Communication Commons^™

Migrant Labor In Dubai Stories Of Betrayal, Survival And Struggle For Acceptance On Foreign Land, Mrudvi Parind Bakshi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last couple of years, migrant labor rights in Dubai have been under constant scrutiny. Repeatedly criticized for mistreating its vast unskilled-labor force, Dubai has put into place many recent initiatives to uplift their conditions. This research focuses on what it is like to be a part of the migrant labor force in the city. The lives of three characters in the migrant community are explored at length. When migrant workers are acknowledged and made to feel involved with the greater community outside the labor force they seem more content, are able to deter alienation, and are better able …

"Can You Hail Me Now?": Brand, Identity, And Althusserian Ideological Interpellation, Jenna Lo Castro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A surge in the role of branding within marketing practices has influenced an

industry transformation. A review of recent literature suggests that brand and the branding process have become integral in sustaining and amplifying organizations. This has been particularly influenced by Integrated Marketing Communication’s (IMC) espousal of being a consumer-driven process. As such, this project seeks to explore the current state of branding practices through the vision of French Marxist philosopher, Louis Althusser. Althusser’s philosophy inspects the human capacity to exercise autonomous decision-making and highlights the influence of social structures upon individuals. Through the Althusserian constructs of ideology and interpellation, …

Sensemaking In Honors Scheduling, James Rowland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Honors courses offer students unique opportunities such as smaller class sizes, applied application of knowledge, and a closer mentorship with the faculty member. Through observation, there are some cases where courses have regularly been cancelled every term due to low enrollment. When these courses are often canceled, it can impact the honors program ability to continue to offer courses to the students. Using Weick's work on Sensemaking and principles of analyzing organizational culture, the study addressed how honors students are impacted by course cancellations and how they communicate about the impact. Through two focus groups with a total of eleven …

A Snapchat Marketing Perspective: Examining The Personality Traits And Motives That Predict Attitudes Toward And Engagement With Non-Sponsored And Sponsored Content In Snapchat., Tiany Sousa Garnica

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social networking sites (SNS) have revolutionized the communication between consumers and brands, publishers, and marketers. These platforms have become a way for advertisers to communicate directly and engage users with content that is innovative and less intrusive. The aim of this research is to examine the personality traits and motives (based on the uses and gratifications theory) that predict attitudes toward and engagement with non-sponsored and sponsored content in Snapchat. An online survey with 606 participants showed that the main motives of using Snapchat were social information seeking, entertainment, and impression management. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine what …

Rhetoric Of Imagery: Gendering And Consumption Throughout Interwar American Advertisment, Natalie Delgado

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Interwar American advertising rose alongside new levels of hygiene, personal appearance, and technology in order to sell their products to target audiences. Despite the abundance of scholarship on media and gender, few studies have examined the gendered techniques through which interwar advertisers communicated with consumers in response to changing social norms and economic stability. The question this thesis explores is how these changes and communication shifted in response to consumer culture and how advertisers utilized early market research and persuasion techniques to target their audiences. Building on the studies of gender, consumption, and identity, this thesis examines the relationship between …

Navigating The (Im)Perfect Performances Of Queer Iranian-American Identity, Shadee Abdi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Within the social sciences and humanities, failure to adequately account for the intersectional ways people of color navigate their multiple identities within contesting cultural systems, creates an unfinished portrait of queer identity. For queer people of color, negotiating queer identity is always in relation to their nationality, race-ethnicity, class, gender, religion, and family. While many queer of color stories share similar obligatory cultural norms, the legal ramifications that impact the lives of queer Iranians and their families, both within Iran and abroad, challenge many queer of color expectations. Due to stringent cultural and legal influences, Iranian social discourse heavily impacts …

A Phenomenological Investigation Of Sport And Fandom Through Hans-Georg Gadamer And Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Alexander Regina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to uncover the phenomenological and communicative roots of sport fandom from the fan perspective, taking into account the many ways in which fans come to contact sport and integrate corresponding experiences into their own lives and sense of being in the world. Hans-Georg Gadamer and Maurice Merleau-Ponty are used to understand the conventions of play that manifest in sport, leading not only to the co-creation of the game experience due to the intertwining of spectators and players but also to the interplay of temporal realms that leads to what Gadamer calls the fusion of horizons. Through …

Portrayal Of African Women In Nollywood Films Over A Five-Year Period: A Content Analysis Of Traits Applying The Stereotype Content Model, Olushola Aromona

