Communication Commons^™

An Analysis Of The Extent To Which Humor Is Accepted And Employed In The Workplace For The Enhancement Of Productivity And Creativity, Jonathan R. Specht, Paul D. Tobin

Theses and Dissertations

Today's business literature is filled with discussions of the many benefits humor can bring to the work environment. Two of these purported benefits, namely, the enhancement of workplace productivity and the enhancement of workplace creativity, have attracted the attention of modern managers challenged with keeping their organizations competitive despite dwindling financial and human resources. Unfortunately, little research has been done to date which actually demonstrates a link between the existence of workplace humor and improved levels of productivity and creativity. Without this demonstration of causality, most managers are reluctant to invest corporate resources in pursuit of workplace humor despite its …

The Effects Of Three-Dimensional Graphs On Decision Making, Anita E. Latin, Anthony L. Villanueva

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis was to determine whether or not, and by how much, three-dimensional graphs are more accurate and efficient than two- dimensional graphs and tables when presenting alternatives to decision makers. A graphical experiment was designed using a microcomputer. This experiment presented a business scenario to test Air Force Institute of Technology AFIT Professional Continuing Education PCE students. The experiment attempted to determine how well DoD decision makers accurately and efficiently performed elementary data collection tasks using various graphs or tables. The experiment used a randomized order within-subject factorial design with repeated measures. The factorial experiment was …

Pornography And Premarital Sexual Activity Among Lds Teenagers, Mark A. Harris

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the relationship between several independent measures and premarital sexual activity among 1,393 LDS teenagers living along the east coast. Results indicate that among these LDS teens, exposure to pornography is strongly and significantly related to the probability of having engaged in premarital sex. This holds true even when controlling for peer influence, family structure, religiosity, gender, and age. Teens who were exposed to pornography (1 to 24 exposures) are 2.6 times more likely to have engaged in sex as compared to those who report no exposure to pornography. Furthermore, those teens exposed to a higher amount of …

Advertising Budget Reduction Impacts On Effective Communication: A Descriptive Analysis : Evaluation Of Virginia State Parks 1994 Advertising Campaign, Lois Ann Delbueno

Theses and Dissertations

A descriptive analysis to determine the communication effects of a reduced advertising budget, this study evaluated the 1994 Virginia State Parks advertising campaign. The campaign's objective was to provide Virginians more information about the parks, which in the previous 1992 Virginia Outdoor Survey, was said to be needed.

The author sought to answer questions relative to the overall effect of reducing the advertising budget, as well as the amount and nature of awareness resulting from it.

In order to measure these relationships, the author collected data into two random seven-day periods to compare 1994 versus 1993 for awareness, cost-effectiveness and …

Wendell J. Ashton: Advocate, Publisher, Civic Leader, Val L. Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

Wendell J. Ashton has been described as a pacesetter in the communications field in the Intermountain West. He was a trailblazer in public relations in the early days of his career at Gillham Advertising. His life has been filled with challenges such as publisher of the Deseret News, director of the LDS Church Communications Department, principal in Gillham Advertising, and various civic and community activities.

Ashton's communications career was one of innovator and pioneer as he helped forge the public relations industry in the Intermountain West. His career has followed in the footsteps of many other professionals such as …

Information Sharing Within The Coea Process, Constance S. Maginnis, Michael J. Monroe

Theses and Dissertations

In order to meet the challenges of a reduced work force and the changing roles and/or missions of the Air Force in particular, the Cost and Operational Effectiveness Analysis COEA is used in the decision-making of every phase of the acquisition process. The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense OASD has mandated that COEAs are to be an integral part of the acquisition process. The COEA information gathering or sharing process is not well defined. Areas within the COEA process affected are the coordination of common elements of information required, the data collection, and the generation of possible solutions. …

The Effects Of Violations Of Bar Chart Standards On Managerial Decision Making, Jeanne E. Tennison, Phillip G. Puglisi

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigated whether a difference in data display, modes or a difference in data trends affected mid-level Air Force managers trend impressions, risk assessments. and loan decisions. By presenting data in four different modes, and by three data trends, a 4 x 3 factorial design experiment was prepared 180 subjects were tested, 15 in each of the twelve treatment cells. Each subject viewed three graphs or tables and made a decision based on the trend observed, their assessment of the trend, and a decision table. At the end of the experiment. they were asked for their impression of the …

Measuring Press Release Placement From Brigham Young University's Public Communications Office To Utah's Newspapers, Gregory T. Kunde

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a replication of a study conducted at Oklahoma State University in 1986. This study measures the percentage of Brigham Young University press releases published in Utah newspapers during a four month period in 1989. The results of the two studies are analyzed and compared.

