Communication Commons^™

Chi Meta-Project Ecosystem Overview - Spring 2026, David B. Smith

Publications and Research

This paper offers a high-level account of the Center for Holistic Integration’s (CHI) meta-project ecosystem as visualized in the included system map. CHI provides an organizational structure framed around persistent meta-projects that support and extend individual initiatives across curriculum, scholarly and applied research, infrastructure, artistic production, AI development, cultural inquiry, and external partnerships. Rather than presenting the map as a static inventory of projects, the paper examines how its core domains function as living systems through which knowledge, tools, documentation, participants, and collaborations can accumulate over time. It also considers how CHI-mediated connectivity, institutional integration, and external funding allow the …

“The Ai Pushed Me To Consider New Perspectives”: Preliminary Observations On A Chatgpt Intervention Designed To Elicit Critical Thinking About Media Headlines, Karina Luna, Chelsea Julian Reynolds, Ali Zain

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

This study explored whether a custom AI chatbot could be a relevant tool for promoting critical thinking about news bias. The research team discusses the development of a custom critical media literacy chatbot and its implementation in an upper-division critical media studies course at a large North American public university. Students interacted with the chatbot to analyze news headlines about transgender issues, employing a scaffolded framework to dissect media framing and generate alternative frames. We argue that the same AI technologies fueling anxiety can be reimagined as partners in cultivating critical media literacy and guiding future directions in journalism pedagogy. …

Expanding The Cognitive Attentional Standards Platform Through Artificial Influence Assessment (Aia): Rationale, Development, And Measurement Design, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

Artificial intelligence is increasingly shaping how individuals access information, make decisions, and interact with digital environments. The Cognitive Attentional Standards Platform (C.A.S.) was developed to assess attention related harms, cognitive safety, digital autonomy, and platform influence across digital systems (Clark, 2026). However, the growth of generative AI, conversational agents, and algorithmic decision support technologies has introduced new forms of influence that may not be fully captured by existing assessment domains. This paper proposes the Artificial Influence Assessment (AIA) as an expansion of the C.A.S. framework designed to measure AI mediated influence on cognition, behavior, autonomy, and information processing. Drawing on …

Governing Algorithmic Attention: Attention Safeguard Models And The Cognitive Attentional Standard As System Level Interventions In Human Computer Interaction, Behavioral Economics, And Artificial Intelligence, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

Algorithmic recommendation systems and interface designs shape attention by combining visually salient cues with uncertain reward timing and low friction interaction. These conditions can sustain anticipatory checking, extend time on task, and reduce natural disengagement points through patterns such as infinite scrolling and autoplay. This paper synthesizes research across neuroscience, human computer interaction, behavioral economics, and artificial intelligence to argue that attention capture is a predictable outcome of incentive driven design rather than an individual failure of self regulation. It advances the Attention Safeguard Models and the Cognitive Attentional Standard as system level interventions that regulate exposure conditions, pacing, and …

Locate Alternative Media In The Digital News Ecosystem: A Cross-Country Comparative Study Of Alternative-Mainstream Audience Overlap Networks, Qinfeng Zhu, Fan Liang, Gabriel Miao Li

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

This study examines alternative media within the digital news ecosystem in six European countries: Norway, Sweden, Austria, Germany, France, and Spain. Using a network approach and a cross-country comparative design, we analyze audience overlap between alternative and mainstream media, the positions alternative media occupy within these networks, and how media systems and political contexts may shape these dynamics. Our findings show that while overall audience overlap is low, it is higher in countries where far-right populist parties have greater institutionalized access to political discourse. We also identify alternative media enclaves within the Northern-type media system characterized by strong professional journalism—particularly …

A Scoping Review Of Sycophancy In Large Language Models: Operational And Theoretical Recognition, Kallen Zhou, Manning Littlejohn, Isabella Garrard

Endeavors: Mississippi State Undergraduate Research Journal

As large language models (LLMs) usage grows across different domains, sycophancy, the tendency for output to align with users, is increasingly being recognized as a primary issue arising from applying LLMs into critical areas. Current research has provided a variety of theoretical definitions, mitigation techniques, and quantification for sycophancy. However, there is little to no consistency across different papers. This scoping review seeks to connect different works on LLM sycophancy by identifying themes in theoretical definitions, measurement methods, and inducement techniques of sycophancy. By analyzing 26 papers (preprints, conference proceedings, and journal articles) from arXiv, ACL Anthology, and Scopus, this …

Lindenwood Digest, June 24, 2026, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

• Event & Date: The Lindenwood University Employee Digest was issued on June 24, 2026, and catalogs upcoming institutional activities including a Youth in Need golf fundraiser on July 27 and Lindenwood Night at the Ballpark on September 18.

