Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Do People Perceive Alexa As Gendered? A Cross-Cultural Study Of People’S Perceptions, Expectations, And Desires Of Alexa, Leopoldina Fortunati, Autumn P. Edwards, Anna Maria Manganelli, Chad Edwards, Federico De Luca

Human-Machine Communication

Mainly, the scholarly debate on Alexa has focused on sexist/anti-woman gender representations in the everyday life of many families, on a cluster of themes such as privacy, insecurity, and trust, and on the world of education and health. This paper takes another stance and explores via online survey methodology how university student respondents in two countries (the United States, n = 333; and Italy, n = 322) perceive Alexa’s image and gender, what they expect from this voice-based assistant, and how they would like Alexa to be. Results of a free association exercise showed that Alexa’s image was scarcely embodied …

Gender Ambiguity In Voice-Based Assistants: Gender Perception And Influences Of Context, Sandra Mooshammer, Katrin Etzrodt

Human-Machine Communication

Recently emerging synthetic acoustically gender-ambiguous voices could contribute to dissolving the still prevailing genderism. Yet, are we indeed perceiving these voices as “unassignable”? Or are we trying to assimilate them into existing genders? To investigate the perceived ambiguity, we conducted an explorative 3 (male, female, ambiguous voice) × 3 (male, female, ambiguous topic) experiment. We found that, although participants perceived the gender-ambiguous voice as ambiguous, they used a profoundly wide range of the scale, indicating tendencies toward a gender. We uncovered a mild dissolve of gender roles. Neither the listener’s gender nor the personal gender stereotypes impacted the perception. However, …

Gender And Human-Machine Communication: Where Are We?, Leopoldina Fortunati, Autumn P. Edwards

Human-Machine Communication

In this introduction to the fifth volume of the journal Human-Machine Communication, we present and discuss the five articles focusing on gender and human-machine communication. In this essay, we will analyze the theme of gender, including how this notion has historically and politically been set up, and for what reasons. We will start by considering gender in in-person communication, then we will progress to consider what happens to gender when it is mediated by the most important ICTs that preceded HMC: the telephone, mobile phone, and computer-mediated communication (CMC). We outline the historical framework necessary to analyze the last section …

Hey Girl, Feel My Thesis. Know What It's Made Of? Research Material., Mya Lynn Pritts

Masters Theses

As Generation Z becomes the newest generation to enter adulthood, it is valuable to understand their thought processes and communication patterns. Individuals of Generation Z are known to be digital natives, as they were born into a world of technology with the internet at their fingertips. Understanding Generation Z's use of memes is an area where little research has been done so far. The purpose of this study was to determine how Generation Z interprets and communicates with memes on the internet and social media platforms. Unlike previous research, this study analyzed the participants' perceptions, which further contributes to an …

Sports Podcast Consumption: A Qualitative Media Content Analysis, Eric Philip Thomas

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The objective of this research is to identify the elements of a podcast production that foster and facilitate audience gratifications. The Uses and Gratifications Theory posits that consumers of media seek out desired content to fulfill their needs or gratifications. This qualitative media content analysis researches gratifications derived from sports podcast consumption by analyzing fifteen podcasts in three different categories: high-ranking, medium-ranking, and low-ranking. Through the qualitative content analysis of over 54 hours of podcast content, the emergence of four structural content elements that seem to foster and facilitate audience gratifications were identified. The implications of the findings of this …

Exploring Public Speaking Self-Efficacy In The 4-H Presentation Program, Nicole Marshall-Wheeler, Yu Meng, Steven Worker

Journal of Extension

Strong communication skills are important in an individual’s personal and professional life; however, research regarding what influences youth’s public speaking self-efficacy is limited. To address this gap, we surveyed youth who participated in a statewide presentation event about their self-efficacy and sources of that self-efficacy. Results show mastery experiences have the greatest relationship to youth’s public speaking confidence. Extension can strengthen youth’s public speaking self-efficacy by increasing the number of presentation opportunities and by removing barriers from participating in existing presentation opportunities.

