Communication Commons^™

Perceptions Of Communication With Gay And Lesbian Family Members: Predictors Of Relational Satisfaction And Implications For Outgroup Attitudes, Jordan Soliz, Elizabeth Ribarsky, Meredith Marko Harrigan, Stacy Tye-Williams

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study investigates perceptions of family communication among members with different sexual identities. Specifically, from the perspective of heterosexual family members (N = 129), the study takes an intergroup perspective to determine how accommodative and non-accommodative communication and attitudes toward homosexuality predict intergroup anxiety and relational satisfaction with gay or lesbian family members. Further, the manner in which family communication influences attitudes toward homosexuality is examined. Results are discussed in terms of implications for research on heterosexual-homosexual interaction, family communication, and intergroup communication, in general.

Ruang-Ruang Sosial Pekerja Ekonomi Bawah Tanah (Underground Economy), Erna Ermawati Chotim

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

No abstract provided.

Dialectic Tensions Experienced By Resettled Sudanese Refugees In Mediating Organizations, Sarah Steimel

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

An increasing number of global migrants are refugees who have fled religious, racial, ethnic, or other political persecution. As these refugee populations have grown, governmental and nonprofit organizations have emerged to help mediate the resettlement experience. The current study explores the dialectical tensions Sudanese refugees face in communicating with the organizations designed to make their resettlement successful. Sudanese refugees participated in semistructured interviews about their experiences communicating with mediating organizations. Four dialectical tensions emerged from participants’ stories about their communication in and with mediating organizations: (a) dissemination and dialogue, (b) emancipation and control, (c) empowerment and oppression, and (d) integration …

Discursive Struggles In Families Formed Through Visible Adoption: An Exploration Of Dialectical Unity, Meredith Marko Harrigan, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Grounded in the interpretive paradigm and framed by relational dialectics theory, the present study addressed the question: What discourses interpenetrate to reflect dialectical unity as parents communicate about their child’s adoption? Interviews with 40 parents across 31 visibly adoptive families—families with an obvious lack of biological connection—highlighted four instances of dialectical unity resulting from the following discursive struggles: (a) pride and imperfection; (b) love, constraint, and sacrifice; (c) difference, pride, and enrichment; and (d) legitimacy, expansion, similarity, and difference. Each struggle contains seemingly disparate discourses that, in combination, contribute to how parents discursively make sense of adoption. Practical implications of …

Putting Privilege Into Practice Through "Intersectional Reflexivity:" Ruminations, Interventions, And Possibilities, Richard Jones

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

Engaging in intersectional reflexivity requires one to acknowledge one :S intersecting identities, both marginalized and privileged, and then employ self-reflexivity, which moves one beyond self-reflection to the often uncomfortable level of self-implication. This complex process may move critically minded people, both scholars and citizens, beyond individualized politics and expand our accountability from self, to others and self, creating possibilities for coalitional activism targeted toward broad-based social change. Further, privileged scholars should advocate for coalition building in cautious and reflexive ways that complement rather than appropriate the intellectual labor of scholars of color, who have long called for more intersectionality and …

Putting Privilege Into Practice Through "Intersectional Reflexivity:" Ruminations, Interventions, And Possibilities, Richard G. Jones

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

Engaging in intersectional reflexivity requires one to acknowledge one :S intersecting identities, both marginalized and privileged, and then employ self-reflexivity, which moves one beyond self-reflection to the often uncomfortable level of self-implication. This complex process may move critically minded people, both scholars and citizens, beyond individualized politics and expand our accountability from self, to others and self, creating possibilities for coalitional activism targeted toward broad-based social change. Further, privileged scholars should advocate for coalition building in cautious and reflexive ways that complement rather than appropriate the intellectual labor of scholars of color, who have long called for more intersectionality and …

Constructing Family: A Typology Of Voluntary Kin, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Betsy Wackernagel Bach, Leslie A. Baxter, Rebecca Diverniero, Joshua R. Hammonds, Angela M. Hosek, Erin K. Willer, Bianca M. Wolf

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study explored how participants discursively rendered voluntary kin relationships sensical and legitimate. Interpretive analyses of 110 interviews revealed four main types of voluntary kin: (i) substitute family, (ii) supplemental family, (iii) convenience family, and (iv) extended family. These types were rendered sensical and legitimated by drawing on the discourse of the traditional family. Except for the extended family, three of four voluntary kin family types were justified by an attributed deficit in the blood and legal family. Because voluntary kin relationships are not based on the traditional criteria of association by blood or law, members experience them as potentially …

