Communication Commons^™

Short-Form Content And The Long-Term Effects, Grace Brown

Research Days

This research aims to explain the rapid growth of short-form digital content. This is an exploration as to why platforms, like TikTok, have taken over modern entertainment. As media evolves away from long-form content with high-production towards short-form with minimal editing, audiences adapt. Short-form content allows social media users to scroll past “uninteresting” videos with ease, validates shortened attention spans and creates more economic incentives. TikTok has successfully developed a highly personalized and fast-paced algorithm, which many social media apps have attempted to mimic. This algorithm sustains engagement by encouraging rapid scrolling and continuous content consumption. While users can easily …

Why We Must Commune: Rethinking The Role Of Marketing Communications In Turbulent Times, Javier Garcia

Publications and Research

“Communications” is often thought of as a noun, representing the messages we receive on a daily basis from people, brands, and institutions alike. 

"Communications" is also often associated with an industry that exists to produce such messaging in service of capitalism, with a commercial or otherwise actionable outcome desired from its receiving audience. 

This presentation, hosted by two-time CCNY graduate and senior marketing communications professional and Assistant Professor Javier Garcia, will examine the urgency and opportunity in rethinking the value and study of marketing and communications. 

In his presentation, Professor Garcia will offer suggestions on how to guide students towards …

'The Rest Is Silence': Reframing Stasis As Integral To Creative Practice, Corinna Di Niro, Pablo Muslera

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

This duoethnographic study examines the relationship between motion and stasis in creative practice through the lens of two creative educators working in postgraduate and undergraduate Creative Industries. Drawing on our combined experiences as practitioners and educators at SAE University College, we explore how creative blockages can be reframed as productive rather than problematic, challenging dominant productivity paradigms in contemporary creative industries and education. Through structured dialogic exchange, we investigate three interconnected themes: the rhythmic nature of creative practice, the pedagogical value of embracing productive stasis, and the tension between institutional timelines and creative development. We consider how encouraging SAE creative …

Social Media Fragility Indicators: A Framework For Evaluating Social Media As Fragile States, Caroline A. Haythornthwaite

iSchool - All Scholarship

Social Media Fragility Indicators: A framework for evaluating social media as fragile states

Presented at the Media Sociology Symposium, August 7th 2025

In the uncharted domain of cyberspace, social media platforms have stepped in and stepped up as state-like entities – social states – enacting governance structures supporting a variety of state services: security to safeguard user data, public services such as content moderation, regulations for civil behavior laid out in platform standards, and policing and sanctioning behavior. As social media has increasingly become the site for public discourse, platform policies are establishing these social media as ‘de facto regulators’ …

"Social Media Is Imperfect, But It's The Best We Have": Understanding And Addressing Sexual Health Information Seeking Challenges Among Young Adults, Alexander N. Vera

MUSC Conference Presentations

Objective:

Young adults in South Carolina face increasing challenges when seeking accurate sexual health information due to limitations in traditional and authoritative sexual health education and healthcare access. This paper investigates the future of libraries and health science librarians by exploring how young adults use social media platforms to seek sexual health information. It identifies the primary barriers young adults face and investigates opportunities for developing innovative digital health literacy resources.

Methods:

This study employed a dual-method qualitative approach, utilizing 90-minute semi-structured interviews and digital walkthroughs with 20 young adults aged 18-25 from across South Carolina. The interviews explored participants' …

The "Green Gals" Podcast And Website, Courtney Perkins

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Professional Projects

This is a series of three podcast episodes under the series name "Green Gals" with a companion website of the same name. Each episode focuses on a different aspect of sustainable living with the goal of providing valuable tools, tips and information that everyday people can use to integrate sustainability into their everyday lives. The episodes ("Reduce, Reuse... Recycle?"; "Food Waste" and "Composting 101") are hosted by myself and a co-host, discussing the topic along with pre-recorded interviews which I conducted with experts in the field. The material is presented in a casual, engaging manner, employing music intros, transitions and …

Ethical Ai Use And Classroom Integration Training Modules, Daniel Boudon

Open Educational Resources

This project focuses on developing comprehensive training modules to equip students and faculty with the knowledge and skills necessary to ethically and effectively use AI tools in academic settings. The training consists of interconnected modules that cover a wide range of topics, including the ethical use of AI, evaluating AI-generated content, integrating AI tools into curriculum design, and creating AI-enhanced classroom activities. Additional modules emphasize fostering digital literacy, staying updated with AI advancements, and collaborating on best practices for AI in education.