Utilizing Resilience And Persistence Strategies To Reduce African American Doctoral Attrition, Dudley Davis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the attrition rate of African American doctoral students and how to improve their retention and graduation using resilience and persistence. Across all disciplines, 40–60% of students who began doctoral programs did not persist to graduation (Falconer & Djokic, 2019; Mirick & Wladkowski, 2020). A semi-structured interview format was used to collect the data from 27 African American participants, 20 females and 7 males, who had already obtained their doctoral degrees. The study sought to explain the phenomenon of African American doctoral students who persevered to finish their degree, in spite …

Bibliotherapy In The Helping Professions: A Heuristic Model For Intervention Design, Natalie Marie Haney

Masters Theses

I propose a new approach to examining bibliotherapy’s usefulness in the community-based care of individuals with serious mental illness (SMI), focused on producing a heuristic that benefits helping professionals who offer non-clinical and non-psychiatric services. Meant for writers designing bibliotherapy interventions in the helping professions, I conceptualize bibliotherapy in a model against the backdrop of community-based care’s history. A model has the potential to allow each writer to conduct situation-specific inquiry, invent bibliotherapy intervention designs suited to the unique needs of the profession’s help-seekers, and reflect on knowledge generated for intervention reiteration. Referring to Dewey, Rosenblatt and Barnlund to create …

Crafting A Presence: How Muslim Designers Are Making Their Mark, Imani S. White

Capstones

Muslim designers and models, specifically those who wear hijab, or the Islamic headcovering, are changing the focus of mainstream fashion. They're challenging norms, subverting ideology, and redefining what fashion can mean and who it can include. A handful of Muslim designers sat down with me to discuss how their religious beliefs influced their craft — if it does at all. We also delve into the challenges faced by hijabi designers in an industry that sometimes tokenizes them, emphasizing the importance of individuality and agency. Furthermore, the article touches upon the intersection of fashion, Islam, and sustainability, with new designers like …

Engagement Journalism In Action: Supporting New Yorkers With Long Covid, Sarah Luft

Capstones

What do asthma and long COVID have in common? 1 in 13 U.S. adults are living with them. This report is a recap of my efforts to address the information needs of New Yorkers with long COVID as a student in CUNY's Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism engagement program. For my final project, I partnered with THE CITY, a nonprofit news outlet serving New Yorkers, to expand the MISSING THEM project. The report details the what, why, and how of my engagement reporting process, including a community engagement framework, a service journalism series, and lessons to carry forward. You …

Reclaiming South Asian Beauty, Rizwana Zafer

Capstones

Shows like Never Have I Ever, Bridgerton, and Love Is Blind have put South Asian beauty at the forefront of American media. However, the increased popularity of these shows has also reignited an interest in the appropriation of South Asian beauty trends. Through their work in the beauty industry and social media, Arpita, Susana Mollick, and Soni Kohli are reclaiming South Asian beauty in the face of appropriation.

Link to capstone project:

https://medium.com/@rizwana.zafer81/reclaiming-south-asian-beauty-9d8484f00a14

Flying Hope: Bringing Pets To Safety In Nyc, Jose D. Santiago-Morales

Capstones

The animal overcrowding issue is impacting stray pets in Puerto Rico. Various not-for-profit organizations in NYC (The Sato Project and Wings of Rescue) are working to bring these animals from the island to states across the Northeast of the United States and helping by finding them their forever homes. One pet at a time.

https://dansantiagojournalist.wordpress.com/2023/10/01/flying-hope-bringing-pets-to-safety-in-nyc/

Report From The 2022 National Communication Association Annual Convention, Mick Brewer

Title III Professional Development Reports

The following is a brief descriptive report of some of the work that took place at the 2022 National Communication Association's annual convention.

Advocacy Journalism And Climate Justice In A Global Southern Country, Shafiq Ahmad Kamboh, Muhammad Ittefaq

School of Communication Studies - Faculty Scholarship

Being among the world’s most affected countries by climate change, Pakistan is facing a variety of cases of climate injustice committed by internal and external drivers. Waisbord’s referred “Advocate-journalist” model carries a good potential to advocate these injustices to stimulate democratic dialogue among the audience that eventually pushes leadership to make eco-friendly policies. This study critically analyses advocacy journalism coverage of cases of local and regional climate injustice in the editorial contents of mainstream Pakistani newspapers by using the quantitative content analysis method. Results reveal that selected newspapers gave inappropriate coverage to climate injustice issues both in quantity and quality. …

Full Volume, Nfa Journal

National Forensic Journal

No abstract provided.

