Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

“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 …

Crisis Communication In The Public Sector: Influences On Stakeholders’ Experience Of Psychological Effects As U.S.-Russia Tensions Rise, Elisabeth Shirk

Theses - ALL

As war in Ukraine rages on and the U.S.-Russia relationship becomes increasingly hostile, the need to better understand public sector communication in times of international crisis is once again rising. For years, the public and private sectors have been treated largely the same in crisis communication research and practice. In the context of international crisis, specifically rising tensions between the U.S. and Russia, this study looks at where these differences lie and what that might mean for future research and practice.

In contribution to this broader topic, this study looks at the influence of domestic stakeholders’ perceptions of the Biden …

Tools To Educate The Next Generation Of Storytellers To Help Them Document Past Conflicts To Build A More Peaceful Future, Tracy Mack-Jackson

Theses - ALL

Uncovering where we came from may help the human race avoid past mistakes and build a more peaceful future. Multimedia oral histories, period photographs, and photographic exploration of historic locations are tools that allow us to educate future generations and work to prevent conflicts. The power of storytelling runs deep within us as a society, and discovering the tools to help us tell these stories is vital for young people to create a voice for themselves. Visual journalism can be at the forefront of this education. This project focuses on three educational resources young storytellers can use to capture historical …

Digitalizing Religion In The Age Of Covid-19: A Uses And Gratifications Perspective, Abdulaziz Altawil

Dissertations - ALL

The current COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people’s religious behavior around the world. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, most in-person religious services have shifted to virtual platforms. The online religious transition amidst the outbreak has alleviated many issues for worshippers as it provided them with a sanctuary space to connect with their faith and community. According to a 2020 Pew Research analysis, the pandemic has made many Americans change their religious habits by watching religious content online instead of physically engaging with their local religious institution. This dissertation provides a preliminary examination of this phenomenon by exploring the role of digital …

Bleeding Red: The Relationship Between Feminism, Brand Activism Skepticism, And Attitudes About Menstrual-Realistic Advertisements, Adriana S. Mucedola

Dissertations - ALL

Beginning in the early 2000s, menstrual product advertisers in the U.S. and other developed countries began to use red liquid in their advertising to represent period blood rather than the blue liquid used in the past, which is often criticized because it portrays stigmatizing representations of menstruation. These more “menstrual-realistic” advertisements instead communicate that bleeding is normal and arguably help correct past wrongdoings relating to the tainted history of stigmatizing menstrual product ads. This imagery has garnered mixed reactions from the public, including praise, disgust, and skepticism. Extant research demonstrates that consumers prefer media that align with their preexisting beliefs; …

Whom Do You Want To Be Friends With: An Extroverted Or An Introverted Avatar? Impacts Of The Uncanny Valley Effect And Conversational Cues, Se Jung Kim

Dissertations - ALL

With the rapid growth of social virtual reality platforms, an increasing number of people will be interacting with others as avatars in virtual environments. Therefore, it is essential to develop a better understanding of the factors that could impact initial personality assessments and how they affect the willingness of people to befriend one another. Thin-slice judgment constitutes a quick judgment of a personality based on an avatar, and it could be impacted by the avatar’s appearance, particularly if the avatar elicits an uncanny valley effect that brings negative emotions such as eerieness. However, personality judgments and friendship decisions could also …

Generation Z And Media Literacy: Young People’S Perceptions Of Media Literacy Education, Alanna Eavan Powers

Theses - ALL

No abstract provided.

The Sneaker Value: A Disquisition Into Sneaker Resale Market, Xincheng Ding

Theses - ALL

The secondary market for sneakers has proliferated in recent years. In the secondary market of sneakers, it is typical for the resale price of sneakers to be higher than the retail price. Using the theory of planned behavior as a theoretical framework, this study will examine how the economic, hedonic, symbolic, and social values of sneakers influence consumer attitudes and subjective norms. In addition, this study will examine the relationship between social media hype and perceived behavioral control. Finally, this paper examines how TPB components (subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and attitudes) influence consumers' purchase intentions. To achieve this research …

The Psychological Empowerment Impact Of Twitter Microblogging: The Case Of #Stopasianhate During Covid-19 Pandemic, Natnaree Wongmith

