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Digital Democratic Voices: Intersecting Student Research, Twitter, And Presidential Debates, Adam W. Tyma

Communication Faculty Publications

Courses: Mass Communication and Public Opinion, Political Communication

Objectives: Often, there are media events (e.g., local and national elections, the Super Bowl) that match up with what we hope to accomplish in a particular class. The purpose of this semester-length project for students was threefold: (1) to read and comprehend literature related to communication studies, media, and political strategy; (2) to collect and analyze data; and (3) to participate in civic engagement by taking part in Presidential DebateWatch events, both as an audience member and through the use of Twitter.

Library Education And Development Newsletter, Volume 8, Issue 2, Uno Library Science Education

Library Education and Development (L.E.A.D.)

This issue of the Library Education and Development Newsletter features Advice from the Frontlines from Krystal Spilgers, a Student Spotlight of Jen Prasch, Announcements, and Professional Development.

Table Of Contents, Rory J. Conces

International Dialogue

Table of Contents for Volume 4

Notes From The Editor, Rory J. Conces

International Dialogue

Notes from International Dialogue's Editor-in-Chief, Rory J. Conces for Volume 4.

Žižek’S Hegel: Less Than Nothing: Hegel And The Shadow Of Dialectical Materialism, Gavin Hyman

International Dialogue

Followers of Slavoj Žižek’s work had long been awaiting his “big book on Hegel.” In interviews and other appearances, he made no secret of the fact that this work was in progress and, furthermore, that he considered it to be a labour of love, his magnum opus, and, in a sense, a culmination. Big the book certainly is—1010 pages of text to be precise. If such a book were to be written by any other author, readers would doubtless have waited considerably longer to receive it. But so prolific is this author that the waiting has been minimal, and many …

Martin Heidegger And The First World War, David A. White

International Dialogue

The subtitle of this work is “Being and Time as Funeral Oration.” This addition helps a reader to appreciate that the book functions on various levels: scholarly, to the extent that it offers a reading of selected details in Heidegger’s first major work; historical, in that Altman asserts with great vigor that Being and Time should be seen as a “funeral oration” for those who died in World War One; biographical, in that we read much about Heidegger’s personal actions in political and academic contexts leading to and during both WWI and a decade after the conclusion of the “Great …

A World Of Becoming, Stanimir Panayotov

International Dialogue

It is difficult to respond in a genre other than philosophical prose when writing about one. Philosophical prose is a very demanding and small club: it is almost like the poetry club of philosophy recognized in and by itself. Few are the specimens of the genre and plenty are those raising hands from within. This is largely because genre-determined writing such as this one is both about style and Zeitgeist. And to rise up to the standards of styling the spirit(s) of time is an ordeal of both the heart and the mind even trained thinkers fail to do. With …

The Sports Gene: Inside The Science Of Extraordinary Athletic Performance, Dave Ogden

International Dialogue

David Epstein is another author chasing the elusive answer to one of the basic and ageless issues of social and natural sciences: Nature versus nurture. His discoveries and conclusions in The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance are not necessarily new, but he provides ample and interesting evidence that leans more heavily on the side of nature. In doing so, he takes on stock believers in Karl Anders Ericsson’s theoretical set called “deliberate practice.” Ericsson and his colleagues have studied elite “performers” in a variety of fields, including typing, chess playing, musicianship, and athletic skills. Ericsson found …

Leviathans At The Gold Mine: Creating Indigenous And Corporate Actors In Papua New Guinea, Jerry K. Jacka

International Dialogue

Social analysis in anthropology today “oscillates uneasily” between a concern with Foucauldian global regimes of governance on the one hand and Deleuzian assemblages of agentive actors on the other. In Leviathans at the Gold Mine: Creating Indigenous and Corporate Actors in Papua New Guinea, Alex Golub asks if there is “a better way to do justice to a contemporary scene characterized by both spontaneity and regime” (2). Golub’s book seeks to find this middle road through the analysis of the development of a world-class gold mine on the homelands of a group of indigenous people—the Ipili— living in the highlands …

Essential Chan Buddhism: The Character And Spirit Of Chinese Zen, Owen G. Mordaunt

International Dialogue

This book embraces the essence of talks Guo Jun gave at a fourteen-day retreat at Chan Forest in the hills of Jakarta in 2010 as well as subsequent conversations the editor and his wife had with him. It is highly readable and accessible to the reader. It has poetic, spontaneous and witty qualities, providing deep insight into Chan (also spelled Cha’n) Buddhism. Chan is the Chinese form of Zen and is not well-known in the West as Zen is, but it derives from the traditions of India. It has flourished and continued to develop through many masters and its teachings …

Democracy, Islam, And Secularism In Turkey, Renat Shaykhutdinov

International Dialogue

This book edited by Ahmet Kuru and Alfred Stepan provides an important contribution to the understanding of the nexus between democracy and democratization, religion and secularism in the context of Turkey, arguably the most stable Muslim-majority democracy in the greater Middle East. The volume features a select group of scholars and policy makers and is a product of two conferences held at Columbia University with the subsequent meetings and a thorough review and revision process. Among the contributors to the volume is Ergun Özbudun, the head of the academic commission for the new constitutional draft, whose chapters problematize the conflict …

