Digital Commons Network^™

Front Matter, Information Literacy Collab

Information Literacy Collab

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, Information Literacy Collab

Information Literacy Collab

No abstract provided.

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 …

Inundated With Uncertainty: A Cartographic Assessment Of Fema’S Flood Insurance Rate Maps (Firms) And Flood Risk Discourse, Michael Cabal

Theses - ALL

Flooding accounts for almost 90% of all natural disasters in the United States. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is the authoritative agency tasked with mapping Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs) that determine high-risk flood zones. These maps, known as Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs), are used to establish mandatory flood insurance requirements, regulate local floodplain building requirements, inform future development, and mitigate potential flood damage. However, the process for updating and implementing flood maps has come under significant scrutiny for being oversimplified, inaccurate, and incomplete. Despite existing scholarship on the shortfalls of FEMA’s recent responses to disasters, there is limited …

Do We Think Globally? A New Journal, 75 Years In The Making, Nicholas David Bowman

Media Studies - All Scholarship

In an editorial ending their tenure as editor of Critical Studies in Media Communication, Steiner (2007) warned of the scourge of journal proliferation, invoking a concern that increasingly, these new journals mostly benefit individual careers and publishing house profits. Meanwhile the “just-planted crop [of manuscripts] is generally bringing diminishing returns to the field” (p. 384) because we are publishing far more than we can read, evaluate, ­integrate, and engage. Steiner is hardly alone in her critique. Others call out the invisible labor of editorial stewardship, showing for example how inefficient systems not only exploit scholars (Chalmers & Solomon, …

Provoking Generative Ai Futures: Merging Theory And Praxis, Regina M. Luttrell Ph.D., Nick Bowman

Media Studies - All Scholarship

An accessible exploration of the myriad applications and challenges of generative AI for media and communication students, scholars, and practitioners alike.

The latest emergence of increasingly low-cost and scalable AI technologies presents a point of both celebration and concern for the contemporary media and information ecosystem. To this end, this edited volume gathers media and communications scholars and practitioners to engage in discussions and exchange ideas about current trends and developments in the field. Questions this volume asks include: What are the essentials of generative AI from a media and communication perspective? How has generative AI influenced research and scholarship? …

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

CODE^SHIFT Research

No abstract provided.

Newhouse Impact Magazine 2025, Newhouse School

Newhouse Impact Magazine

Showcasing the research and creative work of faculty, staff and students at the Newhouse School

Black Filmmaking As Archival Practice, Caroline Charles

Dissertations - ALL

Black Filmmaking as Archival Practice argues that cinema has offered Black cultural workers a generative space to creatively challenge the constraints of traditional archival repositories. I claim that Black filmmakers participate in a tradition of Black archival practice; they intervene in dominant collections and utilize their materials to create filmic counter-histories that negotiate the archive’s limits and attend to Black humanity, life, and memory. I engage with a diverse constellation of late twentieth and early-twenty-first century films that consider archives of Black social movement, abject images, enslavement and portraiture, Black queer and trans existence, and Black family photography. Through historical …

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

CODE^SHIFT Research

No abstract provided.

Selling Water To A Fish: Study Of The Visual Narrative In Tourism Advertising, Ziwei Aletta Ren

Theses - ALL

In the new era dominated by visual culture, the realm of tourism increasingly relies on artistic tales to brand and market destinations. The power of storytelling, intertwined with art, can invite viewers to create psychological and emotional connections with corners of the world yet unexplored. This thesis explores the profound role of visual narratives in tourism advertising, revealing how they forge emotional and psychological connections between viewers and unexplored places. From the historical roots of advertising in ancient civilizations to the modern digital age, visual narratives have evolved to meet the changing desires of travelers, emphasizing authenticity and immersive experiences. …

The Democratization Of Design : A Case Study Looking At The Do-It-Yourself Designers On Dribbble, Rebecca Davis Kelly

Dissertations - ALL

Graphic design students no longer need to attend institutions of higher education (IHE) to gain entry-level skills for a variety of design related areas with the rise of new learning platforms like YouTube, edX, etc. A recent series of studies found that 70% of respondents (working designers) reported learning their craft online. This study examines these do-it-yourself designers (DIYD), and the implications of their educational choice for both the practice of design and for traditional design education. Due to the changes in educational opportunities, what and how designers learn is important to the design industry and IHE. Enrollment in formal …

Negotiating With The Collective Ear, Jessica Myers

School of Architecture - All Scholarship

This article presents sound studies as a critical framework for architectural analysis. It positions architecture’s long-honored monogamy with visual communication as limited and instead connects the collective decision-making that constitutes listening with dynamics of power in shared and personal space. With this understanding, I argue that architects can be attuned to the audiosocial spaces they help to enforce and make different collective decisions about the removal and discipline of sound.

Scrutinizing Along With Visual Persuasion Of Movie Billboards In Egypt From The 1930s To The 2010s/ Qualitative Content Analysis Study, Sara Ali Almaleki

Dissertations - ALL

In this study, I will use qualitative content analysis to analyze the Cultural, social, and political aspects of film billboard, and the usage persuasion techniques in Egyptian film posters from the 1930s to the 2010s. Two posters from each political era—equaling a total of ten samples— are analyzed regarding how the persuasion techniques related to the politics of the time. This study shows the relationship between politics and cinema, as well as how film posters utilize visual persuasion techniques in images throughout time. Furthermore, information about the beginnings of Egyptian cinema and its success in the Arab world will be …

Newhouse Impact Magazine 2024, Newhouse School

Newhouse Impact Magazine

Showcasing the research and creative work of faculty, staff and students at the Newhouse School

