Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

Ethnic Identity Development And South Asian Stereotypes In 'Never Have I Ever', Priya Dutta, Allison Noyes

Honors Thesis

Intersectional media serves as poignant representations of marginalized communities, and as few positive models exist, researchers must explore the efficacy and impacts of celebrated works on consumers’ perspectives.

“Ethnic identity is less a process of ‘being’ and more a process of ‘becoming…’ The factors that form an ethnic identity allow its members to establish their distinguishing features from other groups, creating a sense of solidarity, belonging, and connection within their own definable cultural group through customs and celebrations, like festivals and religious gatherings, as well as through particular cultural artifacts, like a style of dress” (Stuart Hall, 1996). I will …

Ai And Advocacy: Maximizing Potential, Minimizing Risk, Matthew Salzano, Nicholas Fung, Ada Lin, Sofia Marchetta, Faith Colombo, Kaylah Davis, John Flynn, Carlos Fuentes, Fion Li, Malar Paavi Muthukumaran, Angelica Paramoshin, Chrisanne Pearce, Vianney Ramos, Charles St. Hilaire, Xi Zheng, Wei Zhuang

School of Communication and Journalism Faculty Publications

New Generative AI tools are revolutionizing writing and communication. This report focuses on AI and advocacy, the act of influencing public policy and resource allocation decisions within political, economic, and social systems and institutions. This report identifies three major opportunities and accompanying risks, plus one strong recommendation for advocates considering using AI. We argue that AI can be useful for advocates, but they must be careful to center human judgment and avoid risks that could distract from their important work or even contribute to societal harms.

Arcade Reboot: Using Nostalgia Marketing To Fund A Passion Project, Jen Riemenschneider

Strategic Communication Master of Arts Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

Close To Home, Closer To Fun: Bringing Local Customers Back To Metropolis Resort, Kate Burhop

Strategic Communication Master of Arts Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

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 …

Recovery Heros: Recruiting Recovery Coaches And Peer Support Specialists At The Coulee Recovery Center, Sascha S. Cromheecke

Strategic Communication Master of Arts Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

An Examination Of Missing Person Social Media Engagement Through Data Mining And Experimentation: An Application Of The Crisis And Emergency Risk Communication Model, Cailin M. Kuchenbecker

Communication (PhD) Dissertations

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), approximately 600,000 individuals are reported missing each year in the United States (2022). When missing person cases do not meet alert (e.g., AMBER) criteria, law enforcement often utilize social media to crowdsource information to ultimately return the missing home. Therefore, guided by the crisis and emergency risk communication model (CERC; Reynolds & Seeger, 2005) and its recently clarified propositions (Miller et al., 2021), the purpose of this dissertation was to (a) identify strategies law enforcement use to crowdsource missing person information and (b) experimentally test message characteristics that facilitate prosocial sharing of …

Sexual Exploitation: The Crisis And Eradicative Solution, Tonnie Adams Bracey

Nonprofit and NGO Studies Student Projects

French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr wrote, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” I find this to be true in our current era of the digital age. Although technology has gifted a newly improved and vast method of making worldwide connections and broadening our perceptions and views, a change in how we communicate has conveniently presented itself, but the historic pattern of how we handle these new advancements have indeed stayed the same.
Smart phones are a mainstream vessel employing the world with a plethora of information while giving all sorts of people access to individual’s lives …

The Guardian The Month Of May 2024, Wright State Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

News articles from The Guardian for the Month of May 2024. The Guardian is the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. It has been published regularly since March of 1965.

The Phygital Design Process: Using Emerging Technologies To Create A Phygital Fashion Brand Rooted In Nostalgia, Madeline M. Mcdaniel

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This Master's Project is a comprehensive exploration of the intersection of digital fashion design, nostalgia, and sustainable practices. Its primary objective is to create 'project CYBERBAE,' a phygital fashion collection that draws inspiration from early 2000s video game characters, trends, and aesthetics. The project utilizes advanced digital tools like Clo3D to demonstrate a comprehensive digital fashion design process that emphasizes inclusivity and sustainability. It also pioneers the development of a 3D virtual world, providing users with an immersive environment to interact with and experience digital fashion. This virtual space serves as a platform for a community of fashion, technology, and …

Understanding The Multidimensional Ramifications Of Education Censorship To Promote Justice-Oriented School Social Work., Brandon D. Mitchell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since 2020, recensions on youth rights and education censorship have been backed by a network of actors and organizations on the political Right, evidenced by race and diversity curricula bans, book bans, and inflammatory media discourse. The scope and prevalence of education censorship are understudied with little known about the policies enacted, and influences of media discourse, school boards, and the effects on schools and the school social worker. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore and understand the scope and prevalence of education censorship, including policies, media discourse, school boards, and schools. To achieve the aims of this …

