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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

I Can't Look Away: Parasocial Relationships With Dance Mom Characters Across Tv And Social Media, Kennedy Kay Pirlet Jan 2024

I Can't Look Away: Parasocial Relationships With Dance Mom Characters Across Tv And Social Media, Kennedy Kay Pirlet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2019, Dance Moms ended its airing on Lifetime at the completion of the eighth season. However, the show and its cast members remained popular on social media platforms like TikTok, but we still didn’t know the relationship between watching the show and following cast members on multiple social media platforms or who audiences were closest to. To answer this question, the celebrity-persona parasocial interaction scale and experience of parasocial interaction scale were utilized. These scales were used in this study and found reliable. Snowball recruitment focusing on social media platforms and emails yielded 180 eligible sample participants. Through a …


Organizational Culture's Impact On Job Satisfaction: A Reconceptualization Of The Competing Values Framework, Isaac Thor Erickson Jan 2024

Organizational Culture's Impact On Job Satisfaction: A Reconceptualization Of The Competing Values Framework, Isaac Thor Erickson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Academic job satisfaction has been decreasing in the U.S. which has profound negative impacts such as burnout and decreased well-being of employees. One way that job satisfaction can be increased is through understanding and changing organizational cultures through better communication. The Competing Values Framework (CVF; Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1983; Belasen & Frank, 2010; Lund, 2003) has been used to understand how organizational cultures and their communicative norms relate to job satisfaction. However, the CVF relies on categorical measures sitting on two axes that are not orthogonal. As such, the study posits breaking these two axes into four dimensions of organizational …


Advancing Karl Jaspers: The Connection Between The Theory Of Existential Communication And Mentoring Satisfaction, Nolan Patrick Bowers Jan 2024

Advancing Karl Jaspers: The Connection Between The Theory Of Existential Communication And Mentoring Satisfaction, Nolan Patrick Bowers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Existential philosopher Karl Jaspers’s theory (1932/1970; 1935/1971b) of existential communication is understood to be his most important contribution to existentialism. Additionally, this theory has unique ties to the phenomena of communication, begging its use as a dialogic theory. However, Jaspers’s theory has been relatively untouched by academia. This thesis understands the theory of existential communication through an operationalization of its aspects and explicitly connecting them to communicative behaviors. These aspects of existential communication are (1) vulnerability, (2) open-mindedness, and (3) equality. This study set out to determine whether these aspects could be found within mentoring relationships and support the aspects …


Argumentation For Critical Heterogenous Political Discussions: Constructing A Rebuttal, Rebecca Oliver Nov 2023

Argumentation For Critical Heterogenous Political Discussions: Constructing A Rebuttal, Rebecca Oliver

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This activity seeks to explain to undergraduate students how to craft a proper attack and defense in argumentation and debate, persuasion, or political communication courses. The activity teaches students 1) the parts of a basic argument structure and 2) how to construct a rebuttal using a basic argument structure. Students will argue against their true political typology by selecting an opposing typology from the Pew Research Typology Quiz. Broadly, this exercise is designed to encourage students to engage in dialogues with people who disagree with their political positionality. Specifically, the activity accomplishes this by teaching students the value of basic …


Encoding & Decoding: Artfully Modeling Communication, Daniel L. Foster, Ashley D. Garcia Nov 2023

Encoding & Decoding: Artfully Modeling Communication, Daniel L. Foster, Ashley D. Garcia

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Drawing objects and concepts, such as cats, trees, love, democracy, and family, is probably the last activity students expect to do in a communication course. Although this sounds like an introductory art activity, creating visual representations provides a nuanced understanding of the encoding and decoding processes. Encoding and decoding are the most hidden and often the most unfamiliar and complex fundamental components of communication for students to comprehend. By engaging in this activity, students translate their decoding process into drawings, which serve as personal artifacts representative of their encoding and decoding. Students come to better conceptualize this cognitive process with …


“Party In The Communication Classroom”: Exploring Communication Competence To Raise Social Awareness, Nancy Bressler Nov 2023

“Party In The Communication Classroom”: Exploring Communication Competence To Raise Social Awareness, Nancy Bressler

