Communication Commons^™

Bias In The Evaluation Process: Influences Of Speaker Order, Speaker Quality, And Gender On Rater Error In The Performance Based Course, Paul D. Turman, Matthew H. Barton

Basic Communication Course Annual

This study examines how variations in speaker order increase the potential for rater error in the performance based course. Seventy-six undergraduate raters were randomly assigned to one of eight treatment groups and asked to grade eight-week training course. Speaker order and presentation quality varied across groups and an ANOVA was used to examine significant differences across rater assessments, feedback quality and rater gender. Significant main effects were identified in each of the eight treatment groups suggesting that speaker order influenced rater scoring.

Written Speech Feedback In The Basic Communication Course: Are Instructors Too Polite?, Dana L. Reynolds, Stephen K. Hunt, Cheri J. Simonds, Craig W. Cutbirth

Basic Communication Course Annual

The present study investigates written performance feedback through the lens of politeness theory. Study 1 examined the types of comments instructors offer to students when they provide written feedback on speeches as well as the relationship between these comments and students' grades.

Results demonstrate that instructors used an overabundance of positive politeness messages and virtually no negative politeness messages. Students who received a higher grade were more likely to receive fewer face threats and more positive politeness messages than those students' who received a lower grade. The results also suggest that instructors are more willing to threaten a students' negative …

Communication Lab Peer Facilitators: What's In It For Them?, M. Tanya Bran-Barrett, Judith A. Rolls

Basic Communication Course Annual

Peer tutors have been used extensively within the communication discipline to enhance students' learning experiences (Hill, 1981; Webb & Lane, 1986). Research suggests that peer tutoring can have positive rewards for tutors and tutees (Goodland & Hurst, 1989; Topping, 1996). However, there is little to no research that explores the benefits received by peer tutors who run small group communication lab sessions for basic communication course students.

The qualitative data from focus group indicate that peer facilitators experienced: 1) self-development in terms of their self-esteem, confidence, and respect from themselves and others; 2) improved public speaking skills and better interpersonal …

Speech Laboratories: An Exploratory Examination Of Potential Pedagogical Effects On Studies, Adam C. Jones, Stephen K. Hunt, Cheri J. Simonds, Mark E. Comadena, John R. Baldwin

Basic Communication Course Annual

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects speech laboratories have on students enrolled in basic public speaking courses. Specifically, the researchers attempted to gain a student perspective about visiting a speech laboratory through qualitative methods. Ten semi-structured student interviews were conducted and the collected data were transcribed verbatim before being analyzed using the constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985).

The results of the analysis provide initial support that speech laboratories do, to some degree, assist students with their public speaking skills and help them manage their public speaking anxiety.

Creating A Dialogue For Change: Educating Graduate Teaching Assistants In Whiteness Studies, Kristen P. Treinen

Basic Communication Course Annual

Research indicates that minority students are underrepresented in our classroom curriculum (Churchill, 1995; Delpit, 1995; Ladson-Billings, 1994). Our schools are often entrenched in the Eurocentric model of education from content to methodology. In this paper, I discuss antiracist pedagogy and whiteness studies, offer a justification for utilizing antiracist pedagogy with work in whiteness studies in the communication classroom, and provide one model for incorporating antiracist pedagogical practice with graduate teaching assistants. This essay is intended to help create a dialogue with GTAs, basic course directors, and communication faculty about antiracist practices in the communication classroom.