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous research shows that perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs are cultivated via media exposure. A content analysis of stereotypical traits in five Nollywood movies in a five-year span examines the prevalent portrayals of women in the Nigerian movie industry – Nollywood, and the effect of these portrayals on reinforcement of stereotypical norms and perpetuation of gender disparity. Cultivation and Objectification theories were the theoretical frameworks for this study. Findings revealed no significant change in the stereotypical portrayals of women in the past five years. From the movies analyzed, Nollywood movies appear to remain persistent in typically depicting women as unambitious domestic …

Experiences Of Credibility: Female Instructors Of Color At Faith Based Universities, Jamilah L. Spears

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that the credibility of instructors of color is often questioned by White students, while other studies prove that male instructors are also perceived as more credible than female instructors (Hendrix, 1997; Perry, Moore, Edwards, Acosta, & Frey, 2009). When these two findings are coupled, it seems that there might be a significant barrier to overcome for female instructors of color in their everyday instruction. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore perceived credibility for female instructors of color at faith-based universities, namely, Evangelical Christian universities. Based on my analysis of the interview data, these six female …

Awareness, Perception, And Self-Reported Purchasing Behaviors Of College Students Regarding Front-Of-Package Nutrition Labeling Systems And Symbols, Audrey L. Kessler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traditional students enroll in post-secondary institutions during emerging adulthood. College enrollment is increasing and adult weight gain occurs most rapidly during the college-age years, with poor food decisions as a potential contributing factor. The present study examined the awareness, perception, and self-reported purchasing behaviors of college students regarding four front-of-package (FOP) nutrition labeling systems and symbols. Students were sent a 24-question web-based survey, with 908 completed surveys that met the research criteria. There were 888 (98.3%) respondents who recognized at least one of the four presented FOP nutrition labels. There were no significant differences between the groups that recognized one …

Psychometric Testing Of The Presence Of Nursing Scale: Measurability Of Patient Perceptions Of Nursing Presence Capability Of Nurses In An Academic Medical Center, Rebecca L. Turpin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Nursing presence occurs when nurses expend themselves on the behalf of a unique patient. This phenomenon requires further research to develop instruments. The Presence of Nursing Scale (PONS) measures the patient’s perspective (Kostovich, 2012). Psychometric testing of PONS-Revised using exploratory factor analysis is warranted to further develop a reliable and valid measure of nursing presence. Contextual workplace variables need exploration in inpatient settings for correlation with nursing presence.

Method(s): A convenience sample of 122 adult inpatients from ten acute-care nursing units in a Southeastern Magnet hospital were surveyed to conduct the first psychometric testing of this revised instrument using …

Love On - The Life Of A Suicide Survivor: A Performance Autoethnographic Study, Patricia R. Wheeler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Suicide touches the lives of millions of people each year in this country alone, yet conversations about suicide loss and survival after a loss remain taboo and often do not happen. The story I performed for this performance autoethnographic study centers on my life as a survivor of suicide. It provides a starting point for dialog regarding trauma, grief, and suicide loss. The narrative was constructed directly following the sudden death of my father, which had a direct effect on my ability to produce artistic work. The development, staging and performance of the story were altered to account for the …

Effects Of Video Game Streaming On Consumer Attitudes And Behaviors, Lisa B. Foster

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Video game streaming has introduced to consumers a new method of creating branded content. Popular streaming platforms receive millions of broadcasters and viewers every month, and the current examines the influence of this type user-generated content on consumer attitudes and behaviors. The goal of this study is to understand how video game streams function as a marketing tool. To investigate this, a quantitative survey was designed and measured participants’ video gaming habits and their perceptions of credibility, usefulness of content, group identification, and purchase intention. Heavier gaming habits were found to be positively related to perceived credibility in a user-generated …

Divergent Discourse: A Case Study Analyzing The Effects Of Campus Communication About Sexual Assault, Melissa H. Nipper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research analyzes campus discourse at a university in south central Appalachia in an effort to highlight the role of communication in the prevention of sexual assault and its powerful effects on communities and individuals. Using a critical feminist lens, this qualitative case study identifies the communication goals, interpretations, and strategies of two important speech communities who participate in sexual assault discourse on college campuses—campus professionals who communicate about the issue of sexual assault (issue managers) and sexual assault survivors whose identity is shaped by sexual assault (identity managers). While both groups talk about the problem, the parties diverge on …

The Influence Of High/Low Context Culture On Choice Of Communication Media : Students’ Media Choice To Communicate With Professors In China And The United States., Xiaoxu Yang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on a widely used cultural construct, high context and low context culture to investigate the culture’s influence on media choices. This research compares the communication media choices of two cultures: the high context culture of China and the low context culture of the United States. 351 participants from the two countries filled out the surveys. All the participants were college students; 195 participants were from a mid-size college in China and 156 from a Midwestern University in the United States. The survey included the high context-low context scale, media richness questions and how participants choose media to …

Exploring Ethnic Stereotypes Through The Production Of Five Short Films, Ines Galiano Torres

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is a nontraditional thesis that combines social research in ethnic stereotypes in TV and film with the creative process of film production. This paper contains the formal step of research, in addition to the details on the production and creation of five original short films related to the issue of ethnic representations.