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This activity demonstrates communication competence and allows students to observe, assess, and ultimately utilize the model of communication competence to engage with other people successfully. To understand how to engage in communication competence, students must recognize that appropriateness and effectiveness are crucial aspects of their communication. Through the communication competence model, students examine how to achieve effectiveness in their communication by setting goals for specific contexts; they also consider to what extent their goals are achievable given the particular situation. Using a 2014 MTV Video Music Award example, students can analyze why Miley Cyrus allowed a homeless man to accept …


Introducing Public Speaking Self-Concept (Pssc): A Novel, Qualitatively-Derived Communication Anxiety And Competence Variable, Karla M. Hunter, Joshua N. Westwick Nov 2023

Introducing Public Speaking Self-Concept (Pssc): A Novel, Qualitatively-Derived Communication Anxiety And Competence Variable, Karla M. Hunter, Joshua N. Westwick

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Despite numerous quantitative assessments of teaching interventions that have helped mitigate public speaking anxiety (PSA), this common barrier to public speaking persists. In addition, quantitative measures may not be appropriate for all instructional goals, especially with students from across a variety of cultures. To enrich educators’ capacity to help diverse bodies of students overcome the challenges presented by PSA, this qualitative study asked students to “Please describe yourself as a public speaker” at the beginning and the end of a freshman-level, general education public speaking class. Thematic analysis identified a two-dimensional pattern within student responses (N = 51) (a …


Front Matter Nov 2023

Front Matter

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.


Discourse: The Journal Of The Scasd, Volume 8 (2023), The Speech Communication Association Of South Dakota Nov 2023

Discourse: The Journal Of The Scasd, Volume 8 (2023), The Speech Communication Association Of South Dakota

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.


The Relevance Of Shame Across Time And Location, Miranda Vander Berg, Kari Sandouka Feb 2023

The Relevance Of Shame Across Time And Location, Miranda Vander Berg, Kari Sandouka

SDSU Data Science Symposium

Twitter is used among various entities professionals, politicians, and the general public as an online social network. Many tweets are informational, but others are reactive based on judgment that leads to public shaming. In response to the book “The Shame Machine” (by Cathy O’Neil), we look at Tweets to determine a linguistical and content analysis of shame. The research focuses on content analysis to define if a tweet contains language that is deduced as public shaming. Other factors relating to the tweet are the time, date, location of the author, and if it’s the initial post or a response to …


The Influence Of Peyton Manning’S Christian Masculinity, Jacob Edwards Jan 2023

The Influence Of Peyton Manning’S Christian Masculinity, Jacob Edwards

Schultz-Werth Award Papers

Have you ever had a role model or favorite athlete? I had a few, Peyton Manning was and still is my favorite. My favorite team has always been the Indianapolis Colts and that is the team Peyton Manning played for. Growing up I collected a variety of trading cards. I have a couple of Peyton Manning’s rookie cards and even one of his jersey cards. I remember getting those and being pretty fired up when I got them. I admired his attitude toward the sport as it always seemed like he was trying to make a positive impact, work hard, …


“They Hurt Me Pauley:” Applying Queer Performance Theory Within L.B. Hamilton’S Play A Midnight Clear To Understand Gendered Violence And Prejudice Against Feminine Msm, Skyllar M. Schoening Jan 2023

“They Hurt Me Pauley:” Applying Queer Performance Theory Within L.B. Hamilton’S Play A Midnight Clear To Understand Gendered Violence And Prejudice Against Feminine Msm, Skyllar M. Schoening

Schultz-Werth Award Papers

This essay uses the theoretical lens of queer performance theory to analyze L.B. Hamilton’s play, A Midnight Clear, to increase awareness of gendered violence and prejudice against feminine men-seeking-men (MSM). I first contextualize existing literature about sexual assault and the limited research about feminine men regarding sexual violence and assault. Then, I examine the components of queer performance theory, positing a metaphorical equation of combining both queer theory and performance theory to further understand the roots of queer performance theory. In this section, I also suggest the importance of representation and identity within a dramaturgical and theatrical-based lens from both …


Theoretical Motivations For Posting In #Metoo, Shannon Pappas Jan 2023

Theoretical Motivations For Posting In #Metoo, Shannon Pappas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2017, actress Alyssa Milano shared a tweet encouraging survivors of gendered violence to write “me too.” A media storm ensued as survivors answered her call in the millions. Anyone can look back at what survivors posted during the height of #MeToo, but we still don’t know why they felt the need to post in the first place. To answer this question, the social identity model of deindividuation effects and spiral of silence were utilized. The social identification, perceived anonymity affordances, and willingness to self-censor scales were used for this research, along with a perceived deindividuation scale that was created …