Designed for flexibility, the modules cater to diverse academic disciplines, making them suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses, …

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 …

Scla 521 Ai In Society, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides access to information resources on societal impacts of artificial intelligence from multiple libraries databases covering multiple disciplines including government information resources.

U.S. Government Agency Podcasts, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Presents podcasts from U.S. Government agencies which can be discovered through the U.S. Government Publishing Office's Catalog of Government Publications. Agencies whose podcasts are presented include the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Peace Corps, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Government Accountability Office (GAO), National Park Service, Department of Justice, Federal Reserve System, and U.S. Naval War College.

Growing Up And The Emotions That Come With It, Mckenzie J. Blanchard

ATU Scholars Symposium

Many people roll their eyes when asked to read a twenty-plus page article and pull out key facts. They also usually do not pull out relatable emotions, but only information. When reading, though, whether poems or short stories, people do not mind the task because they get much more out of it. They walk away with feelings – ones they know from previous, personal experience, and also new ones which relate to the writer’s own story.

My work is an examination of stories of my past that have shaped me into who I am today. The stories are told from …

Exploring The Link Between School Discipline And Restoring Relationships Using Restorative Conferences!, Derrick C. Bailey, Julia Bullock

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

Participants will be able to identify the link between effective restorative conferences and school discipline. They will learn strategies that are effective for reactive and proactive conferences. Participants will analyze scenarios of actual conferences and prepare a list of things to avoid. Participants will learn how to use data to assess the effectiveness of their conferences and adjustments that may need to be made.

Tap Dance As A Nonverbal Language For Autism Spectrum Disorder, J Sydney Rhane Burtis

Honors College Theses

Through elements of sound and movement, tap dance employs rhythm as a universal language for nonverbal communication through the medium of music. Through three distinct but related elements, (a literature review, an artist’s statement, and a performance piece), this thesis will explore tap dance as a form of nonverbal language. For individuals with autism spectrum disorder, tap dance may help to achieve further attunement with themselves and the outside world. Due to autistic people’s impaired communicative, interactional, and skilled abilities, experiencing the relationships formed through tap dance may facilitate improvement. The literature review begins with a brief definition of nonverbal …

Reagan’S Make America Great Again And Fantasy Theme Analysis, Dylan Ureno

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

The Ethics Of Entertainment In The Hunger Games, Ella Campbell

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

Downplaying Deception: An Analysis Of Elizabeth Holmes’ Methods Of Persuasion, Lauren Byrum

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

A Study Of Campus Dress Code Knowledge And Practice At Liberty University, Allison Clark

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Theoretical Proposal

The Power Of A Well-Told Story: A Narrative Criticism Of Barack Obama’S 2004 Dnc Keynote Address, Grace Mallory

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

"It's Not What It Looks Like!": Motivations And Responses To Infidelity, Jessica C. Cochrane

Student Scholar Showcase

The topic of infidelity is taboo and often perceived negatively, however, it still occurs frequently. What motivates people to commit infidelity? How do people respond to infidelity committed by those they know? This paper takes the opinions of college-aged subjects into consideration through use of paper surveys to discover how young adults perceive infidelity; both why it gets committed and how they would respond to such an act. Subjects were grouped into sex, classification, whether they have committed infidelity or not, and whether they have been cheated on or not. The results that were found were not all expected. It …

Critical Thinking In The Age Of Misinformation: Information Literacy For Citizenship, Tamra Ortgies-Young, Jennfer Lobo Meeks, Barbara Robertson

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

As recent political events across the globe have shed a light on the fragility of democratic values, the role of the University in creating a framework for civic education becomes more urgent. Informed, caring and engaged citizenry must be a goal of higher education. Students currently face the emergence of faulty types of information - such as misinformation and disinformation, which undermines the notion of collective or public inquiry, not only within universities, but also within society as a whole. This challenge must be acknowledged and addressed by academic institutions.

Session presenters will provide an overview of their work, “Critical …

The Effects Of Analog And Digital Cognitive Offloading On Memory, Olivia Sagely

Digital Studies

This study uses responses from a focus group to examine how college students participate in cognitive offloading, and looks at whether doing so with analog or digital methods effects their memory differently. The results from these focus groups are used to conduct an n-gram analysis.