• Geographic Grounding: Campus activities, including multiple Learning Academy professional development sessions, are held in LARC 09, Lindenwood University, St. Charles, Missouri.

• Key Honorees/Awards: Employees recognized in the Q2 Moments section include Director of Information Technology Enterprise Systems and Application Development Karin May; Admissions Counselor for Traditional Students Ben Corson; and Financial Aid Advisor (P-R) Kristie Powell.

• Institutional Context: The digest documents operational …

  ---

  Go to article

"Using A Sledgehammer To Crack A Nut" A Proposal To Re-Frame The Media Industry's Perspective On Generative Ai, Reace Barnett

Student Theses and Dissertations

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) continues to be a divisive topic in the media industry and there are concerns about technical challenges that may affect GenAI’s trustworthiness and reliability. As such, fears of degraded public trust in media products and services have arisen, and while we have a tendency to trust machines, it is clear that public attitudes toward automated decision-making are contentious. Previous research on machine cues found that they are associated with increased perceived objectivity and willingness to disclose information. Conversational GenAI may reduce political polarization, yet many people remain worried about risks such as bias, hallucinations, improper attribution, …

Information, Communication, And Content Creation Digital Skills: Task-Based Performance Tests Among Youth In Europe, Alexander Van Deursen, Ester Van Laar, Ellen J. Helsper, Luc Schneider, Veronika Kalmus, Signe Opermann, Mari-Liis Tikerperi, Margus Pedaste, Rasmus Mannerström, Katariina Salmela-Aro, Natalia Waechter, Christin Brando, Cristina Ponte, Rita Baptista, Susana Batista, Giovanna Mascheroni, Davide Cino, Jacek Pyżalski, Natalia Walter, Marie Jaron Bedrosova, Hana Machackova, Michal Muzik, Stepanka Kadera, Leen D'Haenens

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

Youth’s digital skills are of growing interest to scholars and policymakers. This paper reports on a performance test in which over 600 youth from six European countries tested their skills by undertaking tasks measuring information, communication, and content creation digital skills. The findings question whether youth have the skills needed to reap the benefits from online information provision and social interactions. They struggle to understand whether websites are trustworthy, to distinguish advertising from information, with online meeting and conversation etiquette, and with content creation. This applies to both girls and boys, although some gender differences were observed depending on the …

Spotting Power: Reframing Media Literacy In Civic Education, Kason Kendall

Democracy & Education

This article analyzes and critiques the tendency to frame media literacy as a neutral skill set concentrated on verifying sources, or "spotting the error." While this approach emphasizes cognitive habits of checking for bias and accuracy, it does not adequately prepare students to understand intentional misinformation as a political strategy. Building on Matthew's (2020) response to Curry and Cherner (2019), I propose that limiting media literacy to error correction hides the strategic production and intentional spread of disinformation by powerful organizations, corporations, and media outlets. Rooted in curriculum theory and the work of scholars such as Gramsci, Hall, Habermas, and …

Will Beauty Save The Brain? Exploring The Relationship Between Eudaimonic Reels Exposure And Egyptian Gen Z'S Mind And Motivations, Petra Zaky

Theses and Dissertations

Social media entertaining content includes a mixed bag of the meaningful and the trivial. For Generation Z, whose favorite daily entertainment is shallow yet funny short-form videos (reels), there is often an invisible price paid. The loss of ability to watch long meaningful videos, distractedness from self, “Brain Rot”, glamorizing of hedonism are among the maladies left behind the attractive rabbit hole of their daily media diet. This study explores the relationship between exposure to meaningful reels, in contrast to pleasurable reels, and Gen Z’s reflective thinking, “Brain Rot” symptoms, motivation to watch long meaningful videos and life motivations between …

Lindenwood Digest, June 10, 2026, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

• Event & Date: The Lindenwood University Learning Academy hosted the Advising and Mentoring Fellowship Training on June 10, 2026, from 2:30–3:30 p.m.

