Communication Commons^™

Language Representation Diversity In Independently Translated Literature, Cecilia Too

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

The purpose of this survey is to determine the diversity of language representation in translated literature. Specifically, this study will examine three independent presses and one imprint that publishes literary works, both fiction and nonfiction. This paper surveys the languages represented in the translated works published by these presses over the course of five years, from 2018 to 2022. A case study of one independent press, Other Press, is conducted to further study the genre and country representation in translated literature. This study finds that European languages, particularly Western European languages, are overrepresented in translated literature by more than a …

Bridging Barriers To Digital Accessibility: An Opportunity For Technical Editors, Julian Luck

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

Digital content is overwhelmingly inaccessible across the web, and web accessibility is a particularly wicked problem. Technical editors with accessibility specializations serve as a part of the solution, however, the market for these professionals is emerging and poorly understood. The purpose of this research is to explore this emerging market and determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for these editors. Considering the limited body of knowledge surrounding this market, I utilize a variety of diverse web resources including peerreviewed journal publications, blogs, forums, and trusted web accessibility resources and organizations. The findings, contextualized by my identity as a disabled …

Prose By Any Other Name: Analyzing Changes To Translated Book Titles In Japanese And English, Angela Griffin

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

This research analyzed the ways in which book titles are changed in translation from English to Japanese and Japanese to English. The titles of one hundred books, fifty in Japanese and fifty in English, were sorted into three main categories of translation based on Tsukawaki’s research on translated sci-fi movie titles (2009): those using the Japanese katakana script, literal, and semantic. For Japanese to English titles, literal translations accounted for 68% of the data and semantic translations for 20%, while Japanese to English titles were literally translated only 48% of the time but semantically 34%. The changes made to translated …

Exploring Consent: An Analysis Of Consent In Dark Romance And Contemporary Romance Books, Janeth Hernandez

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

This research paper analyzes whether consent is found more frequently in dark romance or contemporary romance books by examining the language used, who speaks the phrases, and the contexts in which they are spoken. This paper explores the dominant sexual script in contemporary romance books and its influence on representations of consent, contrasting this with the absence of such a script in dark romance, which permits more varied incorporations of consent. This analysis was done through content analysis-- word frequency, consent analysis, and thematic coding. Word frequency provided evidence of consent use in the books, while consent analysis and thematic …

Evaluating Equitable Successes In Literary Spaces A Portland Book Festival (Pbf) Case Study, Tia-Theo Thompson

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

How do literary institutions achieve and evaluate successes in equity? Do certain factors expedite this transition? To understand the impact of Literary Art’s Discovery Model on diversity in literary spaces, data concerning all BIPOC Writers & Presenters at the Portland Book Festival 2023 was collected and analyzed by book placement, genre, and age category (among additional subcategories). Acknowledgement of publishing industry trends and activism within literary communities appear to be significant factors while curating authors with equity in mind.

Queer Rural Youth Online: A Digital Ethnography, Joseph Robert Burns

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis is based on digital ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2023 within Queer subcommunities on the social media sites Reddit and Twitter (now known as X) and data collected from interviews with Queer rural youth members of these communities. The data reveal that social media use directly influences the lives and actions of Queer rural youth, who use the space to build social connections, shape their personal identities, and seek advice pertaining to their in-person lives and decisions. By using these spaces, Queer rural youth build both bonding and bridging social capital, learn to subvert restrictions to their Internet access, …

Understanding Quadrature Modulation By Designing A 7mhz Iq Test Bench To Encode The Polybius Square, William Lee Bradley

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis outlines the design of an IQ Test Bench that allows for experimentation of quadrature modulation techniques. Quadrature modulation utilizes two signals I and Q, 90° out of phase from each other, to greatly increase communication data rates. Using Desmos, a thorough mathematical analysis of waveform mixing is presented, and constellation diagrams are plotted from the results. From this an ancient fire signaling technique known as the Polybius Square is encoded into the system. The IQ Test Bench is built from fundamental components that would be contained within an RFFE: a local oscillator and two frequency mixers. The LO …

The Pacific Sentinel, February 2024, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Eva Sheehan

Articles in this issue include:

• Earth Mama
• Spotlighting Black Artists Through a Mix of Mediums
• The Dresden Dolls in Portland: A Punk Cabaret
• Let Knowledge Serve the City
• Artificial Intelligence
• Surviving Seasonal Struggles
• What We're Enjoying
• Events Calendar & Extras

In The Hot Seat: Acquiring Kernel Density Heat Map Design Guidance Through Delphi And Survey Methods, Lauren Eileen Mckinney-Wise

Dissertations and Theses

Kernel density heat maps have emerged as a new, popular thematic map type. Yet, unlike other thematic map types, little if any published guidance exists for effective heat map design. This is significant because maps are highly persuasive objects that are often utilized to communicate important information, but maps can also be misleading and misunderstood. Therefore, proper guidance for heat map creation is critical for cartographers to create maps that convey geographic information successfully.