Your Face Betrays You: A Fantasy Theme Analysis Of Lie To Me, Caroline Campbell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research concerning the consequences of edutainment has revealed that television shows have the capability to influence audience members. As the lines between education and entertainment are becoming increasingly blurred, viewers may not be aware of how watching such shows impacts them. Lie to Me is a popular edutainment television series that educates viewers about the power of micro expressions. Ekman has dedicated a large part of his life to the development of research related to micro expressions. The show’s main character, Cal Lightman, portrayed Paul Ekman’s special talents and knowledge through his ability to detect micro expressions. The first three …

How The Greek Press Constructed The "Greek Economic Crisis", Maria Elena Kuntz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since 2008, there has been a surge of interest in and research on the relationship between news media and economic reporting, particularly as it concerns financial crises. The 2008 U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, quickly followed by the economic crisis that began to unfold in Greece in 2009, spurred researchers to examine how newspapers around the world report on the complex, globalized economy. In the pursuit of understanding transnational economic processes, publics rely on news media to provide information about the meaning of economic events, especially crises. As such, newspapers are key players in constructing the narratives of crises.

This study …

It's A Whole New Ball Game: The Mitchell Report, Performance Enhancing Drugs, And Professional Sports, Brian J. Schrader

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the findings of a congressional investigation into the use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) in Major League Baseball, known as the Mitchell Report. It analyzes the primary arguments presented in the report, the argument for integrity, role-models, and apology specifically, through the lens of governmentality and moral regulation. It argues that the report represents a distinct mode of governance that seeks to condemn PED use in a moralizing way. This mode of governance is characterized by its emergence from a variety of locations as opposed to the relatively simple use of the state and its legal apparatus. …

Jotería-Historias: Theories From The Fringes, Robert Mitchell Gutierrez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

By collecting the cultural/historical narratives of gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (GBTQ) Chicanos of Colorado, this research project locates theories in the flesh, or theories of resistance and agency, in the forms of cuentos, pláticas, chismé, mitos, testimonios, and consejos to explicate a queer of color performance of intersectional and decolonial politics. To set the context, several historical and political snapshots of GBTQ Chicano experience over the last 500 years are reviewed to demonstrate how communication about, for, and between GBTQ Chicanos operate in a liminal state (nepantla) where violence, marginalization, and oppression are …

When "I Do" Becomes "I Don't": Exploring Communication Behaviors And Dialectical Tensions In Broken Engagements, Chelsea Annette Hand Stow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Communication behaviors and precipitating events were studied in accounts provided by 109 heterosexual individuals living in the United States who had experienced at least one broken premarital engagement. Participants' responses to an exploratory survey designed by the researcher were thematically analyzed in order to determine the causes of broken engagements, communication strategies used in sharing the disengagement narrative, advice given and received, and the presence of relational dialectics (both tensions and coping strategies). Data revealed that broken engagements more closely mirror divorce than dating breakups, engagements are more likely to be broken by women than men, and disengagement more often …

The Impact Of Philanthropy, Jonathan F. Denzler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Forwarding a narrative framework of philanthropic impact this thesis problematizes the evaluation methods used by social engagement organizations to measure the impact or change that they are contributing to in a community. By focusing on the example of food access, and the corresponding language of the "food desert", this project locates the power to control the framing of social issues in the hands of funders as opposed to those who experience the real life effects of living in poverty or resource-poor communities. This process then lets the philanthropists set a goal and meet that goal without ever truly communicating or …

Creating Rhetorical Subjectivities: Negotiating The Precarity Of The Homo Oeconomicus In The Neoliberal Workplace, Leslie Lynne Rossman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ubiquitous impact of the neoliberal economy on our everyday life leads to questions of rhetorical significance. This project strives to incorporate service labor experience as a source as well as an effect of rhetoric thereby embodying materialist notions of the body at the site of production. I explore neoliberal discourses through the phenomena of outsourcing and offshoring by interviewing service industry employees that have experienced job uncertainty within a Fortune 500 corporation. By studying narratives, this project explores how the material effects of rhetoric are able to determine discourses of power relating to production. Thus, this study questions the …

