Communication Commons^™

A Case Study Analysis Of Organizational Crisis Communication During Hurricane Katrina, Rebecca Nell Woodrick

Dissertations

This study analyzed an educational organization's crisis communication with its employees regarding the devastation caused to the organization and to employees by hurricane Katrina in 2005. This study drew upon literature regarding communication in crisis and in particular, natural disaster crisis, to ascertain to what degree employees felt the organization engaged in characteristics of High Reliability Organizations. A case study approach employing both qualitative and quantitative data was utilized.

The data revealed that the organization was perceived by employees has having adequately communicated before and after Katrina. Data further revealed that the organization engages in behaviors consistent with practices of …

Intimate Strangers And Estranged Intimates: An Investigation Of The Impact Of Instant Messaging And Short Message Service On The Size And Strength Of Social Networks In Kuwait, Bashaiar Al-Sanaa

Dissertations

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have revolutionized how people experience spatial proximity, reality, and connectivity. These technologies provide inexpensive access to anything and anyone in the world. They also replicate face-to-face interaction in cyber-space and allow for participation in numerous modes of social exchange.

People use Information and communication technologies to write web logs (blogs), send electronic mail (email), socialize through networking sites (such as Facebook and MySpace), text each other through mobile phone Short Message Service (SMS) and chat via online instant messaging (IM).With all these applications, a debate has ignited that actual physical communication is decreasing in favor …

Editors’ Note: Media And Information Literacy In Theory And Practice, Jeremy Harris Lipschultz, Michael L. Hilt

Communication Faculty Publications

Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education (SIMILE) has published a wide-range of international articles from across the disciplines. As a collection, they represent the growing influence and importance of media and information literacy.

Viewing The World Through Oprah's Eyes: A Framing Analysis Of The Spiritual Views Of Oprah Winfrey, Marianne Jeanette Crosby

Masters Theses

Oprah Winfrey is an American icon. She has a hand in almost every form of media: movies, television, books, Internet, and radio. In her rise to success, another place that she has infiltrated is the church. Because of her wide range of influence, her thoughts and teaching on spirituality have made their way into both the home and church. Over ten years ago, talk shows had a reputation for portraying mainly negative topics. To combat this stereotype, she made a push to encourage more positive topics of discussion on her show. Yet after receiving criticism for "preaching," she withdrew from …

Situation Awareness Via Abductive Reasoning For Semantic Sensor Data: A Preliminary Report, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Cory Andrew Henson, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Semantic sensor Web enhances raw sensor data with spatial, temporal, and thematic annotations to enable high-level reasoning. In this paper, we explore how abductive reasoning framework can benefit formalization and interpretation of sensor data to garner situation awareness. Specifically, we show how abductive logic programming techniques, in conjunction with symbolic knowledge rules, can be used to detect inconsistent sensor data and to generate human accessible description of the state of the world from consistent subset of the sensor data. We also show how trust/belief information can be incorporated into the interpreter to enhance reliability. For concreteness, we formalize weather domain …

Comm-Entary, Spring 2009 - Full Issue

Comm-entary

In this issue:

Zelig: The Faculty of Mockumentary by David Trefethen

Marriage and Gender Roles: The Reality of the 21st Century Woman by Ashley Bournival

Mutual Adoption Clubs: A Social Constructionist Approach to Family by Brian McKenney

Hollywood's Compliment: Hollywood and its "National" Cinema Counterpart by Katrina Ingrham

The Effect of E-mail on Student/Professor Relationships by Anna Bruning

When Even No News is News: An Analysis of the Media Coverage of the O.J. Simpson Trial and the Effects on the Media Today by Beth Reny

CONTRADICTORY GRAMMAR: The Influence of Production Variables on Audience Evaluation in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by …

Images Of Girls And Women In The Media: A Media Literacy Project To Mitigate The Influence Of Beauty Product Advertising For Girl Scouts, Christine Marie Anthony

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This project is intended to mitigate the influence of beauty product advertising on tween and teenage girls by teaching media literacy skills that allow a critical look at ads and the perfect women featured in them. Research has shown that repeated and frequent exposure to unrealistic beauty ideals through various media can render these images achievable and real, while having a negative impact on women’s self-esteem and body image. Achieving beauty has become a continuous and all-encompassing project for tween and teenage girls, and the media continually portrays and promotes it as not only a possibility, but also a necessity …

Totally Devoted: Developing A Holistic Spiritual Formation Course For Western Christian College, Stanley N. Helton

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reports research results from a learning community composed of faculty, support staff, ministry leaders, and students who collaborated in a professor’s development of a new course proposal in Christian spiritual formation at Western Christian College in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The professor used qualitative research methods in the analysis and evaluation of the data produced by the group. The outcome of the project was ethnographic data that informed the creation of the course proposal that included new course application, course syllabus with course schedule, planned activities, bibliography, initial classroom assignments, and initial assessment tools.

