Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Lands’ End Content Marketing Debacle: A Cautionary Tale Of A Retailer’S Inadvertent Foray Into Polarized Politics, Nathan Gilkerson

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

In February 2016, the clothing retailer Lands’ End found itself at the center of a public relations crisis linked to its decision to feature an interview with women’s rights activist Gloria Steinem on the company’s website and in its catalog. As part of a new “Legends Series” of interviews, the profile described Steinem as “The woman who paved the way.” Although the piece didn’t directly reference Steinem’s support for abortion rights, many customers took to social media to express anger at Lands’ End for choosing to feature Steinem. Facebook and Twitter posts accused Lands’ End of glorifying “a pro-abortion feminist” …

Work-Life Balance 2.0? An Examination Of Social Media Management Practice And Agency Employee Coping Strategies In A 24/7 Social World, Nathan Gilkerson, Betsy Anderson, Rebecca Swenson

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

This study examines the work experiences of public relations agency professionals who specialize in social media and digital strategy for clients and those who manage employees tasked with monitoring, updating and responding to social media content. Building upon existing literature focused on work-life balance dynamics for strategic communicators, the research draws from a series of in-depth interviews and correspondence conducted with 26 agency professionals, representing a brand range of the industry. Participants were asked to describe how social media has impacted the nature and volume of their job responsibilities over the past five years, and to discuss how social media …

Insights From Industry Leaders: A Maturity Model For Strengthening Communication Measurement And Evaluation, Rebecca Swenson, Nathan Gilkerson, Fraser Likely, Forrest W. Anderson, Michael Ziviani

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Much scholarship has been devoted to identifying barriers that prevent the advancement of communication measurement and evaluation. This research focuses on the characteristics, objectives, and practices of chief communication officers (CCOs) with successful measurement and evaluation programs. Three key dimensions of practice emerged from in-depth interviews: communication executives’ measurement practices and evaluation programs were used to adjust communication strategies; were aligned with other business units; and were integrated with business priority plans. Interviewees also focused on the ability of communication measurement practices and evaluation programs to provide insights for executives, to align communication with the work of other business units, …

Crowdfunding And Non-Profit Charities: Crafting Legitimate Profiles, Ashley Krysik

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Crowdfunding has revolutionized non-profit charity fundraising strategies. The development of web-based, crowdfunding platforms has increased direct communication and transparency between non-profit charities and potential donors. The non-profit fundraising marketplace is highly competitive; therefore, organizations must demonstrate their legitimacy in order to raise and maximize fundraising dollars. In order to determine how organizations build legitimacy on crowdfunding platforms, a rhetorical analysis was conducted on 18 donor request profiles from Globalgiving.com, the largest web-based crowdfunding platform for non-profit charities. Non-profit charities soliciting donors through crowdfunding platforms focus their rhetorical strategy on building three legitimacy claims: cause, organization and platform.

The Rhetorical Antecedents To Vietnam, 1945-1965, Gregory R. Olson, George N. Dionisopoulos, Steven R. Goldzwig

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Ethics Of Artificial Intelligence: Superintelligence, Life 3.0 And Robot Rights, Kati Tusinski Berg

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

How And Where To Respond? Testing The Effectiveness Of The Base Crisis Response In The Different Media Contexts, Erika Jen Schneider

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Crisis response strategies require preparation. In order to equip organizations with the most effective crisis response strategy, this research aims to understand the most appropriate message and media context to utilize when responding to a crisis. This study applies factors driven from theoretical groundings to evaluate the impact on practical outcomes. Applied to realistic crises in two crisis-prone industries, results capture how crisis response strategies are perceived by stakeholders when an organization becomes the subject of an accidental and preventable crisis. This experimental study found preventable crises causing the most detrimental reputational damage, evaluated with corporate reputation and supportive behavioral …

Facebook And Wechat: Chinese International Students' Social Media Usage And How It Influences Their Intercultural Adaptation, Yumin Yan

Master's Theses (2009 -)

This study examines how Chinese international students’ Facebook and WeChat usage patterns influence their process of intercultural adaptation. It shows that Facebook (the host social media) and WeChat (the ethnic social media) usage both have positive impacts on Chinese international students’ successful adaptation (especially their psychological adaptation) to the United States. This study also takes additional variables of interest: host language proficiency, ethnic identity, and the intention to stay in the United States (the host country) into consideration. Consistent with previous studies, host language proficiency has positive influences on Chinese international students’ sociocultural adaptation, and ethnic identity is a critical …

The Highest Form Of Like: Snapchat, College Students And Hyperpersonal Communication, Timothy L. Cigelske

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The purpose of this study explores how college students engaged with others on Snapchat and how that differed from other Social Networking Sites (SNS). Social Information Process (SIP) Theory was applied as a framework for understanding the effects of time-limited (disappearing) messages and extended conversations that can lead to “hyperpersonal” communication, a form of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) that surpasses the level of affection and emotion of Face to Face (FtF) interaction. In a series of focus groups, college students explained how they used Snapchat and other SNS and the effects it had on interpersonal communication. The participants described emotional …

