Communication Commons^™

Aquí Y Ahora: The Role Of Us Spanish-Language Tv News In Financial Vulnerability, Cintya Felix

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

In today’s world, the news we watch often does more than inform us; it can shape how secure or insecure we feel about our future. In this paper, I examine the extent to which an individual’s consumption of particular Spanish-speaking TV news channels contribute to their sense of financial vulnerability. Using an original data set of responses to the questions in the American National Election Studies (ANES), I find a moderately strong relationship between the television news channel Aquí y Ahora, and the degree to which they are worried about their financial situation. While it is true that various factors …

The Role Of Media Literacy In Understanding Ideological Bias In News Coverage Of Texas Ag Ken Paxton's Lawsuit Against Annunciation House, Sybonae Acosta Castillo

Honors Program Theses and Research Projects

In an era of rapidly evolving news media, understanding how information is framed and spread has become a critical skill for navigating today’s complex social and political landscapes. Media literacy allows people to critically evaluate news substance, discern bias, and acknowledge the influence of language on public perception. This research examines how Texas’s six leading news outlets (Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, San Antonio Express-News, Austin American-Statesman, Everything Lubbock, El Paso Times, and the Tyler Morning Telegraph) reported on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s recent lawsuit against Annunciation House, an …

Picking Corn, Aaron Sanderford

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses

Nebraska’s shifting media landscape, marked by the decline of newspapers and traditional broadcast viewership, has created an opportunity for innovative, local storytelling. My professional project, Picking Corn, is a podcast that gives voice to Nebraska’s political conversations, focusing on in-depth, long-form interviews with key political figures. Inspired by successful models like The New York Times Daily and NPR Politics Pod, this podcast aims to engage audiences by prioritizing thoughtful questions and meaningful dialogue.

In its first year, Picking Corn reached over 3,300 listeners across platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. The podcast achieved a 72% episode completion rate—far exceeding …

Harvesting Hope: How La Casa De La Cultura Serves Migrant Families Through Health And Advocacy Programs, Ana Ruiz

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This project aims to enhance community engagement in Pajaro through strategic outreach and marketing efforts for weekly meetings hosted at La Casa de la Cultura. By increasing awareness and participation, the initiative seeks to empower residents, especially those from marginalized backgrounds, to access vital resources and services. The project will collect data on attendance and community interests, leading to more tailored presentations that address pressing concerns. Ultimately, this outreach aims to foster a unified, informed community capable of advocating for its needs and accessing available support systems effectively.

Perceived Support For Climate Policy In Australia: The Asymmetrical Influence Of Voting Behaviour, Zoe Leviston, Samantha K. Stanley, Iain Walker

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

A comprehensive policy response from wealthy nations is a necessary step to limiting catastrophic climate change. Community attitudes toward policy, and polarisation along political lines, may threaten this response. Using two representative cross-sectional survey studies of Australian voters (N = 2013; N = 3834), we test levels of support for a range of climate policies, levels of partisan polarisation, and whether people misperceive support among other partisans (false polarisation). Importantly, we investigate how perceptions differ across voting groups spanning left-wing, centre-left-wing, centre-right-wing, and right-wing voting orientations. In Study 1, we find support for climate policy across the political spectrum. However, …

Society Doesn’T Owe You Anything: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas & Video Games As Speculative Fiction, Marc A. Ouellette

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Since Donald Trump’s election in 2016, popular and scholarly commentators have been looking for speculative and/or dystopic literary works that might provide analogues for the Trump-era. Perhaps the most famous of these was the renewed popularity of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. In this regard, though, video games remain an underexplored fictional form. With its exaggerated and parodic satire of an America ruled by the corruption and greed of extreme right-wing populism, Grand Theft Auto (GTA): San Andreas (2004) offers a speculative fiction that players can enact as well as imagine, and simulate as well as prepare. …

Pop Culture And Politics: Engaging Students In American Government Through Art, Music, And Film, Laura Merrifield Wilson