A Transdisciplinary Emergent Approach For Systems And Interventions (Easi), Chaithanya Renduchintala

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In modeling human behavior and social structures several factors can emerge over time this can be attributed to the availability of new data, increased complexity, changes to the organizational structure, interventions, introduction of innovative technology or services and due to improved knowledge and treatments. We hypothesize a new class of emergent decision support systems that continually evolve to account for this "Causal Drift". In this work, we illustrate the application of the Emergent Approach to Systems and Intervention (EASI™) methodology with the example of Community Intervention Activity Model (CIAM) to reduce the rate of diabetic hospitalization at the local/ county …

Modeling The Effects Of Diversity And Corporations On Participation Dynamics In Floss Ecosystems, Olivia Newton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

A multitude of societal issues associated with the development of technology have emerged over the years including, but not limited to: insufficient personnel for maintenance; a lack of accessibility; the spread of harmful tools; and bias and discrimination against marginalized groups. I propose that a systems perspective is necessary to identify potential leverage points in technology production systems to influence them towards increased social good and evaluate their effectiveness for intervention. Toward this end, I conducted a mixed-methods study of a widely-adopted approach in tech production, free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) development. A survey was distributed to elicit responses …

Front Matter, Nfa Journal

National Forensic Journal

No abstract provided.

Rehearsing With Imagined Interactions Theory: Exploring Imagined Interactions As Framework For Ensemble And Solo Performance Rehearsals, Joshua Hamzehee

National Forensic Journal

How should I practice is a common question that comes up while teaching performance and public speaking classes, when directing and performing in productions, and when coaching and competing for forensics squads. This essay provides a rationale for fusing Honeycutt’s imagined interactions theory (2003) with performance rehearsal processes, employing research guiding retroactive and proactive imagined interactions as a template to frame rehearsals that have the purpose of future actor ó spectator engagement. I use my experiences applying imagined interactions to an ensemble performance rehearsal and during a solo performance rehearsal to show the usefulness, limitations, and potentials of this methodological …

An Experiment Testing The Influence Of Oral Interpretation On Entertainment And Persuasion, Shane Semmler, Megan Swets, Bailey Quanbeck, Blake Warner

National Forensic Journal

A post-test only experimental design evaluated the empirical influence of three 2016 National Forensic Association final round oral interpretation performances (two Dramatic Interpretations and one Prose Interpretation) on entertainment (parasocial interaction, identification, and narrative transportation); the capacity of entertainment to elicit enjoyment; and the capacity of entertainment to elicit persuasion (i.e., changes to attitude valence and attitude importance) through the mediating process of reduced counterarguing against subjective interpretations of arguments in the oral interpretation performances. The influence of oral interpretation on entertainment, enjoyment, counterarguing, and persuasion was substantially similar to that found in the larger body of empirical scholarship investigating …

​​Pr 101: A Resource For New Public Relations Professionals, Ilana M. Weinberger

Publications and Research

The field of public relations (PR) is often misunderstood, despite the fact that it is a growing field (Fawkes, 2018). New employees enter the field of PR every year, whether as new graduates or as those making a career change, yet the intricacies of working in PR are not generally taught in the classroom (Meganck, Smith & Guidry, 2020). Most people do not have a solid understanding of what PR professionals do on a day-to-day basis, and in fact, many of those entering the field don’t either. They may think that PR is simply social media management, or even confuse …

Hustle In H-Town: Hip Hop Entrepreneurialism In Houston, Brittany L. Long

Journal of Hip Hop Studies

Imagine a sprawling, overheated American megalopolis that epitomizes diversity and segregation in one of the world’s youngest countries. Despite Houston’s history of structural racism and segregation, Houston Hip Hop entrepreneurs built communities and created storied businesses that culminate in a sense of local pride and Hip Hop identity that has not been replicated in the same manner in any other city. An examination of thought-provoking existing scholarship about the Hip Hop South and Hip Hop in Houston, as well as an examination of existing and collected primary sources (interviews) allow me to demonstrate two things: Hip Hop entrepreneurialism is a …