Towards The Final Frontier: Using Strategic Communication Activities To Engage The Latent Public As A Key Stakeholder In A Corporate Mission, Scott C. D'Urso

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Private corporations that do not normally interact with, nor regularly communicate with, the public often do not perceive the public as a relevant or active stakeholder. The public may not view themselves as a stakeholder, particularly when they are unaware of, have no direct dealings with, or do not have any problems associated with such a corporation. The current study, utilizing a national survey of the United States public (N = 424) found that through directed strategic communication activities of a private spaceflight corporation, utilizing social and new media tools, a latent public can perceive a corporation and its mission …

Willingness To Speak In The Context Of Police Use Of Force, Rachel Italiano

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Police use of force has become a common phrase in the current United States society, especially in the context of law enforcement encounters with Black men. However, even with extensive media coverage of protests and incidents between police and Blacks, not much is known about peoples’ willingness to speak out about the topic. Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann’s spiral of silence theory, which states that peoples’ perceptions of others and media exposure is largely responsible for determining an individual’s willingness to speak, is uniquely positioned to examine this topic. This study utilized a Qualtrics panel of 905 participants and a questionnaire to examine …

Examining The Political Motivations Of Christian Women Following The 2016 Presidential Election, Julie Grace

Master's Theses (2009 -)

As research begins and continues to examine the historic nature of the 2016 presidential election, this study aims to understand the political motivations of a specific group of voters – Christian women in two Wisconsin counties that flipped from voting for a Democrat in 2012 to a Republican in 2016. Long-form, qualitative interviews were used to obtain an understanding of the participants’ faith, their view on politics, and their thoughts on the 2016 election and President Trump’s first year in office. Grounded theory was used as a theoretical framework for this study, and the constant comparative method of analysis was …

Broadening The Focus: Women's Voices In The New Journalism, Mary C. Wacker

Master's Theses (2009 -)

The New Journalism Movement chronicled a decade of social turbulence in America by breaking the rules of traditional journalism and embracing narrative elements in the writing and publication of literary nonfiction. The magazine publishing industry was controlled by men, and the history of this transitional time in journalism has been chronicled by men, neglecting to recognize the significant contributions of women working in their midst. This study shines a light on the historical narrative that defines our understanding of the significance and key contributors to the New Journalism Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. To better understand the …

Generation-Z Enters The Advertising Workplace: Expectations Through A Gendered Lens, Jean Grow, Shiyu Yang

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Generation-Z (Gen-Z) is entering the workforce with differing personal and professional expectations from previous generations. Further, those expectations tend to vary by gender. At the same time, workplace environments, and the social structures that underpin the workplace, are slow to change. Advertising is no exception.

As educators, we are just beginning our encounter with Gen-Z and their differing habits and expectations. Further, while these young women and men share many common experiences and expectations, their expectations are also influenced by their gendered experiences. Social capital theory helps us make sense of the findings as we explore the gaps between the …

Cultivating Change: The Relationship Between Organizational Culture, Leadership Style And Communication Style With Organizational Change, Matt Hansen

Master's Theses (2009 -)

This paper presents a quantitative study on organizational change and how culture, leadership, and communication styles are related to different types of change. The objective was to understand these relationships and to provide insight for future applications centered on enabling organizational change. Respondents (N=411) from multiple organizations participated in evaluating preferences for culture, leadership and communication styles in response to different change scenarios. The study features four control groups, each representing various types of organizational change. Responses were evaluated using the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) to identify individual cultural preferences and seven-point Likert-type questionnaires for leadership and communication style …

Maxim Is A Bully: Making Women The Victim For Male Pleasure, Pamela Hill Nettleton

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

This study analyzes domestic violence discourse in 72 issues of Maxim magazine, an influential and widely circulated publication for young men that is rarely studied because it is not digitally archived or searchable. This discourse reveals culturally entrenched patriarchal attitudes and hegemonic and retrograde references that degrade and marginalize women in an important cultural artefact and a meaningful site of popular culture representations of gender. Maxim’s commodification of the bullying of women may undergird persistent patriarchal attitudes toward intimate partner violence and reveal an anxious masculine response to feminism. Maxim’s discourse positioned verbal, if not physical, violence against women as …

Communicating Augmented Reality Devices Improving Technology Acceptance Among Electric Utility Field Workers, Carly M. Kroll

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Augmented Reality (AR) is very useful for many different fields and purposes such as entertainment, education, military, navigation, industrial, or electric utility. Electric utilities find use in AR due to the flexibility of location and the real-time information sharing with visuals to keep employees safe and efficient. This exploratory study investigated the use of infographic templates as a way to introduce this new technology to line workers in the electric utility field. Infographics were used as a way to prime workers to be more aware of the technology and its possible uses as well as usefulness. Through the use of …

What Is Grounded Theory Good For?, Vivian B. Martin, Clifton Scott, Bonnie Brennen, Meenakshi Gigi Durham

