Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Media Narrative Competition Between The U.S. And China During Covid-19, Zhenzhu Zhang

Dissertations

This study examines the narratives that were presented in Chinese and American media by using Dr. Li Wenliang (one of the first people who tried to raise the alarm about the outbreak of COVID-19), and the COVID-19 origin controversy as case studies to understand how these news stories conflicted and which tellings became dominant. The way these two cases have been depicted in the media has changed over time. Understanding how that depiction changed is important because it helps demonstrate how narratives function to frame crises. The current study uses narrative, and framing theories to support thematic analysis of news …

Digital Equity: Difficulties Of Implementing The 1:1 Computing Initiative In Low-Income Areas, Demetric D. Williams

Dissertations

Successful One-to-One Computing Initiative implementation requires educators to communicate and collaborate effectively with everyone in the learning community. However, other factors such as teacher’s professional development, student’s perception, and parent’s perception often affect the implementation of the One-to-One Computing Initiative. School districts, which serve low-income areas in Mississippi, have difficulties ensuring students and communities have access to the information technology they need to participate outside the school setting. The concept is often called digital equity. However, when officials do not address the capacity, there is a vital threat to the participants’ civic, cultural, employment, lifelong learning, and access to essential …

A Case Study In Resiliency: How A University Survived A Pandemic, Mary Ellen Stewart

Dissertations

This case study was conducted to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the campus of a small private university in central Mississippi, where traditionally, relational community and interaction were key contributors to campus culture. Through document analysis, individual interviews with campus leaders, and focus groups consisting of members of key departments, the role of resiliency was examined during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging from the data were the four thematic categories of leadership, campus culture, engagement and interaction, and challenges. Key components in each category revealed the significance of resiliency of university leaders, faculty, and staff as …

Covid-19 & University Stakeholders: A Faculty Perspective, Torie Fowler

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate faculty member perceptions of job satisfaction, response efficacy, organizational communication efforts, along with organizational trust and goodwill in relation to the COVID-19 crisis. A cross-sectional survey was conducted, using faculty members employed at their institution of higher education during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic years. A total of 285 responses were analyzed.

Results of this study suggest faculty member perceptions of job satisfaction and response efficacy were significant in predicting perceptions of trust and goodwill. The most significant predictor of organizational trust and goodwill was perceptions of organizational communication efforts. Also, this …