Other Film and Media Studies Commons^™

Fisher Of Men, Ashley N. Moore

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Fisher of Men tells the story of an ancient and secretive group of supernatural balance keepers. When God goes missing, it is up to them to locate him before the armies of Heaven and Hell lay siege to the earth, but they have their own problems. When knowledge of a secret weapon surfaces, they are tasked to find it and destroy it before it falls into the hands of either side. The secret weapon is Charitie Newman, a young woman from rural Indiana who moved to New Orleans with her sister. Charitie has special abilities that have no limits, and …

Insect Abundance And Variability In An Urban-Rural Landscape And Comparison To Foraging Habitat Selection Of Bats, Nicole M. Oehler

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I conducted a study of the relationship between prey availability and foraging habitat selection of Indiana bats (Myotis sodalis), big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus), eastern red bats (Lasiurus borealis) and evening bats (Nycticeius humeralis) in an urban-rural landscape matrix of southwestern Indianapolis. Insects were collected from nine different habitat types found within the range of these species. Insect data were collected from 2006 to 2008 using sticky traps placed in each habitat type. Habitat types were ranked by importance to each bat species (based on previous studies) and then compared to the average number of prey insects captured per habitat …

Fair And Lovely: Standards Of Beauty, Globalization, And The Modern Indian Woman, Rebecca Gelles

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

With the expansion of globalization in the modern era, ideas from individual cultures are more easily able to spread to other parts of the world. One set of cultural standards that may be spreading to India is that of beauty, where a media with an increasingly Western style shares television space with advertisements from corporations that are often foreign in origin. This study seeks to examine exactly what influence this globalized media has on its viewers, and, in particular, on their perspectives on beauty. In addition, since the ability to conform to cultural standards affects how people view themselves, this …

Tele-Visioning Terror, Caroline Zekri

Re-visioning Terrorism

This paper is devoted to the relationship between terrorism and media, with a special focus on the theoretical notions of “icon”, “mass” and “distance”. It aims to show how the phenomenon of modern terrorism calls into question the essence of modern democracies and their systems of information, based on the distance between vision and event.

Media Services In North American Academic Libraries, Michael J. Miller

Publications and Research

Ongoing evolution of the Benjamin S. Rosenthal (BRL), Multimedia Commons was initially informed by a report from an internal task force and also by a four-year-long study of North American academic library media services units. A travel grant allowed for visits to the media service units of Barnard College, College of Staten Island - City University of New York, Columbia University, Georgetown University, New York University, University of Maryland - College Park, University of Massachusetts – Amherst, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, University of Texas – Austin. Visits have subsequently been made to the University of Washington – …

The Risk Factors Of Alcohol Abuse Among College Athletes, Jacob Jones

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Self-concept theory was used as a theoretical basis to investigate the utility of social norms alcohol prevention programs designed for college athletes. The predictive relationship among alcohol use and athletic identity, competitiveness, drinking game participation, and level of sport participation was investigated. It was discovered that drinking game participation is a significant predictor of total weekly alcohol use above and beyond the other predictors. In addition, drinking game participation and organized recreational sport participation were significant predictors of total binge drinking episodes. While controlling for drinking game participation and competitiveness, no significant differences were found in the amount of alcohol …

Self-Expansion And Couple Possessions: The Representation Of The Self And Other In Valued Possessions, Lindsey Paniccia

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study seeks to understand the influence of romantic relationships on identity symbolism, specifically the use of personal possessions as a means of achieving social validation. According to self-expansion theory (Aron & Aron, 1986), engaging in a romantic relationship alters one’s sense of self; romantic partners take on the qualities and characteristics of a partner and integrate them into the self. To understand the process of identity symbolism due to one’s newly expanded sense of self, this study investigated the link between the amount of reported self-expansion and couple representativeness as well as the function of one’s possessions (other-direct …

Perception Of Social Presence In Asynchronous And Synchronous Online Discussion From The Perspective Of Native And Non-Native Speaker, Abdullah A. Alruhaimi