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Grounded theory (GT) made its appearance in the social sciences in 1967 with publication of Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss’s The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Glaser and Strauss advocated for systematically discovering and interpreting empirical data to generate theory, in contrast to testing or verifying theory derived from a priori assumptions. In the intervening 50 years, GT has spread into a wide range of fields including journalism and mass communication. Variations of the method have been developed, and debate has ensued about its relation to positivism and constructivism as well as pragmatism and postmodernism and about its value for …

Big Data, Equality, Privacy, And Digital Ethics, Kati Tusinski Berg

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Editorial In Journalism Studies, Vol. 19, No. 1, Bonnie Brennen, Folker Hanusch, Oscar Westlund

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

A Postapocalyptic Return To The Frontier: The Walking Dead As Post-Western, Amanda R. Keeler

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

This article argues that The Walking Dead is a post-Western, a genre that extracts classical Hollywood Western themes and iconography, and resituates them in a dystopian, postapocalyptic setting. The program features characters forced to reconquer the frontier amid the disintegration of modern society, who must battle undead walkers and other human survivors. As a post-Western, the program inverts the ideological optimism of the classical Hollywood Western. In doing so, it highlights the linkages between the seemingly unconnected narrative universes of the Western and the postapocalyptic tale.

Audiation And Improvisation As They Relate To Synesthesia In The Organ Music Of Olivier Messiaen, Mark Konewko

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

The purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between audiation, improvisation, and synesthesia in the music of Olivier Messiaen. “When I hear a score or read it, hearing it in my mind, I visualize corresponding colors which turn, shift, and combine, just as the sounds turn, shift, and combine, simultaneously” (Samuel 1986: 37). The function of audiation, synesthesia and improvisation are manifest in the creative procedure of Messiaen’s in compositions. Messiaen “audiates” in his compositions the sensation of color. Harmonic configurations that Messiaen utilizes his fashioned Modes of Limited Transposition that dictate particular harmonic colors. For Messiaen and …

Invited Essay: Investigating Family Voices From The Margins, Lynn H. Turner, Richard West

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

This essay surveys articles from the Journal of Family Communicationto make the argument that our journal needs to feature more scholarship on families that heretofore have been virtually ignored or marginalized. We discuss four types of diversity to consider when exploring questions of family communication, and review three imperatives for making this argument.

Enhancing Employee Communication Behaviors For Sensemaking And Sensegiving In Crisis Situations: Strategic Management Approach For Effective Internal Crisis Communication, Young Kim

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the organizational effectiveness of internal crisis communication within the strategic management approach, whether it enhanced voluntary and positive employee communication behaviors (ECBs) for sensemaking and sensegiving. By doing so, this study provides meaningful insight into: new crisis communication theory development that takes a strategic management approach, emphasizing employees’ valuable assets from an organization, and effective crisis communication practice that reduces misalignment with employees and that enhances voluntary and positive ECBs for the organization during a crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducted a nationwide survey in the USA among full-time employees (n …

Who Is Caring For The Caregiver? The Role Of Cybercoping For Dementia Caregivers, Jae-Seon Jeong, Young Kim, Myoung-Gi Chon

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between dementia caregivers’ communication behaviors (information seeking and forwarding) and their outcomes (coping outcomes: e.g., dealing better with negative feelings or improved medical outcomes). A survey data set of dementia patients’ caregivers substantiates the effects of communication behaviors about dementia illness on coping outcomes, as well as the mediating role of emotion-focused and problem-focused coping processes. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), this study found positive effects of communication behaviors on outcomes through coping processes. Further, the results indicate that communication behaviors in cyberspace are crucial for caregivers to cope with …

A Secret Police: The Lasting Impact Of The 1986 Foia Amendments, A.Jay Wagner

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

The 1986 Freedom of Information Act amendments were passed as a last-minute rider to Reagan-era War on Drugs legislation. The three pieces – a broad restructuring of Exemption 7, the law enforcement exemption; the addition of exclusions for law enforcement and intelligence requests; and introduction of a new fee structure – have had a lasting impact on FOIA implementation and contribute to the contemporary inability to affect police transparency. Review of the 1986 FOIA amendments’ legislative history documents the White House’s determination to loosen law enforcement oversight and congressional appeals to exaggerated fears of illicit drug users. The study considers …

Testing Links Among Uncertainty, Affect, And Attitude Toward A Health Behavior, Robert J. Griffin, Timothy K.F. Fung, Sharon Dunwoody

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

This study examines the conceptual linkages between individuals’ uncertainty judgments and affective reactions (worry and anger) within the context of an environmental health risk. It uses data from a longitudinal study of people’s reactions to the risks of eating contaminated fish from the Great Lakes that employed the risk information seeking and processing model and incorporates a set of variables from the full model, which includes preventive behavior. Findings support the model and indicate that worry and anger strongly influenced uncertainty judgments but worry and anger influenced attitudes toward fish avoidance and information insufficiency differently.