Communication Commons^™

Developing A Conceptual Framework For Research On Social Media And Political Polarization, Audrey C. Sanders

University Honors Theses

Americans in 2020 live in a time of unprecedented political polarization. Scholars often study this trend of increased polarization in conjunction with the use of social media platforms, or social networking sites (SNSs). Despite a nearly twenty-year existence, however, the discourse community surrounding the relationship between SNS use and political polarization has yet to develop past a scattered and largely theoretical body of literature. What follows is a description of the current state of the literature followed by a description of a conceptual framework scholars can use when approaching the field and designing their own research in order to make …

Driving Disruption: Assessing Uber's Corporate Identity In The Battle Over Driver Classification, Benjamin Peterson

Master's Projects and Capstones

This research analyzes the ongoing effort by Uber’s executives to prevent the reclassification of the company’s drivers from independent contractors to employees. Through rhetorical appeals made to customers, regulatory bodies, and drivers themselves, Uber’s executives are attempting to cultivate a corporate identity that portrays the company’s labor practices in a way that adheres to California’s labor laws, namely the “ABC” test for worker classification codified in Assembly Bill 5, while maintaining the company’s ill-gotten reputation as a bastion of Silicon Valley innovation. The success of this posturing hinges on attempts to conflate Uber’s labor practices with equitable social outcomes, publicize …

Religious Nationalism And The Coronavirus Pandemic: Soul-Sucking Evangelicals And Branch Covidians Make America Sick Again, Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

This article investigates the response to the coronavirus crisis by Evangelical Christian nationalists in the USA. The article outlines the curious mediaverse of religious nationalism—its post-truth and fake news aspects in particular—links religious nationalism to American exceptionalism, and analyzes conflicts between secular and religious authorities. Drawing upon some lessons from the past, the article addresses the wider implications of Christian nationalism on American politics, and capitalist ideology, as it has been played out virally in the corporate media. The article shows that the ideological underpinnings of evangelical Christianity prevent its proponents from understanding the virus in an historical and materialist …

Truth And Consequences: With Harvey Weinstein Investigation, Rebecca Corbett Leads As The New York Times Triggers Cultural Change, Gerry Boyle

Colby Magazine

"And then, five months after the Weinstein investigation began, Corbett, her team, and the Times' highest-ranking editors hunched over a computer screen as the button was pushed. The first Weinstein story was published"

Student Research Journal, Volume 10, Issue 1, Student Reseach Journal

School of Information Student Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Hollywood Media And The Model Minority Myth: The Representation Of Asian American Masculinity And Its Effects, Khanhlinh Le

Master's Projects and Capstones

Asian Americans are becoming one of the largest growing minority groups in the United States, almost surpassing the Latinx community. Asian Americans, however, are rarely ever represented in Hollywood films and are limited to stereotypical roles. Asian American actors have a difficult time finding roles playing characters that are three-dimensional and complex. While both Asian American men and women face this challenge, it seems that in Hollywood films and television shows, Asian American males are even less represented than females and are typically portrayed as the quiet nerd, sexy doctor, martial arts expert, or the villain. These media stereotypes impact …

An Outside Gaze On The Relationship Between Indigenous Groups And The Media, Nicole Daoust

Honors Theses

Indigenous groups around the world faced similar challenges. Many of these issues stem from stereotypes, one-sided stories, and overall lack of representation in the media. Without a voice or ally, they are often treated as second class citizens. For my research, I analyzed how the media affected public perception of indigenous people. I specifically focus on four groups: The Aboriginals of Canada, the Māori, Native Americans, and the uncontacted tribes of the Amazon.

Protecting The Image Of A Nation: Jim Crow Propaganda, Kevin Leaven

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This project investigates how the United States Information Agency (USIA) functioned as a propaganda machine on behalf of the United States government at the dawn of the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement. Drawing from literature on propaganda, public relations, and public diplomacy, this thesis connects 20^th century American propaganda to its roots in public relations, communication studies, and psychology.

