Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Q/A: A Semiotic Deconstruction Of Narrative Transportation On Episodic Television, Josh Grube

Masters Theses

Narrative transportation is a captivating phenomenon in which an audience member psychologically departs from material reality and immerses into the narrative world (Gerrig, 1993). Existing literature on narrative transportation mostly consists of audience-level studies, primarily focused on the phenomenon’s persuasive effects and audience attributes that mediate their ability to be transported. From a theoretical media perspective, transportation is conceived as an aspect of the larger audience cultivation process (Gerbner, 1998) due to its persuasive influence, revealing the importance of viewing it from the textual level. This thesis fills a significant gap in narrative transportation theory by examining television narratives through …

Communication & Popular Culture, Marita Gronnvoll

Syllabi

This course examines popular culture and the emergence of mass culture in the United States. Itstarts from the premise that popular culture, far from being a frivolous or debased alternative to“high culture”, is in fact an important site of popular expression, social instruction, and culturalconflict, and thus deserves critical attention. We examine theoretical texts that help us to “read”popular culture, even as we study specific forms and artifacts of popular culture: from televisionshows to Hollywood movies, graphic novels to advertisements, and popular music to fiction.Throughout the course, we ground what we call “culture” in political, economic, and socialcontexts. We pay …

Persuasion, Marita Gronnvoll

Syllabi

This class will study symbolic communication intended to influence beliefs, attitudes, values, andbehaviors. The course will focus on the critical assessment of persuasive messages, with additionalattention to the theories and research behind persuasive message construction.

Topics In Media History, Jeffrey Owens

Syllabi

Topics in Media History provides an in-depth study of the history of one particular medium (e.g. film, radio, television, or the internet). It will cover the development of media technology, the structure of media institutions and their regulation, and the social and cultural significance of these media. This class is repeatable with change in topic.

Production I, Scott Walus

Syllabi

This production-centered course teaches the foundational elements of visual storytelling through video,television, and film. These foundational elements include narrative construction, visual composition,genre aesthetics, visual brand development, characterization, and non-linear editing in order tocommunicate a unified message through video, audio, and graphics.

Television Criticism, Scott Walus

Syllabi

Television remains the greatest shared cultural force for explaining the world and providing possibilitiesfor living in that world. The average household spends 59.5 hours a week watching televisual content.From early childhood through old age viewers connect with characters who they will never meet andinvest deeply into a narrative that will never end. This course takes an in-depth examination into howtelevision keeps us watching and the complex meanings present in even the most innocuous programming.

Television & Video Development, Scott Walus

Syllabi

This course focuses on the development process of both the creation of television and video content aswell as that of the individual producer. Students will learn about the industry, future careers, the resourcesand opportunities available at EIU, pre-production formats (scripts, storyboard, pitches), the narrativestructure, logistics, and types of productions. This course prepares students for navigating productions, amajor or minor in media, and their profession after graduation.

Media Criticism And Morality Policing On Twitter: Fan Responses To 'How To Get Away With Murder', Melissa Ames

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

In an alarmist age when tirades about society's eroding ethics areabundant, the media is often a scapegoat for those who fear that cultural valuesare disintegrating. For decades, from reality television's debauchery to celebrityprogramming's narcissism to fictional drama's excessive violence, television hasbeen blamed for contributing to society's so-called moral decline. Recently, concernhas expanded from content to include twenty-first century television viewingpractices. Studies argue that binge watching television leads to antisocial dispositions,depression, and immorality. Likewise, social media is credited forcreating a generation of narcissists and prompting increased levels of depression,jealousy, and apathy. Television viewing today often entails double screening - whereinviewers are …

Broadcast News Curriculum, Communication Studies

Curriculum Programs

This concentration is designed to provide the knowledge, values, perspectives, and skills necessary to understand the roles, functions, and operations of broadcast news.

Electronic Media Production Curriculum, Communication Studies

Curriculum Programs

This concentration is designed to provide the knowledge, values, perspectives, and skills necessary to understand the roles, functions, and operations of various electronic media. This program of study is focused on balancing theoretical issues with practical experience.

Battle Of The Brands: Producing Medium-Specific Video Promotion Of Music Commodity Signs For The New Media Epoch, Josh Grube

Undergraduate Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

A Soldier's Home, Andrew O. Mclaughlin

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Rural Public Television System: The Paradox Of Identity And Role, James C. Jones Jr.

Masters Theses

The American television broadcasting system is preparing for it's greatest upgrade since color television. This change will not only effect commercial television it will also effect our community public television stations.

Since it's inception in 1967 the public television system has been the innovation leader in the broadcast industry for using new technologies to benefit education and servicing the public. Public television was the leader in satellite programming distribution, descriptive television services and closed captioning. Public television has defined and demonstrated its role as a technology leader. This research study was undertaken to define from the public's perspective what it …

Viewer's Perception Of Local Television Anchors: A Gender Based Study, Mary Elizabeth Wagner

Masters Theses

A number of studies conducted by Lin (1992), Meeske (1992), Stone and Lee (1990), and Weinthal and O'Keefe (1984) have examined which variables are rated highest and most prominent by respondents toward television anchors. Professionalism, voice and speech, personal appeal, and attractiveness have been among the top rated variables, but they have never been researched within a single study. This study examines the above variables for local male and female television anchors and discovers which was rated the highest by male and female respondents. Significant findings within this study include male respondents perceive professionalism to be the highest rated variable …

How Actualities Affect The Credibility And Audience Evaluation Of Radio Newscasts, Michael G. Bradd

Masters Theses

This study tests the hypotheses that actualities increase the audience appeal and credibility of a radio newscast. Two treatment newscasts of identical content were produced using the same announcer. One of the treatments used actualities in four of the seven stories while the other treatment had no actualities. Analysis of variance was used to compare subjects' evaluations of the two treatments. The study found that contrary to common wisdom in the radio industry, actualities have no statistically significant impact on the audience appeal of a newscast. The data did not confirm the credibility hypothesis; it strongly suggested that actualities do …

Performance Expectation Based Broadcast Education, Mark L. Hamilton

Masters Theses

Parcells (1985; Parcells & Hadwiger, 1984) data from a census survey of every commercial radio station manager in five states (Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, and Iowa) to ascertain entry-level skills, long-term success characteristics, and advice for success in radio careers indicated that a reorientation of broadcast education was in order. Essentially, it challenged higher educators to respond by revising curriculum, instruction, textbooks, advisement, and overall subject matter to reflect the "new reality" of the communication industry. This study moves beyond the area of curriculum and instruction to discover whether broadcast graduates are being properly prepared for careers in the communication …

Viewers' Reactions To Ordinary People In Television News Events, Janice R. Kidd

Masters Theses

Viewers' Reactions to Ordinary People in Television News Events examines two hypotheses relating to respondents' reactions to viewing violent events or the likelihood of violent death as portrayed on the major news networks. Research centers on reactions of viewers to ordinary people caught in extraordinary news events. Results of two free-flow written exercises are discussed.

Research excludes reactions to viewing those in the news, such as police personnel, soldiers etc., whose lives might be expected to be involved in violent or dangerous events.

A Comparison Of Two Methods Of Student Evaluation Via Video Tape In A Fundamentals Of Speech Program, Ronald Lynn Stephenson

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.