Additionally, personal interviews were conducted with thirty Utah newspaper editors to help determine any additional factors that may affect publishing decisions among Utah's newspaper editors.

The Effects Of Iconic Presentation On Individuals, Ellen T. Barber, Elizabeth C. Dunn

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigated whether individuals interpreted iconic graphs differently than traditional graphs. A literature review revealed a lack of current research concerning iconic graphs. Using guidelines previously created for high-integrity graphics, a timed, pretest-posttest experiment was developed to compare the impressions rendered by both traditional and iconic graphs to determine whether men and women interpret the two types of graphs in the same way. It was also used to determine whether traditional bar graphs or iconic graphs were preferred by the subjects. Ninety-nine subjects, all employees of the Royal Australian Air Force/ United States Air Force, or defense contractors, were …

Structured Hypermedia Application Development Model (Shadm): A Structured Model For Technical Documentation Application Design, Peter W. Cassell

Theses and Dissertations

This research was conducted to determine how a Royal Australian Air Force technical maintenance publication could be transformed into a task oriented hypermedia application and to develop a model that could be used for future similar transformations. The model was developed following in-depth analysis of the existing USAF F-15E maintenance publication set and validation was conducted using a prototype developed in HyperWriter, a commercial hypermedia product. The prototype model was based around the performance of three maintenance tasks on an aircraft sub-subsystem and incorporated online user access to the necessary support data for task completion. Publication managers, producers, and users …

A Study Of The Adoption And Effectiveness Of Electronic Mail At The Air Force Institute Of Technology, Douglas D. White

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigated the relationship between the adoption and effectiveness of electronic mail at the Air Force institute of Technology's School of Systems and Logistics (LS). In this research, theories concerning innovation adoption and measurement of system effectiveness are discussed. Survey instruments from both areas were selected, tested, and used to collect data from the LS faculty and staff. Correlation analysis was performed using the data collected. Findings indicate a correlation does exist between the adoption of electronic mail and the effectiveness surrogate measurement, user satisfaction. There was a significantly strong negative correlation between electronic mail complexity and user satisfaction.

Cultural Dimensions Of International Business, Anthony L. Amadeo

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify cultural factors which impede international business in private and public programs, and emphasize the effects of these cultural factors in the international environment. The study emphasized the areas of international program management and negotiations. The study was designed to be an informative guide which program management and contracting professionals could use to increase awareness concerning cultural differences and the barriers presented by them. The study also identified lessons learned to effectively deal with these cultural barriers.

An Analysis Of The Media Coverage Of The Internment Of The American Japanese During The Second World War, Vincent Fernando Arraya

Theses and Dissertations

In World War II, many Americans felt fortunate and proud to live in a democratic society based on the constitutionally guaranteed rights of all individuals. At the same time, the U.S. government was completely disregarding the civil rights of 110,000 American residents, including 70,000 U.S. citizens. They were forced to evacuate their homes and were placed in internment camps surrounded by armed guards and barbed wire. The only criterion for the actions against them was their Japanese ancestry and the military necessity was the reason given for the actions, but marital law was never declared.

Age, Gender, And Religious Differences In Moral Perspective, Samuel L. Clay

Theses and Dissertations

An investigation was conducted to see if age and gender are related to a preference for a caring versus a justice morality. The World View Questionnaire with 40 word pairs was used to measure a preference for a caring morality. It was found that there was a significant gender difference in the caring score, with the females scoring higher than the males. There also was a significant religious difference in the caring score with religious and especially Mormon subjects scoring higher than non-religious subjects. There was not, however, a significant age difference as was predicted.

Competitive Fire: An Historical Descriptive Analysis Of Adherence To Traditional Journalistic Tenets In Television News Coverage Of The Mark Hofmann Salt Lake City Bombings, B. William Silcock

Theses and Dissertations

Television news contains factors of time constraints and deadlines that add pressures to the underlying rules of objectivity, fairness, and bias. This study seeks to determine if the elements of "responsible journalism" dissipate in television news coverage of a highly significant, developing news story. In other words, how well do the rules hold up under pressure? The momentous story selected for observation was the Mark Hofmann bombings in Salt Lake City, Utah. The focus centered on the coverage by local stations rather than the network television news operations.

