Digital Commons Network^™

Terms For Talking About Information And Communication, Corey Anton

Peer Reviewed Articles

This paper offers terms for talking about information and how it relates to both matter-energy and communication, by: (1) Identifying three different levels of signs: Index, based in contiguity, icon, based in similarity, and symbol, based in convention; (2) examining three kinds of coding: Analogic differences, which deal with positive quantities having contiguous and continuous values, and digital distinctions, which include “either/or functions”, discrete values, and capacities for negation, decontextualization, and abstract concept-transfer, and finally,iconic coding, which incorporates both analogic differences and digital distinctions; and (3) differentiating between “information theoretic” orientations (which deal …

A Meta-Analytic Review Of Cooperative Learning Practices In Higher Education: A Human Communication Perspective, William Patrick Huddy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The phrase cooperative learning refers to a pedagogical learning and teaching technique in use in schools from kindergarten through higher education. The technique involves the structuring of an active classroom environment with students working in groups to discover, solve, and at its basic, provide a framework for dialogue and conversation. Cooperative learning is grounded in the development of a theory of social interdependence (Morton Deutsch) which states that individuals, working in groups, can in most cases provide for greater productivity and ideas than individuals working alone. The development of cooperative learning was greatly expanded in the late 1960’s and early …

Analyzing Nurse-Physician Discursive Practices In Acute Patient Care, John Dinolfo

All Dissertations

This mixed methods study in inter-professional health communication assesses the pedagogical role of writing and visual communication in the education of non-traditional and traditional Nursing students as they interpret and apply the concepts of message framing and message reception in nurse-physician communication. To achieve that goal, this study analyzes the dynamics of terministic screens as message frames that can determine message reception in nurse-physician communication regarding the status of an acute care patient.
The study was conducted in two Nursing writing and communication classes during the Spring 2011 semester. Two study groups (combined across classes) included a mixed population of …

The Rhetorical Situation Of Facebook, Justin L. Suiter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The online social network Facebook is a site of ocnsiderable rhetorical activity. Because it exists at the frontier of Web 2.0 or "new media" technology, this rhetorical activity has certain novel features that require an expansion of the concept of rhetorical situation. I apply Lloyd Bitzer's original theory of rhetorical situation to the context of Facebook in order to highlight the ways in which technological advances and shifts in theory necessitate a broader understanding of rhetorical situations. I argue that two of Bitzer's three essential elements, constraints and audience, are applicable to Facebook but must be adapted to suit its …

Immigration In Rural Newfoundland: Individual And Community Change, Willow Jackson Anderson

Communication ETDs

The purpose of this study is to learn about the cultural adaptation experiences of immigrants to rural Newfoundland and what, if any, changes the communities themselves have made. I am particularly interested in what role communication plays in these change processes. To investigate this topic I conducted interviews and focus groups with both immigrants and native-born Newfoundlanders in rural areas and then analyzed the resulting data with a rigorous thematic analysis. To accomplish this purpose, I recruited and interviewed eight immigrants and 10 native-born Newfoundlanders in rural areas of the province. Then I conducted three focus groups with each of …

Wine Tasting Through Typography, Dayna Goldman

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study is to find the connection, if any, between the design and typography of wine labels with the flavor attributes of the wine itself. If there is a lacking connection, wineries can use this information to better market their wines so that consumers know more about the wines they are purchasing and can make a more informed decision. This allows these wineries to better market themselves and differentiate from their competitors.

The research focuses mainly on smaller, local wineries because these are the businesses that need more assistance or direction in creating and marketing their brand. …

Behaviors That Eliminate Health Disparities For Racial And Ethnic Minorities: A Narrative Systematic Review, Truman Ryan Keys

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

Within the health care provider-health care recipient relationship the communication must be culturally competent to eliminate barriers to equitable health care for all Americans. This assertion has conceptual grounding in Public Law 106-129 (the Health Care Research and Quality Act of 1999) and Public Law 106-525 (the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act of 2000). This narrative systematic review examines this assertion by using selection and exclusion criteria to gather interventions, assessments, and testimonies conducted from 2000-2007. Reports that were not eliminated via these criteria were analyzed to determine the effect of specific practices that were undertaken …

Chinese International Students' Cross-Cultural Adaptation And Online Communication, Chen Wei Wu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored Chinese international students' computer mediated communication with both Americans and Chinese during their studying in the U.S. based on a Cross-Cultural Adaptation theory. The specific purpose of this study was to test five theorems of the theory with a sample of Chinese international students and to explore how Chinese international students' intercultural transformation, adaptive personality, host communication competence, and their interpersonal and mass communication with both host and ethnic groups associate together.