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The technology innovation of telecommunication gave confidence to educational institutions to substitute some of their courses from traditional courses into virtual ones. This switch in education inspired globalization. The learners use either synchronous or asynchronous communication tools to interact with each other. Most previous studies in this field show that social presence is correlated with learner achievement satisfaction and interaction. So the researcher measured the level of social presence for both groups of learners, native and non-native speakers, across both types of online communication, synchronous and asynchronous communication. The researcher conducted a 2x2 split-plot ANOVA design with repeated measure for …

Novel Phytol-Derived Immunostimulants (Phis-01) For Enhancement Of Vaccine Efficacy: A Comparative Study, Youssef Aachoui

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adjuvants are used widely in vaccine formulations. However for humans, choices are very limited. Since they are selected empirically, it is not expected that any two adjuvants would influence immune mechanisms the same way. However they all influence host microenvironment, antigen presentation, and retention of immunological memory. This study focuses on new terpenoid adjuvants based on phytol derivatives. We previously observed that phytol and one of its derivatives PHIS-01 (a phytol-based immunostimulant, phytanol) are excellent adjuvants. To gain an understanding of the structural features important for adjuvanticity, we further studied compounds derived from a diterpene Phytol. We designed two new …

An Examination Of The Influence Of Religion On The Forgiveness Process, Gregory J. Johnson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to examine the religion-forgiveness hypothesis in the context of the forgiveness process in an attempt to better understand the basis of the relationship. Data was collected from 140 participants in an online survey that contained measures of religious behaviors, religious beliefs, religious fundamentalism, empathy, emotional intelligence, forgiveness, and social desirability. A hypothesized model specified that religious variables of religious belief, behavioral religiosity, religious fundamentalism would be predictive of forgiveness when mediated by emotional intelligence and fully mediated by empathy. Using structural equation modeling, it was found that religiosity was predictive of greater levels forgiveness when mediated by …

Relationship Between Foot Pressures And Alterations Of Horizontal Velocities Of The Center Of Mass While Hurdling, Braden Cole

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzed the landing phase of hurdle clearance to investigate how the vertical displacement in the hurdler’s center of mass and foot pressures at ground contact lead to a change in the hurdler’s overall horizontal velocity of the center of mass. This study examined four male collegiate high hurdlers as they performed three trials of clearing one 42 inch high hurdle. The subjects were filmed during the three trials using three Panasonic cameras (60 Hz) and one JVC video camera (60 Hz), which was later used to provide video images in order to digitize each frame using the APAS …

Disclosure Involving A Third-Party: Reciprocity And Liking Outcomes, Keith Cotterell

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This investigation examines the function of third-party disclosures on reciprocal self-disclosures and liking. Sixty-eight college students engaged in a social interaction with one or two computers. In the experiment, one computer would “disclose” information either about itself or about another computer (third-party). Each disclosure was followed by a question to the participant. Questions were asked either by the discloser or by third-party to assess reciprocation of disclosures. Afterwards, participants rated liking for the two computers-as-social-actors. Participants showed a tendency to disclose more (i.e., give longer responses) to an actor who disclosed to them, regardless of whether the disclosure was about …

Assessment And Impact Of Gentrified Public Housing Neighborhoods In The United States: A Case Study Of Chicago, Todd W. Sink

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social-mix housing policies play a unique role in shaping the geography of gentrification in cities throughout the U.S. and Europe. The HOPE VI program in the U.S. is one popular example. Since its inception in 1992, HOPE VI has simultaneously displaced thousands of urban poor from their homes and neighborhoods, reduced their housing opportunities, and created and encouraged housing development for a more affluent population. Yet over the years, very few empirical studies have emerged that examine the place-based outcomes of HOPE VI within the context of gentrification. As such, important empirical questions remain unanswered. This study focuses on the …

Using Growth Rate Of Reading Fluency To Predict Performance On Statewide Achievement Tests, Rachelle Whittaker Hinkle

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Federal legislation has prescribed the increased use of statewide achievement tests as the culmination of a student’s knowledge and ability at the end of a grade level; however, schools need to be able to predict those who are at-risk of performing poorly on these high-stakes tests. Three studies served to identify a means of predicting statewide achievement test scores in either third or eighth grade based on CBM reading scores and rates of improvement at first, second, and third grades or third, fourth, and fifth grades using readily available statistical procedures. One-half of the third-grade data was used in Study …

