Communication Commons^™

"The Most Beautiful Thing In The World": A Rhetorical Analysis Of Relational Dialectics And Friendship In The Musical Kinky Boots, Adam Clayton Moyer, Valerie Lynn Schrader

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

In this article, we examine Kinky Boots, a musical that won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2013 and continues to win over audiences with its positive message about acceptance, as a rhetorical text through William K. Rawlins’ theoretical construct of relational dialectics regarding friendship. Through rhetorical criticism as a research method, we apply Rawlins’ concepts of political and personal friendships, as well as the dialectics of affection and instrumentality, expressiveness and protectiveness, judgment and acceptance, and the ideal and the real to examine notable relationships between characters in the musical. Specifically, we examine the relationships between Charlie and …

The Nurse-Family Connection: Exploring Verbal And Nonverbal Immediacy, Kristen P. Treinen

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Immediacy is the key to developing and maintaining interpersonal relationships. Furthermore, each relationship has a unique set of rules and patterns of communication that help maintain the trust and continue the process of relational development. What is not unique about interpersonal relationships is the foundation of trust, a bond, that can be established through the use of immediacy. This study examines not only if nurses believe effective communication with family members is necessary, but how and in what ways nurses have forged a care connection with family members using verbal and nonverbal immediacy.

Geographically Dispersed Community Networks: Exploring Social Networking Site Experiences And Relationships In The Intercollegiate Forensics Community, Julie L. G. Walker

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

A survey administered to current intercollegiate forensics competitors indicated members of the geographically dispersed forensics community extend existing community spaces using social networking sites (SNS). Results indicate participants connected and interacted with team members, fellow competitors, and judges using multiple SNS about forensics and non-forensics related topics. Participants reported differing levels of self-monitoring behaviors, which manifested in emphasizing or stifling particular personality attributes. Emphasized attributes included the participant’s education level, professionalism, or consistency with perceived community values. Stifled content included competitive secrets, politics, profanity, and other negative personal images. Experienced competitors noted the overwhelmingly positive impacts on competitive success of …

As Your Writing And Reading Teacher, Jean Prokott

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

AS YOUR WRITING & READING TEACHER, and as a poetry enthusiast (fangirl), I was thinking about you yesterday as I watched Amanda Gorman perform her poem at Biden's inauguration, and then I was really thinking about you, students, as I watched Anderson Cooper interview her last night. I hope so much that you heard the poem, and I would truly love for you to watch the interview: she talks about the task to write a poem, the feel of words over images, the research she did from history and culture to pull this poem together. It is a feat that …

It Is. It Isn't. It Is., Chad Kuyper

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

This piece was written in late July 2020. Stay-at-home orders had been lifted a couple months prior in Minnesota, but both the state and the country were seeing a steep rise in COVID-19 infections. No viable vaccine was on the horizon.

I wanted to play with chronology in this piece. Spending fourteen months inside the same set of walls makes both time – and memory – slippery. Hard to wrestle into a recognizable shape. So the events of these two days are told in a chronological jumble that more closely resembles how I recall events of the last year. And …

Reflections On Writer's Block, Hilary Rasmussen

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

When I finished the MA program at Northern Illinois University in 2010, I initially had no intention of returning for a PhD. I felt burned out on academics and was itching to get into my own classroom to teach. Despite the intense pressures of a tightening job market, I was fortunate. I found a permanent, full-time faculty position at a small, rural university in the southwest corner of Minnesota. Deciding to leave that wonderful and supportive community was difficult, but after three years there, I realized that I had more to say (and more to learn) and I wanted to …

Time To Grow, Michael Chouinard

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Letter from the Editor of the Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal, Michael Chouinard, for Volume 44, 2021 issue.

Front Matter

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Front matter and table of contents for Volume 44 (2021) of the Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal.

Media Representations Of Newly Hired Ncaa D1 Basketball Coaches, Mikaela Fischer, Emily J. Houghton, Michelle M. Mcalarnen

Human Performance Department Publications

No abstract provided.

