Communication Commons^™

Editorial Board

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Editor's Page, Paul Turman

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Contents And Abstracts

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Pedagogy Of Relevance: A Critical Communication Pedagogy Agenda For The 'Basic' Course, Deanna L. Fassett, John T. Warren

Basic Communication Course Annual

In this article, we envision how a critical communication pedagogy approach might lend narrative coherence, intellectual rigor, and a focused agenda to the introductory course. Such a paradigm shift is not only consistent with the trajectory of work in our discipline, but it will likely result in ourselves and others assigning more value and respect to our work with the introductory course. Specifically, we advocate four changes with respect to the introductory course: Challenge “teacher-proof” textbooks and curricula, engage diversity, embrace pedagogy as teaching and research, and recover and reinvigorate communication education research.

Assessing Classroom Management Training For Basic Course Instructors, Kevin R. Meyer, Stephen K. Hunt, Mark E. Comadena, Cheri J. Simonds, Brent K. Simonds, John R. Baldwin

Basic Communication Course Annual

Extant research demonstrates that graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) experience student misbehaviors in the classroom and that basic course administrators should be proactive in preparing GTAs for classroom management issues (Meyer et al., 2007). Following the recommendation for the development of classroom management training (CMT) by Meyer et al. (2007), the present study sought to assess the implementation of CMT. Specifically, a group of GTAs completed the same survey instrument twice following the completion of CMT, once early in the semester and again at the end of the semester.

Results of the present study indicate that GTA reports of student misbehavior …

Traditional Pedagogical Tools: Examining Peer Feedback In The Basic Communication Course, Julie Semlak

Basic Communication Course Annual

Peer feedback is used in many basic communication courses, yet little is known about the pedagogical value of the written peer feedback provided for speakers, or the process of providing peer feedback. Using social learning theory as a theoretical foundation, this study explores the use of peer feedback in the basic communication course.

Findings indicate the content of peer feedback is less useful than instructor feedback for preparing future speeches. However, this study also reveals the process of providing peer feedback provides a model for vicarious learning, allowing basic course students to critically analyze a speech presented by a peer. …

Redesigning Public Speaking: A Case Study In The Use Of Instructional Design To Create The Interchange Model, Marlene M. Preston, J. Matt Giglio, Kristin N. English

Basic Communication Course Annual

This case study describes the redesign of Public Speaking at a Research I institution. An instructional analysis revealed strengths of and concerns about the existing model--large lecture with small lab sections. Criteria for a new model emerged from that analysis, all of which hinged on an overarching goal: The course should incorporate learning theory and disciplinary theory and should result in student learning, student skill development, and enhanced satisfaction among stakeholders. The Interchange Model, which included some online delivery, was developed to meet identified needs and was fleshed out with course materials and semester plans. The model was piloted and …

Grade Distributions In The Basic Public Speaking Course: Exploring The Differences And Pedagogical Implications Of Faculty Rank, Holly J. Payne, Sally O. Hastings

Basic Communication Course Annual

This study examines differences in grade distributions in the introductory public speaking course at two American universities based on instructor rank. A sample of 442 sections with 11,381 students over a 2-year period was collected and analyzed using analysis of variance and chi-square analysis. We found significant differences in grade distributions, with instructors assigning lower grades overall than graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) and adjunct faculty. Instructors assigned significantly more D’s and F’s than tenure/track faculty, adjuncts, and GTAs. Chi-square analysis also revealed instructors and tenure/track faculty assign fewer A’s, but tenure/track faculty assign more B’s than the other faculty groups. …

Race And Resistance In The Communication Classroom, Paul Fotsch

Basic Communication Course Annual

Teaching diversity is no longer segregated to ethnic studies departments or to intercultural communication courses. Consequently, many students have become resistant to the idea of spending time--"yet again"--on the issue of race. Communication scholars have described a kind of resistance found frequently in the basic communication classroom and likewise proposed various responses to this resistance. Through a review of the literature and drawing on my ten years of experience teaching diversity in the university, this essay assesses these responses. One source of white student discomfort comes from the increasing visibility of whiteness, so two strategies used to address this discomfort …

Author Biographies

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Index Of Titles And Authors, Volumes 1-19

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Submission Guidelines

Basic Communication Course Annual

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Back Cover

Basic Communication Course Annual

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The Impact Of Blogs On State Politics, Emily Metzgar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

"Information is the currency of democracy" -Thomas Jefferson This research offers the first comprehensive study of state-focused political bloggers in the United States. Applying original data from the author’s nationwide survey of state-focused bloggers conducted during the summer of 2007, this study addresses three primary research questions: Who are the people creating blogs focused on state politics? What motivates these people to initiate and maintain their blogs? Do these blogs play a discernable role in a given state’s politics, and if so, how? Rooted in the literature of framing; agenda setting; uses and gratifications; news norms and routines; media and …