A Critical Analysis Of Cbs Evening News Coverage Of Two U.S.-U.S.S.R. Summit Meetings: Vienna 1979 And Geneva 1985, James M. Ellis Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Nearly four hours of CBS Evening News summit reports, loaned by the Vanderbilt Television News Archive, were coded to construct a descriptive analysis and comparison of the coverage of the 1979 and 1985 summit meetings. Variables coded include speaker, language, origin of video and audio content, topic and quoted sources. Soviet speakers and topics were given proportionately more air time in 1985 than in 1979. But despite large differences in several important areas such as Soviet willingness to communicate via television, different leaders and their images, geopolitical factors, and improved video technology, many patterns of coverage showed similarities from 1979 …

The Public Speaking Of John Taylor: Champion Of Liberty, Larry D. Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

The speaking of John Taylor influenced the lives of Latter-day Saints for five decades. He delivered between two and three thousand addresses. In those addresses he promulgated a diversity of principles concerning the kingdom of God. This study focused on Taylor's ideas regarding liberty. Those ideas were often found in Taylor's speaking between 1857 and 1867. It was a time of threatened liberties for the people he lead. His speeches during those years played a significant part in swaying politcal and military efforts, as well as bolstering Mormon determination.

This study found that Taylor's ideas of liberty are based largely …

A Descriptive Analysis Of The Current Status Of Paid Religious Broadcasting On National Television, Wayne R. Bills

Theses and Dissertations

In examining the use of paid television by various evangelical organizations (the "Electronic Church") as contrasted with its use by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), several important differences were discovered. First, the programs of the electronic church are usually designed much like a normal Sunday service with a "preacher" and "congregation" (the T.V. viewers). The LDS approach has been to communicate religious principles through the use of a story. Their productions are attractive to a large audience because they often feature a well-known television or motion picture celebrity, and are aired during prime-time viewing hours.

The …

Belle S. Spafford: Leader Of Women, Gayle Morby Chandler

Theses and Dissertations

This historical/descriptive study analyzes the speaking career of Belle S. Spafford and attempts to document the relationship between her speaking and her influence with her peers. For over fifty years, the dedicated woman served as a spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the National Council of Women, briding the gap between the secular and religious world of women. A rhetorical analysis of four speeches indicates the following findings: Mrs. Spafford appealed to her audiences through a focus on shared values; she had credibility because of her positions of authority and used it wisely; she effectively …

A History Of The Development And Objectives Of The Lds Church News Section Of The Deseret News, Paul T. Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

The Church News supplement to the Deseret News has been part of the Salt Lake City newspaper for over fifty years. It has evolved from a weekly eight-page tabloid religious section of the daily newspaper to a weekly magazine of feature articles, photographs, editorials and news of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
An historical study of the Church News has not been done previously. Hence, the intent of this study is to observe how the Church News has served its purposes and goals over its history. The study briefly outlines how the publication has developed and will …

An Analysis Of The Speaking Style Of Heber C. Kimball: Mormon Leader, James Francis O'Connor

Theses and Dissertations

The primary function of this thesis was to determine, through the analysis of three randomly selected speeches, the speaking style of Heber C. Kimball. The selected speeches were presented in three different utah locations, and they covered a span of nine years (1856-65). All three speeches were presented to a Mormon audience and were religious in nature.

Seven elements of style have been used for the analysis of the three speeches. They are: accuracy, clarity, propriety, economy, force, striking quality, and liveliness. It was determined that President Kimball's speaking style was weak in the areas of accuracy and clarity. In …

An Analysis Of The Immediate And Long-Range Implications Of Three Speeches Delivered By J. Reuben Clark, Jr., David Earl Buchanan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to provide an analysis of the immediate and long-range implications of three speeches: (1) August 8,1938, (2) September 19, 1952, and (3) September 19, 1956, which J. Reuben Clark, Jr. delivered during the annual Pre-School Faculty Conference at Brigham Young University. The speeches were analyzed and compared to determine the goals and charges given and to determine whether there was carry-over from speech to speech.