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Strategically and thoughtfully employing popular culture in teaching political science can enable students to better understand, analyze, and relate to the material. In a discipline that can be viewed by students as too boring, too distant, and too polarizing, the use of relevant music, TV/film clips, toys, memes, and other popular culture artifacts can engage otherwise unengaged students in a meaningful way. This paper argues that using popular culture in teaching political science can demonstrate relevance, serve as a generational translator, expose the bias of experience, and enable an expression of self. In demonstrating relevance, popular culture makes material fresh …

D&D Beyond Bikini-Mail: Having Women At The Table, Daniel Carlson

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Dungeons and Dragons represents a space that is often treated as an echo chamber for young (usually white) men to act out fantasies of power and control, which makes up for their inability to perform such actions in the real world. Using the work of Sherry Turkle and Michelle Dickey, I posit that this game is a nuanced location acting as a safe space for people to act out different aspects of their identity or life experiences in a low-risk environment enhanced by the connections made between the players and their characters. In this work, I have utililzed feminist frames …

Hell You Talmbout: Mixtapes As Method For Online Environmental Justice Pedagogy, Elspeth Iralu, Caitlin Grann

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This paper takes on the mixtape as a pedagogical method for approaching urgent and critical topics within the undergraduate online classroom. Drawing on two case studies from different sections of an introductory course on environmental and social justice taught in an American studies department, we demonstrate how mixtape-inspired assignments offer a method for theorizing and enacting the connections between popular culture and critical scholarship around injustice in the humanities and social sciences while also altering the space of the classroom to promote deeper student engagement, comprehension, and reflection. We argue that introducing popular culture as both content and method within …

Sexual Harassment Effects On Bodies Of Work: Engaging Students Through The Application Of Historical Context And Communication Theory To Pop Culture And Social Media, Bryan Vizzini, Kristina Drumheller

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Rarely do professors have the opportunity to branch out and create a course that is literally shaped by the day’s news. The mediated unveiling of sexual predators in the summer of 2018 provided an opportunity to teach an honors seminar that wrote itself over the course of five weeks. Professors from the communication and history disciplines drew on theory commonly used in the communication discipline and used historical readings to frame a discussion of popular culture and its relation to current events. Each week, a film was incorporated for discussion and student projects were drawn from examples of popular culture, …

The “Hate Wall” Project To Eradicate And Dismantle Discrimination In Higher Education: Lessons Learned From The Well-Intended Initiative Gone Awry!, Bahaudin G. Mujtaba

Learning and Educational Center Virtual Teaching and Learning Conference

Deeply rooted prejudices and hatred of others based on people’s ethnic backgrounds, disabilities, or religious affiliations are realities of every society. To allow students, faculty, and staff on campus to de-stress by metaphorically destroying experienced hate, the Diversity Student Council of Nova Southeastern University built a “Hate Wall” so everyone can write negative biases they have heard to then dismantle it physically and symbolically. During the day, people wrote comments on the wall, and some were antisemitic regarding the Jewish community. Within a few hours, it turned into a publicity failure while deeply stressing many.

This case study discusses what …

Echoes Of Exiled Journalists From Africa: Motivation, Resilience, Values And Innovation Of Global Journalism, Gregory Gondwe, Elodie Viale

Communication Studies Faculty Publications

This study examines the motivations, resilience and innovative contributions of

exiled journalists from sub-Saharan Africa, focusing on those from the Democratic

Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

It categorises these journalists into voluntary exiles, who leave due to a commitment

to journalistic integrity and dissatisfaction with censorship and corruption,

and involuntary exiles, who flee threats, violence or imprisonment linked to their

investigative work. Through in-depth interviews with 32 exiled journalists, the study

explores their adaptation strategies in host countries, their persistent motivations

despite significant challenges and their use of new communication technologies and

online platforms …

From The Vertical To The Horizontal: Introducing Mikhail Epstein’S Transculture To Perplexed Educators, Sheldon S. Kohn

