Communication In Crisis, Blair Veloz

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Many people today continually search for their identity in the world. In order for someone to effectively communicate, they must understand how they would communicate when they least want to, such as in a crisis situation. A crisis or multiple crises can affect how people see the world, themselves and ultimately how they will communicate in a time of trouble. With the use of Martin Buber and his view on I-Thou, this thesis assists in understanding the encounter with God and that He is what helps makes us complete. Helping others to reach this goal of communicating well, this thesis …

Performing Communication Without Words: A Dramaturgical Exploration Of Communication Between Caregivers And Children Who Are Nonverbal, Sara Mcgerald

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Recognizing that human communication is highly expressive and it does not cease to exist if an individual is not able to produce spoken language, this thesis is an exploratory ethnographic study which seeks to utilize a dramaturgical perspective in identifying the function and structure of communication between children who are nonverbal (with a diagnosis of cerebral palsy) and their caregivers (Brissett & Edgley, 2009). The main informants for this study were two sets of parents with children diagnosed with cerebral palsy, who agreed to participate in twenty hours of engagement, which included direct interviews, observation, and personal interaction. The study …

Muted Women In American Political Discourse: Quieting The Loud Silence, Constance Michelle Skingel

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This study examines the way women are denied an equal voice in American politics through disparities in our language structure and overt sexism. This thesis begins with a review of the literature which discusses the need for an equitable and just society and how the underlying structure of our language system is flawed in such a way that it subjugates women and inhibits the development of such a society. This is followed by a brief summary of why it is necessary for us to examine this societal disparity from the perspective of women themselves. This thesis uses a pentadic analysis …

Twitter And #Television, Rachel M. Bellwoar

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

This essay discusses the significance of the hashtag phrases that now appear in the corner of television screens during shows. Television networks are trying to utilize Twitter to promote watching their programs live and generate discussion among fans, as well as potential new fans. Other uses for the social network that are being explored is the collection of feedback, for use in renewal and creative decisions, and viewer numbers, to entice advertisers.

屬靈戰爭與旅遊 : 一個短期宣教活動的個案研究, Lai Ieng Lau

Lingnan Theses

本研究試圖描繪香港細胞小組教會網絡短宣參加者的歷程及屬靈體驗，指出他們在旅途內的所見所聞受到了特定的宗教論述及旅遊操作所形塑和建構，而在此脈絡下產生的屬靈經驗可能不再純粹是神秘的、超自然和非物質的力量，相反它是可預期的文化產物，甚至不是本真(authentic)的屬靈經驗。然而，這種被建構的宗教及屬靈視野選擇性地把某些社會文化或問題 (如貧窮、種族主義、色情和異教文化)簡約歸類為邪惡他者的陰謀和控制，巧妙地隱藏或迴避了問題背後複雜而糾結的社會、經濟、政治及文化張力；同時鞏固了基督徒的身份認同及基督教的優越感，並相信基督教的價值觀獲得超越而且凌駕一切文化的合法性，然後將短宣內的屬靈經驗視為經歷神的重要證據。

此研究亦有助我們反思全球靈恩運動(Global Pentecostalism)的擴張，全球靈恩運動是近年基督教內增長最迅速的宗教運動，以屬靈恩賜、屬靈戰爭及繁榮神學(Prosperity Gospel)為主要特徵。除了依賴龐大的宗教媒體和超級教會等意識形態機器宣傳外，透過細緻的旅遊操作、宗教論述及靈性實踐，使短宣成為全球靈恩運動擴張的途徑之一，甚至讓這場源自美國的宗教運動轉化成本土的宗教內容。

Those Who Slay Together, Stay Together: A Thematic Analysis Of Concert Fan Narratives And The I-57 Youth Punk Music Scene, Michael James Janowski

Masters Theses

This study uses qualitative methods of narrative interviewing and thematic analysis of narrative to explore the communicative phenomenon of youth punk concert fan story-telling. It explores how the phenomenon functions to construct the subculture of the I-57 youth punk concert fan music scene. Through methods of thematic analysis of narrative, the study works to deconstruct numerous implicit understandings and taken-for-granted assumptions that drive and govern interactions among youth punk music fans participating within the I-57 youth punk music scene. The study is broken down into four exploratory categories where meanings are derived and critically analyzed: youth, punk, fandom, and the …

The Construction Of Spiritual Identity: Cmm And Conversion To Catholicism, Stephanie Gruner

Masters Theses

This study uses the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) to examine the spiritual stories of six people who were not raised Catholic, but joined the Catholic faith as adults. The participants' experiences reveal that their spiritual identities have both personal and communal aspects and that they view their identities as both fixed and changing. Additionally, when communicating their spiritualities to others these individuals must balance relationship concerns with the desire to express their spiritual identities. Applying CMM's hierarchy of meaning to the data shows that the levels work together in shaping the participants' understandings of their identities. The participants' relationships …

Cultural Identity And Education: A Critical Race Perspective, Theodorea Berry, Matthew Candis

Faculty Publications

The article discusses cultural identity, experience, and gap, along with the connections of critical race theory (CRT) and critical race feminism (CRF) with cultural identity and experience. Topics include the definition of cultural experience, the identity of African American educators, and the cultural gap experienced by African American students.