• Geographic Grounding: Online via the Lindenwood Learning Academy, Lindenwood University, St. Charles, Missouri.

• Key Honorees/Awards: Instructional Technology Specialist Jack Roeback was recognized as a Q2 Moments honoree for his professional transition to an Instructional Design specialist/technologist on the Learning Design (LDET) team.

• Institutional Context: Lindenwood University President Porter established a professional development goal encouraging all university employees to complete a minimum of 40 hours of training during each evaluation period.

Lindenwood Digest, June 3, 2026, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

• Event & Date: The Lindenwood University Employee Digest, dated June 3, 2026, details multiple upcoming events including the Staff and Academic Administrators' Retreat on June 9, 2026; the Advising and Mentoring Fellowship Training on June 10, 2026; and the Benefits and Bites Professional Development Event on June 17, 2026.

• Geographic Grounding: The featured events take place at specific designated venues, including the VIP Room within the Hyland Arena, the AB Leadership Room, and online, all hosted by Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri.

• Key Honorees/Awards: The Information Technology Network and Systems team is recognized in the Q2 Moments section for …

  ---

  Go to article

An Analysis Of Immigration Frames In The News Media Post- Second Trump Administration, Olivia Hartley

Communication Studies

Immigration has been a particularly controversial issue since the 2nd Trump Administration. There has been an increase in Immigration Customs Enforcement activity, including deportations and detainments of immigrants across the United States (Craft & Witherspoon, 2026). Given the uptick in media coverage regarding these events, it is essential to understand how this information is being presented to the public. The framing of news media impacts how the public perceives issues, determining the acceptable treatment of immigrants in our society. In this study, a content analysis was performed to determine the prevalence of generic immigration news frames following the start of …

Report On The Ethical Use Of Ai For Participatory Planning, Sahana Kotha, Blythe Wilson

City and Regional Planning

This report provides an overview of key considerations for using artificial intelligence for community engagement in urban planning. As interest in AI adoption in the public sector increases, an understanding of ethical issues is needed to guide responsible AI implementation. Informed by a literature review and interviews with urban planning practitioners and academics, this report describes and analyzes different AI-supported community engagement methods, explores case studies, and outlines key concerns and opportunities for using AI. We recommend that AI use for community engagement prioritizes transparency, human oversight and accountability, intentional AI implementation, and community involvement.

Generation Z And The Ai Misinformation Paradox: Understanding A New Digital Vulnerability, Cecilia Cooley, Elizabeth Sperber

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

This paper asks: How and why is Generation Z more vulnerable to AI-generated misinformation and disinformation than older generations? Using a comparative review of recent empirical studies, survey data, and meta-analyses from 2019–2025, this paper synthesizes research on Gen Z’s exposure to and interaction with AI-produced content across social media platforms. Although it is commonly assumed that Gen Z ’s technological exposure and fluency make them better equipped to recognize false information, findings show the opposite: Gen Z is consistently outperformed by older cohorts in detecting AI-generated falsehoods. This vulnerability stems from three intersecting factors: (1) the sheer volume of …

From Double Absence To Double Presence: Video-Selfie As Empowerment In A Multicultural Italian Classroom, Maria Ranieri, Ilaria Bucciarelli, Giulia Cuozzo

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

This paper examines the video-selfie as a tool for empowerment in multicultural secondary school classrooms. We draw on data from the European ICME project, focusing on a vocational secondary school in Italy, where 17 of 18 first-year students – approximately half of whom had migration backgrounds – produced short videos presenting themselves through personally meaningful objects. Students then participated in a structured reflection activity after watching each other's videos in class. We combine three theoretical frameworks: critical media literacy, identity and self-representation studies, and Mezirow's transformative learning theory. Our argument is that the video selfie empowers in multiple ways: it …

