with 1) brand information provided or not, and 2) asked to engage in critical reasoning or not. The commercials chosen used various production techniques (e.g., socially conscious marketing) to mask their persuasive message. Students provided with brand information within commercials had significantly higher critical reasoning scores when viewing two, out of the four, commercials, and significantly higher overall Analysis of Persuasive Intent (API) scores and brand recall. …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 100, No. 3, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Magazine edition of the College Heights Herald for the period February 17 - April 20, 2025.

• Wilborn, Price. You Matter & You Are Not Alone
• Smith, Kane. Peggy Crowe Reflects on Counseling Center in Face of Staff Shortages
• Stafford, Hallie. Help with Horses – New Beginnings Therapeutic Horse Riding
• Hawkins, Kaylee. How a WKU Professor Helps Improve Student Mental Health – Jay Gabbard, National Alliance on Mental Illness Recovery Support Group
• McMahon, Jake. More Than a Coach – Brent Chumbley, Track & Field
• Simpson, Libby. WKU’s American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Brings Mental Health Into the Light
• Hardesty, Emma. Trans …

Capturing Tradition: The Business, Branding, And Personal Identity Of Senior Portraits In The Modern South, Xenia R. Minton

Honors Theses

The rise of college students starting photography businesses, particularly in graduation portraits, has transformed the creative and entrepreneurial landscape in the South. This thesis explores the senior portrait culture at the University of Mississippi, analyzing its rapid growth through the perspectives of photographers and academic experts in Southern Studies. Grounded in eight years of experience as a photographer, this study examines the evolution of the industry, business strategies, and cultural significance. Through interviews with seasoned senior portrait photographers and Southern Studies professors, this research investigates how regional traditions, social media, and consumer expectations have shaped the profession. By analyzing these …

What You See Is Not What You Get: Food Advertising Amidst The Global Overweight And Obesity Pandemic, Marija Ocokoljic

Journal of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour in Emerging Markets

The tandem issue of obesity and overweight is a serious global issue that has attained pandemic scale. Media, particularly advertising, plays an active role in shaping perceptions and behavioural patterns, influencing both how and what people eat. This paper analyses food advertising in Serbia in 2023 in the context of promoting dietary habits. Content analysis of commercials aired on a selection of television stations during the year showed the overwhelming prevalence of ads for food high in fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS), with confectionary products in lead positions. Commercial narratives centre on framing them as sources or catalysts for joyful, …

The Current - Volume 35 Issue 12, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Revolting Drag: Filth, Horror, And The Queer Art Of Monstrosity, Claire-Scott A. Lynch

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis examines how The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, a horror-themed reality drag competition series, uses monstrosity as a tool of queer resistance. In contrast to mainstream drag representations, which often promote assimilationist ideals, Dragula embraces filth, grotesqueries, and failure as strategies of disrupting normative structures. Grounded in queer theory and queer of color critique, this thesis uses thematic analysis to explore how Dragula mobilizes monstrosity to resist normative portrayals of queerness. Through close analysis of the show’s season finales, the study identifies three major themes: grotesque aesthetics, beyond the binary, and identity as resistance. These findings reveal how Dragula positions …

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

WKU Administration Documents

Press releases regarding general activities of the WKU Athletics Department for spring 2025.

Ua35/3 Provost's Message, Wku Provost

WKU Administration Documents

Spring 2025 Provost's Messages issued to faculty & staff via email. Topics include awards, budget cuts, grants, Transdisciplinary Opportunity Program and administrative decisions.

Newsletter, Wku Staff Senate

Staff Council

Newsletter created by WKU Staff Council to report on work accomplished.

Does Ai Help Or Harm? Why And How Ai Use Influences Workplace Outcomes And Employee Well-Being, Haille Trimboli, Reka Lassu

Education Division Scholarship

Although the recent surge in excitement surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) might suggest it is a new development, AI has been applied in organizations for over forty years (Fanti et al., 2022; Markelius et al., 2024). Indeed, the term "artificial intelligence" itself emerged in the 1950s during a research project at Dartmouth College, where it was used to describe "machines able to simulate human intelligence" (Haenlein & Kaplan, 2019, p. 3). Most recently, in 2022, the landscape of AI use for laypeople greatly changed when OpenAI introduced ChatGPT, a generative AI tool, to the public; ChatGPT is an advanced AI language …

When Online Gambling Was Legalized, Did We As A Society Think About The Long Term Consequences?, Joshua Linnehan

Interdisciplinary Senior Seminar

Legalized online gambling has increased the amount of problematic gamblers, due to companies such as DraftKings and FanDuel advertising their product, and the governments in US and Canada having a liberation point of view when it comes to people’s free will to gamble. This paper covers the rise of sports betting since its legalization, and how it impacts various demographics of people in order to understand the limits of sports betting and to not be persuaded to gamble irresponsibly by outside influences.

Code^Shift Newsletter Spring 2025, Srividya Ramasubramanian, Manaswini Pillai

CODE^SHIFT Research

No abstract provided.

Cpec In The Shadows Of Fifth Generation Warfare And The Dynamics Of Propaganda Model, Muhammad Usman Sahibzada, Wenshan Jia

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Purpose – The clear patterns of bias and propaganda such as narrative framing and selective reporting are severely affecting the public opinion and policymakers. Overall, the study shows that media depiction of CPEC conditioned by the propagandistic model and 5GW strategies carries deep meanings for global politics. In addition, there is the necessity to increase media literacy and strategic communication so as to direct the complications of these projects. Transparency and international cooperation become important for regional stability as well as informed public discourse.