The Civil Rights movement exposed the cultural inertia of white supremacy in America for the world to see while American foreign policy makers sought to crystallize a cultural hegemony fashioned after American political, cultural, and economic systems. Although …

Book Review: Reluctant Interveners: America’S Failed Responses To Genocide From Bosnia To Darfur, Jeffrey Bachman

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Taking Terrorists At Their Word: Testing The Co-Religionist Hypothesis In Islamic State Propaganda, Joel Elliott

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

This dissertation operates on the idea that, as conflict researchers, we can look to Islamic State’s (referred to from here on as ‘Daesh’) own recruitment propaganda to identify the best people to counter Daesh’s violent rhetoric. This project analyzes Daesh’s main print publication, Dabiq, to catalogue and classify the types of people and institutions Daesh targets most, and which types of arguments Daesh uses to attack those targets. It uses this information to test the Co-Religionist Hypothesis, which predicts that the most effective peaceful interveners in a religious conflict will be of the same religion as the belligerents. Conventional …

Political Public Relations Agenda-Building: A Content Analysis Of The Us 2016 Presidential Campaign Speeches, Tweets And News Stories, Emmanuel Nwachukwu

Dissertations

This study investigated the role of political agenda building of political speech and tweet in the 2016 US presidential elections and the relationships between the campaign messages and the news cycle during the election campaign period. It also used functional theory of political campaign discourse to evaluate the speech and tweets of the presidential candidates. The study utilized content analysis and analyzed 5303 units of speech, tweets, TV (CNN, FOX and NBC news) clips and news stories from New York Times and Washington Post to derive its conclusions.

The result of the study showed how tweets shaped the media agenda …

The Political Preferences Of Arkansas Farmers And Ranchers, Rachel J. Barry

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research was conducted to evaluate where farmers and ranchers find political information and assess their political preferences. By conducting a survey of Arkansas farmers and ranchers we were able to determine that they prefer face to face interaction as a source of information by large margins. They typically consult friends, peers, and extension agents where appropriate. Depending on the type of political information they are seeking (information about candidates as opposed to information about policy topics), they often used other types of information sources such as the internet and broadcast media. We also ascertained that farmers and ranchers have …

The Opaque Operations Of 21st Century Populism, Konnor Callihan

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

In my capstone, I claim that the populism of the 21st century should be considered a political style as elucidated by Benjamin Moffitt. But Moffitis’s understanding of political style does not adequately address how populism morphs through new technological systems, such as algorithms, filter bubbles, echo chambers in our internet devices. This theoretical framework takes necessary elements from past theories and stresses the performance that is vital to populism in our modern media ecosystem. The charismatic leader is no longer necessary, but the "opaque operations"( i.e algorithms, filter bubbles,echo chambers) allow populism to be almost self replicating. These “populist actors” …

The Rise Of The Postmodern Presidency: The Evolution Of Rhetoric And Media Usage In Presidential Election Campaigns, Logan Garrett

Honors Theses

This study characterizes the evolution of rhetoric used in certain presidential campaigns as evidenced through primary and secondary research, including research on the radio electioneering in President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s 1932 campaign, television advertisements and speeches in President Ronald Reagan’s 1984 campaign, and the Twitter usage of President Donald Trump during his 2016 Presidential Campaign and the first year of his presidency. The research focuses on these presidents’ use of each medium to disseminate campaign materials by examining specific word choice, use of visuals or audio, and how these messages translated into behavioral changes in terms of voter turnout. The …

#Dreamcrazy And #Boycottnike: A Content Analysis Of The Twitter Debate, Grace Voll

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

In 2016, NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick knelt for the national anthem in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. A less than two-minute action galvanized a brand-new movement in the United States. Two years after losing his NFL contract, Nike endorsed Kaepernick and produced the controversial “Dream Crazy” advertising campaign. The initial advertisement launched on Twitter, shared first by Kaepernick with the #DreamCrazy hashtag. There was a substantial amount of discussion about this campaign through the hashtags #DreamCrazy and the counter-campaign #BoycottNike on Twitter. This paper presents a content analysis that examines the tone and support of the initial campaign …