Theses - ALL

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a surge in anti-Asian hate incidents across the US (Misra et al., 2020). As a response to the alarming escalation in xenophobia and racism resulting from the pandemic, #StopAsianHate and #StopAAPIHate have been employed to shed light on the issues. Twitter can effectively assist protestors to participate in the movement by facilitating collective effort, efficiently disseminating the information, and encouraging the discussion about a topic (Chon & Park, 2020). Social media has been recognized for its contribution to one's empowerment in various domains, allowing the marginalized group to regain their sense of power …

The Harder The Battle, The More We Talk: The Effects Of Perceived Risk Of Player Death On Social Presence And Enjoyment In Mobile Fps Game, Heejae Lee

Theses - ALL

Even though the relationship between presence and game enjoyment has been explored, there are unsolved theoretical questions regarding the degree to which social presence may be generated in games. Drawing on (social) presence theory, this study investigated the effects of the perceived risk of player death on game enjoyment. Specifically, the current study examined whether there is a relationship between the perceived risk of player death and communication between players; if this communication will serve as a trigger for a social presence; and if social presence will increase game enjoyment. Results from a self-report survey (N = 128) indicated that …

The Impact Of Live Streaming E-Commerce Features On Chinese Consumers' Attitude And Purchase Intention, Tianmeng Yan

Theses - ALL

In recent years, live streaming e-commerce has been gaining popularity among Chinese consumers as a new social trend. Compared to traditional e-commerce, the shopping model of live streaming service plus e-commerce demonstrates some benefits of social media features, encouraging consumers to engage in live shopping. This study aims to predict how different live streaming e-commerce features (visibility, interactivity, price discount, and celebrity endorsement) influence Chinese consumers' attitude and purchase intentions. It also examines how TPB components (subjective norm, perceived behavior control, and attitudes) can affect Chinese consumers' purchase intention using a theoretical model combined with the TPB model and the …

Plant-Centered Diets Among Older Adults: The Need For Improved Nutritional Health Messaging, Margaret Rose

Population Health Research Brief Series

By the year 2030, it is expected that 12% of the world’s population will be aged 65 years or older compared to 8.5% in 2015. This demographic shift will be accompanied by increased healthcare costs and greater demand on health care. One way aging adults may mitigate disease onset and progression is through increased consumption of plant-based foods. This issue brief examines the impact plant-based foods have on disease prevention and acceleration and calls for developing appropriate health messaging to encourage the acceptance and adoption of plant-centered diets among older adults.

'Play The Book Again': Towards A Systems Approach To Game Adaptation, Johnathan Sanders

Dissertations - ALL

Situated at the interstices of game studies, adaptation scholarship, and literary theory, this dissertation puts forth a theoretical framework for effectively analyzing literary game adaptations (that is, playable digital or analog systems that are based upon a work or works of literature) as expressive intertextual systems which facilitate aesthetic experiences. By integrating contemporary game studies with filmic adaptation studies and literary theory, I argue that game adaptations allow us to see how games, adaptations, and indeed all texts can be productively conceived of as Barthesian networks of meaning: collections of interacting formal, narrative, intertextual, and contextual elements from which a …

Receiving A Queen: A Queer And Trans Feminist Classical Reception Rhetorical Historiography Of Elagabalus, Thomas William Passwater

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation studies representations of Elagabalus, the sovereign of Rome who ruled between 218–222ce, after her assassination to examine how depictions and historical accounts of Elagabalus's life make rhetorical decisions about Elagabalus's identity and being that can foreground the composer's relationship to history and the function of history as a rhetorical force. Thus, this project, through studying Elagabalus's composers, raises questions about the nature of figure studies and history. The project draws on trans, queer, and feminist theories and rhetorics which help highlight the contingent and conflicting nature of Elagabalus's identities across representations without settling them into a singular narrative …

The Problem Of The "Virtual": Virtual Reality, Digital Dualism, And Religious Experience, Jordan Brady Loewen