Entertaining, Informing, Persuading: Figures Of Speech To Prepare For Health And Safety, David H. Lee, Frederick Steier, Wit Ostrenko

Publications and Research

The public mandates science center exhibits that are entertaining as well as informative. In addition, exhibits can also be performative, in that they act back upon the visitors with an injunction to change their ways. We give examples from two exhibits that not only inform, but also open up space for changes in behavior and perception, particularly in arenas of public health. We look at two recent and ongoing exhibits at MOSI – “Disasterville” and “The Amazing You” - and examine the affordances suggested by figures of speech such as eponymy, hyponymy, hypernymy and retronymy. Tropological research into museum exhibits …

Welcome To The Doll House, Francie Latour, Risd Xyz

RISD XYZ Fall/Winter 2013: Out of Bounds

From the Barbie dresses he made as a boy to his first splash in the New York art world, Martín Gutierrez 12 PR is working to perfect what he has always done naturally.

The Role Of Consumer Gender Identity And Brand Concept Consistency In Evaluating Cross-Gender Brand Extensions, Laura Rose Frieden

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cross-gender brand extensions are a developing and valuable strategy that has quickly grown to become a vital component of strategic communications management. The goal of this study is to gain a greater insight on what makes for a successful cross-gender brand extension. In order to expand upon the Basic Model of Brand Extension Evaluation (Doust & Esfahlan, 2012), this study examines how marketing factors, more specifically product positioning, combined with consumer gender roles and brand concept, affect how consumers evaluate cross-gender brand extensions. In the past gender and brand concept have been studied within cross-gender brand extension research. Yet, the …

Disciplinarity, Crisis, And Opportunity In Technical Communication, Jason Robert Carabelli

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I argue that technical communication as an academic curricular entity has struggled to define itself as either a humanities or scientific discipline. I argue that this crisis of identity is due to a larger, institutional flaw first identified by the science studies scholar Bruno Latour as the problem of the "modern constitution." Latour's argument, often referred to as Actor-Network Theory (ANT), suggests that the epistemological arguments about scientific certainty are built on a contradiction. In viewing the problem of technical communication's disciplinarity through the lens of ANT, I argue that technical communication can never be productive if …

Compassionate Storytelling With Holocaust Survivors: Cultivating Dialogue At The End Of An Era, Chris J. Patti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We live in a frantic, fractured, ever-quickening, and violent world that is at the end of the era in which we will be able to talk with survivors of the Shoah. To date, there have been approximately 100,000 recorded interviews of Holocaust survivors. The vast majority of these interviews--such as the 52,000 done for Steven Spielberg's and USC Shoah Foundation Archive--have used traditional, single-session, and "neutral" methods of oral history interviewing to "capture" and "preserve" the legalistic, historical "testimonies" of survivors. The present study responds to this situation and unique moment in time by slowing down, listening, speaking repeatedly and …

When Celebrity Women Tweet: Examining Authenticity, Empowerment, And Responsibility In The Surveillance Of Celebrity Twitter, Megan M. Wood

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a textual analysis of stories in online celebrity news articles about celebrity women and their use of Twitter. It adds to the burgeoning discussion about gendered and racialized bodies online using scholarship from critical feminist, surveillance, and digital media studies. Throughout, my work attends to notions of authenticity and surveillance, examining how what I term a "call to authenticity"--the use of technologies of self-surveillance to verify "authentic" displays of the self--serves to animate contradictory post-feminist paradigms of femininity which function together to discipline and subjugate femininity. I ask: How do post-feminist questions of empowerment and responsibility become …

Dead Man's Switch: Disaster Rhetorics In A Posthuman Age, Daniel Patrick Richards

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When a disaster the magnitude of the Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill takes place, is it natural for the news media stories, investigative reports, and public deliberation to focus almost exclusively on finding the person or group responsible for such a horrendous scene. Rhetorically speaking, the discourse surrounding the event can be characterized as a reductive form of praise and blame rhetoric (epideixis). However, these efforts, while well-intentioned, are troublesome because searches for the one technical cause and the sole personal culpability are thwarted by the sheer complexity of the ecological, technological, scientific, institutional, and communicative network required for …

The Personal, Political, And The Virtual? Redefining Female Success And Empowerment In A Post-Feminist Landscape, Linda Elizabeth Chardon

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

A Women's Talking Circle: A Narrative Study Of Positive Intergenerational Communication, Pamela Ferris-Olson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Narrative inquiry was used to understand how women’s experiences with their mothers, grandmothers, and daughters and as mothers, grandmothers, and daughters contribute to their meaning making of communication and connectedness with unrelated women. A purposeful sample of nine women aged 31-69 from a small Midwestern city was studied. Six African American and three white women were chosen for their membership in a group that has regularly engaged in positive intergenerational communication for nearly two years. The women’s narratives of personal communicative experiences within their families and with the other women were recorded and interpreted to gain a deeper understanding of …