To address this literature gap, I used a modified Delphi method and an online survey to investigate several questions, including understanding what cartographic experts think are …

Cognitive Engagement During Group Learning Activities In Chemistry Courses: An Analysis Of Student Discourse, Safaa Youssef El-Mansy

Dissertations and Theses

As educators, our goal is to help our students be successful, but in order to accomplish this, we need to understand what factors contribute to student success. One factor, small-group active learning, has been correlated to improved academic outcomes; however, the magnitude of this improvement can vary across different courses, different types of group work, and even across courses that use the same group work structure. Therefore, it is important to understand what aspects of group work contribute to its effectiveness. The work presented in this dissertation investigated one specific aspect: students’ cognitive engagement. This was done by analyzing the …

Automating Intended Target Identification For Paraphasias In Discourse Using A Large Language Model, Alexandra C. Salem, Robert Gale, Mikala S. Fleegle, Gerasimos Fergadiotis, Steven Bedrick

Speech and Hearing Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose:

To date, there are no automated tools for the identification and fine-grained classification of paraphasias within discourse, the production of which is the hallmark characteristic of most people with aphasia (PWA). In this work, we fine-tune a large language model (LLM) to automatically predict paraphasia targets in Cinderella story retellings.

Method:

Data consisted of 332 Cinderella story retellings containing 2,489 paraphasias from PWA, for which research assistants identified their intended targets. We supplemented these training data with 256 sessions from control participants, to which we added 2,415 synthetic paraphasias. We conducted four experiments using different training data configurations to …

The Pacific Sentinel, November 2023, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Eva Sheehan

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter from the Editor
• Death Cab for Cutie Co-Headline with the Postal Service for a Twenty Year Anniversary Release
• When the Writers Come Out at Night
• Fall of the House of Usher
• A Professor's Literary Life
• Donuts & Crypto
• Seeing Static in Jane Removers' Census Designated
• What We're Enjoying
• Events Calendar & Extras

A Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of Nasa's Instagram Account, Danica Lynn Tomber

Dissertations and Theses

In an increasingly interconnected society where science and technology are advancing at a rapid pace, knowledge dissemination, specifically in terms of public engagement and popularization, must be both encouraged and critically evaluated. As an internationally recognized government agency that is dedicated to the advancement of space exploration and present on several social media platforms, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) provides a useful lens from which to analyze large-scale messaging of multimodal scientific information. Although there is a substantial amount of linguistic research into political and government-based messaging in social media, there is not much literature on the …

Collaborative Action In Informal Social Networks Of Wildfire Managers In Northwestern Wyoming, Hannah Lynn Spencer

Dissertations and Theses

Wildfire is a cross-boundary, collective action issue. Previous research has demonstrated the importance of collaborative relationships in wildfire for purposes such as increasing capacity, trading information, and facilitating landscape-scale mitigation projects. However, a stakeholder's location in social networks, as well as personal factors, may impact their collaboration. Furthermore, stakeholders must prioritize their own organizational goals and responsibilities, which may differ from those of their collaborators. I used interview and survey methods to investigate these questions in the context of wildfire management professionals in northwestern Wyoming. For the interviews, I selected 12 individuals with high betweenness centrality who were involved in …

People And Power: Person-First Language Usage And The Criminal Justice System, Casey E. Orr

Amplify: A Journal of Writing-as-Activism

Language is power. Word choice and terminology, especially those referring to people, are expressions of societal norms and institutional power. Dehumanizing crime-first terms and labels are abundant and common in criminal justice contexts despite being protested by system-involved individuals and activists. Instead, many advocate for person-first terms wherein identifying language emphasizes an individual’s humanity. With a peace-focused anthropological framework, this paper presents the case for person-first language in criminal justice contexts. It is evident that adopting first-person language usage regarding the criminal justice system is necessary after analyzing and considering the multiple sources, such as the voices of those who …

An Industry-Standard Profit And Loss Statement For Book Publishing Professionals In The United States, Jackie Krantz

