Communication Commons^™

Emergent Literacy Activities In Preschool Years : The Effects Of Explicit Instruction On Rhyming And Narrative Development, Kristie Dawn Callihan

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Reading, a vitally important skill, develops early in a young child’s life. Research suggests that strong phonological awareness and narrative skills predict reading success. Using children’s literature that emphasized either rhymes (one of the earliest phonological awareness skills to emerge) or narrative structure, this study examined the effect of explicit teaching of rhymes and narrative structure on young children’s improvement in the ability to recognize and generate rhyming words and on improvement in the sophistication of narrative retellings. The results of this study, as well as the implications these findings have for speech-language pathologists and the need for further research, …

Sphericules And Fragments: Minding The Gaps, Ted M. Coopman

Faculty Publications

Michael McGee exemplified the scholar embracing all tools and ideas, the fragments that make up our existence, in exploring and explaining our world. I argue that bridging the gaps that separate these fragments, or what Gitlin (1989) called sphericules, is the essence of what constitutes public scholarship. Starting from Habermas' (1989) description of the public sphere I explore how interdisciplinarity holds the keys to bridging the gaps between publics. I supported this with a discussion of the history of academe in America and the brief survey of the new infrastructures being built to expand our fields of exploration and the …

Montana Journalism Review, 2003, University Of Montana--Missoula. School Of Journalism

Montana Journalism Review

Big Sky News the Io-way -- Pot Shots in Cut Bank -- The Next Generation -- Blacklists, Dirty Laundry -- Access-cutting bills collapse -- Not Guilty of Lying -- To Baghdad and back -- Antietam to Afghanistan -- Rebuilding a free press -- Tales of Endurance -- Humble Humorist -- Tears behind the laughter -- Iraq war or Final Four? -- Gay wedding announcements -- The ultimate in irony -- New Recruits -- Journalism in Germany -- Growth of the alt-weakly

Environmental Sovereignty Discourse Of The Brazilian Amazon: National Politics And The Globalization Of Indigenous Resistance, Anne Marie Todd

Faculty Publications

This analysis explores the connection between globalization and national identity in cultural expressions of environmental sovereignty. Competing claims to resources in the Brazilian Amazon reflect changing notions of state authority and the role of indigenous citizens in protection of biodiversity. The debate between Brazilian state governments and the Yanomami Indians and seringueiros (Brazilian Rubber Tapper communities) illustrates the complex interaction of national identity and expressions of local culture in a global ecological context.

Queer/Crip: The First Queer Disability Conference, Walter (Peter) Penrose

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

The Queer Disability Conference, the first conference of its kind ever, held on June 2 and 3 at San Francisco State University, began with great enthusiasm of the participants, many of whom identified as both disabled and queer in some fashion or another. The opening plenary included an intersex activist, who discussed feelings of not being safe in a world where binary notions of sex and gender make being intersex perilous, and hoping that s/he would feel safe at the conference. A diverse group of activists, academics, and disabled queers provided for an interesting mix of perspectives.

The Effects Of Acculturation On The L2 Learner, Raya C. Longto

MA TESOL Collection

This paper deals with the deconstruction of a novel (A Sprig of Lemon Blossom) written on the subject of Acculturation. Since the latter half of the twentieth century the world has traveled at an incredible speed towards globalization. Given this reality the number of people who constantly travel abroad for a variety of career and work related purposes is growing by the hour. Under the circumstances the theme of acculturation has become crucial as without an adequate form of this phenomenon people cannot function to the best of their abilities. The deconstruction of this novel addresses the three-fold process of …

Their Own Best Resources: Students And Real-World Interaction, Observation, And Reflection, Brenda Ferreira

MA TESOL Collection

Students can use their experiences outside the ESL classroom to facilitate their own learning of culture and communicative competency. In a course I continue to design, students prepare for real-world interactions and learning. They practice communication strategies and discuss topics largely of their own choosing in a multi-cultural context. They then go out into the community to make cultural and communicative observations, and interact with native- and non-native speakers of English. This IPP presents various definitions of culture and communicative competency and gives suggestions for in-class and real-world activities, including communication tasks, observations, and reflections through journal writing.