Mad About The Boy, Debra Mayrhofer

Research outputs pre 2011

The media coverage of an out-of-control teenage party in the Melbourne suburb of Narre Warren on 12 January 2008, and its construction of the protagonist who threw the party, has highlighted once again the inequitable treatment of youth, particularly adolescent males, in the Australian media. This paper examines the coverage in terms of the discursive strategies used by the mainstream Australian media to legitimise and naturalise the denigration and humiliation of the boy involved. It will discuss the ongoing demonisation of young males in general, and the concomitant ‘panics’ about their degeneration into moral lassitude, as well as the particular …

We've Thrown Away The Pens, But Are They Learning? Using Blogs In Higher Education, Katrina Strampel, Ron Oliver

Research outputs pre 2011

In today’s university classrooms, “the time of restricting students products and learning opportunities to ink on paper are past” (Siegle, 2007). Blogs are only one of many computer-mediated technologies starting to dominate blended and wholly online courses. Most people assume that using these technologies, because it is what the students want, will translate into increased learning opportunities. As the literature continuously asserts, however, learning, and especially reflection, does not just happen (Boud, Keogh, & Walker, 1985). It seems imperative, therefore, that extra measures are taken when any technology is being implemented in a university classroom to ensure high levels of …

Photography After The Incidents: We're Not Afraid, Panizza Allmark

Research outputs pre 2011

This article will look at the use of personal photographs that attempt to convey a sense of social activism as a reaction against global terrorism. Moreover, I argue that the photographs uploaded to the site “We’re Not Afraid”, which began after the London bombings in 2005, presents a forum to promote the pleasures of western cultural values as a defence against the anxiety of terror. What is compelling are the ways in which the Website promotes, seemingly, everyday modalities through what may be deemed as the domestic snapshot. Nevertheless, the aura from the context of these images operates to arouse …

History Of The School Of Communication: A Perspective On Communication, Change, And Community, 1985-2008, Victoria Smith Holden

UND Departmental Histories

This departmental history was written on the occasion of the UND Quasquicentennial in 2008.

Conversations On Citizenship: Young People's Perceptions And Performances Of Democratic Citizenship, Katherine Rhodes Knobloch

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate how the practice of democratic citizenship compares to ideals of it. I hope to provide a clear view of what contemporary democratic citizenship means, how this conception has been formed, and how democratic citizenship can be effectively practiced to serve the ideals held by democratic citizens. To do this, this paper will be comprised in several parts. After an initial explanation of the theoretical perspective used, I will explore how democracy was understood and implemented in the formative stages of United States government. Next I review contemporary practices of citizenship before examining …

Seeing (Red): A Qualitative Analysis Of The Product (Red) Campaign And Integration Of Public Relations And Marketing Theory, Amy Elizabeth Martin

LSU Master's Theses

In an effort to combat the AIDS epidemic around the world, the Product (RED) campaign aims to engage consumers in an “economic initiative” with exclusive products from their corporate partnerships. Academic journals claim that this effort is a new form of Cause-Related Marketing (CRM), even though it involves many Public Relations strategies and tactics. Product (RED)’s unique nature is unlike previous CRM campaigns due to its corporate partnership agreements. Researchers have not previously studied initiatives such as Product (RED) through either Public Relations or Marketing theories. David’s (2004) Convergence Theory creates a cyclical model to merge both Public Relations and …

Grinding The Axe Body Spray: Linking Gamer Experience And Brand Recall In Guitar Hero Iii, Miranda Coy Lemon

LSU Master's Theses

The growth in popularity of social video games that appeal to a wide variety of audiences offers new opportunities for in-game advertisers to reach beyond the traditional gamer market. The current study aimed to test the effectiveness of in-game advertising placements in the popular video game, Guitar Hero III, based on the Limited Capacity Model of Mediated Motivated Message Processing (LC4MP). The Limited Capacity Model predicts that experienced gamers utilize fewer mental resources when playing video games because the repeated action of playing video games eventually becomes automatic. An experienced gamer would therefore have a greater capacity to remember in-game …

Processes And/Of Performance: Difference, Memory, And Experimentation, Benjamin Daniel Powell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study enacts performance analyses by combining experimental and avant-garde performance practices of artists or art movements such as John Cage, Jerzy Grotowski, Dadaism, and Eugenio Barba with the differential philosophies of Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze. By focusing on the ways that performance practice informs understandings of “the ghost” and différance in Derrida’s theories, and processes of production and experimentation in Deleuze’s, this study examines performance as a process of negotiating practice and theory that continues to produce rather than disappear. To reinforce the productive capacity of performance, this study looks at three different sites and the processes at …