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

A shift in focus from supporting or opposing vertical, grand narratives to the horizontal, the ordinary and the everyday, can lead educators to transformative developments. Educators find themselves in a false dichotomy of being restricted to supporting or opposing competing vertical utopian visions of education. Mikhail Epstein’s ideas about transculture can help perplexed educators make a shift from the vertical to the horizontal, focusing their praxis and pedagogy on the ordinary and the everyday, including objects and artifacts of popular culture. In a radical move, Epstein argues that commodification represents resistance to totalitarian controls and impulses; he urges educators to …

Survivor Skills: Authenticity, Representation And Why I Want To Teach Reality Tv, May Friedman

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

This paper will consider the pedagogical potential in constructing a class on the phenomenon of reality television by exploring the possibilities and pitfalls of a shared viewing of these “texts” as a site of critical engagement with popular culture. A course on reality TV would require a deep analysis of the topics of representation, authenticity, and audience reactions. The course I would like to teach would also consider the ways that reality TV is simultaneously emblematic of, and contributes to, the foregrounding of neoliberal discourses. This paper addresses some of the pedagogical implications of an analysis of reality TV by …

Euphemism In Ai Discourse As Colonial Harm & Effect: Learnings From Subaltern Puerto Rico, Jacqueline Oquendo

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Through three integrated studies, this dissertation explores complex human-AI interactions by comparing the perceptions of two groups of U.S. citizens: subaltern Puerto Ricans and stateside Americans’ interactions with ChatGPT. This corpus-assisted Critical Discourse Analysis or CLCDA, triangulated with 1:1 semi-structured interviews, validates scholars’ concerns about the biases inherent in generative AI. Contributing to those concerns, this dissertation reveals that ChatGPT deploys discourse strategies that, when executed, facilitate digital colonialism. Euphemistic language is prominent among its discourse strategies, replacing controversial words, phrases, and topics with more palatable ones. When prompted on events of historical significance, I find that ChatGPT’s discourse obscures …

Digital, Social Micro-Interventions To Promote Physical Activity Among Midlife Adults With Elevated Cardiovascular Risk: An Ambulatory Feasibility Study With Momentary Randomization., Danielle Arigo, Leah M Schumacher, Kiri Baga, Jacqueline A Mogle

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

BACKGROUND: Although regular physical activity (PA) mitigates the risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) during midlife, existing PA interventions are minimally effective. Harnessing social influences in daily life shows promise: digital micro-interventions could effectively engage these influences on PA and require testing.

PURPOSE: This feasibility study employed ecological momentary assessment with embedded micro-randomization to activate two types of social influences (i.e., comparison, support; NCT04711512).

METHODS: Midlife adults (N = 30, MAge = 51, MBMI = 31.5 kg/m2, 43% racial/ethnic minority) with ≥1 CVD risk conditions completed four mobile surveys per day for 7 days while wearing PA monitors. After 3 days …

Hub Brief: Spamouflage Targeting Of U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, Darren Linvill, Patrick Warren

Media Forensics Hub Reports

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) campaign known as Spamouflage Dragon has targeted sitting U.S. Senator Maroc Rubio with an ongoing disinformation campaign. Attacks on Senator Rubio began in 2022 during his reelection campaign, apparently paused for nearly two years, but began again in September 2024 though at a much lower rate. This report will briefly outline the changing tactics Spamouflage has employed in their work against Senator Rubio.

The Psychological Impacts Of Algorithmic And Ai-Driven Social Media On Teenagers: A Call To Action, Sunil Arora, Sahil Arora, John Hastings

Research & Publications

This study investigates the meta-issues surrounding social media, which, while theoretically designed to enhance social interactions and improve our social lives by facilitating the sharing of personal experiences and life events, often results in adverse psychological impacts. Our investigation reveals a paradoxical outcome: rather than fostering closer relationships and improving social lives, the algorithms and structures that underlie social media platforms inadvertently contribute to a profound psychological impact on individuals, influencing them in unforeseen ways. This phenomenon is particularly pronounced among teenagers, who are disproportionately affected by curated online personas, peer pressure to present a perfect digital image, and the …