Assessing Environmental Conditions At The Friar Tuck Mining Complex, Dugger, Indiana, Windy Jo Mcbride

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many abandoned mine lands (AML) continue to present significant environmental concerns. The abandoned Friar Tuck Mining Complex in Greene and Sullivan counties, Indiana, continues to impair local water quality despite closing in 1952 for operations and multiple remediation attempts. Most areas within the Friar Tuck Mining Complex have been successfully remediated; however, the area of research interest requires additional treatment and continues to be impacted by runoff from gob piles. Subsequently, areas characterized by a loss of vegetation where mine seeps occur behave unpredictably and are characterized by the exposure of bare soil. These mine seep areas are of particular …

Looking At Mathematics Blogs, Joanne Growney

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

A mathematician, poet, and poetry-math blogger offers a personal selection of links to a few of the blogs and other websites she has found wandering the Internet.

Rationalising Public Service: Scheduling As A Tool Of Management In Rté Television, Ann-Marie Murray

Doctoral

Developments in the media industry, notably the increasing commercialisation of broadcasting and deregulation, have combined to create a television system that is now driven primarily by ratings. Public broadcast organisations must adopt novel strategies to survive and compete in this new environment, where they need to combine public service with popularity. In this context, scheduling has emerged as the central management tool, organising production and controlling budgets, and is now the driving force in television. Located within Weber’s theoretical framework of rationalisation, this study analyses the rise of scheduling as part of a wider organisational response to political and economic …

From Here To InFinnerty: Tony Soprano And The American Way, Terri Carney

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

As fellow critics have pointed out in a myriad of published studies on the series, The Sopranos challenges the traditional gangster genre formula and brings the mob closer to all of us: Tony and his gang inhabit a recognizable world of Starbucks, suburbia, and SUVs. They discuss issues of the day, the same ones we discuss when we turn off the TV after the episode. In short, they inhabit a quotidian reality that is continuous with our own, and we are prevented from drawing the neat lines that allow us a comfortable remove from the horror of the “criminal world,” …

Beyond This Point Are Monsters, Roxanne M. Carter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Beyond This Point Are Monsters is a creative work which establishes a fluid, unstable space between the mediated image and the written word. It addresses issues of repetition and difference in the TV melodrama and the inscribed surface of the house in the Gothic novel, performing the romantic and sensational tropes of the Gothic formula in order to subvert them. The project investigates and inhabits the soap opera Dark Shadows which aired daily on ABC from 1966 to 1971, and examines the manner in which the show defies its own genre conventions. I chose Dark Shadows as the foundational source …

Revolution In The Digital Age: Egypt's Facebook Revolution And Internet Freedom, Kimberly Anderson

Communication Studies

This senior project looks at Egypt's revolution and the role the Internet and social media played in it. Internet freedom is also discussed.

Jonathan Laxamana Interview, Kevin Galanto

Asian American Art Oral History Project

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Bio: Jonathan Laxamana is the Program Director for the Chicago Filipino American Film Festival. To learn more about CFAAF visit: www.cfaff.org

(Don't) Stop Playing That Game: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Video Game Addiction Stereotype, Chet Daniel Breaux

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The growing popularity of game addiction discourse has necessitated study of how video game critics rhetorically construct addiction. In the following thesis, I analyze contemporary examples of texts that link game addiction to drug abuse. I use Robert Cover’s analysis of how game addiction stereotypes form in conjunction with Aristotle’s rhetorical principles to isolate the persuasive appeals used by authors to rhetorically construct game play as addictive. These addiction arguments, however, are rooted in a larger historical context, and I present examples of game guidebooks and comic books published in the late 1970s and early 1980s to illustrate their rhetorical …

Place Construction, Identity, And Capital Investment: An Investigation Of Two Tourist Landscapes In Michigan, Andrew Stawarski