The Capacity To Delineate And Interpret Emotion In Text Messages, Ashton C. Klingensmtih

Senior Honors Theses

Research indicates that emotion is not easily expressed or interpreted between senders and receivers who communicate through computer mediated communication methods such as text messaging. This fast paced, inexpensive and technologically advanced communication tool of text messaging has become a socially acceptable and valid form of communication in the twenty first century in many populations, cultures, and regions. Twenty pairs of female friends’ abilities to delineate and interpret accurately the four emotions of: joy, anger, sadness, and guilt in eight different text message scenarios were investigated. The results determined that although the accuracy rate of the sender expressing an emotion …

Law Enforcement In The Fog Of Mistrust: Solving The Problem Of Black Mistrust In Law Enforcement, Mark Wayne Whitson

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

What is the relationship between educating police officers in African American history and culture and the development of empathy and accommodative communication during interactions? This question is important to study because history and culture define African-American mistrust in general and specific mistrust of law enforcement in the United States. “Studies consistently show minority group members are more distrustful and less confident in the police and courts” (Tyler, 2001, p. 217). African-American perceptions are shaped by historical experiences and as a result Blacks believe they are treated differently because of race. All police officers, regardless of their race or gender, because …

The Language Teaching Puzzle, Gregory S. Child

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is a compilation of beliefs about effective foreign language (FL) teaching. The core of this portfolio is a teaching philosophy, in which theories, such as comprehensible input, teacher and student roles, and activities are explained. The teaching philosophy is accompanied by a reflection of the authors teaching observed from a video. Following the teaching philosophy and personal teaching reflection are three artifacts centered on language, culture, and literacy. The language artifact contains an observational study in which instructors’ practices are compared with their beliefs. The cultural artifact is focused on storytelling. Many civilizations employ storytelling in the form …

Communities Of Creativity: The Role Of Symbols On Youth Formation, Andrew Locke Kellner

Children, Youth, and Family (CYF) Papers

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Presence And Use Of Nonverbal Communication In Primary Reading Instruction, Amelia C. Ferrell

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This research examined the presence and types of nonverbal communication presented in primary reading instruction. Primary instructors were surveyed about their use and types of nonverbal communication employed during reading instruction. Nonverbal communication variables studied were determined from relevant literature regarding nonverbal immediacy, primary education, and reading instruction. Findings revealed that almost all nonverbal communication variables studied were employed frequently and most respondents had no prior training. Findings suggest how future studies can better evaluate the role of nonverbal communication in reading instruction and provide education for primary teachers in hopes of improving literacy education.

Whatever: Prosodic Context Cues And Their Influence On Pragmatic Meaning, Pamela Kathleen Wahler

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis examines real language in use to observe the different intonation contours associated with the discourse marker "whatever" to see if or how these contours contribute to the pragmatic meaning associated with the different functions. Interactional sociolinguistic and conversational analysis approach to investigate the different pragmatic meaning associated with the discourse marker "whatever" were employed to carry out the analysis. In addition, corpus linguistic methodology was used to gather data to investigate the different pragmatic meanings of the word "whatever."

Encouraging Communication And Community Through Making Books About Shared Experiences, Lisa Boyce, Gina A. Cook, Lori A. Roggman, Vonda K. Jump Norman, Mark S. Innocenti

Course Materials

Classroom Storytelling to Enhance Language and Literacy Skills (C-SHELLS) is a guide for helping preschool children “write” books. C-SHELLS is designed to promote communication by using storytelling and book making activities to promote child language and literacy skills and community by helping culturally and linguistically diverse children engage with peers, understand classroom routines, and develop socially appropriate and regulated behaviors. C-SHELLS helps teachers engage children, get them talking, help them make friends, and increase their school readiness. C-SHELLS activities do this by helping children work together to make picture books based on shared classroom experiences. C-SHELLS uses a simple, fun, …

Exploring The Educational Involvement Of Parents Of English Learners, Elizabeth M. Vera, M Susman Israel, Laura Coyle, J Cross, Laura Knight-Lynn, I Moallem, G Bartucci, N Goldberger