The Digital Battlefield: Extremists On Social Media, Daniel P. Shanks

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The rise of social media has transformed the battleground for extremist groups like ISIS and the Taliban, enabling them to reach global audiences with unprecedented ease. This dissertation investigates the social media strategies employed by the Taliban and ISIS. These social media strategies are used to further their strategic objectives in propaganda, recruitment, and operational coordination. Through a comprehensive analysis, the study explores how these extremist groups adapt their digital tactics in response to evolving military and political landscapes. Utilizing case studies from key military engagements and applying theoretical frameworks of rational actor theory, social identity theory, and finite and …

Digital Yard Signs: Analysis Of An Ai Bot Political Influence Campaign On X, Darren Linvill, Patrick Warren

Media Forensics Hub Reports

This report details an ongoing social media influence campaign employing AI powered bots to influence political conversations in U.S. federal elections. This inauthentic network includes at least 686 accounts, and likely more. The campaign uses large language models to create organic seeming content in the replies of real users’ posts. Taking on conservative persona and perspectives, this campaign has targeted both Republican candidates (in primaries) and Democrats (in generals) in addition to advocating for specific issues. This report explores the network’s messaging, operations, and implications.

Considering Ai For The Classroom To Boost Civic Learning And Democratic Engagement, Joseph P. Zompetti, Lance R. Lippert, Stephen K. Hunt

eJournal of Public Affairs

Artificial Intelligence (AI) poses significant risks to society generally and higher education specifically. However, it offers potential benefits in terms of students’ civic learning and democratic engagement. By equipping students with the skills to use AI for the common good and fostering their awareness of the potential dangers of AI, we can bolster democracy. In this article, we explore the status quo along with expectations and near-term predictions for AI. Next, we explore some of the most significant and common concerns related to AI. Finally, we draw upon a variety of resources, identify “best practices,” analyze the strengths and weaknesses …

Social Media Influencers' Impact On Consumer Purchasing Decisions, Kennedi O. Kutz, Kiara Espinal, Erin Flynn, Julia Cheney

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

The study entails how social media usage and parasocial relationships with social media influencers impact the audience’s purchases as a consumer. The survey covers a wide range of questions discussing the different social media platforms, how often they engage on them, and how often they click and engage with advertisements and influencers. It also covered questions that collected the participants' demographics to better understand which groups are more likely to be influenced by advertisements and influencers. We have found that younger audiences are more likely to have their consumer purchases influenced by social media advertisements and influencers than older audiences. …

From Tweets To Streets: How Kenya's Generation Z (Gen Z) Is Redefining Political And Digital Activism, Hossana Twinomurinzi

African Conference on Information Systems and Technology

This paper examines how Kenya's Generation Z (Gen Z) used digital technologies and platforms in a leaderless political and digital activism against the 2024 Finance Bill. Using post-digital theory and critical realism as analytical lenses, the paper examines how the embedded digital technologies and platforms were used for mass grassroots mobilisation. The paper adopted both qualitative content analysis with quantitative data scraping from social media and online news sources to reveal the main trigger as the deep economic grievances, which then triggered a demand for government accountability. The analysis also revealed how digital platforms (mainly X and Facebook) played a …

An Extremely Important Document: Khea's Struggle For A Contract, 1974-1978, John L.S. Daley Dr

KNEA 50th Anniversary

In 1973, the Kansas State College, Pittsburg administration fired thirteen faculty members without cause. In order to improve administration-faculty relations, remaining faculty organized, petitioned for recognition, and drafted PSU/KNEA's first contract with PSU/KBOR, which went into effect five years later. The narrative covering this period draws on Axe Library's KNEA Collection and interviews of former faculty.