From Spectators Of Public Affairs To Agents Of Social Change: Engaging Students In The Basic Course Through Service-Learning, Lynn M. Harter, Erika L. Kirby, Katherine L. Hatfield, Karla N. Kuhlman

Basic Communication Course Annual

Much literature bemoans the attitudes of Generation X (and their successors) toward civic participation (e.g., Putnam, 2000) and indeed education itself (e.g., Sacks, 1996). However, we have found students to be highly engaged when they have opportunities for active learning, such as those found in well designed service learning projects. We see this pedagogy as a small antidote to the sense of powerlessness that often pervades our culture. Drawing on diverse literatures, we explore theoretical reasons for using service-learning and illustrate its usefulness in speech communication basic course. Our discussion is organized around two key themes: (a) connection of self …

Special Forum On The Philosophy Of Teaching Education As Communication: The Pragmatist Tradition, Chad Edwards, Gregory J. Shepherd

Basic Communication Course Annual

We take the basic course in communication to be a site where associated living is experienced, and where individuals practice the democratic art of referencing and articulating their own behaviors and beliefs to those of others. This democratic practice is associated living is, as American pragmatist and educational philosopher John Dewey insisted, communication itself -- "conjoint communicated experience." In this essay, we provide an overview of this pragmatist educational metaphysic and discuss a few consequences of metaphysical beliefs about education.

Teaching And Learning In The Spirit Of Friendship, William K. Rawlins

Basic Communication Course Annual

This article discusses how the ideals and practices of friendship can provide an edifying ethic for the interactions and relationships of educators and students in the basic communication course. It examines three facets of friendship in the Western tradition, four dialectical tensions of the educational friendship, a collection of six virtues associated with teaching as friendship, and some limitations of the educational friendship.

Native Virtues: Traditional Sioux Philosophy And The Contemporary Basic Communication Course, Daniel P. Modaff

Basic Communication Course Annual

Teaching and learning in the basic communication course can be informed by the traditional Sioux virtues of bravery, generosity, fortitude and wisdom. The virtues are forwarded as a set of ideas that may equip the reader with an alternative way to think about course material, pedagogical practices, and classroom interrelationships. The essay concludes with the limitations of an concerns with the virtues in the contemporary basic course.

Taking Risks And Embracing Difference, Margaret R. Laware

Basic Communication Course Annual

Thinking about the public speaking classroom as public space provides a generative metaphor as long as critiques of public space, particularly feminist critiques, and critical pedagogy theory are considered. These critiques recognize the importance of encouraging students to engage with the public world in such a way that they see their own paper to effect change. Risk-taking and confronting issues of racism and sexism are integral to this process.

Special Forum On The Philosophy Of Teaching: A Synthesis And Response, Jo Sprague

Basic Communication Course Annual

The ways that an individual professor, a department, or a campus talks about the basic communication course can be arrayed along a broad spectrum of attitudes. At one end of a continuum are those who look at the course with a blend of intellectual contempt and embarrassment (Burgoon, 1989) or who believe that an assignment to teach such a course counts as penance or banishment. For many or most of our colleagues the characterizations fall in a more positive central zone, construing the course as a rich source of student enrollment or a fertile recruiting ground for majors.

The authors …

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Basic Communication Course Annual

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Basic Communication Course Annual

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Basic Communication Course Annual Vol. 16

Basic Communication Course Annual

Full Issue (332 Pages, 3.945 MB)

Index Of Titles Volumes 1-15; Index Of Authors Volumes 1-15

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Back Cover

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Endless Enlightenment: Eye-Operated Technology And The Political Economy Of Vision, Michael Gardiner

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Despite a residual popular temptation to see the posts of cultural analysis as signs of temporal closure, the logic of global visual media is strengthening, not weakening, metaphors of visibility which remain intact from the Enlightenment. Here I describe a stand-off between post-Enlightenment critiques (as in some sectors of Cultural Studies) and a narrow power base which is defined by producing light and managing the very conditions of visibility. For the world's most powerful state, still strongly bound to its original Enlightenment foundations, intervention into other states' sovereignty is increasingly justified by evidence from spy planes (rather than …

From Guerrilla Theater To Media Warfare Abbie Hoffman's Riotous Revolution In America: A Myth, Bruce Eric France, Jr.