Walden Pond And The Performative Touristic Gaze, Daniel Christopher Bono

LSU Master's Theses

This is an ethnographic study of tourism at Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. I argue that Walden Pond operates as a site that creates tensions among visitors due to the ways that time has transformed the once serene landscape into an overcrowded swimming pool. These tensions, however, fall under the expectation that the State Reservation of Massachusetts (re)creates Thoreau’s Walden as suggested in his discourse, but the performance of history is enacted through the creation of meaning among visitors engaging in a dialogue that references the past, talking about a space that has cultural significance. Exploring the touristic experience and …

Foreign News And Public Opinion: Attribute Agenda-Setting Theory Revisited, Asya A. Besova

LSU Master's Theses

This study contributes to the body of research on public opinion and media coverage of foreign news by examining the coverage of nine foreign countries in The New York Times and The Times. Media coverage and the public opinion about foreign nations were strongly correlated. Specifically, negative coverage tends to have more agenda-setting effects than neutral and positive coverage. The findings also suggest that media portray foreign countries in a unidimensional fashion, by limiting the coverage around a few policy issues. Finally, the U.S. and the U.K. media coverage of foreign nations were very similar.

A Comparison Of The Moral Development Of Advertising And Journalism Students, Stephanie Marino

LSU Master's Theses

This study employed the Defining Issues Test (DIT) to complete the analysis and comparison of the moral development of mass communication students, specifically those who major in advertising and journalism. The DIT is an instrument based on Kohlberg’s moral development theory and is a device for assessing the extent to which a person has developed his or her moral schemas. Results indicate no statistically significant difference in levels of moral development between sampled students majoring in journalism and advertising; no difference in levels of moral development between students who have and have not completed a course in media ethics; and …

Entertainment Media And "Backstage" Event Framing: How 24 Defines Torture, Skye Chance Cooley

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of the current study is to examine how the prime time television show 24 frames torture by US government officials almost exclusively in scenarios of high-consequence, high-confidence that are not supported by public opinion polls, provide contextual rationalizations that are unrealistic, show torture methods as a viable means to gain needed information, and show enemy combatants torturing U.S. citizens. Through a quantitative content analysis of torture on the television series 24 and an analysis of focus groups’ reactions to select episodes of 24 portraying torture in such scenarios, the study seeks to investigate the role of entertainment media …

Message Framing And Interactivity In Direct-To-Consumer Internet Advertisements: Visual And Textual Cues On Web Sites For Prescription Medications, Brooke Alayne Harrington

LSU Master's Theses

Americans’ adoption of the Internet has spawned the increased usage of this medium for direct-to-consumer advertising by pharmaceutical manufacturers, despite the widespread controversy over the ethics of the practice, the educational value of direct-to-consumer advertising, and the ultimate cost of the practices to the public. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates the industry’s advertising within traditional media, the agency does not yet impose standards for direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medications on the Internet. This content analysis of the visual and textual cues of 100 direct-to-consumer Web sites for prescription medications identifies the unexpected strong presence of gain frames …

It's Not Rocket Science: Nasa's Crisis Communication Efforts As A Public Sector Organization Following The Columbia Shuttle Disaster, Emily Ann Schult

LSU Master's Theses

Seventeen years after the Challenger accident, the space shuttle Columbia and its crew were only forty miles from Kennedy Space Center when the shuttle exploded during re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere. The explosion killed all seven astronauts onboard. NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administrations immediately jumped into action, declaring a contingency and following the Agency Contingency Action Plan for Space Flight Operations. As a public sector organization, one that must report to Congress and the American public, NASA is held to different standards than private organizations when it comes to releasing information. To understand how public sector organizations handle …

Lessons From The Color Of Fear, Jamie P. Ross

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter focuses on the role that power, innocence, and ignorance play in maintaining the position of white privilege. There are times when white people use their privilege in ways that overtly attempt to put and keep people of color in their places, but more often white privilege is less obvious. White privilege does not stand out in white people’s behavior at all times.When white behavior is normalized, it is masked. At these times, white privilege and power hide behind the masks of innocence and the masks of ignorance. White people can hide their location, with relation to power, from …

An Exploration Of Social Engagement To Promote Quality Of Life For People With A Spinal Cord Injury: Exploring The Need For A Virtual Community, Leah Bulloch

Theses : Honours

A spinal cord injury (SCI) can significantly alter a person's lifestyle and choices in both the short and long term. An essential area of a person's quality of life (QOL) is that of social engagement, which according to Bath and Gardiner (2005) is made up of social support, social participation and social networks. Studies have shown that although the Internet and virtual communities have the ability to provide social engagement there is little literature covering the area of how they can be used to aid the development of social engagement amongst people living with an SCI post rehabilitation. The aim …