Homophobia, Heterosexism, And Ambivalence In The Premier Issue Of Sports Illustrated Woman/Sport, Lisa M. Weidman

Faculty Publications

The arrival of a magazine dedicated solely to the world of women's sports was an exciting prospect for fans and proponents of women's sports. But the first issue of Sports Illustrated Women/Sport disappointed many who considered it did not put women's sports in the best possible light, who were worried and disappointed that its editors did not print the best stories or even focus on the most deserving athletes. Lisa Weidman decided to investigate further, using feminist theory and prior research findings to better understand the magazine's messages. Through a critical analysis of the magazine's editorial content - at the …

Challenging The Lion In Its Den: Dilemmas Of Gender And Media Activism In South Africa, Margaretha Geertsema-Sligh

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Media activism groups work to bring about change in the mainstream media, but their gains are often limited. Drawing on theories of the political function of news in a democracy, media sociology, and feminism, this article focuses on the specific experience of Gender Links, a Southern African gender and media organization founded in 2001. An analysis of institutional materials and 25 in-depth interviews shows that Gender Links is using a professional-technical approach to feminist media activism that is insufficient in bringing about deep and long-term change on an ideological level. It is suggested that Gender Links could benefit from more …

Intercultural Competence For The Nutrition Professional, Cynthia S. Klement

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Diversity training for nutrition care professionals is essential in order to provide patients with culture-specific strategies that allow them to succeed with their health program. Nutritionists are faced with the challenge of understanding the dietary preferences of their cross-cultural patients, as well as appreciating a patient's religious beliefs regarding dietary selections by identify foods that will or won't support a prescribed nutritional program. Knowledge of intercultural nonverbal and verbal behaviors is becoming increasingly necessary, as is who ultimately makes medical decisions for the patient.

Exploring The Media's Negative Effects On Body Dissatisfaction And Self Esteem Among Adolescent Girls, Aliscia Doriety

All Capstone Projects

Research has suggested that adolescent girls may be influenced by the media to such a degree that their body image and dissatisfaction tends to increase, as exposure to media increases. In the current study, 75 adolescent girls completed a questionnaire evaluating self-esteem and body image to determine if there were other factors that related to the media's overwhelmingly strong influence. The study concluded that there was a positive correlation between other variables such as, family, which had a stronger influence than media.

Democratic Or Gendered Domain: Communication And Learning Styles In The Online Classroom, Jennifer Ann Bruns

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) within cyberspace has become a recent pedagogical phenomenon. Cyberspace creates a domain for new learning environments. Using the online classroom has the potential to break down gender barriers and erect a more democratic space for students. Even with this limitless potential, there are competing conceptions regarding these new and promising classrooms--will online education conform to the same standards that shape a gendered society, or will these classrooms create a more equitable environment for both male and female students? Because of the rising numbers of online female students, gender bias becomes an increasingly important research topic. Yet the …

Gloria E. Anzaldúa’S Decolonizing Ritual De Conocimiento, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s work makes up one of the many Chican@ works that contribute another history, a history repressed by the national discourses on both sides of the border. Influenced by antecedents of U.S. Hispanic Literature who superposed “official” history with another history, Chicano activists had already enacted a retrieval of pre-conquest histories to revive their people’s historical consciousness. As Saldívar-Hull states in “Mestiza Consciousness and Politics: Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/ La frontera,” the publication of Borderlands/ La Frontera distinguished itself from the Chicano movement’s as it unveiled the curtain that hid the Aztec goddesses and kept aspects of pre-conquest history …

Films And Tv: Viewing Patterns And Influence On Behaviours Of College Students, Akhila Vasan

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This report, the result of a project undertaken as part of the Health and Population Innovation Fellowship administered by the Population Council, presents findings about the influence of films and television, as well as that of friends and the family, on the behaviors of college students in south Karnataka, India. This report adds to the growing body of evidence, particularly in India, of the importance of films and TV in young people’s lives. Apart from indicating media consumption patterns, the study also indicates the possible pathways in which ideas from films are translated or not translated into action. As a …

Film Review: Masculinity & Interracial Intimacy In 'Star Trek' And 'Gran Torino', Adrienne D. Davis

Scholarship@WashULaw

Race has long been a central object of political reflection. The salience of racial difference remains hotly debated, figuring in both “utopian” and “dystopian” visions of America’s political future. If race is a primary configuration of “difference” and inequality in the nation, then intimacy between the races is often construed as either a bellwether of equality and political utopia or a re-inscribing of political dominance, typically represented as sexual predation by men against women. Quite expectedly, these political fantasies and fears are often played out at the multiplex, and we can see them in stark relief in two recent films …

Perang Melawan Kemiskinan, Paulus Wirutomo

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

No abstract provided.