Fighting For What Is Right: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Fan Campaign To Save Anne With An E From Cancellation, Marie E. Anderson Jan 2023

Fighting For What Is Right: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Fan Campaign To Save Anne With An E From Cancellation, Marie E. Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Anne with an E fan campaign highlighted storylines of social issues that fans felt were important for society. Of particular interest to the fan community was a storyline from the series in which Anne and her friends organized a protest following incidents of sexual assault and censorship aimed at silencing girls from speaking out on gendered issues. This storyline was heavily referenced in the billboards that the fan-based campaign displayed in Toronto and New York City (Anne Nation, 2020). In this analysis, I used fantasy theme analysis (Bormann, 1972) and metaphorical criticism (Osborn, 2018) to conduct a visual and …


"We Give Them The Most Important Thing Possible. We Give Their Dreary Lives Excitement”: Toward A Theoretical Model Of Narrative Parasocial Engagement, Dominic Delbert Meyers Jan 2023

"We Give Them The Most Important Thing Possible. We Give Their Dreary Lives Excitement”: Toward A Theoretical Model Of Narrative Parasocial Engagement, Dominic Delbert Meyers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Video game narratives and characters are some of the most enjoyable and persuasive components of the video game industry. While narratives and character relationships within video games have been examined separately, there is no working model and little research attempting to bridge the connection between narratives and character relationships. This research combines Narrative Paradigm Theory and Parasocial Relationships to understand how narratives and character relationships influence each other in video game environments. This was done through rhetorical field methods, utilizing a focus group and narrative rhetorical analysis on the transcript of the focus group. Results provide a working model coined …


Reconnecting With The Truth: Conspiracies, Perspective Taking, And Misinformation, Scott Sellnow-Richmond, Mili Pinski Dec 2022

Reconnecting With The Truth: Conspiracies, Perspective Taking, And Misinformation, Scott Sellnow-Richmond, Mili Pinski

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

“I’ve done my research.” Misinformation has become a prevalent topic in communication courses, particularly those focused on argumentation, public speaking, or even interpersonal and family communication. Students thus benefit from adapting public speaking-focused assignments to illuminate how to understand - and thus combat- disinformation in their own lives. This assignment works toward this goal in two stages, allowing students to argue not just against misinformation and conspiracies, but also to argue for them as an act of empathy and understanding. The applied nature of this exercise also empowers instructors with a way to concretely address this issue in the classroom. …


Differentiating Between Irony And Sarcasm: An Illustration Of Sarcasm’S Negative Impact On Audiences, Brent Kice Dec 2022

Differentiating Between Irony And Sarcasm: An Illustration Of Sarcasm’S Negative Impact On Audiences, Brent Kice

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

The following in-class activity helps students differentiate between ironic and sarcastic messages. In turn, students will recognize the negative impact of sarcastic messaging identified by Dynel (2013) and Averbeck (2013) in an effort for students to improve their own messages when attempting to persuade audiences.


“People Don’T Always Show Up The Way You Want Them To”: Utilizing The Hunger Games To Differentiate Between Persuasion, Coercion, Propaganda, And Manipulation, Nancy Bressler Dec 2022

“People Don’T Always Show Up The Way You Want Them To”: Utilizing The Hunger Games To Differentiate Between Persuasion, Coercion, Propaganda, And Manipulation, Nancy Bressler

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

The ability to define and conceptualize persuasion and its nuances without engaging in coercion, propaganda, and/or manipulation can be difficult for students at first. This activity centralizes the fine points among these persuasive concepts. Students also recognize the role of their audience in the persuasive messages that they create. Rather than only having a conversation about the common characteristics of these terms and how they differ, students can observe them within the fictional movie The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (Lawrence, 2014). After discussing these ideas with their classmates, students then apply what they have learned by creating persuasive messages …


“Number Of Nonverbal Delivery Techniques”: Innovative Approaches To Gestures, Movement, And Vocal Delivery, Nancy Bressler Dec 2022

“Number Of Nonverbal Delivery Techniques”: Innovative Approaches To Gestures, Movement, And Vocal Delivery, Nancy Bressler