Biographical Availability In The Climate Movement, Nicole Cortes

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this study was to understand how social movements against climate change include or engage with the age demographics. This study is a qualitative analysis by observing Monterey and Santa Cruz climate events and interviewing activists from local organizations. The individuals who participated in this study have shared their experience being involved in the climate organizations as well as their perception of the climate movement’s impact. This research has been conducted to theorize and understand how youth climate movement frames the presentation of age and how that compares to the actual capacity of age in the movement. As …

“So, Literally,…Basically,...It’S Like…”: A Study Into The Generational And Sociological Impact Of American Language Culture, Richard Moreno

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Language is unique to the human species. It serves to communicate thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. Within the context of this capstone I outline the theory that language is much more than this. Words can also serve to bond or reject, based on the level of acceptance within social groups towards the speaker. In seeking to discover what effects specific language utterances have on social interaction and the processes involved in developing cohesiveness collective identity in these groups, I found that they do have a definite impact and this is based mainly within generational parameters. Using a mixed method approach of …

Sex, Stress, And The Supreme Court: Verbal And Vocalic Analysis Of Brett Kavanaugh’S Senate Confirmation Hearings To The Supreme Court, Alexandra Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzed the relationship between verbal and nonverbal vocalic communication patterns exhibited by Brett Kavanaugh, now a sitting Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, during his Senate confirmation hearings in 2018. Additionally, the relationship between verbal statement types: attempt to define reality, personal narrative, policy positions, attacks, acclaims, and defenses, and the nonverbal vocalics of sighs, sharp intakes of breath, and sniffs were evaluated together to see which statement types would elicit higher physiological stress responses during both the 16-minute speech given at the end of the Day One hearing and the 45-minute testimony during the sexual assault hearing. …

Allyship As An Act: The Performative, Power-Laden, And Contradictory Co-Cultural Strategies Of Straight Allies, David Dooling

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

While the study of queer communities underscores the importance of responses to heteronormativity, this dual-method study challenges positionality by examining the co-cultural strategies of straight allies in predominantly queer conversations and spaces. Using Orbe’s Co-Cultural Theory as a lens, this study examines the co-cultural strategies and factors that influence straight allies’ communication when entrenched in queer ontology and dialogue (Study 1). Additionally, co-cultural strategies are measured among straight allies in hypothetical workplaces that are either predominantly queer or predominantly straight (Study 2) using Lapinski and Orbe’s (2007) Co-Cultural Theory Scales. Together, the results of these studies contribute to the ideas …

Spraying Religion: (Anti-)Religious Graffiti Of The Post-Socialist Transition, Mitja Velikonja

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article discusses graffiti and street art concerning religion, part of the author's much broader and continuous research on contemporary political graffiti and street art in post-socialist Central and Eastern Europe, from the Baltics to the Balkans, from Prague to Moscow, comprising over 20 years of systematic fieldwork.

How Healthcare Professional Training Impacts The Effects Of The Bystander Effect, Daniel Parks, Laura Provenzani

Research Horizons Day Posters

No abstract provided.

Meet Your Audience Where They Are: The Dissemination And Reception Of Political Messaging Among Young Voters [Powerpoint Presentation], Bailey Marie Caskey

INSPIRE Student Research and Engagement Conference

In an ever-changing media environment and growing influence of young voters, creating and disseminating messages that will reach this intended audience is a complicated and difficult task for political campaigns. Social and new media changes with each election cycle, so following standards of the most previous campaign is following an outdated strategy which may not break through in the newest media environment. With an increasing interest in strategies to reach young voters in the electorate, political campaigns and their candidates are disseminating messages online and on social media, where an increasingly large number of the voting bloc is getting their …

Baton Rouge Slam!: An Obituary For Summer 2016: A Critical Performance Ethnography Of Eclectic Truth Poetry Slam, Joshua Hamzehee

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This critical performance ethnography presents the theory, methodology, and practice surrounding the fieldwork, scripting, and performance of Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016. As participant-observer, director, and co-performer, I unpack social drama, performance ethnography, and slam culture by employing a lens rooted in critical race theory. Local poets permitted me to de- and re-contextualize their interviews into ensemble scenes and theatricalize their slam poems about the recent summer’s charged events. One year later, this involved and embodied process of ethnographic bricolage became the ensemble cast performance of Baton Rouge SLAM!: An Obituary for Summer 2016. Community members and …