Refugees As People: The Portrayal Of Refugees In American Human Interest Stories, Sarah Steimel

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study combines discourse analysis and narrative analysis (Yin 2007) to examine top US newspapers’ coverage of refugees in American human interest stories. I find that the refugees are presented (a) as prior victims; (b) as in search of the American Dream; and (c) as unable to achieve the American Dream. As human-interest features, the stories provide a largely positive portrayal of individual refugees and their families. However, the human interest stories also depict refugees as current victims of the American economic crisis; deeply frustrated by their inability to achieve the American Dream. Together these discourses represent a narrative of …

Exploring Links Between Well-Being And Interactional Sense-Making In Married Couples’ Jointly Told Stories Of Stress, Jody Koenig Kellas, April R. Trees, Paul Schrodt, Cassandra Leclair-Underberg, Erin K. Willer

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Narrative theorizing suggests that narrating stress, difficulty, or trauma can be beneficial for improved mental health, yet extant research tends to consider narrating stress as an individual or psychological construct. However, in close relationships, people often experience shared stressors and jointly tell their shared stories of difficulty to others. Thus, joint storytelling processes likely also relate to individual health. We tested this expectation using a series of actor-partner interdependence models and path analyses in a study that included 68 couples’ video-recorded joint storytelling interactions. Findings primarily indicate relationships between husbands’, wives’, and couples’ storytelling behaviors and husbands’ mental health. Generally …

Face Needs, Intragroup Status, And Women’S Reactions To Socially Aggressive Face Threats, Erin K. Willer, Jordan Soliz

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Given the potential negative consequences of being a recipient of such behavior, the role of positive face needs, intragroup status, and the face-threatening nature of social aggression in predicting cor-relates of negative affect experienced as a result of being a target of SAFTs, including the face threat of the response, forgiveness, and well-being was investigated. On the basis of the survey responses from 199 college-aged women, findings indicated that targets’ positive face needs and intragroup status are directly and indirectly associated with forgiveness and overall well-being. Implications for these findings in relation to theorizing about face and intragroup identity as …

A Study Of Japanese Women Today: Changing Gender Roles And Attitudes Toward Marriage, Shiho Hosokawa

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Japanese women and men are getting married later in life than before and the number of Japanese choosing to live a single person's lifestyle has increased since the 1980's. In the 1970's, the number of women working outside the home was lower than now and most of those who did work, did so only to supplement their husband's income. Today, many Japanese women obtain college degrees and have a paid job, the same as men do. Yet, based on my personal experience and those of others I know, Japanese women often remain the primary caretakers in the home. They are …

Empty Ritual: Young-Adult Stepchildren’S Perceptions Of The Remarriage Ceremony, Leslie A. Baxter, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Jody Koenig Kellas, Cassandra Leclair-Underberg, Emily Lamb Normand, Tracy Routsong, Matthew Thatcher

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This qualitative study investigated 80 young-adult stepchildren’s talk about one of their parents’ remarriage ceremony. The remarriage event was celebrated in six types of ritual enactments, five of which celebrated the couple’s marriage and one of which was family-centered in its celebration of the beginning of the new stepfamily. Three factors led stepchildren to find the remarriage ceremony empty: (i) a ritual form that was too traditional or not traditional enough; (ii) a ritual enactment that failed to pay homage to either the stepchild’s family of origin or the stepfamily as a unit; and (iii) a ritual enactment that failed …

Welcome Wednesday Event Blurb For The Website ‏ 2009, Joseph A. Santiago, Eva Jones, Morgan Cottrell, Andrew Winters

Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Center

Welcome Wednesday Event Blurb for the Website 2009; Welcome Wednesday: "Trans"itioning into College; The change from high school to college can be a difficult one for any person and there can be added stress for members of the Transgender community. As Transgender Day of Remembrance approaches on November 20th, this Welcome Wednesday discussion will address issues of invisibility, healthcare, housing, as well as others that the Transgender community faces in college; more specifically, at URI. Representatives of Rhode Island's Transgender Community will be able to shed light on some issues, answer questions, and share some experiences.; *PLEASE NOTE A CHANGE …

Communicative Correlates Of Satisfaction, Family Identity, And Group Salience In Multiracial/Ethnic Families, Jordan Soliz, Allison R. Thorson, Christine E. Rittenour