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Through this activity, students consider to what extent gestures, movement, and vocal inflection affect a speech. Using the same speech content as the rest of their group, each student is provided a prompt requiring them to adapt their speech delivery differently. Through these differences, students can better understand how to incorporate nonverbal speech delivery that is natural, balanced, communicates emotion, and effectively communicates the message of the speech. Students discover the importance of nonverbal delivery while using an entertaining speech they may have seen in a television show. Overall, students learn how planned versus natural speech delivery can alter nonverbal …


Listen Up!: Measuring And Mitigating College Students’ Most Commonly-Reported Listening Challenges, Karla Hunter, Erin Lionberger, Ashley Phillips, Kaitlyn Luebbert, Andrea N. Briggs Dec 2022

Listen Up!: Measuring And Mitigating College Students’ Most Commonly-Reported Listening Challenges, Karla Hunter, Erin Lionberger, Ashley Phillips, Kaitlyn Luebbert, Andrea N. Briggs

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This study updates the existing literature on listening education in two ways: 1) by providing an assessment of an effective listening education intervention and 2) by identifying what college students' self-assessment and reflection revealed as their most common barriers to listening and the actions that helped mitigate those challenges. Through content analysis, five graduate student coders analyzed six consecutive pre-Covid-19 semesters of student submissions to a Listening Log Self-Assessment assignment in an online interpersonal communication course (n = 186). This experiential activity was designed to motivate students' metacognitions to elicit accurate self-appraisals based on reflections of students' current listening encounters …


Front Matter Dec 2022

Front Matter

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.


The Shakedown Of Warm-Ups: An Assessment Of Pre-Speech Exercises' Impact On Public Speaking Anxiety, Joshua Westwick, Kelli J. Chromey, Karla Hunter, Andrea Carlile Jul 2022

The Shakedown Of Warm-Ups: An Assessment Of Pre-Speech Exercises' Impact On Public Speaking Anxiety, Joshua Westwick, Kelli J. Chromey, Karla Hunter, Andrea Carlile

Communication Studies Publications

Academics have suggested that the use of warm-up exercises like those used by forensics competitors before a competition may reduce students’ public speaking anxiety (PSA). However, little empirical work has assessed these anecdotal claims. Thus, to assess the impact of using warm-up exercises in the foundational course, we developed and tested a uniform warm-up protocol for students enrolled in our standardized, multi-section public speaking course. This study sought to discover whether students who engaged in physical and vocal function exercises prior to speech delivery would have lower speaking anxiety over the course of the semester than students in the control …


Multiculturalism In Advertising: A Look At Non-Diversification And Stereotyping In The Advertising Industry., Elise Heesch May 2022

Multiculturalism In Advertising: A Look At Non-Diversification And Stereotyping In The Advertising Industry., Elise Heesch

Honors Capstone Projects

If a surveyor was to ask, how does advertising make one feel, would the responses depend on the participant’s disposition, race, and gender? All the responses would potentially be different depending on whether a white male, young Indigenous person, or black female answered. Advertising contributes a significant portion of what society is exposed to. The general population takes advertisements for granted but the message is there to sell a product. Consumers do not always realize the fabricated messages that are present in most advertisements. Desensitization has taken place in response to the strategies that the marketers use. Numerous stereotypes are …


Rhetorical Analysis Of The Covid Chronicles Carter Schmidt, Carter Schmidt Jan 2022

Rhetorical Analysis Of The Covid Chronicles Carter Schmidt, Carter Schmidt

Schultz-Werth Award Papers

The COVID Chronicles is a novel written by Stu Whitney, a veteran journalist who worked for The Argus Leader in Sioux Falls for over three decades as a sports reporter and editor and columnist. The Argus leader is the largest daily printed newspaper in South Dakota covering Sioux Falls and the surrounding area. Whitney decided to take a buyout with the newspaper, which created more time for him to take on his next writing project. He decided to write a novel focused on how COVID-19 arrived in South Dakota and how state leaders and South Dakotans responded to it, while …


Identity Negotiations In Family Relationships: Discussing Substance Use Disorder Through The Communication Theory Of Identity, Sarah-Michele Q. Weaver Jan 2022

Identity Negotiations In Family Relationships: Discussing Substance Use Disorder Through The Communication Theory Of Identity, Sarah-Michele Q. Weaver

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Guided by the communication theory of identity (CTI), the current study explores identity negotiations among family members who have experience with substance use disorder. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 9 participants. Personalenacted, enacted-relational, and personal-relational identity gaps guide the scope and use of CTI. Findings mirrored 3 major themes in consideration of these identity gaps: (1) participants embraced or rejected SUD as a central aspect of personal identity, (2) participants experienced turbulence in relational identities due to SUD, and (3) personalrelational identity gaps and alignment surface in multiple contexts where interpersonal communication occurs.