Human Rights & Gender Violence: Translating International Law Into Local Justice, Pattaka Sa-Ngimnet

International Dialogue

This book explains how international human rights laws are created by consensus through representatives of local and national governments and then become translated into content acceptable to local communities. In an introductory chapter the author presents the overall arguments of the entire work. She also gives examples that support the arguments and lays out the pattern of human rights legislation by using the specific example of gender violence. Emphasizing language, she explains how it is understood in diverse ways. The rest of the book is concerned with more specific examples. Chapter two deals with creating human rights law (36–71). Chapter …

What Is A Palestinian State Worth?, Paul Kriese

International Dialogue

Sari Nusseibeh begins his study of the “Palestinian problem” with the comment “this is not an academic study” (18). Maybe that is why this particular study is so good. When asked to write this review my first response was not very positive. Most studies of this region lack clarity or are so ideological as to not be very useful. Many of these studies often also claim to be “academic.” Nusseibeh’s study is, unlike many reviews, a masterful academic study. His study succinctly and accurately portrays the tangled and tortured history of the region from a view that is both sympathetic …

Kindly Inquisitors, The New Attack On Free Thought, Jeremy Harris Lipschultz

International Dialogue

George F. Will’s forward to the 2013 edition of this book provides important focus to the problems arising when even one person is “offended” by free speech (xiii). From campus speech codes to legal and social theory aimed at balancing the First Amendment against other rights, Will flatly rejects the liberal movement toward “sensitivity,” “inclusiveness,” “multiculturalism” and other values that attempt to limit expression: What is needed is a book explaining why the usual, and intended, result of this practice is a finding that those objectives… are more worthy than the objective of maintaining a liberal regime of protected expression. …

The Words And The Land: Israeli Intellectuals And The Nationalist Myth, Abdelwahab Hiba Hechiche

International Dialogue

Shlomo Sand opens this book with a significant sentence: “Every book is part autobiography” and, consequently, “autobiographical confession” (7). Although he was born in 1946, his early recollection has been marked by a certain residue of the consequences of the Shoa, because as a child he was an eyewitness of the living conditions of people “like his Polish parents moving from one “displaced persons camp to another” (8). But during that same period of his early childhood, his memory resonated with his father’s reminding him that “we had taken someone else’s home” (8).The reader begins to witness an existential ethical …

Avatar And Nature Spirituality, Martin Schönfeld

International Dialogue

“To put it mildly, the world is a mess.” Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State, 27 July 2014 James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) was the first film to combine stereoscopic imagining and motion-capture animation for a flawless 3-D presentation. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture, and won three, for Cinematography, Art Direction, and Visual Effects. It was also the first box-office hit to gross more than $2 billion, and it remains the highest-grossing film to date. It made cinematic history. But it was more than an aesthetic triumph. Avatar is also a cultural …

Letters To Power: Public Advocacy Without Public Intellectuals, Russell Jacoby

International Dialogue

“Some of the smartest thinkers on problems at home and around the world are university professors, but most of them just don’t matter in today’s great debates.” So opens a recent New York Times column headlined, “Professors, We Need You!” (February 2014) Nicholas Kristof’s thoughts on the disappearance of the professoriate elicited heated responses, both irate and enthusiastic. The flap illustrates that the place of intellectuals in American life continues to generate controversy. Samuel McCormick, as assistant professor of communications at Purdue University, joins this on-going dispute with Letters to Power, a wide-ranging and historically informed study of intellectual dissent. …

University Of Nebraska At Omaha Biomechanics Research Building Annual Report, Fall 2014, Biomechanics Research Building

Biomechanics Annual Report

This annual report features:

Letter from the Directer; COBRE Grant Press Release

Updates - Our New Building; Visitors; Moving on Up; Why Choose BRB as a Student?; Where Are They Now?; From the Bench to the Market

Projects - Neuroscience; NASA: Stimulation of the Sensory System; Motor Development; Variability Studies; Path Integration; Peripheral Artery Disease and Aging

Other Content - Beyond our Borders; Journal Club; Awards; Faculty Travels; Conferences; NE Science Fest; Campaign for Nebraska

Nemo News, Volume 11, Issue 1, Uno Library Science Education

NEMO Newsletter

This issue of NEMO News features Meet Your New Program Liaison: Laura England-Biggs, NLA/NSLA Conference, Important Dates and Reminders, Student Spotlight on Dustan Archer, Student Resources, Free Webinars, Employment Opportunities and Scholarships and Contact Information.

Library Education And Development Newsletter, Volume 8, Issue 1, Uno Library Science Education

Library Education and Development (L.E.A.D.)

This issue of the Library Education and Development Newsletter features Advice from the Frontlines from Tammy Davis, a Student Spotlight of Peg Gray, Announcements, and Professional Development.