LSU Master's Theses

The following thesis is a discussion of the radical activist Abbie Hoffman's theatrical work to revolutionize the United States. What the author does is explain the historical uniqueness of Hoffman's theatrical techniques as tools for social change. What made Abbie Hoffman such a unique character from that already bizarre and devastating time in the United States known as The Sixties was his ability to infuse pot with politics, fun with social activism and cultural change with his contemporary means of communication. He was able to excite and activate a whole generation of people who would otherwise drop out of society …

A Historical Perspective Of Governor Mike Foster's "Live Mike" Radio Program, Wayne Wynn,Iii Williams

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana Governor Mike Foster took to the airwaves on August 10, 2000 with the launch of “Live Mike,” his weekly radio program that would air for 41 weeks during Foster’s second term. Foster, a Republican, served as Governor of Louisiana from January 1996 until January 2004. This study historically chronicles Governor Mike Foster’s weekly radio program, “Live Mike” during and prior to its four years on the air. This historical narrative illustrates how Foster intermingled radio, politics and his personal life to create a weekly radio program that he attempted to use during his second term to relay his message …

Credibility And Authority On Internet Message-Boards, Ryan Goudelocke

LSU Master's Theses

This research aimed to provide some proof or refutation of the hypothesis that online communities develop specialized vocabularies, often technical jargon, and use elements of those vocabularies, here labeled “tokens,” to ascribe credibility and/or authority to other posters. The literature from a variety of communications fields relating to this topic was summarized as a progression from an early “limitations” model of computer-mediated communication (CMC) to a later “opportunities” model. The drawbacks of current research were outlined and some new paths were sketched, including the methodology employed here. Several discussions from different Web sites, each containing hundreds of posts, were tabulated …

Country Roads Magazine: Has The Move From The "Country" Influenced Baton Rouge Advertisers' Buying Habits, Arianne Parker Bellizaire

LSU Master's Theses

Country Roads magazine celebrated its 20th anniversary in September of 2003. Founded by Dorcas Woods Brown in 1983, the publication prides itself on offering its readers a cultural events guide showcasing events, festivals and destinations from Natchez, Mississippi, to New Orleans, Louisiana. Readers have watched the magazine evolve over the years. However, nearly two years ago, readers experienced one of the biggest changes. The magazine moved its headquarters from St. Francisville to Baton Rouge. This study evaluated Baton Rouge advertisers' reactions the move. The researcher modified and tested the Country-of-Origin Effects (COO) on a smaller scale by examining City-of-Origin effects. …

Deterrence Factors For Copyright Infringement Online, Nico Nergadze

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate deterrence factors for online file-sharing by analyzing different conditions that affect compliance with the law through survey of the students in a large university in Southern U.S. The findings show that certainty of punishment, stigma of the label, knowledge of the laws and consensus with the rule negatively correlated with both actual and likely future file-sharing activities of the users

Direct-To-Consumer Advertising Of Prescription Medicines: Framing With Imprecise Frequency Descriptors, Mikah Zangla

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of the study was to determine how often and to what degree “imprecise frequency descriptors” are used in prescription drug print ads. These descriptors along with the side effects they describe were compared to their corresponding prescription medicine websites and analyzed to determine whether or not the general public is being misinformed and/or misled in terms of side effect warnings by current drug advertising. Content analysis of Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) prescription drug advertisements found in five of the top seven magazines most likely to be consumed by readers over age 65 was the method of investigation for this study. …

The Sports Appeal: Are Atheletics A Viable Academic Marketing Vehicle In Higher Education?, Reagan Thomas Chenevert

LSU Master's Theses

Universities are beginning to brand themselves. The days when the doors to higher-ed opened and students flooded into the classrooms are no more. Colleges have to find ways to separate themselves from each other in a noisy marketplace. Also there is a decline in newsroom resources for academic coverage, which leaves university marketers searching for ways to communicate their messages. However, universities have another available marketing outlet, which is not seeing declining media attention: sports. College sports are a big business, which generate national media attention. The Southeastern Conference had revenues of over $100 million from the marketing of its …