Design/methodology/approach – The qualitative analysis of media content is carried out for this research across the …

The Guardian The Month Of April 2025, Wright State Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

News articles from The Guardian for the Month of April 2025. The Guardian is the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. It has been published regularly since March of 1965.

1st Place Contest Entry: "The Chip Off The Block": The 21st-Century Legacy Of Schoolhouse Rock!, Megan Lewandowski

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Megan Lewandowski's submission for the 2025 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won first place. It contains their essay on using library resources, their bibliography, and a summary of their research project on the legacy of Schoolhouse Rock! in the 21st century.

Megan is a fourth-year student at Chapman University, majoring in Music and Psychology. Their faculty mentor is Dr. Carrie Dike.

2nd Place Contest Entry: Aquí Y Ahora: The Role Of Us Spanish-Language Tv News In Financial Vulnerability, Cintya Felix

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Cintya Felix's submission for the 2025 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won second place. It contains their essay on using library resources, their bibliography, and a summary of their research project on Spanish-language media’s impact on financial attitudes.

Cintya is a third-year student at Chapman University, majoring in Political Science and Spanish. Their faculty mentor is Dr. Ann Gordon.

2nd Place Research Paper: Aquí Y Ahora: The Role Of Us Spanish-Language Tv News In Financial Vulnerability, Cintya Felix

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

In today’s world, the news we watch often does more than inform us; it shapes our perceptions of security and the future. In this paper, I examine the extent to which an individual’s consumption of particular Spanish-speaking TV news channels contribute to their sense of financial vulnerability. Using an original data set of responses to the questions in the 2020 American National Election Studies (ANES), I find a moderately strong relationship between the television news channel Aquí y Ahora, and the degree to which they are worried about their financial situation. While it is true that various factors such …

A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Emasculation Of Men Through Televised Forums Of Entertainment, Skylar G. Sexton

Senior Honors Theses

What constitutes manliness stands on the brink of collapse. Society wages war on the idea of biological men and women. This simultaneously blurs the lines of the distinctive characteristics that define a man such as initiative, protective instincts, self-control, and leadership. Media forums act as a reflection as well as an influencing medium for a cultural body. Films have fundamentally changed their depiction of men in television since the 1960s and 1970s. Manliness is being redefined through films' depictions of a man, as well as by societal movements such as feminism. Men are being emasculated in society today, which is …

It Ends With Us: How Social Media Algorithms Shape Recommendations In Online Reading Communities, Alana Nicole Whitley

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

My thesis explores social media algorithms and their influence on recommendations of authors for people who engage with reading communities online. During a three-week research period, I examined algorithmic behaviors in online book communities using an alias. Findings revealed that BookTube, BookTok, and Bookstagram facilitate book discovery but offer weak algorithmic recommendations and suggestions. While social media algorithms excel at providing opportunities for creators and authors, they fail to promote trending and diverse books. These insights indicate that algorithms shape literary consumption by limiting readers’ choices. This research contributes to discussions of online reading communities and the role of algorithmic …

The Current - Volume 35 Issue 11, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Disclosure Of Genai Use In The Production Of Advertising In High And Low Involvement Settings, Shawn Griffin

LSU Master's Theses

This study explores the effects of GenAI disclosure on advertising effectiveness and how these influences interact with consumers’ involvement in advertised products using a 2×2 experimental design with 83 participants, manipulating AI disclosure (disclosed vs. not disclosed) and involvement level (high vs. low). Findings indicate that disclosure negatively impacts brand attitude but has no significant effect on ad attitude, purchase intention, or sharing intention. An interaction effect was also found that in high-involvement conditions, disclosure increased the intention to share the ad. These results, framed through the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and Persuasion Knowledge Model (PKM), offer insights into the …

The Impact Of Visual Brand Identity On Consumer Response In Rebranding: A Case Study Of Burger King, Andressa De Ungaro Dos Santos

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This case study investigates consumer perceptions of rebranding through the lens of visual brand identity (VBI) and brand associations, focusing on Burger King’s recent rebranding. Using the Aaker Model as the theoretical framework, the study analyzes how brand awareness and associations influence consumer responses to visual identity changes. The research involves two focal areas in which comparative study will be applied by: (1) analyzing rebranding awareness by evaluating media coverage of Burger King’s new branding; (2) examining consumer-brand relationships through social media interactions to understand responses to the rebranding and to measure emotional and associative responses to visual elements. Through …

The Current - Volume 35 Issue 10, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

Media Literacy Efficacy & The Rise Of Native Advertising In Social Media: A Sequential Mixed-Method Approach To Behavioral Interaction With Deceptive Advertising Content, Elyse F. Dipisa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Native advertising has grown in advertiser usage and relevance within the advertising space. Branded or sponsored content is in no way a new concept; however, with less consumer participation with traditional advertisements, the industry has shifted to make advertising content look “native” - as if they belong within the format of the platform and among the user-generated content published. Social media presents a continuously progressing digital landscape that is available and accessible for consumers. The environment’s accessibility allows for it to be reachable by consumers from a range of backgrounds. This study engages a two-step explanatory mixed methodology aimed at …

Newsletter, Wku Staff Senate

Staff Council

Newsletter created by WKU Staff Council to report on work accomplished.