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation uses resources from religious studies to critique the problem of digital dualism haunting notions of the "virtual" in the discourse of contemporary virtual reality technologies (VR). Digital dualism is the idea that digital or "virtual" worlds are fundamentally distinct from the "real" or physical world. Digital dualism is a problem because it mischaracterizes how we experience the spatial and temporal connections to our body in digital-virtual worlds and contributes to a false sense of subjective singularity rather than multiplicity that destabilizes how we relate to ourselves and others. Using the study of religion, philosophy, and aesthetics, we can …

Toward Extended Situational Crisis Communication Theory: Include Visuals, Prior Performance, And Framing Devices, Mohammad Ali

Dissertations - ALL

Human brains are inherently capable of receiving and processing visual messages faster than written text messages. The recent proliferation of internet use, social media platforms, smartphones, and online news media sites facilitated the spread of visual content (e.g., pictures, videos, and data visualizations) online much higher than before. However, visual contents have been largely ignored in crisis communication research, leaving the crisis managers to devise strategic crisis responses and deal with a crisis without sufficient research evidence. Responding to a recent research call to fill the gap, this dissertation conducts a 2 (picture: action vs. damage) × 3 (distinctiveness: high …

The Emergence Of Postcolonial Apologia: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Chinese Governmental Response To Western Accusation During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Yiqing Ran

Theses - ALL

In my thesis, I examine how the Chinese government developed postcolonial apologia throughout its dispute with the US government over policies related to COVID-19. I focus on the shifting rhetorical strategies used by the Chinese government to defend China from accusations by other nations, especially the US. I determine that the Chinese government's response to the Western accusation during the COVID-19 pandemic progressively shifted from participating in the Western system to questioning Western centralization and adding Chinese interpretations to the existing world order. I argue that China's self-defense strategies altered in light of the changing geopolitical context and became more …

On The Use And Abuse Of Violence For Life: Affect, Witnessing, And Protest, Harrison Maurice Lucas

Theses - ALL

Following the murder of George Floyd in May of 2020 by police officer Derek Chauvin, a protest began in the city of Minneapolis that resulted in the burning down of the third precinct police building, the looting of a local Target, and the destruction of over one hundred buildings in the area. But despite this violence, the Minneapolis uprising sparked a wave of protests that spread to over sixty countries on every continent of the globe. Why was Floyd's murder so politically mobilizing? And why did this protest inspire so many others? To answer these questions, I treat the video …

The 1980 Refugee Act And A New Type Of National Apology, Shewit Mikael

Theses - ALL

In immigrant and refugee discourse studies, the overwhelming focus is on how the nation state excludes certain groups through bureaucratic and legislative practices. This thesis seeks to investigate how power manifests through inclusionary immigration practices such as the 1980 Refugee Act. These intentional acts of allowing entry are, at times, driven by perceptions that the nation has created crises and, in this way, allowing entry might be seen as a form of remediation or reparation. In my investigation of the 1975 and 1980 Refugee Acts, these acts appear to respond to the refugee crisis created by US involvement in Vietnam, …

Intersectional Silencing In The Archive: Salaria Kea And The Spanish Civil War, Kathryn Everly

Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics - All Scholarship

Salaria Kea was the only African American woman to serve with the American Medical Unit during the Spanish Civil War. Her experience has been silenced and edited within the archive by traditionally more authoritative voices. Reconsidering the impact of intersectionality on personal experience can lead to a better understanding of Black U.S. participation in voluntary war efforts as well as to a decentering of the predominant euro-centric versions of the war in Spain and of history in general. The impetus of many African Americans to join the fight against fascism in Spain stemmed directly from the Italian invasion of Ethiopia …

Fluchtpunkt Magdeburg: Documentation Of An Integration-Oriented Theater Project From The Perspective Of Theater Pedagogy And Language Didactics, Mona Eikel-Pohen, Sarah Dolbier

Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics - All Scholarship

Based on Dwight Conquergood's key concepts of play, power, process, and poetics/language, this paper documents the theater-pedagogical model project Fluchtpunkt Magdeburg 2015 to2019, in which young people with and without refugee experiences living in Magdeburg, Germany, developed three plays and a film under dance- and theater-pedagogical direction with the pronounced goal of promoting social and linguistic integration. The aim of this documentation is to systematically describe the project and to identify successful elements that make future projects sustainable and feasible for planning and implementation in the long term.