Perceptions And Adoption Of Generative Ai Among Employees In Grup Buku Karangkraf, Amirah Che Ramlan

Student Works (2020-2029)

As the central driving force behind the latest wave of technology and the fourth industrial revolution, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is swiftly and thoroughly permeating various industries, including the publishing industry. GenAI has ushered in a new era in the workplace, reshaping industries, redefining job roles, and fundamentally altering the way work is conducted. Therefore, the problem lies in the question of how GenAI is perceived by employees in the industry, whose roles are being altered by the advent of intelligent algorithms capable of automating tasks, analysing vast datasets, changing social development, and even making editorial decisions. While the adoption …

I Miss My Computer: Online Artistry, Web Aesthetics, And Coming-Of-Age In A Digital Landscape, Catherine Capeci

Masters Theses

This thesis explores how young artists develop their creative practices in a world informed by digitality. Through survey research of 44 art students between the ages of 14 and 22, as well as a process of autoethnographic inquiry, I examine how artists in high school and college relate to digital imagery, web archives, online gaming, and social media platforms, and how these experiences inform artmaking. I believe that art educators should explore how the internet informs aesthetic and conceptual sensibilities, and how these sensibilities show up in young artists’ work, more so than focus on digital media as its own …

Jadughar: The House Of Magic, Dhruvi A. Shah

Masters Theses

Jadughar or the House of Magic is what people call a 'museum' in parts of South Asia. The practice of museum making, at its origin, is the act of collecting, preserving, interpreting and representing a culture’s tangible and intangible heritage to make it accessible to diverse audiences. Since the early 19th century such practices have been performed at various kala bhandars (art centers) in India, without the need of a formal or institutional organisation. The British introduced the model of a ‘museum’ in South Asia, with the aim of not only preserving ethnographic collections, but also showcasing their power and …

Reading Exercise (You Are The Hero): Dedicated To The Providence River Under The Mall, 02.17.2026, Deborah Fischer

Masters Theses

This play uses the performative potential of guilt, forgiveness, and self-help techniques as a catalyst for a new dynamic, one in which the pursuit of a false narrative, along with the structures it generates, becomes more real than reality itself. It employs “bad acting” and the practice of cold reading to stage a series of acts that function as an entry point into one’s own psyche, leveraging the peripheral space around familiar actions to allow chance, free will, and the experience of “real time” to temporarily come into effect. PLAYER 1: The bad actor is the most utopian one. CLOWN: …

Finding A Way Out Of The Filter Bubble: The Confusion Of A Heavy Social Media User, Longwen Miao

Masters Theses

This thesis studies how algorithmic recommendation systems reshape visual perception, aesthetic judgment, and the construction of selfhood within contemporary digital culture.

Everything begins with the experience of repeatedly encountering algorithmically recommended content on everyday digital platforms. On these platforms, images, sounds, and social interactions are continuously selected, repeated, and reorganized by predictive systems, forming an environment in which perception is constantly structured and adjusted.

From this observation, the research raises two central questions: how do algorithmic recommendation systems reshape visual perception, aesthetic judgment, and self-recognition, and how might these systems be intervened in or made perceptible through artistic practice? Within …

There Is No Real : The Burden Makes It Real, Matthew L. Brown

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the concept of burden ship as a framework for understanding human connection and meaning within contemporary life.  Through a series of interconnected essays, this project examines different facets of burden including themes of knowledge, time, identify, responsibility, and choice, and through this exploration, the project investigates how these burdens shape Individual and collective experiences of reality.

These essays are accompanied by artistic projects that use light, digital interaction, weight, constriction, and material tension, as methods of embodying burden in physical form.