Dining With The Cyborgs: Disembodied Consumption And The Rhetoric Of Food Media In The Digital Age, Maggie Cotto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project explores digital media productions based specifically on food and cooking in order to demonstrate that new communication technologies are increasingly incorporating all five of the bodily senses. In doing so, they contribute significantly to the emergence of new ideological apparatuses appropriate for a global community. These apparatuses – including the formation of a posthumanist subject, the use of technology to support embodied cognition, and the establishment of entertainment as an ideological institution – have become the harbingers of a rhetorical evolution. Based on the work of Gregory Ulmer, along with Jacques Derrida, N. Katherine Hayles, Donna Haraway, and …

Wounded Warrior Or War Hero? Or Maybe, Neither?: Resisting Common Tropes Of The Veteran And Developing Digital Literacy Practices Via Narrative Building And Identity Presentation In Social Networking Spaces, Cassandra Branham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project reports on the results of a study that investigated the social networking use of student and non-student veterans, with a particular focus on the narrative building and identity presentation practices involved in this use. In this dissertation, I argue that stereotypical and exclusionary tropes of the veteran, such as the veteran as war hero and the veteran as wounded warrior, are damaging to our veterans and to others, in both the society and the classroom. However, through the detailed analysis of survey data and data collected from an interview and social networking profile tour with one student veteran …

Sherlock Fandom Online: Toward An Ethic Of Advocacy, Jennifer Wojton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study applies theories of texts and technologies to examine ways in which fan culture and mainstream entertainment media can shape and be shaped by each other through digital interactions and negotiations. Further, it considers ways in which these interactions have potential to foster community building and advocacy efforts beyond the limitations of the screen. The analysis focuses, in particular, on the subject of asexuality as it is represented in BBC's 2010 television series, Sherlock, tracing the multiple ways in which the traditional boundaries between fans and entertainment professionals have been breached as each group works to engage the other …

Mutable Means: An Exploration Of Communication And Identity Through Visual And Verbal Deconstruction, Reina Castellanos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly defined by my status as a Nonimmigrant Alien, I have lived longer in the United States than in my native Venezuela. Knowing my stay in this country will be temporary, I examine feelings of uncertainty about my future by deconstructing communication—both visual and verbal. Through ambiguity I express anxieties on my personal circumstances and retain objectivity in regard to my process through intellectual inquiry. I layer words, images, and sound to mirror my frustrations, and project the conflict of my internal dialogue.

From Ashes To Ashé: Memorializing Traumatic Events Through Participatory Digital Archives, Patricia Carlton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Traumatic, cataclysmic events, whether caused by man-made or natural forces, threaten the safety, stability, and resilience of a community or state. Additionally, massive media exposure given to documenting and providing information, place the media consumers at psychological risk. As an alternative to broadcast news reports, online memorials and disaster archives provide the public the means and central locations for witnessing catastrophic events, as well as collectively commemorating and mourning the tragic losses. According to psychological and ethnographic research, narrativizing the trauma through shared memories and artifacts of mourning produce multiple therapeutic benefits, including the likely development of cognitive awareness, empathy, …

Hegemony Of The Fourth And Fifth Estates: Exploration Of Ideology And False Consciousness In The Media, Anna Turner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hegemony is a process of dialectic political control. On one side, intellectuals use political and economic channels to convey an ideology, a set of principles, to the public, and on the other side, the public accepts this ideology, thus consenting to the status quo (Boggs, 1976). Research suggests that media are hegemonic entities that reinforce ideology (Bielby & Moloney, 2008; Lewis, 1999a). Traditional news media comprise the fourth estate, while the blogosphere, often heralded as media critics, constitutes the fifth. Limited research exists on the fifth estate, which, due to the ubiquity of the internet, has emerged as a public …

State Of Mississippi Crisis Communications: Examining Mswin Preparedness, Michael Knox Graham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the Mississippi Wireless Information Network (MSWIN) and its level of preparedness to avert the communication problems for the State of Mississippi that were seen during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, in the event of a similar crisis. It explores the technical workings of the network and the makeup of the Mississippi Wireless Communication Commission (WCC) who oversees MSWIN. It also takes a look at similar networks in Louisiana and Arkansas to compare and contrast those to what is in Mississippi. Primary interviews with the WCC, State of Mississippi officials, and others on the Mississippi Gulf Coast paint a …