Unveiling The Unseen: Black Women's Influence On Hip-Hop's Fashion And Culture, Lila Mackinnon

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Improving Career And Technicaql Education For All Students: A Study Of Cte Programs At Two High Schools, Valerie Goldstein

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Theorizing Cultural Appropriation: Complications Of Globalization And Power In Hybrid K-Pop, David C. Oh

Media Studies - All Scholarship

The purpose of this paper is to theorize cultural appropriation using a critical perspective that centers structural inequity and uneven global power by examining the case of South Korean media. This paper argues that cultural appropriation is a particular form of intercultural borrowing that relies on structural inequities of power, whereby a more powerful culture takes from a less powerful culture in such a way that it causes structural and representational harm to the borrowed culture. To clarify cultural appropriation as a particular form of cultural borrowing, I provide a typology of different forms of cultural borrowing before positing six …

Theaters Of The Intimate: The Feminine Culture Of Self-Care On Tiktok, Rayana Weller

Theses - ALL

In this thesis, I study the feminine culture of self-care on TikTok as it exists in prominent digital genres: skincare and soft living. These two genres represent the aspiration toward a soft perfection of both the physical self and the space around it. Situated within the theories of the female complaint (Berlant, 2008) and the paradigm of perfection (McRobbie, 2015), I argue that feminine culture on TikTok reframes the demanding and unending labor required to approximate standards of feminine perfection as a pleasing and satisfying experience of self-care. Self-care rhetoric on TikTok disguises the discipline required to pursue cultural definitions …

Artificially Alternate Bauhaus: Gremlins Of Function, Body, And Pattern, Madeline Alves, Erin Zearfoss

Architecture Senior Theses

Human and machine intelligence has the potential to re-design objects and spaces of the past and generate an artificially alternate collection of reimagined Bauhaus images. Present A.I. technologies can operate as synthetic imaginations of historic Bauhaus principles and design ambitions to create a possible future. The past becomes altered through our understanding of its contributions to an alternate present.

Newhouse Impact Magazine 2023, Newhouse School

Newhouse Impact Magazine

Showcasing the research and creative work of faculty, staff and students at the Newhouse School

L'Dor V'Dor: From Generation To Generation, Emily Steinberger

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Salt City Film Festival, Daisy Leepson

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Tools To Educate The Next Generation Of Storytellers To Help Them Document Past Conflicts To Build A More Peaceful Future, Tracy Mack-Jackson

Theses - ALL

Uncovering where we came from may help the human race avoid past mistakes and build a more peaceful future. Multimedia oral histories, period photographs, and photographic exploration of historic locations are tools that allow us to educate future generations and work to prevent conflicts. The power of storytelling runs deep within us as a society, and discovering the tools to help us tell these stories is vital for young people to create a voice for themselves. Visual journalism can be at the forefront of this education. This project focuses on three educational resources young storytellers can use to capture historical …

The Harder The Battle, The More We Talk: The Effects Of Perceived Risk Of Player Death On Social Presence And Enjoyment In Mobile Fps Game, Heejae Lee

Theses - ALL

Even though the relationship between presence and game enjoyment has been explored, there are unsolved theoretical questions regarding the degree to which social presence may be generated in games. Drawing on (social) presence theory, this study investigated the effects of the perceived risk of player death on game enjoyment. Specifically, the current study examined whether there is a relationship between the perceived risk of player death and communication between players; if this communication will serve as a trigger for a social presence; and if social presence will increase game enjoyment. Results from a self-report survey (N = 128) indicated that …

Toward Extended Situational Crisis Communication Theory: Include Visuals, Prior Performance, And Framing Devices, Mohammad Ali

Dissertations - ALL

Human brains are inherently capable of receiving and processing visual messages faster than written text messages. The recent proliferation of internet use, social media platforms, smartphones, and online news media sites facilitated the spread of visual content (e.g., pictures, videos, and data visualizations) online much higher than before. However, visual contents have been largely ignored in crisis communication research, leaving the crisis managers to devise strategic crisis responses and deal with a crisis without sufficient research evidence. Responding to a recent research call to fill the gap, this dissertation conducts a 2 (picture: action vs. damage) × 3 (distinctiveness: high …

Entitled To Equality Website Design, Lucinda Strol

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

The Sound Of Univers: Applications Of Typography As A Visual Mode Of Auditory Expression, Sarah L. Prosser

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Behavioral And Social Context Of Sound In The Surface Foraging Strategies Of Humpback Whales (Megaptera Novaeangliae), Sarah Weiss

Theses - ALL

Humpback whales are known for the plastic and variable nature of their acoustic communication, social interactions, and foraging behaviors. Distinct foraging strategies are used to capture different prey types at the surface and on the seafloor. Sounds produced during foraging are thought to facilitate intraspecific social communication. Previous studies have identified specific sound types produced by humpbacks associated exclusively with benthic foraging strategies, suggesting functions related to foraging behavior. In this study, we use suction cup acoustic tags (DTAGs) deployed on humpbacks in the western North Atlantic from 2006-2009 to investigate the social sound production associated with surface foraging ecology, …

Exploring The Therapeutic Effect Of Children's Picture Books, Yunfan Chen

Theses - ALL

This thesis discusses the phenomenon of left-behind children in China amid the country's urbanization, revealing the psychological state of these children in the countryside.

In this thesis, some psychological research sources have proven how picture books relieve children's emotions and attain therapeutic effects on children's psychology. Then, this thesis analyzes two examples of children's books depicting how picture books help children to manage their negative feelings and having a therapeutic effect on the child.

This thesis claims that bibliotherapy through children's independent reading of books can effectively alleviate left-behind children's negative emotions.