The Portrayals Of Minority Characters In Entertaining Animated Children's Programs, Siobhan Elizabeth Smith

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to note, categorize, and discuss the stereotypes of African Americans in animated children’s cartoons. The purpose is also to compare them to see how they changed. A content analysis of two cartoons finds that characters do act in stereotypical ways. A quantitative analysis of 76 cartoons supports these findings. Overall, The Proud Family, a cartoon of the 21st century, is more stereotypical than Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, a cartoon from 30 years ago. Though primary characters display the same amount of stereotypical behavior, secondary characters show an increase in the amount of …

Audiating The Lsu Drumline: An Ethnographic Performance, Andrew Michael Causey

LSU Master's Theses

This is an ethnographic study of the drumline of the LSU Marching Band and the mock-fraternity they created called Phi Boota roota (ΦBr). I argue that ΦBr was created as a site to flesh out the various tensions members experience as members of the LSU drumline; they create a rite of passage ritual that functions as a carnivalesque and celebratory inversion of the system they find themselves submerged within. Phi Boota roota marks a created articulation of the transition members make when they become part of the larger ritual of Tigerband; it is a voluntary or liminoid ritual that allows …

A Performance Genealogy Of "Etchings Of Debutantes", Melanie A. Kitchens

LSU Master's Theses

In this thesis history performs that which Della Pollock terms “historicity” in her “Introduction” to Exceptional Spaces: Essays in Performance and History. History as historicity is no longer an evolutionary master narrative that dictates essential Truths. Rather, it is a site for performance where unfinalized and partial fragments of the past cluster into stories that mingle fact and fiction. Historicity defines a space or an event where history is a doing. The performer of this history embraces agency, which she uses to place herself within history rather than dominate or be dominated by it. Observing history as historicity, Joseph Roaches …

A Case Study Of The National Advancement Plan At Louisiana State University As Implemented By The Lsu Foundation In The Memphis, Tennessee, Area, Elizabeth Nealy

LSU Master's Theses

Because university foundations are facing increased pressures as the result of declining funds and increased competition, they must learn to use more effectively a wide range of marketing activities and demographic segmentation. Prospect identification may be one such tool. The literature on non-profit philanthropy suggests that the demographic segmentation of alumni and prospect screening and subsequent identification may serve as appropriate criteria. This case study examines how giving levels, involvement levels and attitudes of donors may vary as a result of the implementation of the National Advancement Plan, a systematic peer screening model and communications tool developed for a university …

"Don't Pooh-Pooh Our Poo Poo": Penalty, Subsidy, And Refusal To Fund In The Aftermath Of National Endowment For The Arts V. Finley, James Gaddy

LSU Master's Theses

Legal scholars said the National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley decision would create a "chilling effect" in government subsidy programs, and it unlawfully expanded the government speech doctrine. By analyzing cases that subsequently use Finley for a substantive part of their rationale, this article argues the opposite: the courts have rejected the government's attempts to interpret the decision as one that allows viewpoint discrimination and have not allowed the government to further a broad reading of the decision. The article also argues that, under the government speech doctrine, Finley provides the controlling precedent for truly "hybrid speech" cases where …

Lost In "Conceptual Space" : Metaphors Of Conceptual Integration, L. David Ritchie

Communication Faculty Publications and Presentations

Conceptual integration theory (Fauconnier & Turner, 1998, 2002) is re-examined in the light of recent criticisms (e.g., Gibbs, 2000, 2001). It is argued that the assumption of four independent "cognitive spaces" enters the model primarily as an entailment of the "space," "blending," and "construction" metaphors, leads to unnecessary ambiguity, and works against statement of the theory in a form that supports derivation of testable hypotheses. Several examples from Fauconnier and Turner (2002) are analyzed to show that they can be interpreted more simply, without need of four separate "spaces." Suggestions are made for reformulating conceptual integration theory without the problematic …