Digital Commons Network^™

Meaning Makers Make It: Ambivalence About Ambiguity In Academic Discourse, David Haldane Lee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a broad survey of the uses of ambiguity in academic discourse. I note the uses of ambiguity in literary criticism, linking ambiguity with epistemic relativism. Then I pose the question, is the notion of "reframing" in psychotherapy analogous to the concept of "spin" in propaganda, advertising and public relations? In a consideration of theories that posit the social construction of reality, I examine articles by Judith Butler and Ian Hacking, noting the ambiguous reception of performativity and nominalism, respectively, within academia. In 1996 a physicist named Alan Sokal published an article which argued that reality is a …

The Divorce Decree, Communication, And The Structuration Of Coparenting Relationships In Stepfamilies, Paul Schrodt, Leslie A. Baxter, M. Chad Mcbride, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Mark A. Fine

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Using Giddens’s (1984) structuration theory, this study explored the communicative processes surrounding the divorce decree in coparenting relationships in stepfamilies. Participants included 21 adults who were coparenting children in stepfamilies who completed diary entries of all interactions with coparents over a 2-week period, and who completed follow-up interviews. Results revealed two structures of signification with respect to the divorce decree that enabled and constrained coparenting interactions. The first signification structure was one in which the decree was framed as a legal document, dictating the rights and responsibilities of parenting, especially with respect to child access and financial issues. The second …

Using Ceremonies To Disciple Oral Learners Among The Tribal People In Bangladesh, Roy C. Mcintyre

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Notions Of Practice: Design As Facilitation For Interactive Social Systems., Penny Hagen

DRS Biennial Conference Series

This paper introduces the notion of ‘design as facilitation’ identifying some of the places it features in current research, and how it informs design of interactive social systems, such as multi-user communication technologies. This research is motivated by the shift in focus from the technical to the social in technology. A parallel shift in the notion of design practice is suggested in the move to understand interactive systems in relation to users as seen in design theory and interaction design research and methodology (Dourish 2001), (Preece et al 2002), (Winograd 1997). By examining the commonalities that exist in four different …

Organizational Uncertainty Management: Developing A Framework For Public Relations Practitioner Involvement, Marcia L. Watson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the concept of organizational uncertainty and the involvement of public relations practitioners. Understanding organizational uncertainty is imperative to the success of an organization, but the effects of uncertainty have been relatively undertheorized within public relations.

To close the gap, this study blended multidisciplinary theories pertaining to uncertainty with a triangulated methodological approach. First, this study took a macro-organizational look at uncertainty by analyzing trends in the literature and conducting qualitative in-depth interviews with members of management and employees in an organization. The results of this portion of the study found uncertainty to be multi-layered and the most …

Media Practice In The Humanities Classroom, Elizabeth Walden

English and Cultural Studies Journal Articles

While there is good reason to be suspicious of the enthusiastic rush to integrate technology into the classroom, we in the humanities should embrace the opportunity it presents for media literacy and critical cultural inquiry.

We Want Yer, Mckinley’: Epideictic Rhetoric In Songs From The 1896 Presidential Campaign, William D. Harpine

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Discovering A Contextualized Model For Training Japanese Cross-Cultural Ministry, Stephen Wesley Dupree

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Women In Alaska Constructing The Recovered Self: A Narrative Approach To Understanding Long -Term Recovery From Alcohol Dependence And /Or Abuse, Jean Alice Richey

Communication

Autobiographical narratives are explored in a qualitative approach regarding women in Alaska who have been successful in long-term recovery from alcohol dependence and/or abuse. The literature review includes an integrative approach to theoretical perspectives from the disciplines of Human Communication, Anthropology, and Psychology. The epistemological orientation of Constructionism grounds this study, as well as provides a framework for theoretical understandings from the narrative co-construction of self-identity, gender studies, health belief and health behavior change models, anthropological views on alcohol and culture including Native American and Alaska Native approaches, and various psychological and transpersonal strategies for overcoming alcohol addiction. Today, a …