Gen Z And Digital Distractions In The Classroom: Student Classroom Use Of Digital Devices For Non-Class Related Purposes, Bernard R. Mccoy

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

A 2019 survey of college students examined classroom-learning distractions caused by their use of digital devices for non-class purposes. The purpose of the survey, part of an on-going study, was to learn more about students’ behaviors and perceptions regarding their classroom uses of digital devices for non-class purposes. The survey included 986 respondents in 37 U.S. states and 47 respondents in Alberta, Canada. A significant feature of the study was its measurement of frequency and duration of students’ classroom digital distractions as well as respondents’ motivations for engaging in the distracting behavior. Respondents averaged 19.4% of class time using a …

The Motif Of Children In War In Memorialization Practices In Serbia And Bosnia And Herzegovina, Ana Gvozdić

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Studying the War Childhood Museum in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the monument to children killed in NATO bombing in Belgrade, Serbia, as well as the monument to killed children of besieged Sarajevo, this research project examines the motif of children in war within memorialization practices of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Relying on six semi-structured interviews with members of civil society in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as an employee of the War Childhood Museum, this research explores the role that the motif of children in war plays in remembering and portraying the past in these countries with …

Prescribing Public-Private Partnerships To Global Health Initiatives, Elizabeth Rhoads

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For six weeks I served as a finance intern with the Toilet Board Coalition (TBC) and created a Portfolio Presentation to deliver to TBC’s corporate board members in May. With my background in Public Health and interest in Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability, I was interested in learning how cross-sector partnerships can help accelerate global health development. My internship with TBC provided me with valuable firsthand experience in my topic of research, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), which I was able to compare alongside a formal literature review. In this research paper I combine my research with my internship experience to …

A New Theory Of Communication: Privacy Surrender For Security Theory, Abigail Brewer

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to analyze the viability of a newly proposed theory of communication, Privacy Surrender for Security Theory (PSST), by analyzing a quantitative survey administered by the researcher. Proposed in 2018 by a team of undergraduate students, Privacy Surrender for Security Theory seeks to explain why American citizens are willing to surrender their personal privacy rights for the sake of national security. The original team of researchers prepared a survey to further their study, and the researcher chose to administer a revised version of that survey through Facebook and a group message. Most participants surveyed said knowing that the …

Genre As A Lens To Becoming Better Leaders, Elizabeth Baranski

Honors Projects

When most people think of genre, they think of works that fall into categories such as fiction, nonfiction, etc. Genre typically is understood as the way in which a reader can recognize a specific text as falling into a category of similar texts, such as a plotline that focuses solely on the main character falling for a romantic interest being considered a romance novel. However, genre does not strictly have to pertain to physical text such as romance novels and does more work than simply categorizing a type of text. In simple terms, genre is a set of guidelines used …

Facebook’S Façade: Understanding The Disillusionment Of Tunisian Youth, Adam Cooper

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over the past nine years, Tunisian youth voter participation has been incredibly low. Once leaders of the country during its democratic revolution in January 2011, youth in Tunisia are now disillusioned with the Tunisian political sphere and have remained absent from formal politics, a transition that is both confusing and worrying. Tunisian youth have also had a dominant presence on Facebook during this time, often utilizing the online space for political activity in lieu of voting in elections and holding membership in political parties. This paper examines the relationship between the Facebook usage and participation in elections of Tunisia youth, …

Constructions Of Democratic Citizenship And Civic Education In Tunisia, Abigail Smith

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Although Tunisia has made significant progress in establishing procedural democracy since the 2011 revolution, the state still faces significant challenges in consolidating their new spirit of democracy throughout society. This trouble includes difficulty fostering participation from its citizens, particularly among youth aged 18-30. This article hypothesizes that these difficulties stems largely from the state’s failure to construct a concept of Tunisian citizenship in line with democratic ideologies. Citizenship construction is considered as a political science concept that describes the mechanisms by which states relate with their citizenry with the goal of defining citizen interactions with the government and national community. …