Center for Research Quality Publications

The purpose of the current investigation was to examine the relationships among a range of specific barriers and facilitators of parent involvement and a variety of types of school involvement within a diverse group of immigrant parents of English Learners (ELs) in four elementary school districts. In-home types of educational involvement such as monitoring homework and asking children about their school day were the most commonly reported behaviors, and utilizing community resources was found to be the least common type of parental involvement. Involvement type was predicted by parental demographic factors such as comfort with English language, educational background, and …

An Introduction To Prayer Research In Communication: Functions, Contexts, And Possibilities, E. James Baesler

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ironic Advertising: Theory, Evidence And Practice, Ekin Pehlivan Yalcin

2012

Irony is one mechanism that advertisers use to attract consumer attention. Although ironic advertising (IA) is utilized in the mass media, it has received surprisingly little conceptual or empirical attention from marketing scholars. Perhaps one reason for this is that in marketing irony has been viewed primarily from a postmodern perspective. This is in marked contrast to psycholinguists where the phenomenon is approached from a more ecumenical, realist point of view. This dissertation is based on the premise that a realist approach to ironic advertising would produce insights for both marketing theory and practice.

This dissertation comprises of three papers …

Voices In Concert: Communication Ethnography Of Pentecostal Worship, Bruce C. Coats

Dissertations (1934 -)

We know little about communication in Pentecostal worship service outside of the practice of tongues-speech. Pentecostals uniquely interpret communicative activity as distinctive factors in their identity; yet no research identifies the unique national speech codes operating with the Pentecostal churches. This study applied decreased that knowledge gap using Philipsen's Speech Codes Theory to analyzing the structure and interpretation of Pentecostal worship services, analyzing individual congregations in relationship with local culture and situated within the national Pentecostal movement. Fisher's narrative paradigm was applied to worship services to describe the narrative of a worship service as it extended in the everyday lives …

Acoustic Differences In The Imitation Of Prosodic Patterns In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Joshua J. Diehl, Rhea Paul

Communication Disorders Faculty Publications

In research, it has been difficult to characterize the prosodic production differences that have been observed clinically in autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Moreover, the nature of these differences has been particularly hard to identify. This study examined one possible contributor to these perceived differences: motor planning. We examined the ability of children and adolescents with ASD to imitate prosodic patterns in comparison to a group with learning disabilities (LD) and a typically developing (TD) comparison group. Overall, we found that both the ASD and LD groups were significantly worse at perceiving and imitating prosodic patterns than the TD comparison group. …

Improving Communication Skills Among Nursing Students: Assessing The Comfort Curriculum As An Intervention, Rachel Steckler

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Effective communication is just one of the many skill sets nursing students must master to be effective in their field. A nurse’s role goes far beyond that of medical care. In addition, Today’s nurses should be equipped with a working knowledge of medical management, communication skills, ethical/legal issues, end-of-life care, and team collaboration, among others (e.g., Ferrell, Dahlin, Campbell, Paice, Malloy, & Virani, 2007).Wittenberg-Lyles, Goldsmith, Sanchez-Reilly, and Ragan (2010) contend nurses need to have specialized training protocols focused on developing effective communication skills . The current study employed one such protocol, the COMFORT curriculum, as a tool to teach nursing …

Communication In Engineering: Developing A Targeted Course, Krysta Nicole Kirsch

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

In many technical undergraduate programs, specifically engineering, focus is placed on developing the technical abilities of students. Little emphasis is placed on communication, to include verbal, written, and presentation skills. In a dynamic corporate world, technical students can be put at a disadvantage if they are not taught the importance of being able to communicate with a variety of demographics in varying contexts. Companies are looking for engineering graduates who have strengths in both arenas. To address this issue, a semester-long communication course for engineering majors has been developed. The foundation is in current research on communication apprehension, the communication …

Young Children's Understanding Of The Relationship Between Conventionality And Communication, Kathleen R. Sullivan

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation explores children's understanding of the conventionality of language, the notion that shared knowledge of the meanings of linguistic symbols enables communication using those symbols. Three studies investigate whether monolingual children recognize that different speakers share knowledge of lexical conventions, in this case the labels for objects, independent of children's own knowledge of those labels. Further, children's ability to use evidence of shared conventional knowledge when reasoning about communicative interactions is tested using a novel third-party communication task. Results indicate that three-year-old children track consistent labeling of novel objects across different speakers, and infer underlying shared knowledge of object …

