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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™

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Critical and Cultural Studies

Western Michigan University

Articles 1 - 16 of 16

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Echo Chambers And The Rise Of The Alt-Right, Ian Robert Mcdonald Jun 2024

Echo Chambers And The Rise Of The Alt-Right, Ian Robert Mcdonald

Masters Theses

The uses of social media have expanded with the growing number of platforms and niches that these platforms seek to fulfill. One of the more common uses of many current social media platforms is to engage with politics. Social media platforms have become a political tool to some, with an enormous amount of news and information being shared throughout social media platforms. The increasing use of social media has coincided with an increase in political polarization, with some raising concerns over the ability for certain groups to operate in ideological isolation, referred to as echo chambers, and the role they …

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Challenging The Positionality Of Western Mainstream English Through The Implementation Of Communication Action Statements, Victoria Mcdermott, Amy R. May Nov 2023

Challenging The Positionality Of Western Mainstream English Through The Implementation Of Communication Action Statements, Victoria Mcdermott, Amy R. May

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Communication is the most powerful tool we have to challenge the plague of invisibility impacting our Indigenous communities. As we continue to challenge the diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives touted by our institutions, we need to move beyond mission statements to motion, i.e., action required for meaningful transformation to take place (Qassataq, Iñupiaq, 2022). To call attention to and name the silencing of language and knowledge systems outside of western mainstream english (WME), the present paper proposes the concept of Communication Action Statements (CAS). Based on place and space, CASs recognize, label, and affirm the negative effects of WME, …

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Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume 6, 2022 Oct 2022

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume 6, 2022

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

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Countering The Service-Learning Privilege Problem Through Critical Communication Pedagogy And Critical Assessment, David H. Kahl Jr., Ahmet Atay, Najla G. Amundson Oct 2022

Countering The Service-Learning Privilege Problem Through Critical Communication Pedagogy And Critical Assessment, David H. Kahl Jr., Ahmet Atay, Najla G. Amundson

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Because the communication discipline values action, civility, and service, it has placed emphasis on the integration of service-learning in its courses. Service-learning has the potential to bridge the gap between the classroom and the community by employing social justice pedagogy–activism that takes critical learning to sites of hegemony. However, service-learning can also promote the unintended side effect of entrenching beliefs about privilege. Therefore, we advocate for a critical service-learning to be facilitated through a critical communication pedagogy (CCP) framework, which emphasizes the recognition and response to hegemony that students encounter. Such an approach employs critical assessment, a means by which …

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Pursuing Inclusion And Justice While Affirming The Mental Health Of Marginalized Students, Tyshee E. Sonnier, Claire J. Stevenson, Joshua H. Miller Oct 2022

Pursuing Inclusion And Justice While Affirming The Mental Health Of Marginalized Students, Tyshee E. Sonnier, Claire J. Stevenson, Joshua H. Miller

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This article provides best practices that instructors can use to affirm and support marginalized students’ mental health with a specific focus on students of color. Recently, campuses have witnessed renewed calls for diversity and inclusion in the wake of anti-Black violence. Advocates have called for needed structural changes. To build upon these calls for change, this article provides instructors with tools they can use in the interim to navigate questions of diversity, inclusion, and justice in the classroom. The essay centers the mental health needs of students from marginalized populations to hedge against the possibility that efforts to foster inclusion, …

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Sounds About White: Critiquing The Nca Standards For Public Speaking Competency, Adam Key Oct 2022

Sounds About White: Critiquing The Nca Standards For Public Speaking Competency, Adam Key

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Using critical discourse analysis, I critically examined the National Communication Association’s (NCA) standards for public speaking competency to determine what type of ideal speaker the standards would produce. Highlighting NCA’s emphasis on “suitable” and “appropriate” forms of communication and the use of Standard American English, I argue that the ideal competent speaker in our classrooms sounds White. I complete the essay by reimagining the basic course using methods of Africana Study to explore ways that the standards for public speaking might be decolonized and made more inclusive to students of all backgrounds.

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Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume 5, 2021 Oct 2021

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume 5, 2021

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

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Toward A New Community Of Care: Best Practices For Educators And Administrators During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Cody M. Clemens, Tomeka M. Robinson Oct 2021

Toward A New Community Of Care: Best Practices For Educators And Administrators During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Cody M. Clemens, Tomeka M. Robinson

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

The onset of COVID-19 left people feeling unsettled, confused, and afraid of what tomorrow may hold. As university professors specializing in health communication, we too were left with these same feelings. As health communication scholars, we focus on issues surrounding illness, risk, crisis, care, health inequities, and wellness. COVID-19 is a health crisis, yes, but it has also changed the way we operate not only in higher education but in daily life. We begin this essay with an overview of COVID-19 and its impact on students, educators, and administrators. Then, we suggest four best practices to foster a community of …

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Unpacking Privilege In Pandemic Pedagogy: Social Media Debates On Power Dynamics Of Online Education, Roy Schwartzman Oct 2021

Unpacking Privilege In Pandemic Pedagogy: Social Media Debates On Power Dynamics Of Online Education, Roy Schwartzman

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

As one of the world’s major social media hubs dedicated to online education during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Facebook mega-group Pandemic Pedagogy provides a panoramic perspective of the key concerns educators and students face amid a public health crisis that forces redefinition of what constitutes effective education. After several months of instruction under pandemic conditions, two central themes emerged as the most extensively discussed and the most intensively contested: (1) rigor versus accommodation in calibrating standards for students, and (2) ways to improve engagement during classes conducted through videoconferencing, especially via Zoom. Both themes reveal deeply embedded systems of privilege …