At the core of this thesis, is the belief that meaning is not passively discovered; it …

Domestic Travelers: Transparent Machines, Hollow Bodies, Hanyi Wang

Masters Theses

Digitization is not a modern invention. Derived from the concept of fingers, this mindset of packing information into quantifiable, interchangeable units sounds mechanical, yet eerily physical. Try to imagine: a ghostly hand with millions of fingers with the same length, likeness, and function. Under the worldview of Digital Narrative, we live in a digital simulation: everything is representable with quantifiable units, fluid across media. Yet under this spectacle of convenient abundance, something is missing. The Unknowables are replaced with arbitrary symbols, while the Uncategorizables are omitted. This is a framework that cannot accommodate human subtleties and complexities. One needs to …

Lindenwood Digest, May 20, 2026, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

Event & Date: The Lindenwood University Employee Digest was published on May 20, 2026.

Geographic Grounding: The events and programs originate from Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri.

Key Honorees/Awards: Web Strategy and Development Manager Jason Waack was recognized for enhancing the digital commencement program; Communications Operations Specialist Crystal Carter was commended for optimizing the Honors Academy recruitment invitation email sent to students with a 3.5 GPA or higher; Public Safety and Security Officer April Johnson was thanked for roadside assistance.

Approval Motivations In Sharing Humorous Tiktok's, Mariam Al-Areedy

InnovateHER Meeting 2026

TikTok is a short-form video platform where users create and share content that is often centered around humor, trends, and everyday social experiences. In face-to-face interactions, people typically rely on immediate feedback to navigate conversations, often using approval seeking behaviors to gain positive reactions and rejection-avoidant behaviors to reduce the risk of negative judgement. While these motivations are well-established in in-person settings, less is known about how they function in digital environments like TikTok, where teens privately share humorous content without immediate social cues to guide their interactions. My general hypothesis was that both rejection avoidance and approval-seeking behaviors will …

War Photography & The Limits Of Empathy, Andrea Shi

Student Theses and Dissertations

The proliferation of photography, particularly war and poverty photography, has had massive implications for the level of vividness with which Americans are able to picture suffering beyond their doors. The mass atrocities that have occurred since the advent of photography – that is to say, the last 200 years – are so relentlessly circulated that they feel, sometimes, as an inevitable byproduct of human nature. It’s not surprising, then, that a lot of media theory and analysis reduce the dilemma of atrocity photographs to a psychological level. Do they numb us, or do they incite empathy? Are they a call …

Lindenwood Digest, May 13, 2026, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

• Event & Date: The St. Charles County Executive Debate on June 2, 2026; the 2026 Assessment Summit on May 14, 2026; and the Seeing the Unseen session on May 18, 2026. 

• Geographic Grounding: J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts and the Lindenwood Learning Academy (LARC), Lindenwood University, St. Charles, Missouri. 

• Key Honorees/Awards: Candidates Steve Ehlmann, Bill Eigel, and Jason Law; Assistant Registrar Julie Owens; Academic Service Representative Alexander Otto; Director Teresa Cole; Staff Admin Coach Brittany Brown. 

• Institutional Context: The Lindenwood University Employee Digest for May 13, 2026, details a modified summer distribution schedule and facilitates university-wide review of the …

  ---

  Go to article

Resilience In Recreation: Stories Of A Changing Climate, Casey L. Auberle

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

As the impacts of climate change become increasingly prevalent, the outdoor activities that bond us to our local communities and environments are under threat. In Missoula, MT, drought, rising temperatures, and wildfire smoke change what it means to fish, ski, run, and recreate in our town. In a series of Q&A style podcasts, environmental philosophy graduate student Casey Auberle creates a platform to share stories of a changing climate through the lens of local recreators and climate activists. Capturing these voices invites us to consider our relationship with nature on both an individual and communal scale, to find unity in …

The Data Driven Body, Kimberlyn P. Konen

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper examines how wearable fitness technologies function as persuasive digital tools that shape cultural understandings of health. Through a qualitative rhetorical analysis of popular devices such as Fitbit, Apple Watch, Garmin, and WHOOP, the study explores how interface design, data visualizations, notifications, and marketing materials communicate implicit messages about wellness. Rather than acting as neutral measurement tools, fitness trackers promote specific values, including quantification, discipline, optimization, and self-surveillance. Findings reveal that these devices define health through numerical metrics, encourage consistent productivity, frame wellness as competitive performance, and use emotional feedback to reinforce success or failure. Additionally, marketing imagery promotes …