A Rhetorical-Sociological Understanding Of Emotion, Amy Boone

All Dissertations

This project presents a rhetorical-sociological understanding of emotion while foregrounding the place and role of language. Born from Sara Ahmed’s work in The Cultural Politics of Emotion, it presents a simplified equation (contact + orientation = emotion) as both a prescriptive and descriptive formula for making sense of human emotional experience. Starting with an exploration of the difficult-to-understand affect system, this dissertation identifies both rhetoric and affect as energies which cannot be understood apart from their traces, the things they move, produce, and become. As a way to get at these often-invisible forces, two trace studies are conducted which explore …

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

WKU Administration Documents

Spring 2024 Talisman:

• Hunter, Leah. Pulse
• Muscutt, Carson. High on Bluegrass – Jordan Riehm
• Meyers, Jeffrey. Science of Movement – Exercise Science
• Murray, Debra. Pasture to Plate – Agriculture
• Murray, Debra. Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
• Coffee, Bobbi. Passion, Pain, Curiosity – Innovation Campus
• Story, Miriam. Drafts of a Postcard (October 2023)
• Johnston, Katelyn. Beyond Sound – Deaf
• Hunter, Leah. One Good Week – Madison Weis
• Alali, Cecilia. Crafted Cadence – Speech Team
• Blankenship, Alisa. Loving You
• Sandlin, Ellie. Here After – Death
• Booth, Pandora. Rooted in Rhythm – Step Shows
• Booth, Pandora. Horoscopes
• Pulse Playlist

Charge The Cockpit Or Die: An Anatomy Of Fear-Driven Political Rhetoric In American Conservatism, Daniel Hostetter

Senior Honors Theses

Subthreshold negative emotions have superseded conscious reason as the initial and strongest motivators of political behavior. Political neuroscience uses the concepts of negativity bias and terror management theory to explore why fear-driven rhetoric plays such an outsized role in determining human political actions. These mechanisms of human anthropology are explored by competing explanations from biblical and evolutionary scholars who attempt to understand their contribution to human vulnerabilities to fear. When these mechanisms are observed in fear-driven political rhetoric, three common characteristics emerge: exaggerated threat, tribal combat, and religious apocalypse, which provide a new framework for explaining how modern populist leaders …

Call For Submissions For Volume 37, Angela M. Hosek

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Forum Response — The Only Constant Is Change: Exploring Grief, Burnout, Ungrading, And Ai In The Basic Communication Course, Kristina Ruiz-Mesa, Ana Terminel Iberri

Basic Communication Course Annual

In the years since the start of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the world of higher education has seen incredible developments in teaching modalities, increased awareness of the socio-political and economic constraints facing many of our students and faculty, and an acute awareness of the rhetorical and material precarity that is facing higher education (Morreale et al., 2022; Ruiz-Mesa, 2022). These precarious conditions have contributed to questions regarding the future of higher education and adaptations needed to serve our diversifying student needs and address the pressing issues facing our world and our campuses. Conversations about well-being in the basic course classroom …

A Basic Investment In Mercy: Problematizing Assessment In The Basic Course, Kate Swartz

Basic Communication Course Annual

This essay addresses the assessment aspect of the Basic Course; namely, it problematizes our reliance as instructors on traditional grading schema that interfere with our students’ best interests. I address this problem with a mercy-centered approach that uses an ungrading assessment method. In doing so, I acknowledge potential issues with this approach as well as argue for its expanded use as a merciful, beneficial way to provide feedback.

Future-Ready Teaching: Embracing Ai In Basic Communication Courses, Dious Joseph

Basic Communication Course Annual

In a time when technology is being quickly incorporated into everyday life, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken on a significant role in education (Ocaña-Fernández et al., 2019). AI's ability to revolutionize society holds great promise for redefining human-machine communication (HMC) in the context of education (Edwards & Edwards, 2017). In basic communication courses, where foundational skills are taught and enhanced, AI introduces challenges and opportunities that warrant reexamining present teaching approaches. The present document envisions the significance of integrating artificial intelligence across educational platforms, including Blackboard and Canvas, by embedding AI technologies directly into these systems. This approach contrasts with …

Assessment ‘Responsabilities’ In The Basic Course: Evaluating Public Speaking Rubrics, Miranda N. Rouse

Basic Communication Course Annual

Procedures and practices that are ableist in the educational system have been long overlooked. Speakers having differing abilities than neurotypical or able-bodied individuals is often not something that is considered in basic course assessment tools. This is important to address because although there are institutional policies and procedures in place to help students with differing abilities, instructors of public speaking have the autonomy or power to determine how such accommodations will affect the speech grade determined by the assessment tool. Power relations are significantly complicated in educational settings when strict hierarchies are imposed, and when instructors abuse their authority, which …