Resisting And Persisting Through Organizational Exit: An Autoethnographic Exploration Of Disclosing Sexual Harassment In Collegiate Debate, M. A., Tennley A. Vik

National Forensic Journal

Collegiate debate has documented extensive problems with sexual harassment. This manuscript uses the first author’s layered account of sexual harassment experienced as a collegiate debater, her transition to a different university, and the management of private information with her family. Communication Privacy Management (CPM) theory and a plethora of studies provide a theoretical lens of the first author’s autoethnographic experience. We advance CPM theory by examining how young adult children manage their privacy through constructing more rigid privacy boundaries than their adolescent counterparts and provide the first look at how disclosure can both enable and constrain victims/survivors of sexual harassment, …

An Intersectional Approach To Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Women’S Sexualized Body-Positive Imagery On Instagram, Megan A. Vendemia, Kyla N. Brathwaite, David C. Deandrea

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Our work adopted an intersectional approach to investigate how women’s racial identity may influence how they evaluate and are impacted by body-positive imagery of women on social media. In a 2 × 2 × 2 experiment (N = 975), we examined how source race (Black vs White) and sexualization (non-sexualized vs sexualized) in body-positive images affect Black and White viewers’ impressions of self-interest, moral appropriateness, and body positivity. Results indicated that viewers generally responded more favorably to non-sexualized (vs sexualized) images: Participants reported less self-interested motivations for sharing, found the images more morally appropriate, and believed they were more …

Lindenwood Digest, December 14, 2022, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

“Envisioning Digital Sanctuaries”: An Exploration Of Virtual Collectives For Nurturing Professional Development Of Women In Technical Domains, Subhasree Sengupta

Dissertations - ALL

Work and learning are essential facets of our existence, yet sociocultural barriers have historically limited access and opportunity for women in multiple contexts, including their professional pursuits. Such sociocultural barriers are particularly pronounced in technical domains and have relegated minoritized voices to the margins. As a result of these barriers, those affected have suffered strife, turmoil, and subjugation. Hence, it is important to investigate how women can subvert such structural limitations and find channels through which they can seek support and guidance to navigate their careers. With the proliferation of modern communication infrastructure, virtual forums of conversation such as Reddit …

Vietglish - A Reluctant Acceptance Of The Close-Minded Literate Society, Ngọc Hải Nguyễn '26

Best First-Year Seminar Writing

The portmanteau Vietglish refers to the combination of specific aspects belonging to both the Vietnamese language and the English language in particular ways, of which this paper will focus on two divisions. The first is a combination of English words in the day-to-day Vietnamese communication, signifying a lack of correct vocabulary. The speaker usually maintains the Vietnamese accents to keep the conversation mainly in Vietnamese, despite the difficulties that they have to deal with finding the lexicon needed. The other is the “incomplete” formation of Vietnamese conversation, mixing in English grammatical structures, making each sentence sound less “natural” to the …

Volume 5, Issue 2 (2022) Migration, Community, And Environment During A Pandemic

International Journal on Responsibility

No abstract provided.

The Quest For Influence: Examining Russia's Public Diplomacy Mechanisms In Africa, Isaac Antwiboasiako

Articles

This article examines Russian public diplomacy mechanisms in Africa. These include the intentional use of historical ties, various aid programmes in education and health, the targeted use of international broadcasting and digital media, and the exploitation of anti-Western sentiments on the continent. Russia employs these to win the hearts and minds of African publics for its national interest. The article first explores Moscow’s public diplomacy in general and analyses the challenges Russia faces in Africa, which has become a ‘dumping ground’ for public diplomacy campaigns by the US, the EU and its members, the UK, and China. The article argues …

Black Cosplayers Push For Proper Dark-Skinned Character Representation In Media, Taylor K. Johnson

Capstones

As cosplay continues to rise in popularity at comic conventions, anime conventions and on social media, Black cosplayers push for media companies to invest in adding more dark-skinned characters in their shows and games.