Eco-Terrorism Or Eco-Tage: An Argument For The Proper Frame, David Thomas Sumner, Lisa M. Weidman

Faculty Publications

What does the term “terrorism” mean? Is it accurate to lump illegal acts that destroy property but carefully avoid harming people into the same category as acts clearly intended to kill? Is this a difference of kind or just of degree? While we (the authors) don't generally endorse the destruction of property as a method of generating social change, we believe that the destruction of property is fundamentally different from the intentional killing of people; therefore, to label acts of obstruction, trespassing, vandalism, sabotage, or arson as “terrorism” is inaccurate and has the potential to damage one's understanding of real …

Bowl Survey, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Over the next two days and nights ten bowl games will be played across the expanse of our great nation. At the end of the bowl season, culminating with the BCS Championship Game on January 7, thirty-five bowl games will have been played. The first, the Gildan New Mexico Bowl, took place on December 15.

The Implications Of Viral Media & Advocacy: Kony 2012, Cassandra Bopp

Honors Projects in Communication

This research paper analyzes the video “Kony 2012” as an example of advocacy film making and viral media. By analyzing critical sources, I draw conclusions as to why this video became the most viral video of all time and how other advocacy groups can use this phenomenon to learn about viral advocacy media. Using data from LexisNexis Academic, I track the popularity of “Kony 2012” via different forms of media (blogs, news articles, etc.) and compare my data to prior research conducted on social media sites. Ultimately, I will find that several key characteristics can be pinpointed as the primary …

College Sport, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

It’s been some time since I sat down and watched as much as a half of a college football game. Last fall I was in London, a city not infected by intercollegiate athletics, and this fall I simply never got enough time or interest to watch. Then a few weeks ago I did see several games. Florida and Florida State always draws my interest, and the Notre Dame run has been an interesting one.

Book Review: Drawing Card, Scott D. Peterson

Communication Faculty Publications

Although Drawing Card employs many of the standard conventions of a baseball novel, Mills' book also makes significant and surprising departures. Instead of telling the story of a player's experience in the game, the narrative derives primarily from the consequences of a dream denied. The novel also serves as a cultural history of Cleveland of the 1930s and 1940s with side trips to Sicily at various key points in the island's history.

The Concise Guide To The Modern Calvinist/Arminian Debate, David J. Leonhardt

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The Calvinist/Arminian debate is not a new issue to the Protestant Church; however, it is an issue that has resurged within contemporary Christianity. One major offense committed in this controversial debate occurs when a person or group uses a term from the opposite side in a way that is not the proponent’s original intent or meaning. Furthermore, misconceptions concerning the actual doctrines maintained by either side have become commonplace in the debate. In order to correct this problem, this thesis will serve as a guide for understanding the Calvinist/Arminian debate. It will provide information on the founders of the two …

A Woman Is A Dish For The Gods': Shakespeare's Use Of Myth To Criticize Patriarchy, Marissa Polascak

Honors Theses

William Shakespeare's canon is famous throughout the world, studied by scholars as well as read by laymen for leisure. These scholars and laymen value Shakespeare's works for their content and form, at the same time that they criticize them for their flaws. On the surface, it is clear that Shakespeare touches on many issues in his poems and plays, such as love and war, but hidden underneath are messages that are ambiguous. These hidden messages are a product of censorship. During the Renaissance, Sir Francis Walsingham established the State apparatus which helped to protect society against counter-Reformation activists. This apparatus …

Tags And Roger, Richard C. Crepeau

On Sport and Society

Is there anyone out there who thought that Paul Tagliabue would overturn the player suspensions imposed by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in the New Orleans bounty case? Maybe someone somewhere had predicted this, but if they did they would be members of an extremely small club.

The Media Is A Funhouse Mirror: Comparing Economic Interaction Issues In The U.S. And Chinese Media, Yiye Zhang

Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

This project studied the differences between mainstream news reporting in the U.S. and China. I employed content analysis to analyze the major features of 427 news reports about the economic interaction between the two countries. The research focused on the key media frames in the two sets of news media, the factors that shaped these media frames, and the real meanings behind those reports. The study found both similarities and differences. The two sets of media showed significant differences in their reporting of news and events about economic issues in terms of the selection of topics, and the discourse …

Is The Daily Show Bad For Democracy? An Analysis Of Cynicism And Its Significance, Evan Bartlett

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

In recent years, satirical news programs like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart have emerged as an important development in contemporary American society, culture, and politics. Critics have argued that The Daily Show has a negative impact on the political attitudes of American citizens by making them cynical about government and the political process as a whole. As a result of these attitudes, they argue, citizens are less apt to participate in politics and, in turn, this behavior is detrimental to American democracy. The purpose of this research project is to explore the debate over whether or not The Daily …

Ua12/2/1 The Stressbusters, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Special finals week edition of the College Heights Herald.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 88, No. 26, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 88, No. 25, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.