The significant findings included: (1) The LDS Church school system is to be manned only by those individuals who have strong, undeviating testimonies of a living Savior, of the …

The Public Relations Practices Of Directors Of Institutes Of Religion Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints In California, 1974-75, Ronald Charl Louw

Theses and Dissertations

Seventy-five directors of the Institutes of Religion of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California, responded to a questionnaire regarding their public relations' practices. Institute directors with formal training in public relations utilized more practices, an average of 30.4, than directors without formal training who used an average of 26.9 practices. Institute directors in different locations (divisions) did not differ in the average number of practices used. Seventeen percent of the directors had structured public relations' programs. Directors emphasized more frequently public relations practices relating to priesthood leaders (72 percent) and students (67 percent) than practices relating …

Basic Principles Of Orally Communicating The Gospel As Found In The Doctrine And Covenants, Reed Amussen Benson

Theses and Dissertations

In view of the large lay ministry of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who are called upon to preach and teach the gospel, this study was undertaken to see if the latter-day volume of scripture, the Doctrine and Covenants, revealed basic principles associated with the oral communication of the gospel.

These principles became evident through the frequency that they were mentioned and the emphasis they received. They were (1) righteousness, in particular diligence, humility and meekness, prayer and fasting; (2) knowledge; (3) authority; (4) the right means of communicating; (5) the correct message--with the gospel, testimony, and …

A Q-Sort Comparison Between Cultural Expectations Of Chinese And Cultural Perceptions Of Returned Latter-Day Saint Missionaries From The United States Who Had Been Assigned To Chinese Missions, Gary G. Y. Chu

Theses and Dissertations

This project was designed to generate information relative to a specific intercultural communication situation, especially directed toward diversity between cultural expectation and performance in the following areas: first, Chinese expectation of American Latter-day Saint missionaries' performance in Chinese contexts; and second, performance of the missionaries, as reflected by their knowledge of proper conduct in Chinese contexts at the end of their missions.

Using Q-card sorting procedures and t-test analysis, an analytically developed instrument consisting of seventy statements grouped in six behavior categories was applied in the specific areas. Twenty-nine of the seventy statements showed significant diversity. Four of the hypothesized …

An Analysis Of Visual Religious Symbols Appearing In The Improvement Era, Ensign, And New Era Published By The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints From 1952-1972, Carl Landus Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the appearance of eighty visual religious symbols in the Improvement Era, Ensign, and New Era, published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1952-1972. The study notes their frequency and distribution as well as noting their size, the medium used to render them and the correlation of their religious meanings to the articles they illustrate.

The findings of this study indicate that visual religious symbols are used and that many of them have a high degree of correlation to the articles they illustrate.

This study gives suggestions to those artists who …

Mormonism In National Periodicals, 1961-1970, Dale P. Pelo

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the image of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as reflected in articles appearing in general national periodicals of the United States during the decade 1961-1970. All articles listed in Readers Guide to Periodical Literature under the heading "Mormons and Mormonism" or related topics were searched. A rating system as devised by Dr. Richard O. Cowan in his work "Momonism in National Periodicals" was implemented.

Publication Design For The Youth Of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints, Peggy H. Proctor

Theses and Dissertations

The problem of this study is to determine what elements are significant in creating a periodical for LDS youth that will be competitive with the attractions of other published materials currently available to youth without sacrificing LDS standards.

An Analysis Of The Speaking Style Of Charles W. Penrose, Kent Shelley Davis

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to determine the public speaking style of Charles W. Penrose. The problem was investigated by using the elements of a speaking situation, the speaker, the speech, the audience, and the occasion. Three speeches were used; namely, "Remarks on Union" given on January 19, 1879, "Women Suffrage" given on June 3, 1889, and "Graphic Glimpses of Pioneer Life" given on February 4, 1924. Seven selected criteria were used as guidelines for the evaluation of the speeches; namely, accuracy, clarity, propriety, economy, force, striking quality, and liveliness.

The following conclusions resulted from the evaluation of the …

A History Of The Photojournalism Department Of The Deseret News 1948 To 1970, Richard J. Nye

Theses and Dissertations

The photojournalism department of the Deseret News is presently one of the most highly organized and productive departments within the newspaper itself. Major changes in staffing and management of the photo lab have been made since 1948, resulting in a more efficient department. Deseret News staff photographers are skilled in their profession and are proud to be a part of the newspaper staff.

The Deseret News has a colorful history, from its beginning in 1850 with all the trials that accompany a growing newspaper up to and including the establishment of the Newspaper Agency Corporation in 1952. It is a …