An Ethnographic Investigation Of The Relevance Of Shop Floor Culture To Effective Safety Communication In An Australian Minerals Refinery, David R. Leith

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Many organisations which aim to achieve excellent workplace safety choose 'culture change' as the means to achieve this. They make use of employee communication media to help re-form the values, beliefs, norms and behaviours which are generally thought to comprise culture. However, culture is a complex and profound phenomenon. Successful communication between two culturally separate groups requires each to achieve an understanding of the other, no less so in workplaces than in societies composed of different cultures.Yet even employers who believe in communicating fully with their workforces find it difficult to convey viewpoints other than their own. Their communication tends …

Studying Organisational Culture : Hicom India, Abinash Panda, R K Gupta

IIMB Management Review

A strong culture facilitates coordination and communication and distinguishes successful organisations from others. In a market characterised by continuous innovation and swift imitation, a strong and productive culture can be an important source of sustainable competitive advantage because it is difficult to imitate. Managers need to learn that where culture may matter most is in its impact on the ‘hard’ stuff, such as strategy and structure. Practitioners and academics in India and abroad have been systematically attempting to understand organisational culture. Although the study of organisational culture gathered momentum in the early 80s, researchers by and large conceptualised culture from …

Sp 501 Communication As Christian Rhetoric, Stacy R. Minger

Syllabi

Cunningham, David S. Faithful Persuasion: In Aid of a Rhetoric of Christian Theology. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1990. ISBN 0-268-00985-6 Shaw, R. Daniel, and Charles E. Van Engen. Communicating God's Word in a Complex World. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. ISBN 0-7425-1447-1 Sprague, J., and D. Stuart. The Speaker's Handbook. 7th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005. ISBN 0-534-63880-5

Status And Status Differential As Predictors Of Student Learning, Teacher Evaluation, Teacher Socio-Communicative Style And Teacher Credibility, Boris Hellmann

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examined the relationships of perceived teacher-student status as well as their status differential with student learning, teacher evaluation, teacher socio-communicative style, and teacher credibility. It was found that perceived teacher status is a weak predictor of student cognitive and affective learning, teacher evaluation, teacher socio-communicative style and teacher credibility. Students' perception of their own status was also found to be a weak predictor of the learning loss, teacher evaluation as well as teacher competence, and trustworthiness. Moreover, status differential between teacher and student was found to be a weak predictor of student affective learning as well as teacher …

Culture And Communication: A Study Focused On Chinese Characteristics, Jui Ching Tsai

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Your Place, My Place, Interface, Lelia Green (Ed.)

Research outputs pre 2011

This publication is the output of 2001 School of Communications and Multimedia post-graduate cohort. For many of us this is the first time our own work will be seen beyond the assignment or the essay destined for the tutor. For students from the interactive multimedia and film and video streams communicating in the written word without the assistance of pictures and electrical gadgetry can be a frightening experience. Further, most us of had little experience in creating or simulating an academic journal with all that it entails. Still, with assistance of our publications unit coordinator Lelia Green we soldiered on. …

The Cowl - V.64 - N.12 - Dec 9, 1999

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol 64 - No.12 - Dec 9, 1999. 36 pages.

Conceptualization And Measurement Of Immediacy: Toward A Valid And Reliable Verbal Immediacy Coding Scheme, Mary Lee Matuza

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The History Of The Present Illness As Treatment: Who's Listening, And Why Does It Matter?, Herbert M. Adler, Md, Phd

Department of Family & Community Medicine Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: The history of the present illness (HPI) is examined as a narrative communication that has the potential to be therapeutic.

METHODS: The general principles that influence the therapeutic potential of the HPI are induced from participant observation of personal experience and natural observations of conventional social interaction. These principles are corroborated by evidence from cross-cultural healing practices, clinical experience, and experimental psychology.

RESULTS: To facilitate a therapeutic HPI, the clinician should convey a sense of safety, sensitivity, affective competence, and cognitive competence. Furthermore, the effective clinician joins the patient in coprocessing the illness experience.

