Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Influencer Experience: Identity Performance, Commodification, And Agency In Youtube Influencers, Aysha M. Vear

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the social media usage of young adults has seen exponential growth. This growth, both in numbers of users and time spent on various platforms, creates a greater opportunity to market lifestyles, goods, and behaviors to the masses. Corporations have taken to allocating more time and attention to reach those masses and utilize the quickest means to that end. One example of these means is the influencer, i.e., social media users who monetize their online performances through practices of self-branding, or developing a public image used for commercial and capital gain (Abidin, 2016). In this study, I focus …

The Influence Of Message Type, Environmental Attitude, And Political Ideology On Perceptions Of Aquaculture In The United States, Tabitha C. Boze

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, aquaculture receives varying degrees of support based on individuals’ perceptions of the industry. This study analyzes the factors that contribute to those perceptions; namely, message type, affect, political orientation, and environmental attitude. We collected data through a nationwide survey, distributed by Qualtrics, which recruited a representative sample of U.S. residents. The survey included multiple-choice, Likert scale, and open-ended questions regarding individual characteristics (e.g., age, income, political orientation, etc.) and opinions on aquaculture. In order to study message type, we employed four experimental conditions (narrative video, narrative text, infographic video, and text) and one control group with …

Conversations With The Oregon Trail And The Silent Generation, Jose A. Camacho Quiroz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this thesis is to explain the reason behind my art practise and process as it stands in August 2020, its context and relation to my life and experience as an outsider in the American culture. This process culminates in the documentation of experiences through the use and preparation of displays of personal artifacts as physical evidence and mechanisms of my transformation to my american persona through a continuing acculturation process and drift from the american generational archetype.

It is important to outline my current work state diverges from my past work since it no longer serves a …

Fostering Climate Change Resilience: A Socio-Ecological Forest Systems Approach, Alyssa R. Soucy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As climate change continues to impact socio-ecological systems, those that rely on natural resources are highly sensitive to climatic changes. Maine’s forest industry provides for the economic and social well-being of many residents and is especially vulnerable to climate change impacts. Changes in growing season length and timing, forest health threats imposed by insects and pathogens, extreme weather events, shifting forest composition, and changes in natural disturbance severity and frequency have already begun, and are projected to continue, to impact forest systems in the Northeastern U.S. While climate change presents a threat to forest systems, opportunities also arise due to …

Using Engaged Rhetorical Methods To Understand And Inform Collaborative Decision Making About Dams And Restoration In The Penobscot River Watershed, Tyler Quiring

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

How do we understand what to do with rivers and dams? How might rhetoric, the ancient study of persuasion, inform and shape this understanding as it relates to river restoration practices? Ecological approaches to rhetoric provide ways for engaging in decision making about dams and river restoration. In this dissertation I present three projects that bring media discourse analysis, reciprocal case study, and cross-cultural digital rhetoric to sites of collaborative decision making about dams and rivers in the Penobscot River watershed (Maine, USA). In this place, the prominent Penobscot River Restoration reconfigured several hydroelectric dams to improve fish passage and …