Moving Towards Accessible Wireless Emergency Alerts: Sending And Receiving, Deedee M. Bennett

Public Administration Faculty Publications

In the United States, cell phones play an important role in the rapid dissemination of public alerts and warnings. In 2012, FEMA began the nationwide rollout of the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) platform as part of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). WEAs enable emergency response personnel to send messages to wireless subscribers within range (at the county level) of an active incident. WEA messages do not require a subscription for receipt and are available for use by authorized IPAWS alerting authorities.

A Crowdsourcing Approach To Identify Common Method Bias And Self-Representation, Margeret A. Hall, Simon Caton

Interdisciplinary Informatics Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Pertinent questions on the measurement of social indicators are: the verification of data gained online (e.g., controlling for self-representation on social networks), and appropriate uses in community management and policy-making. Across platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and blogging services, users (sub)consciously represent themselves in a way which is appropriate for their intended audience (Qui et al., 2012; Zhao et al., 2008). However, scholars in the social sciences and computer science have not yet adequately addressed controlling for self-representation, or the propensity to display or censor oneself, in their analyses (Zhao et al., 2008; Das and Kramer, 2013). As such researchers …

This Is Sparta! Mediated Mythology As Pedagogy In 300, Adam W. Tyma

Communication Faculty Publications

Popular films continue to replace history courses as the source of truth with regard to important events or eras. 300, in its interpretation of the Battle of Thermopylae, based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller, is an example of this trend. Rather than adhering to the presented historical facts of the event, 300 offers a hyperreal interpretation of the battle and the societies that surrounded it, infusing contemporary hegemonic ideologies regarding sexuality, classism, and race into a mediated discourse that presents the spectacle of the film as reality. This essay examines the narratives that are presented within the film, …

Criss Chronicles, Volume 4, Issue 3, Criss Library

Criss Chronicles Newsletter

This edition of Criss Chronicles features From the Dean's Desk, the Distinguished Service Awards, A Conversation With... Bob Nash, New Faces at the UNO Library, Focus on Resources: The Reference Collection Movies, From the Archives: The Fifteenth Century Comes to Criss Library, Adventures in Interlibrary Loan, books at the Kaneko-UNO LIbrary, a calendar of events, and the 1955 Tangerine Bowl winners, then and now.

Disputes Over The Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands: Communication Tactics And Grand Strategies, Chin-Chung Chao, Dexin Tian

Communication Faculty Publications

This study explores the communication tactics and grand strategies of each of the involved parties in the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands disputes. Under the theoretical balance between liberal optimists and realist pessimists and through the hermeneutic analysis of the primary data of relevant remarks of governmental officials, official statements, letters and memoranda, declassified CIA reports, interview transcripts of scholars and experts, relevant media reports and readers’ online responses from the LexisNexis news database and Google News website as well as secondary data of relevant study results of scholars and researchers, we found that the Japanese have been secretive and opportunistic, the Americans …

Nemo News, Volume 10, Issue 4, Uno Library Science Education

NEMO Newsletter

This issue of NEMO News features Calls for Presenters for Upcoming Conferences, the 2014 LISGSA Conference Recap, Important Dates and Reminders, Reading of a Novel Changes the Brain, Study Shows, NLA/NSLA Conference Photos, Student Spotlight on Rachel Zill, Free Webinars, and Scholarship and Employment Opportunities.

Communo Magazine, Spring 2014, School Of Communication

CommUNO Magazine

CommUNO magazine was produced by MaverickPR and is currently published annually by the UNO School of Communication: 6001 Dodge Street, ASH 140, Omaha, NE 68182: Phone: 402.554.2600. Fax: 402.554.3836. For more information, follow us on Twitter@ CommUNO, join the “UNO School of Communication” page on Facebook or visit communication.unomaha.edu.

Library Education And Development Newsletter, Volume 7, Issue 4, Uno Library Science Education

Library Education and Development (L.E.A.D.)

This issue of the Library Education and Development Newsletter features Advice from the Frontlines from Cynthia Stogdill, a Student Spotlight of Tracy Bye, Announcements, and Professional Development.

Criss Chronicles, Volume 4, Issue 2, Criss Library

Criss Chronicles Newsletter

This edition of Criss Chronicles features the announcement of the renovation and expansion of the Archives and Special Collections, Document Delivery services, From the Archives: The Omaha Civic Opera Society Presents: The Barber of Seville, A Conversation With... Melissa Cast-Brede, Ph.D., Library Tours: Spaces, New Databases, books at the Kaneko-UNO LIbrary, a Trip to the Consumer Electronics Show, a calendar of events, and Conflict Zone in the Osborne Family Gallery.

Library Education And Development Newsletter, Volume 7, Issue 3, Uno Library Science Education

Library Education and Development (L.E.A.D.)

This issue of the Library Education and Development Newsletter features Advice from the Frontlines from Jenn Cejda, a Student Spotlight of Renee Gilsdorf, Announcements, and Professional Development.