CONCLUSIONS: The (HPI) is not …

Relationship Between Life Change Events And Communication Apprehension, Elaine Bylund

Student Work

This research investigates relationships between communication apprehension (CA) and life change events, using college students at a Midwestern university. Instruments used were the Personal Report o f Communication Apprehension-24 (PRCA- 24) which measured CA, both overall and in four subareas, and a modified version of the Adolescent Life Change Event Questionnaire (ALCEQ), which records life change events during formative years and past year before being questioned.

No significant relationships were found between the overall scores of the two instruments in this study, although demographic information showed that the younger college students reported more public speaking apprehension than the older groups. …

Reporting Cambodia In The Australian Media : Heroic 'Journalism Or Neo-Colonial' Distortions?, Jefferson Lee

Research outputs pre 2011

This series of Occasional Papers is designed to bring to the attention of the reader work that focuses on Asian communication and culture. Compared to most areas of Asian Studies, communication and media have been largely ignored, a fact the recent Australian 'push into Asia' reveals. These Occasional Papers redress this absence and deal with a comprehensive range of issues that inform our understanding of the importance of communication in forging links between Australia and Asia. Consequently their scope is far-reaching, covering cultural, political, economic, and increasingly, technological topics and their relationship to the communication process that lies at the …

Indian Television: The State, Privatisation And The Struggle For Media Autonomy, Geoffrey W. Reeves

Research outputs pre 2011

India represents an example of immense complexity and diversity in cultural production and communications. Broadcasting, film, newspaper, magazine, and musical production have been characterised by regional and linguistic diversity, with non-Hindi and non-English media in the private sphere especially showing signs of remarkable growth over the last decade or more (Jeffrey 1993). While the basic role of the state and state regulatory framework was established under British colonial rule, it has undergone substantial modification in the post-colonial period. In concert with many countries in the 'third world', private rather than state cultural and media production has become increasingly dominant to …

Scientific Text Structure Awareness: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of Tertiary Students From Different Language Backgrounds, Catherine Mcloughlin

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Research in both first and second language reading has shown that awareness of text structure, or rhetorical organisation is related to superior recall of main ideas from expository prose passages. The present study investigates awareness of scientific text structure among tertiary students from different language backgrounds. In this investigation, four reading passages containing two rhetorical text structures found in scientific discourse, comparison/contrast and problem/solution are employed. Meyer’s (1975) hierarchical content structure analysis was used to analyse the texts into top, high, mid and low level ideas corresponding to main and supporting ideas. The research questions were centred around three major …

The Cowl - V.57 - N.16 - Apr. 1, 1993

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 57, Number 16 - April 1, 1993. 24 pages.

The Cowl - V.57 - N.15 - Mar. 25, 1993

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 57, Number 15 - March 25, 1993. 24 pages.

The Australian Media And The 'Push To Asia', Jefferson Lee

Research outputs pre 2011

In 1989 the Garnaut Report appeared arguing Australian trade would have to take on a new Asian focus. ¹ The Hawke Government began to implement its recommendations in 1990-91. But it was not until the ascendancy of the Keating administration that in 1992 the Federal Government launched a major national initiative to integrate Australia more closely with the Australian-Pacific Region. Various federal politicians and departmental spokespersons argued with a great deal of urgency that "Asia" was a potential economic lifeline for Australia well into the 21st Century. Federal Minister Dawkins said the time had come for Australia "to be enmeshed …

The Cowl - V.56 - N.18 - Mar 26, 1992

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 56, Number 18 - March 26, 1992. 24 pages.

The Cowl - V.56 - N.14 - Feb 12, 1992

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 56, Number 14 - February 12, 1992. 24 pages.

The Cowl - V.56 - N.2 - Oct 3, 1991

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Volume 56, Number 2 - October 3, 1991. 24 pages.

The Cowl - V.47 - N.20 - Mar 20, 1985

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol 47 - No. 20 - March 20, 1985. 16 pages