Section Introduction: Research Articles

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Beyond Delivery, Toward Interpretation: Examining How Students Use Feedback In The Introductory Communication Course, Drew T. Ashby-King, Melissa A. Lucas, Lindsey B. Anderson

Basic Communication Course Annual

Feedback is a foundational communicative aspect of the teaching/learning processes in introductory communication courses as students seek to improve their presentational speaking skills throughout the term. Drawing on 1,673 qualitative questionnaire responses, this paper explores how students used and interpreted instructor feedback. Through our thematic analysis of a randomly selected subset of 335 responses, we identified two tensions in how students used and interpreted instructor feedback: (1) feedback as a process vs. a product and (2) feedback as integrated into the course structure vs. a justification for a grade. Theoretically, this research extends Feedback Intervention Theory by highlighting the importance …

Editor's Page, Angela M. Hosek

Basic Communication Course Annual

With my first volume with BCCA, I have extended and built upon the tremendous work of previous editors and scholars who have championed and shared their work in the Annual. In doing so, Issue 36 features empirical, theoretical, and analytical essays that require us to think about how students use instructor feedback in the classroom, to consider new ways to conduct assessment, to contemplate the implications of course names and labels, and to imagine how critical deliberation might promote social justice in the basic course.

Cover And Front Matter

Basic Communication Course Annual

Cover, Editorial Board, Table of Contents for Volume 36 (2024)

Beyond The Headlines: Media And Information Literacy (Mil) In Times Of Conflict, Anna Kozlowska-Barrios, Lusine Grigoryan, Michael Hoechsmann, Andzongo Menyeng Blaise Pascal

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The wars of the 21st century are not the first media wars, and many tropes and schema have long histories, particularly propaganda and the othering of a purported enemy. What is new today is that although mass media remains a central and hegemonic source of insight and perspective, citizen journalism, social media, spreadable media, and surveillant, data-driven media have grown in significance at an exponential level, adding a layer of complexity. In this article, we focus on disparity in media coverage and make the point that media and information literacy provide a valuable set of lenses from which to view …

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 …

The Influence Of Online Distance Learning And Digital Skills On Digital Literacy Among University Students Post Covid-19., Mohammed Fadel Arandas, Ali Salman, Syed Arabi Idid, Yoke Ling Loh, Syaira Nazir, Yuek Li Ker

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Online distance learning policies were formulated and implemented among some Malaysian universities long ago, but their value emerged since COVID- 19. Emanating from the diffusion of innovation theory, this study examined the perception of higher education students on the influence and relationship between six independent variables (compatibility, observability, relative advantage, complexity, trialability, and digital skills) and one dependent variable (digital literacy). A total of 524 respondents were sampled, comprising students from six public and private Malaysian universities. The findings from the correlation analysis show a significant positive relationship between the six independent variables and the dependent variable. Meanwhile, in the …

Mapping The Media Education Approaches In Instructional Materials Development: Conjunctions And Disjunctions, John N. Ponsaran

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This qualitative inquiry centered on the critical exploration of media education approaches that guided the praxis of student assessment reform, particularly textbook task design. Correspondingly, this instructional media research is predicated on the fundamental premise that textbooks and the student tasks contained therein are informed and shaped by the academic authors’ positionalities, paradigms, and pedagogies. By focusing on the purposiveness of designing textbook tasks as a social practice, this research was able to identify and unpack the conjunctions as well as disjunctions of what the academic authors as media producers intend the students to learn, answer, perform, tackle, and act …

Ai-Powered Learning: Blending Ai With Active Learning In The Information Literacy Classroom, Kevin J. Reagan, Wilhelmina Randtke

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

In 2016, the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy in Higher Education launched in response to more voluminous, less-vetted online information, including misinformation and content farms. Subsequently, the ACRL Framework has been widely adopted, and numerous high-quality lesson plans and resources for teaching the frames already exist, including published lesson plans and textbooks. Now, generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT and other chat bots present new challenges for information literacy educators. For instance, in addition to teaching students how to identify issues such as fake news, the information literacy professional has to address topics such as ethical AI use, AI hallucination …

The International Lens Of Western Michigan University, Tesha Nowak

Honors Theses

The international students highlighted in this documentary have different stories with the same experience of studying in the United States. Some international students are at Western with family, making the transition easier for them whereas some are here alone, still trying to find the community that fits their identity. In this documentary, Western Michigan University’s (WMU) international students, will discuss their study abroad experience in the United States such as culture shock, negotiating native and new cultures and managing assumptions that Americans have about them or their cultures. Their stories will bring to light the reality of the study abroad …