Message Deleted? Resolving Physician-Patient E-Mail Through Contract Law, Michael Mccann

Law Faculty Scholarship

This article examines the impact of e-mail on the physician-patient relationship, and how contract law can resolve the uncertainties incumbent in this nascent form of communication. Significantly, courts have yet to indicate when the physician-patient relationship begins by e-mail, or to what extent e-mail affects the duties of the relationship. Instead of waiting for judicial guidance, physicians and patients can employ specialized contracts to clarify the role that e-mail plays in their relationship. As a result, more physicians and patients will regard e-mail correspondence as a valuable means of communication, and a tool for improving the quality of health care …

In The Deep Valley With Mountains To Climb: Exploring Identity And Multiple Reacculturation, Chukwuka Onwumechili, Peter Nwosu, Ronald Jackson, Jacqueline James-Hughes

Department of Strategic, Legal, and Management Communications Faculty Publications

It is rare to find studies that focus on the multiple reacculturation of travelers who regularly alternate residences between their homeland and a host foreign country. These travelers are best described as intercultural transients. It is difficult to exactly say how many transients exist today because of the lack of accurate data. What is clear, however, is that the number is increasing because of improved global transportation and the large economic gaps between nations (World Telecommunications Development Report, Author, 1994). In an effort to extend general knowledge as well as consequences of intercultural adjustment, this conceptual-theoretic study facilitates understanding of …

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 4 2003, Several Authors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Maintaining Undesired Relationships, Jon A. Hess

Communication Faculty Publications

As social creatures, we spend our lives in the company of others, rather than in isolation. Consequently, we maintain many relationships out of need rather than desire. Unfortunately, some of these relationships are ones that we would not maintain if given a choice. Although a considerable amount of research on relational dynamics can be applied to unwanted relationships, scholars have made little attempt to generate an integrated overview of what communication characteristics typify such relationships, how they differ from desirable relationships, or how they should best be maintained.

The maintenance of unwanted relationships piques public interest. Articles with titles such …

Ua1bc Final Report Of 2002-2003 Wku Technology Advisory Council Meetings, Western Kentucky University

WKU Administration Documents

The WKU Technology Advisory Council was established on November 8, 2002. It is comprised of faculty, deans, department heads, directors and students. This report contains summaries of meeting minutes and list of committee members.

Practicing Attention In Media Culture, Mary E. Hess

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Concept Of Interest In The Western And Middle Eastern Society, Mustapha Ben Amira

Theses Digitization Project

The entire banking systems in the western societies is based on the use of interest. The bank charges the borowers interest on its loans and pays its depositors interest on their deposits. On the other hand, the Middle Eastern banking system is an interest free system that prohibits the use of interest, either in receipt or in payment.

Generalized Metrics And Uniquely Determined Logic Programs, Pascal Hitzler, Anthony K. Seda

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

The introduction of negation into logic programming brings the benefit of enhanced syntax and expressibility, but creates some semantical problems. Specifically, certain operators which are monotonic in the absence of negation become non-monotonic when it is introduced, with the result that standard approaches to denotational semantics then become inapplicable. In this paper, we show how generalized metric spaces can be used to obtain fixed-point semantics for several classes of programs relative to the supported model semantics, and investigate relationships between the underlying spaces we employ. Our methods allow the analysis of classes of programs which include the acyclic, locally hierarchical, …

Semantic N-Gram Language Modeling With The Latent Maximum Entropy Principle, Shaojun Wang, Dale Schuurmans, Fuchun Peng, Yunxin Zhao

Kno.e.sis Publications

We describe a unified probabilistic framework for statistical language modeling-the latent maximum entropy principle-which can effectively incorporate various aspects of natural language, such as local word interaction, syntactic structure and semantic document information. Unlike previous work on maximum entropy methods for language modeling, which only allow explicit features to be modeled, our framework also allows relationships over hidden features to be captured, resulting in a more expressive language model. We describe efficient algorithms for marginalization, inference and normalization in our extended models. We then present experimental results for our approach on the Wall Street Journal corpus.

Border Disorder: Image Maintenance On The U.S.-Mexico Border, Richard Pineda

Selected Works Temporary Series

Peter Andreas. Border Games: Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000. ix-152 pages. Notes and index. $39.95.

Narrative Versus Traditional Journalism: Appeal, Believability, Understanding, Retention, John David Emig

Theses Digitization Project

Narrative journalism has enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in mainstream daily newspapers in the United States during the last decade. This popularity has encouraged many journalistic experts to proclaim that narrative journalism is well-liked by readers and may well become the savior of daily newspapering. This study attempts to determine reader preferences in four areas : appeal, believability, comprehension, and retention.

Los Angeles Archdiocese Child Sexual Abuse Scandal: A Case Study In Crisis Communication, Miranda Belinda Sagala

Theses Digitization Project

This thesis examined strategies employed by the Los Angeles Archdiocese in its communcation with the media during the initial phases of handling the child sexual abuse scandal. Internal and external messages from the archdiocese were analyzed in terms of how well they conformed to the five generally accepted principles that should govern crisis communication: timeliness, openness, honesty, regret and accessibility.