The Impact Of Facebook Affordances On Doomscrolling Behaviors During The Relational Dissolution Process, Emma Williams Jan 2022

The Impact Of Facebook Affordances On Doomscrolling Behaviors During The Relational Dissolution Process, Emma Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The affordances provided by social networking sites (SNSs) impact how different social media platforms are used. Facebook has unique affordances such as ease of use, community, information seeking, escapism, and common interests that impact Facebook use. Interpersonal electronic surveillance, categorized as doomscrolling for this study, is a behavior of continuous scrolling and consumption of negative content. Facebook affordances, paired with digital artifacts from terminated relationships, create an environment for doomscrolling (IES) behavior. Building off of the “grave-dressing” and “resurrection” stages of relational dissolution, I examined the relationships of these Facebook affordances with doomscrolling (IES) behaviors through an online survey (N …


Disclosing For Closure: Negotiating Boundaries For Self-Expansion After Violence, Jadah M. Morrison Jan 2022

Disclosing For Closure: Negotiating Boundaries For Self-Expansion After Violence, Jadah M. Morrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The #MeToo movement has brought the narratives of survivors of sexual assault center stage. As we begin to understand the intricacies of these narratives, we must remember them in their first iteration, their initial disclosure. This study aims to understand the motivations behind the first disclosure of sexual violence. Through looking at these motivations through the lens of self-expansion theory, we can better support survivors of sexual violence in this initial process. Self-discrepancy theory was also used to understand survivors’ sense of self, and the motivations of how survivors seek refuge in their receiver. Thus, privacy management lends itself to …


An Examination Of Trust In News Mediums By College Students: A Comparison Of Egypt And The Usa, Karim Soliman Jan 2022

An Examination Of Trust In News Mediums By College Students: A Comparison Of Egypt And The Usa, Karim Soliman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Polls have shown a decline in trust in the USA when it comes to trust in Media. This study looks at if trust in news mediums really does matter. The study also compares a sample from USA to Egypt. The study finds that American college students have more trust in traditional news media but use it less than newer forms such as social media. The Egyptian sample has high trust in social media and low trust in traditional news media that are normally under the influence of the Egyptian government. The frame works used are the uses and gratification theory, …


Does Family Communication Orientation Relate To How We Use Time? A Preliminary Study On Family Communication Patterns And People’S Perspective On Time, C. Leigh Nelson, Eric M. Fife Aug 2021

Does Family Communication Orientation Relate To How We Use Time? A Preliminary Study On Family Communication Patterns And People’S Perspective On Time, C. Leigh Nelson, Eric M. Fife

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

A web survey study of 853 respondents examined whether family communication patterns predicted people’s orientation to time. Conversation orientation was negatively and significantly related with a past negative perspective on time and was positively and significantly related to past positive, present hedonistic, and future orientation perspectives on time. Conformity orientation was positively and significantly related to past negative, present hedonistic, and present fatalistic perspectives on time but was negatively and significantly related to a past positive perspective on time. Multiple linear regression results indicated that both conversation orientation and conformity orientation were significant predictors of various time orientations.


Critical Thinking As A Pedagogical Approach: Using Critical/Cultural Studies To Analyze Music Videos, Lukas John Pelliccio, Timothy Brown May 2021

Critical Thinking As A Pedagogical Approach: Using Critical/Cultural Studies To Analyze Music Videos, Lukas John Pelliccio, Timothy Brown

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Teaching undergraduate students how to critically analyze a text is an important experience. However, it is not easy to do this because readings are often dense, and the process of writing and presenting a critique can be challenging for some students. In light of this, we have developed an assignment where students critically analyze music videos for their ideologies. In the assignment, students select three specific overt or latent content pieces from a music video and explain how those manifestations influence a particular ideology in a paper. Then they are asked to show the music video to their peers and …