Unveiling Race And Japanese Identity Through Kokusai Kekkon, Manami Matsuoka

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Kokusai kekkon, marriage among Japanese and non-Japanese nationals, are common, yet sometimes it comes with difficulties. The study aims to uncover Japanese people’s hidden perceptions of gaikokujins, foreigners, and Japanese identity shaped in relation to gaikokujins based on race and ethnicity within cross-national marriage. 18 Japanese spouses of U.S. Americans were interviewed for the study. The study employed thematic analysis to disclose Japanese beliefs and worldviews through interpreting Japanese interviewees’ experiences and their families’ discourses regarding marriage with U.S. Americans. The study found that whiteness and the sense of inferiority to the West and superiority toward the East influence Japanese …

No Future For Academic Crips: An Autoethnographic Crippling Of Academic Futurity, A. Adams

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

No Future for Academic Crips attempts to situate crip theory, critical disability studies, and communication theory squarely in the context of academia, problematizing the constraints placed on autistic identity by the demands of a graduate education. Utilizing autoethnographic vignettes along with theoretical writings regarding the creation and consolidation of crip identity, this thesis theorizes what a “neuroqueer future” looks like for academics. Six vignettes are presented to demonstrate strategies for survival employed in academic spaces, followed by analysis contextualizing and criticizing those strategies. Finally, implications for neuroqueer futurity and identity are discussed.

Younger Hmong People’S Willingness To Communicate About Depression, Wa Yang

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This research examines the underlying issues about mental illness, particularly depression within the Hmong community. Previous scholars have focused on the Hmong culture’s origins, mental health status of Hmong refugees arriving in the United States, martial roles and mental health on Hmong females, and comparisons of Hmong traditional healing and Westernized medicine. These studies intersect in fields including psychology, medicine and public health, Hmong history, and social work. However, one missing component to this body of scholarship has been communication. Thus, my study focused on younger Hmong people’s willingness to communicate about depression within their families. Specifically, I conducted semi-structured …

The After-Visit Summary: An Opportunity For Technical Communicators, Drew Jordan

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The After-Visit Summary (AVS) is a document patients receive while being discharged from a medical appointment. In this paper, I explore the aspects of patient education materials (PEMs), health literacy, and plain language in respect to the AVS with research from the fields of technical communication, health communication, and medicine. The narrative included depicts my own personal experience with the document to emphasize my push for action. The main objective for this paper is to urge technical communication scholars to analyze the AVS and evaluate it for areas of improvement. A benefit to both patients and practitioners, optimizing the AVS …

The Relationship Between Organizations' Response To Customer Complaints, Customer Trust, And Loyalty, Abimbola Ajibola

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between organizations’ responses to customer complaints and their effects on customer loyalty and trust. Four hypotheses were established for this study to help us gain a greater understanding of the dynamics of the responses to customer complaints and their relationship with trust and loyalty. Five independent variables (apology, timeliness, explanation, compensation, and dialogue/active listening) and two dependent variables (trust and brand loyalty) were used to test the hypotheses. An online survey was conducted through Qualtrics and data were collected from participants who were students at a Midwestern University. Facebook …

The Relationship Between The Stigmatization Of Mental Illness, Communication Apprehension And The Willingness To Communicate, Madeleine Louise Winkler

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This project explores how mental health stigmatization influences communication apprehension and the willingness to communicate about mental illness. A total of 153 people completed an online survey regarding three variables. Perceived stigma and communication apprehension when communicating about their own mental health were found to be positively correlated. Perceived stigma and communication apprehension when communicating about someone else’s mental health was also found to be positively correlated. Communicating about one’s own mental illness lead to higher levels of communication apprehension compared to communicating about someone else’s mental illness. Communication apprehension when talking about one’s own mental health and willingness to …

“Whose Team Is It Anyway?”: Exploring The Impact Of Coaching Changes On Forensics Team Culture, Brenton Lynn Mitchell

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Previous research in the field has documented the many aspects of coaching difficulties faced by forensic teams (Chouinard & Kuyper, 2010; Louis, 2011; Outzen, 2016; White, 2005 & 2010). While research in this area is necessary to understand the struggles associated with a coaching change and the impact it has on team culture, little research has been done to analyze how the students are affected by the shift in coaches and the changing culture of the team. This thesis examines how collegiate forensics competitors navigate these difficult transitions in an activity that heavily influences the creation of close relationships between …