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Guided by the Common Ingroup Identity Model (S. L. Gaertner & J. F. Dovidio, 2000) and Communication Accommodation Theory (C. Shepard, H. Giles, & B. A. LePoire, 2001), we examined the role of identity accommodation, supportive communication, and self-disclosure in predicting relational satisfaction, shared family identity, and group salience in multiracial/ ethnic families. Additionally, we analyzed the association between group salience and relational outcomes as well as the moderating roles of multiracial/ethnic identity and marital status. Individuals who have parents from different racial/ethnic groups were invited to complete questionnaires on their family experiences. Participants (N = 139) answered questions about …

Creating And Responding To The Gen(D)Eralized Other: Women Miners’ Community-Constructed Identities, Kristen Lucas, Sarah J. Steimel

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

An analysis of interviews with mining families reveals that gender identity construction is a collaborative process that draws upon broader community discourses. Male miners and non-mining women created a generalized other for women as "unfit to mine" (i.e., women are physically too weak to mine, are easy prey, and are ladies who do not belong in the mines). Female miners responded with gendered discourses that distanced themselves from and linked themselves to the generalized other.

Using The 2008 Presidential Election To Think About “Playing The Race Card”, Ronald Lee, Aysel Morin

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Bill Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro were accused of “playing the race card” during the 2008 contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. This essay explores the different forms race cards may assume and the dangers each poses to the public dialogue. Moving away from the traditional focus on persuasive effects, the Clinton and Ferraro utterances are analyzed as argumentative discourses. Then, critical standards are promulgated for evaluating their reasonableness.

A Cross-Cultural Study Of Intergenerational Communication In Workplace, Yan Guan

Dissertations

This study investigates intergenerational relationships in organizational settings and uses Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) to examine the influence of age, power, culture, and self-construal on young workers' perceptions of intergenerational communication. According to CAT, communication is stereotypical due to outgroup bias, people favor their own age or power group more than other age or power groups. CAT research showed that young Asians' perceptions of intergenerational communication may be more negative than their Western counterparts. Self-construal was studied to understand the nature of culture's influence. Research and theory supported nine hypotheses and three research questions.

A study using self-report measure was …

Investigating Connections: Pornography And Violence Against Women, Stacy Gorman

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

This thesis is a content analysis of internet pornography websites. Using the most popularly searched adult search terms, Google searches were performed in order to replicate the pornographic website search of an internet pornography user. Videos were then selected and viewed on each site in order to identify themes of domination, exploitation, reciprocity, and autoeroticism. Also coded for were each sex act performed in the video as well as the number of performers, their race and sex. Key words describing each video were recorded in addition to user comments about the videos when available.

The goal of this study was …

Is Disney Surfing The Third Wave? A Study Of The Pervasiveness Of The Third Wave Of Feminism In Disney's Female Protagonists, Emily S. Ellington

Senior Honors Theses

It is important to understand factors that have influenced Generation Y’s view of womanhood. One way to do this is to analyze third wave feminist messages portrayed by Disney, the media powerhouse. In order to determine if Disney reflects feminist values, the third wave themes portrayed in The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Pocahontas (1995), and Mulan (1999) are examined. It is concluded that Disney portrays the feminist values of independence and multiculturalism; however, the films are set within patriarchal societies and portray women to be domestic. Ultimately, Disney portrays four messages about womanhood: Women are equal …

Gender Advertisements: Replication Of A Classic Work Examining Women, Magazines, And Facebook Photographs, Erica Lawton

Honors Projects in Communication

In 1979, Erving Goffman published Gender Advertisements, the seminal work in critiquing gender displays in advertising. Goffman noted seven major phenomena that demonstrated the cultural infantilization of women and their ritualized subordination in advertisements. This study, conducted in Goffman’s phenomenological tradition, investigates modern commercial advertisements to update Goffman’s work and determine the presence of a new phenomenon, the mechanization of women. Advertisements were collected and studied based on Goffman’s five coding categories: relative size, feminine touch, function ranking, ritualization of subordination, and licensed withdrawal. In addition, Facebook photographs were analyzed based on the same coding categories to find whether women …

Women’S Rhetorical Agency In The American West: The New Penelope, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay theorizes women’s rhetorical agency in the nineteenth-century American West. Contrast between fluid gender norms in frontier life and the Cult of True Womanhood highlights how agency is confined by materiality. Agency is the capacity to recognize and act in moments when material structures are vulnerable to resignification. I offer an analysis of Frances Fuller Victor’s novella The New Penelope to demonstrate how pioneer women writers reinvented womanhood in light of socioeconomic changes.