Disaster Reporting In Indonesian National Online Media: Agenda Setting And Sentiment Analysis, Erwin Rasyid, Erni Saharuddin, Zahro Varisna Rohmadani

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

In the context of disasters, the mass media is one of the main sources of information for the community. Mass media, as a communication channel, can be utilized as a disaster management system to mitigate the impact of disaster risk. However, disaster events are often treated as commodities by the mass media to attract audience attention. This study analyzes the agenda-setting and sentiment of disaster news coverage by national online media in Indonesia. It uses the Agenda-Setting Theory of McCombs and Shaw to explore how media agenda-setting relates to disaster issues. This research employs a descriptive quantitative approach using sentiment …

Hierarchy Of Influence On The Implementation Of Search Engine Optimization In The Tribun-Bali.Com Newsroom, Oktava Anggara, Ni Made Ras Amanda Gelgel, Ni Luh Ramaswati Purnawan

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

Technological disruption has driven changes in the media and journalism industry, affecting the workflow in the newsroom. One emerging practice in the newsroom is the application of search engine optimization (SEO). This practice raises concerns about editorial decisions being directed toward topics that are "popular and easily clickable". Tribun-Bali.com is one of the biggest news portals in Bali that implements SEO. This study aims to depict the hierarchy of influences on the implementation of SEO in the Tribun-Bali.com newsroom. It is a qualitative descriptive study that employs interview methods with key informants. Utilizing the hierarchy of influences theory proposed by …

Representation Of Lgbtq Identity On Social Media: Multimodality Analysis On Instagram Account @Yayasangayanusantara, Muhammad Fauzi Fitri Andika, Ana Indriastuti, Khoirunnisa Nur Fithria, Pramudya Ardhika Hernanto, Tutik Wijayanti

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

This research examines the representation of LGBTQ identity on Instagram using multimodal content analysis on the @yayasangayanusantara account. Using Muted Theory, this study highlights how LGBTQ identities are formed and presented in social and digital contexts. Instagram was identified as an essential platform for authentic and multidimensional LGBTQ identities by challenging conventional stereotypes and discrimination in traditional media. The research methodology involves qualitative analysis of various forms of content (text, images, and videos). The main focus is how LGBTQ individuals use social media to express themselves, seek support, and build solidarity. The findings show that Instagram is not just a …

Transforming Whatsapp And Zoom Into Religious Space: A Digital Ethnography Of An Online Meditation Community In Indonesia, Wirawan Wirawan, Rudi Sukandar

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

Drawing on an online meditation community mentored by Samanera Abhisarano in Indonesia, this study explores how the members use digital media to engage in religious practices and teachings. The data were collected through multisited digital ethnographic fieldwork conducted from December 2021 to July 2022. During this period, we immersed ourselves in the WhatsApp group and the Zoom virtual room of the community. In addition to participating in their online activities and interviewing five community members remotely, we conducted on-site fieldwork at the temple where the mentor lives and organized a face-to-face in-depth interview with him. Employing Hjarvard’s theory of mediatization …

Implementation Of Violations Of The Ite Law Article 27 Verse (2) Of 2016 Concerning Promotion Of Online Gambling By Influencers In Indonesia, Mohammad Fawaid Pradika, Lukman Taufik Tri Hidayat, Achmad Habib Dwi Prakoso, Aasim Ahmad Khan

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

The 2016 Electronic Information and Transactions Law (UU ITE) which was created by the government to tackle cyber problems has generated a lot of controversy, one of which is the regulation governing online gambling and its promotion in Article 27 verse (2) of the ITE Law. A number of influencers violate these regulations by using social media to promote online gambling, which carries a moral burden of influence in promoting illegal products, to provide good universal service to the community. Furthermore, as someone who has many followers, one influencer also has high public interest which requires, as someone who is …

The Political Economy Of Knowledge: Navigating Scientometric Enthusiasm Amidst Political And Economic Forces Shaping The Production And Dissemination Of Scientific Knowledge, Maria Cernat

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

While we witness heightened enthusiasm in certain peripheral areas of scientific production regarding scientometric standards, there are increasingly pressing issues concerning how the ideal of objective and rational science is being called into question. In this article, I contrast the enthusiasm for the "prestige" of top-tier journals with the increasingly urgent problems related to the lack of independence of researchers and scientific research itself in a world dominated by security institutions and corporations. While many authors rush to blame postmodernists for the lack of trust in science, recent studies in the history of science reveal an increased role of security …