Vigorous Debate And Rigorous Inquiry, Alisa Solomon

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Our newsletter goes to press on the eve of President Bush's State of the Union address, in which he is expected to argue for going to war against Iraq. By the time this newsletter reaches you, the war may already have started. It's a frightening moment, to say the least. Meanwhile free speech and civil liberties are being curtailed in the name of security and scholars and researchers have special reasons to be wary: Archives are shutting off access; the Freedom of Information Act is being gutted; new laws are demanding that when asked by government officials, librarians must turn …

Un’Agra Salita. Lettura Di ‘Autostrada Della Cisa’ Di Vittorio Sereni, Stefano Giannini

Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics - All Scholarship

Luciano Bianciardi (1922-1971) wants to open a dialogue with his friend Vittorio Sereni (1913-1983) through the pages of his best-selling novel La vita agra (1962). Sereni does not respond immediately, and the approach seems not to have received Sereni’s attention. The analysis of Sereni’s 1981 poem “Autostrada della Cisa” proves that he ultimately decided to reply to his friend’s irreverent, yet congenial, comments, albeit nearly 20 years later. This article underlines the existential crisis expressed by Sereni in his poem, accompanied by his willingness to enter into a dialogue with any reader, despite the nihilistic outcomes he foresees. His efforts …

Ua3/9/5 Achievements Of Distinction 2002-2003, Wku President's Office

WKU Administration Documents

Booklet outlining national academic recognition of WKU students and notable achievements of WKU faculty and academic programs.

Web Service: Been There, Done That?, Steffen Staab, Will Van Der Aalst, V. Richard Benjamins, Amit P. Sheth, John A. Miller, Chistoph Bussler, Alexander Maedche, Dieter Fensel, Dennis Gannon

Kno.e.sis Publications

Web services can be defined as loosely coupled, reusable software components that semantically encapsulate discrete functionality and are distributed and programmatically accessible over standard Internet protocols. Web services have received a lot of hype, the reasons for which are not easily determined. Some of their benefits might even seem to waste away, once we touch on the nitty-gritty details, because Web services per se do not offer a solution to underlying problems. The contributions included in this section delve into some of these issues, including: pitfalls of workflow issues; structuring procedural knowledge into problem-solving methods; discussing how a low initial …

Hands, Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

In this ethnographic short story, the author shows end-of-life communication between grandfather, father, and (grand)daughter.

Ua19/16/1 Wku Football Media Guide, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

2003 football media guide produced by WKU Athletic Media Relations, includes athletic records and statistics, photographs, schedule and information regarding opponents.

Religion And Topoi In The News: An Analysis Of The “Unsecular Media” Hypothesis, Rick Clifton Moore

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mark Silk has proposed in Unsecular Media that journalists operate with a limited series of topoi and that these are borrowed from religion. Silk thus claims when journalists write about religion, they do so in a way that ultimately supports religious values. In this study, I apply topic analysis to recent news coverage of Jesse Jackson’s marital infidelity to determine the extent to which the topos of hypocrisy was employed and whether this employment supported or challenged a religious (as opposed to secular) worldview.

Wright State University Women's Soccer Media Guide 2003, Wright State University Athletics

Athletics Publications

A media guide for Wright State University's 2003 Women's Soccer team. This guide includes photographs, player stats, game results, and records.

Self-Esteem, Television Viewing Behavior, And Parasocial Interaction With A Favorite Television Personality, Sarah Beth Neighbor

Theses Digitization Project

This study examined the role of television personalities, television viewing behavior, and self-esteem, on the development of parasocial interaction. Two hundered and twenty six undergraduate and graduate students responded to a questionnaire that asked the students to report who their favorite television personality was as well as their television viewing behavior. In addition, they reponded to statements measuring their level of parasocial interaction with their favourite television personality and their level of self-esteem.

The Virtual Case Study: Using Computer-Mediated Communication In Group Problem Solving, Kristen Lucas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

In today’s technologically advanced business world, organizations are increasingly relying on computer-mediated communication (CMC) in their day-to-day operations. Employees are teleworking instead of commuting to the office, business travel is being replaced by videoconferencing, and problem-solving sessions are moving from conference rooms to computer monitors. This major shift in how business is conducted in the “real world” poses a new set of challenges for effective group communication—challenges for which communication instructors should prepare their students. This activity offers one way in which communication instructors can address the challenges of CMC and achieve the goals of CMC education identified by Witmer …

Perceptions Of Communication In A Family Relationship And The Reduction Of Intergroup Prejudice, Jordan Soliz, Jake Harwood

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

From a contact theory perspective, links between variation in young adults’ perceptions of communication with their grandparents and attitudes toward older adults are examined. The analysis pays particular attention to variation in communication with multiple grandparents and finds links be-tween that and perceived variability in the older adult population as a whole. More variation in perceptions of communication with grandparents is associated with perceptions of older adults as more heterogeneous. However, variation in grandparent relationships is associated with more negative attitudes toward older adults on measures of attitudinal central tendency. The results are dis-cussed in terms of intergroup communication processes, …