Culturally Sensitive Care For Hispanic Americans, Christopher Dodson, Courtney Hall

Scholars Week

The number of individuals that speak another language that is not English as their primary language is at an all time high in the United States, and this can make healthcare harder to access for this portion of the population. This research examines what barriers are present for those who do not speak English as their primary language, such as miscommunications, reduced trust in their provider related to being unable to speak directly with them, parts of their cultural practices and alternative medicines being ignored or misunderstood by healthcare providers, and not feeling secure enough to reveal sensitive information to …

Research In Recent Trends In Fundamental And Applied Physics And Quantum Computing, Olga Privman, German Kolmakov

Publications and Research

Quantum computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning – these are all highly engaging, though oft-mysterious fields. Graced with the mystique of quantum mechanics, its applied offspring – quantum computing – is often subject to the same scientific misinformation, with many articles on the internet providing a false and often intentionally misleading depiction of the science. This project focuses, then, primarily on research in recent trends in fundamental and applied physics, with an emphasis on quantum computing. The outcome is an electronic newsletter published on Open Lab by the end of the Spring 2021 semester, each issue of which will contain no …

How Risk-Related Statistics, As Reported In News And Social Media, Are Linked To The Use Of The Public Transit System, Prashiddhi Pokhrel

Thinking Matters Symposium

Due to the pandemic, people have started relying more on televisions, news, social media, and other news outlets for guidance. Moreover, with the increasing amount of news, data, and information there is also an increase in the amount of misleading statistics. People’s opinions and decisions significantly depend on the data, statistics, and information that they are exposed to, as well as their sources. For this project, we want to look at how information and its sources are affecting the decision made by the general public for the usage of the Portland Transit System. It is very important to know why …

The Impact Of Social Media Use On Well-Being And Stress In Adolescents And Young Adults, Elisabeth Moeller

ONU Student Research Colloquium

Over the past couple of decades, as technology has become more readily available to individuals, social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram have had an impact on how adolescents and young adults communicate with peers. There has been much debate on whether social media usage negatively impacts the lives of adolescents and adults or not. The present literary review examines findings from 20 studies that investigated the effect of social media usage on the well-being and stress levels of adolescents and young adults. The conclusion of this literary review is that there are many mixed findings in studies examining …

The Portrayals Of Grief And How It Affects Childhood Development On Netflix’S Haunting Of Hill House, Gabriella Demelfi

Media and Communication Studies Presentations

Netflix’s “The Haunting of Hill House” depicts the journey of five main characters who experienced the loss of their mother and how that unresolved trauma and grief manifests itself into the grief they experience as adults. Through normalizing depictions of healthy and unhealthy coping mechanisms for grief, those who watch can learn through a social context how to deal with grief, validating the feelings of grief, and potentially recognize the signs of grief in others. In addition, this show, along with an increasing number of shows centered around grief, can help change societal and cultural views on discussions of death …

Inequity In Montgomery County Public High Schools, Alex Wagoner, Carli Heimann

Media and Communication Studies Presentations

Public education is an integral part in the upbringing of American children and teenagers. While it is a right for all U.S. citizens, the quality of public education can vary greatly from school to school and from district to district. In fall of 2020, a group of students in a journalism course at Ursinus were tasked with finding and interviewing Montgomery County High School students to record their experiences at several schools in the county and highlight some of the inequities inherent in the American public schooling system. This presentation will detail two stories and a video that encapsulated our …

Disparities In Sports Media Representation, Madison Handwerger

Media and Communication Studies Presentations

My research focuses on the differences of representation of genders in sports media. Being a collegiate female athlete myself, this topic really hits home for me, and is a big passion of mine. The primary text of my project is the ESPN television talk show, First Take. The show in itself reinforces a gender ideology with the way it is formatted, having two male analysts and a female host, however the host is not allowed to speak and share her opinions on the topic or issue at hand. That job is left for the male co-analysts. Before beginning my research, …

Undoing The Unhinged Woman: An Examination Of Contemporary Media Representation Of Women And Ideology, Alyssa Scanlon

Media and Communication Studies Presentations

The unhinged woman is a character trope that has popped up frequently in mainstream media for the past few years. This trope is utilized as a way to present an alternative representation of women; one that functions as being empowering, complex, and overall a new and positive representation of a constant misrepresented minority in media. Proceeding with a textual analysis of the 2014 film Gone Girl and the 2020 miniseries The Undoing, I was able to examine the salient attributes through a feminist lens. Further discovering that the unhinged woman trope is actually detrimental to the overall representation of women …

What's In A Name: Influence Of Sports Team Name Changes On Pros, Fans, & Related Parties, Bridget Lewis, Marie Mallory

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Three Minute Thesis