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Critically Analyzing The Online Classroom: Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas, And The Pedagogy They Produce, J.D. Swerzenski Sep 2021

Critically Analyzing The Online Classroom: Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas, And The Pedagogy They Produce, J.D. Swerzenski

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Working from the crossroads of critical pedagogy and software studies, this study analyzes the means by which teaching technologies—in particular the popular learning management systems (LMS) Blackboard, Moodle, and Canvas—support a transmission model of education at the expense of critical learning goals. I assess the effect of LMSs on critical aims via four key critical pedagogy concepts: the banking system, student/teacher contradiction, dialogue, and problem-posing. From software studies, I employ the notion of affordances—what program functions are and are not made available to users—to observe how LMSs naturalize the transmission model. Rather than present a deterministic look at teaching technology, …

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Intercultural Communication In The U.S. And Japan, Annelise Wilp Apr 2018

Intercultural Communication In The U.S. And Japan, Annelise Wilp

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to compare two groups: Japanese students studying or who have studied at American universities, and Americans who are studying or have studied at Japanese universities. The inclusionary criteria were American students who had studied at a Japanese university and Japanese students who had studied at an American university. Exclusionary criteria were those who did not meet the criteria above. Prospective participants were invited to participate through Facebook and email. Interviews were conducted either faceto- face at the Bernhard Center at Western Michigan University, or by telephone. Prospective participants were informed of the purpose of …

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Relational Storytelling And Critical Reflections On Difference, Laura Russell Jan 2018

Relational Storytelling And Critical Reflections On Difference, Laura Russell

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This essay explores unique practices for teaching relational ethics through storytelling. Drawing from my experiences teaching an advanced undergraduate Narrative Ethics seminar, I explain how my students responded to a storytelling unit through which they examined their values and storytelling ethics. I interweave observations from my teaching with insights gathered from my students’ in-class discussions and written reflections to demonstrate the pedagogical aims, outcomes, and challenges encountered when engaging this material. I focus particularly on offering suggestions for encouraging students to (a) embrace limits to their understandings of others and (b) recognize how listening for, and expressing, difference plays a …

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Preferential Methods Used By Celcis Students To Enhance Conversational Skills., Karina Mariadas Dec 2015

Preferential Methods Used By Celcis Students To Enhance Conversational Skills., Karina Mariadas

Honors Theses

Conversational skills are something that can be improved over time. For new language learners, conversing in English can be difficult. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the preferential methods to enhance conversational skills used by students from the Center for English Language and Culture for International Students (CELCIS) at Western Michigan University. The study was conducted using a survey questionnaire consisting of 7 parts. The conversation improvement methods that were addressed in the survey included: print, audio-visual, electronic devices/technology, face-to-face conversations and games. 112 students, 35 females, 75 males and 2 unknowns, participated in the survey during …

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Of Tribes, Wars, And Jungles: A Study Of U.S.College Students’ Perceptions Of Africa And Africans, Seseer P. Mou Jun 2014

Of Tribes, Wars, And Jungles: A Study Of U.S.College Students’ Perceptions Of Africa And Africans, Seseer P. Mou

Masters Theses

This study examined American college students’ perceptions of Africans. Knowledge Gap and Systems Theory were applied to creating and discussing the research questions. Systems Theory addresses processes and levels of information transfer (Westley & Maclean, 1965). It requires an understanding of the sources, channels, messages, and the people who receive information in a communication encounter. Knowledge Gap Theory, on the other hand, states that when information circulates in a system, gaps in knowledge are formed and these gaps increase as more information enters the system (Tichenor, Donohue, & Olien, 1970). The results showed that consumption of radio and newspaper news, …

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Traversing Bourgeois Spaces: How A First-Generation College Student Makes Sense Of The Academy, Tabatha L. Roberts Jun 2013

Traversing Bourgeois Spaces: How A First-Generation College Student Makes Sense Of The Academy, Tabatha L. Roberts

Masters Theses

This thesis presents an autoethnographic interrogation of the intersections of identity for a first-generation college student (FGC) in the process of becoming an FGC PhD graduate/student. It explores the intersections of social class and power and how both concepts are embedded in educational practices, specifically through interpersonal relationships of teacher/student, and within institutions of higher education. Through the theoretical lenses of co-cultural theory and critical communication pedagogy, and the methodologies of autoethnography and the sensemaking paradigmatic framework it is possible to see how I interrogate my positionality as a working-class first-generation college graduate/student in the context of higher education institutions, …

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An African American Cultural Critique Of Weight, Race, Gender And Class Using A Semiotic Analysis Of Queen Latifah’ S Film Roles, Angela Denise Prater Aug 2004

An African American Cultural Critique Of Weight, Race, Gender And Class Using A Semiotic Analysis Of Queen Latifah’ S Film Roles, Angela Denise Prater

Masters Theses

This project examined the interconnectedness of race, gender, class and the physical body as interrelated marginalization factors in media representations. Using the feminist body image literature, critical/cultural theory and Black feminist thought this study examined the significance of weight as a marginalization variable interdependent with race, gender and class. The motion picture character portrayals of the iconic figure Queen Latifah are subjected to a semiotics analysis, a traditional method in critical cultural studies to examine media representations. This analysis is informed by the cultural standpoint of the author as an overweight African American female. This study revealed that Queen Latifah's …

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