Evaluation Of A 21st-Century After-School Program At A Southeastern Elementary School, Timothy B. Hunter

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The purpose of the research was to evaluate a 21st-century after-school program at an elementary school in the southeastern United States. The program focused on the improvement of academic skills for students in Grades 3 through 5 in the academic areas of English and math. Implementation was in response to the high rate of students scoring below average on standardized tests. The Stufflebeam model was used to guide the program evaluation. Interview data were gathered from the after-school coordinator. Survey data were gathered from the after-school teachers and regular-school teachers. Data were also gathered from archival and empirical sources.

Test …

Constructing And Deconstructing Border Wars, Damien Chadsworth Wendel

Master's Theses

Discussing a border's location, how it functions, and who is allowed to cross it can quickly give rise to heated arguments that at times escalate to violent disputes. In order to better understand the tension surrounding borders, a mediated-rhetorical critique of National Geographic's television show Border Wars was conducted. Performing this critique enables an understanding of the rhetorical strategies the show employs to construct and reify the Mexico/U.S. border, keep out outlaw discourse from influencing the civic imaginary, and answer the question, "Is there an end in sight?" This thesis will specifically address these questions: What rhetorical strategies does Border …

Examination Of The Reliability And Validity Of A New Observation Measure For Autism Spectrum Disorders: The Autism Spectrum Disorder Observation For Children, Daniene Neal

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

With increasing attention being drawn to autism spectrum disorders (ASD), specifically with regard to early and accurate diagnosis and treatment, researchers and clinicians alike have placed emphasis on finding assessment tools that can aid in this goal. The purpose of this study is to examine the psychometric properties of a new observation measure for ASD, the Autism Spectrum Disorders-Observation for Children (ASD-OC). The ASD-OC was found to have good to excellent interrater reliability, and excellent internal consistency (ƒÑ = .96). As a result of these initial reliability analyses, nine items were removed from the scale. The resulting 45 item ASD-OC …

Global Csr And Photographic Credibility: Exploring How International Companies Portray Efforts Through Photographs In Csr Reports, Janel Lynn Norton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We are living in the age of the visual. Imagery is an important element in constructing and deriving meaning through symbols, colors, and context. Images may hold persuasive power, be used as evidence, or simply provide a moment of beauty. Organizations rely on photographs to help them convey an image to their stakeholders within annual reports. Telling an organizations' story through photographs has become an intrinsic part of their efforts to convey sustainability. We live in the age of transparency, and organizations that construct an image that is not truthful will face consequences in today's socially connected and conscious world. …

Impact Of A Rural Elementary School Closing On Parents’ Satisfaction Level, Crycynthia F. Gardner

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation study sought to determine what impact the closing of a small elementary school whose students were predominately Black had on parents’ levels of satisfaction with their children’s education now that they attended an integrated school and what cultural differences, if any, existed among and between different ethnic groups of parents. The Parent Opinion Inventory and an open-ended, structured interview were used to gather data in this mixed-method study.

A random select technique was used to generate a pool of 226 participants from 1 rural elementary school in the southern part of the United States. Eighty of these …

Coming To Terms: The Challenge Of Creating Christian Vocabulary In A Non-Christian Land, Van C. Gessel

BYU Studies

Because words, in any language, are not actual concrete objects but simply "sounds," "symbols," or "signifiers" that at best can only be a shadowy approximation of reality and truth, we must regard language as one of the slipperiest of the slippery treasures of mortality. If language itself produces, at best, a shadowy approximation of reality and truth, then translating that shadowy approximation from one language to another significantly compounds the slipperiness. The difficulty increases when translating Christian terms into a historically non-Christian language and culture such as Japanese. Thus, as Christian translators have attempted to borrow words from other languages …

Communication And Cultural Competence: The Acquisition Of Cultural Knowledge And Behavior, Jianglong Wang

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

This essay expounds on individuals’ acquisition and development of cultural competence via the process of communication. It highlights both the importance of culture and communication in our lives and the close associations between culture, communication, cultural literacy, and cultural competence. The author explicates the commonly experienced difficulty in “knowing the true face” of one’s culture, and illuminates the communication process by which individuals acquire their cultural knowledge and behavior.