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

Title profit and loss statements (P&Ls) in book publishing are valuable predictive tools for newly acquired titles. They inform the press on how money will be moving through the press in relation to the book’s production, revealing the book’s estimated value and level of profit. However, there is no industry-standard template. This lack of a template makes it difficult for new industry professionals to learn about P&Ls; prevents knowledge of one press’s P&L from being transferrable throughout the industry; and causes smaller presses to potentially neglect this useful tool due to the steep learning curve. The solution is to create …

It's A Mean, Mean World: Social Media And Mean World Syndrome, Samantha Kemp

University Honors Theses

Born from cultivation theory, which suggests that media has a profound effect on viewers' perceptions of the world around them, Mean World Syndrome is a psychosocial phenomenon that describes increased levels of fear, anxiety, and pessimism, as well as an overall perception of the world as "meaner" than it actually is, as a result of heavy viewership of violence-related mass media. Mean World Syndrome has primarily been associated with television consumption, but a major societal shift towards consumption of social media instead of television over the last two decades necessitates investigation into how social media affects its users. Through an …

The Association Of Patient-Provider Language Concordance With Healthcare Comprehension Among Latino/As In Oregon, Grace Parra

University Honors Theses

Background: The purpose of this study is to describe the need and preferences among Mexican-origin Latinos in Oregon for language-concordant healthcare providers. We hypothesize that the presence of a language concordant provider is associated with greater health care comprehension.

Methods: This is a cross sectional study in collaboration with the General Consulate of Mexico. We developed a 20-item survey that includes questions about socio-demographics, a validated language-based acculturation scale, and questions regarding language concordant care experience and preferences used in previous studies. We are recruiting at the Mexican Consulate 500 Latino/as ages 18 or older who had a healthcare visit …

Exiles: Trauma, Art & Design, Edwin Lew-Højbak Paquette

University Honors Theses

A BFA thesis about the researching, writing, illustrating, and printing of a graphic novel. The story, an auto-biographical exploration of trauma using magical realism, is based on the Jungian psychology concept of shadow work and Internal Family Systems (IFS).

Social Media And Society: An Investigation Of How Female Athletes Use Instagram, Kathleen Amore

University Honors Theses

Athletes increasingly leverage social media so they can share experiences first-hand, sell products, and promote their personal ideas and skills. Female athletes can become empowered through Instagram's ability to give a 'voice' to the object through captions, as well as its' ability to generate revenue through endorsements. Female athletes who find the most success on Instagram often post content that highlights their sexuality and personal life over their sport. Their success is found through a form of 'self-objectification', which can be seen as empowering and/or regressive to women’s sports. To explore this tension, my research project focused on the intentions …

Contextualizing The Role Of Answerers' Gaze Orientation In Turn Taking, Cassidy Moore

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis extends our understanding of the role of gaze orientation in turn taking, answering the following research question: When an answerer withdraws their gaze from a questioner at the completion point of the first turn-constructional unit of their answer, is this a practice for communicating that their answer-turn-so-far is not transition relevant (i.e., that the answerer is not complete with their turn and will continue speaking)? Data are videotapes of 274 information-seeking sequences drawn from 28 dyadic, mundane, English conversations between close friends. The methods are mixed, including conversation analysis and coding for statistical purposes. Data were transcribed for …

Audible Inhalation As A Practice For Mitigating Systemic Turn-Taking Troubles: A Conjecture, Jeffrey D. Robinson

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Extending Jefferson’s analysis of the limited utility of turn-constructional-unit (TCU)-initial particles in managing overlapping talk, this article limits itself to a similar turn-taking context/position in which current speakers bring TCUs to places of possible completion when it is relevant for next speakers to take a turn of talk. This article examines situations in which current speakers continue to audibly inhale in the transition space, arguing that inhalations (a) are pre-beginning actions; (b) bestow a weaker right to speak next than does talk; (c) are not accountable for obscuring next speakers’ talk (if it eventuates); (d) allow for beginning TCUs while …

The Pacific Sentinel, June 2023, Portland State University. Student Publications Board

The Pacific Sentinel

Editor: Dan Chilton

Articles in this issue include:

• Letter From the Editor
• Android Flowers of the Future
• Gary Numan Tours North America
• Emily King, the Queen of Hearts
• Who Protects Us?
• The Landing to Close Its Doors
• The First (& Forgotten) 'R'
• Celebrate the Legacy, Ignore the History
• Donuts & Dao's
• About Town
• What We're Enjoying

The Identification Of Representation Gaps In Diverse Us Children's Picture Books, Alena Rivas