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tourist communities exist all over the world. They are areas that are focused on tourism and are often tailored to resemble specific regions or themes to better achieve capital gain. In this study, two cities in Michigan are examined to better understand how the cultural landscapes are experienced and what practices are employed throughout the landscape. Specifically, this thesis investigates the spatial practices that are involved in re-creating and re-presenting ―themed‖ landscapes. Another question analyzed is whether the ―themed‖ landscapes reflect the resident‘s daily lives and/or their histories. This thesis examines the two Michigan cities of Gaylord and Frankenmuth, re-presenting …

American Political Satire: The 20th Century Onward, Michael Contino

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Political satire is an implied freedom enumerated in the first amendment of the Constitution. As a form of political speech, it falls under the category of the most protected form of expression. Now that I’ve got your attention, I can go ahead with the rest of my project. This is a journalistic study of the people who used their freedom of speech to openly criticize the government. More specifically, it’s about the people who openly criticized the government and then became famous for it. Of course, there’s many ways to criticize, many platforms, many audiences, many influences as well.

What …

Partings—A Short Film, Alicia Atterberry

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Love is a powerful force, but the inability to give love to the fullest extent can be an influential force as well. For my capstone, Partings—a Short Film, I wrote a short film centered on the theme of unreciprocated love. Within the context of the film, unreciprocated love means not being able to return the sincerity or the full extent of the love felt, and my short film shows the consequences of a friendship that lacks mutually-expressed love.

Partings, depicts the end of a friendship between two characters: Frank and Angie. Frank is an independent, young woman; she …

Citrustv Website Redesign Project, Alyssa Elias

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Many students who live off campus at Syracuse University are unable to view the Orange Television Network. CitrusTV's news, sports and entertainment programming airs on this channel and is therefore unavailable to many students. To expand the viewing audience, the CitrusTV website is crucial.

The original goal of this honors capstone project was to enhance and improve CitrusTV’s website in order to simulate that of a local news station. Through a newly created content management system, students would be able to upload news stories with text, video and pictures.

Because of CitrusTV’s annually changing administration and technical hurdles, the project’s …

"Chance" Screenplay, Simone Laroche

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My Capstone Thesis is a creative screenplay pursuing the complexities of predestination and our innate obsession to control fate. I became intrigued with the idea that our decisions or actions dictate outcomes we may have had the ability to prevent or perpetuate. I recently found it difficult to accept my misfortunes for ineptitude or lack of preparation. Instead I called it “fate” or “destiny” that circumstances were not meant to work in my favor. In hindsight I realized I had allowed my passivity to compensate for my lack of commitment and courage to take risks. Granted, I do believe regardless …

Free Culture, Ian Heifetz

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Free Culture is a documentary short that aims to promote user-autonomy in the digital age, with a focus on culture proliferations. The film takes a look a critical stance against the Digital Millennium Copyright act, arguing it is unenforceable through either legislative or technical means. To support this viewpoint, interviews with Yochai Benkler of the Harvard Law School and Fred von Lohmann, Senior Copyright Council to Google, are provided. While threats to the DMCA, such as piracy, are often seen as illegal criminal action, they signify a changing environment. One man taking advantage of this is Benn Jordan, a.k.a. The …

Characteristics Of Difficult Patients In Prisons Compared To Difficult Patients In Primary Care Settings, Emily Kistler

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has found that patients perceived as being difficult by their physicians share a number of characteristics. These “difficult” characteristics include Axis I disorders, personality disorders, somatization, complex health problems, and aggression. Current research has focused on defining “difficult patients” in community populations, while other populations have gone overlooked. One population that has high prevalence rates of the “difficult” characteristics identified in community samples is offenders. As a group, offenders tend to have high rates of mental illness, chronic health problems, and behavioral issues such as aggression. While difficult patients in prison may resemble difficult patients in the community, research …

Using Textual Features To Predict Popular Content On Digg, Paul H. Miller

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Over the past few years, collaborative rating sites, such as Netflix, Digg and Stumble, have become increasingly prevalent sites for users to find trending content.  I used various data mining techniques to study Digg, a social news site, to examine the influence of content on popularity.  What influence does content have on popularity, and what influence does content have on users’ decisions?  Overwhelmingly, prior studies have consistently shown that predicting popularity based on content is difficult and maybe even inherently impossible.  The same submission can have multiple outcomes and content neither determines popularity, nor individual user decisions.  My results show …