Sexual Assault In The News, Sydney Blair

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Previous research has evaluated the presence of blame, myths, and stigma that sexual assault survivors experience online and within interactions with others. In the era of the #MeToo movement, has that changed? With perpetrators recently being held legally accountable for their crimes, my research addresses the current representation(s) of sexual assault through a content analysis of existing news media. I found a variety of rhetoric that supports survivors, #MeToo and perpetrators accountability, with additional evidence that negatively counters those positive changes. My research is important because these findings contribute to social science literature by examining the current representation of sexual …

Conflict Communication In Law Enforcement, Don Zheng

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This paper will focus on addressing conflict communication in law enforcement and what literature are available and the gaps within them. Conflict communication can range from the way's words are used, what words are used, and when those words are used when police officers interact with the public. Due to the lack of extensive research done within communication studies and law enforcement, this paper aims to aid in getting future research studies done within the professions. Conflict communication within law enforcement is a topic that should be talked about more to possibly lower the number of instances where physical and/or …

Risk Communication And Covid-19: An Exploration Of Best Practices, Allie Martens

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to determine if the risk communication strategies the State of Minnesota applied in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic align with the best practices described in the research. The method used to conduct this research was a content analysis. Upon conducting a content analysis, various best practice criteria were categorized based on similar themes. The analysis portion of this research consisted of analyzing various Minnesota Department of Health case documents to determine if their risk communication strategies aligned with the best practices described in the research. The findings concluded that the risk communication strategies …

The Impact Of Social Media On Teenage Females Self-Esteem, Amanda C. Perkovich

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Social media has become the way we connect with the world. Social networking sites, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and TikTok, allow users to share intimate details of their lives, upload photographs, initiate and maintain relationships, plan social gatherings, observe the lives of others and express beliefs, values and emotions. In the last ten years, numerous articles have focused on the relationship between social media use and mental health however, very few studies have concentrated on self-esteem, especially in teenage females. The purpose of this literature review is to explore the associations between increased social media activity (greater than 2 …

Limited Preparation And Accessibility: Rethinking Some Conversations In Limited Prep Events For 2020/2021

Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

Presentation on the Limited Preparation event and accessibility.

Forensics Code Of Student Conduct

Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

Example of a forensics code of conduct.

Smsu Forensics Team Handbook & Policies 2018-2019

Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

Handbook and policies from Southwest Minnesota State University's forensics program.

Niu Forensics Code Of Conduct

Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

Code of Conduct from Northern Illinois University Forensics program.

Lafayette Forensics Standards And Policies, Scott Placke, John Boyer, Simon Center

Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

Standards and policies from the Lafayette Forensics Society at Lafayette College.

Hastings College Bronco Forensics Team 2018-2019

Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

Handbook from Hastings College's 2018-2019 Bronco Forensic Team.

Navigating The Digital Divide, Dawn Lowry

Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

Dawn Lowry (George Mason University) talks about how we are essentially switching from an interpersonal medium to a mass medium. Coaches and competitors should have equal access to the visual vocabulary that society has learned through a lifetime of exposure to mass media.

Online Tournaments And Speechwire: The Show Goes On, Ben Stewart

Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

Ben Stewart (SpeechWire) details the various ways that people have administered online contests on SpeechWire, and ideas for the future regarding online contests.

Asynchronous Tournaments: A Resource For Now And The Future, Erick Roebuck, Jared Kubicka-Miller

Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

Erick Roebuck and Jared Kubicka-Miller (SEARK College and Santiago Canyon College) share their experience with an asynchronous tournament hosted with the organization, protocommunications.com. Additionally, they will propose a possible season format for asynchronous competition that can begin immediately or after the pandemic.

Lessons Learned From The 2020 National Online Collegiate Forensics Festival, Danny Cantrell

Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

Danny Cantrel (Mt. San Antonio College) will provide the resources and discuss the process of hosting the 2020 festival online.