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

This paper addresses this research question: which intersectional identities remain underrepresented in diverse US children’s picture books? The analysis is based on two datasets, one from Diverse BookFinder (collected December 2022–April 2023) and another from a survey of librarians (collected January 2023–April 2023). Each book in the Diverse BookFinder collection features a non-white character in the following racial/cultural categories: Asian/Pacific Islander, Biracial/Multiracial/Mixed Race, Black/African American, Brown Skinned/Unspecified Race, Latinx/Hispanic, Middle Eastern/Arab, Multi-Racial Cast of Characters, Native American/Indigenous, and White/Caucasian. These identities were cross tabulated with the following identities to measure intersectionality: Gender (Nonbinary, Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, Intersex, and Unspecified); LGBTQIAP2S+; …

From The Closet To The Campaign Trail: Navigating Disclosure Of Sexual Orientation In Campaign Media Content By Openly Lesbian Political Candidates In The Oregon 2022 Election Cycle, Bridget D. Volk

University Honors Theses

This qualitative study examines the strategies employed by openly lesbian political candidates in navigating the disclosure of their sexual orientation within campaign media content during the Oregon 2022 election cycle. The project uses Tina Kotek, a candidate for Oregon governor, and Jamie McLeod-Skinner, a candidate for Oregon House District 5, as case studies. The thesis comprises of four main sections, each focusing on a specific aspect of campaign media content: analysis of the biography sections on each candidate's campaign website, examination of two selected social media posts from each candidate, analysis of two television advertisements for each candidate, and a …

Lights, Camera, Climate Action: Investigating Emotional Responses To Climate Change Trailers (Documentary, Television, & Narrative Film), Erik Daniel Schell Devore

University Honors Theses

This research examined the emotional responses elicited by different genres of environmental visual media (VM) trailers. Six undergraduate Environmental Science and Management student participants self-selected to watch trailers from three different genres of VM: a documentary film, a television series, and a narrative film. The goal of this research was to understand the extent people become aware of various environmental VM topics, how VM elicits emotional responses, the effectiveness of VM in promoting action, and to gain a better understanding of how producers and directors can potentially modify VM to have a greater impact on changing participants' attitudes toward climate …

Hegemonization Of Whiteness In The Latinx Community, Ava N. Jakubowski

University Honors Theses

This literature review aims to explore the discourse on how whiteness engages with the LatinX community. The majority of the literature asserts that whiteness is hegemonized in the LatinX community. Addressed are the claims made for how these two groups intersect, drawing on a variety of prevalent research and experts in the field. This review is situated within the social science field, with an emphasis on communications, psychology, and sociology. The current power dynamics between these two groups is explored through a variety of lenses including the assimilation and racial boundary paradigms. Also addressed are areas in the research that …

Cultic Studies Cultivate Libertory Language, Todd Heckathorn

University Honors Theses

Coercive abuse at its most extreme manifests in cultic groups. These groups abuse their members using the same tactics that a domestic abuser or totalitarian government would to make their victims completely dependent on and subservient to them. Cultic studies investigate these tactics to define cults, coercive control, thought reform, indoctrination, and group psychological abuse behaviors. This fairly recent area of study has significant overlap with abolition feminist studies, which compare interpersonal and systemic abuse to liberate oppressed Americans, such as Black and Indigenous people, queer and disabled people, and women. This thesis combines cultic studies and abolition feminist studies …

Pandemic Collaborative Governance Facilitation: A First Look At Covid-19'S Impact On Collaborative Governance, Amelia Webb

University Honors Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on Collaborative Governance Facilitation, prompting a need to examine continuing impacts and repercussions. This study investigates the effects of COVID-19 on Collaborative Governance Facilitation by exploring the perspectives of facilitators who worked through this period. Using a qualitative approach, and incorporating elements of Grounded Theory and Phenomenology, a focus group was conducted with facilitators operating in the greater Pacific Northwest that identified several emerging themes and patterns in the facilitators' pandemic experiences. The analysis revealed significant insights in several key areas: the assessment phase, pace and productivity, equity and demographic differences, building …

Ad Natural: A Campaign Advocating For Representation Of Diverse Female Body Types In Advertising Practices, Stacey Horton

University Honors Theses

In this paper, I discuss the conceptualization, research, and execution of my awareness campaign, Ad Natural, in which I explore the best methods for promoting representation of diverse body types among women in advertisements. Through studying the history of women in advertising, the conduction of an anonymous survey, and competitor analysis I am able to determine where there is room for growth in advocating for this cause and integrate the solutions into the campaign. The end result consists of a full brand identity across a website, advertisement series, and merchandise with consistent messaging and imagery meant to empower the desired …