Remembering Pan Am 103: Lessons Learned 20 Years Later, Victoria Wells

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Twenty years ago, on December 21, 1988, a bomb exploded aboard flight Pan Am 103. The plane crashed intoLockerbie,Scotland, killing 270 people on board and on the ground. Among those lost were 35SyracuseUniversitystudents coming back from a semester abroad inLondon.

This documentary uses interviews with about 40 professors and former students to tell the story of Pan Am 103. These people were reunited on campus during Remembrance Week 2008. This project explores the mistakes that were made and lessons that have been learned. The research is supplemented by interviews with current faculty and staff members. These people have researched and …

Zipped Magazine, Shilpa Prabhakar

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

For my capstone project, I chose to do something that fell within the creative category. Being a magazine journalism major, most of my coursework has to do with editing, writing, and layout so I wanted to use the skills I learned in the classroom to create and find a new publication on the S.U. campus. Zipped magazine is S.U.’s only fashion publication and it allows students with an interest in this area, the opportunity to further develop their skills through writing, photography, graphics and design. Furthermore, readers are able to learn about issues that the fashion industry faces in the …

Inkstinct Tattoo-Lifestyle Magazine, Celina Rosita Tousignant

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Inkstinct, an American tattoo-lifestyle magazine, covers a broad assortment of editorial content in six regular sections: “Inkternet,” “Fokus,” “Kulture,” “Inkternational,” “Lokal,” and “Your Ink.” Created as a regularly published magazine, Inkstinct’s sections allow for fresh content every month, while enabling consistency in theme and reader expectations.

The target demographic of Inkstinct falls between the age of 18 and 35, has interest in tattoos and body manipulations, and is both male and female. Inkstinct assumes readers have at least a very basic knowledge of tattoos and body manipulations, and avoids explaining basic information in detail. However, Inkstinct’s editorial …

A Student Guide To Fundraising, Jonathan Foster

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The following thesis is a fundraising manual written for high school and college students. As a student myself, I know sometimes things are easier understood when described by a peer and I think that fundraising is a perfect example of this. While many students participate in fundraisers in their schools, there are very few who reach the magnitude of the “professionals,” raising hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. With my experience in the field, as explained in the introduction, I hope to steer fellow students in the right direction toward these lucrative fundraisers in hopes that they too can …

An Analysis Of Asian And Asian American Studies A Public Relation Campaign Proposal, A Comparative Look At Other Universities, And The Program At Syracuse University, Donna Choi

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

We now live in a globalizing society. It is important to understand the world around us and the history that gives us the present. As the United States is often deemed “the melting pot” of cultures, it is essential for its citizens and residents to understand the cultures that make up this country. It is, therefore, more of an obligation than a privilege for institutions of higher education to have the resources and means of teaching its students, or future leaders, about the society they live in.

So why Asian and Asian American studies? By 2020, the Asian American and …

The Changes In The Portrayal Of Women In Cosmetic Advertisements Throughout The 20th Century, Paulina Han

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Women today have become desensitized to the massive clutter of cosmetic advertisements. In order to compete in the overly saturated market, cosmetic marketers need to start taking a different approach in making cosmetic advertisements appeal to women. The method used for this thesis project was secondary research; past experiments and case studies on women and advertising were examined and analyzed. Many of these were done by psychologists in the field of advertising and organizations and published in places such as the Journal of Advertising Research. Advertising and creative briefs from advertising agencies were also examined, in part, with other work. …

How The Beijing Olympics Has Changed Chinese Popular Television, Entertainment, And People’S Everyday Lives, Fei Ye

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The 2008 Beijing Olympics was one of the greatest achievements for Chinese people around the world. It was an event that changed Chinese popular culture and made the Chinese people proud of themselves. In the past, China had lost its popular cultural identity because of historical upheavals and what cultural identity it did have was dominated by foreign-influenced ideas. Through hosting and preparing for the 29^th Olympiad, China rediscovered its popular cultural identity, which I conclude is a reintroduction of its traditional culture. The country was also able to change how others perceived it. To conduct this study, I …

The Effectiveness Of The Dove Campaign For Real Beauty In Terms Of Society And The Brand, Lindsey Morel

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The following thesis aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. The problem is that of measuring the effectiveness of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty in a form deeper than numbers. As the campaign held a secondary goal of changing women’s perceptions of beauty, so should the evaluation. Thus, two measures will be employed.

First, the following thesis evaluates the campaigns effect on society by examining how the issue of beauty at large was and is communicated. Data was collected on beauty by drawing from experience, researching eating disorders, and exploring a feminist approach to …

The Fourth Phase: New Media And Political Campaigns, Timothy Martinez Jr.

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

With the increased use of new media in political elections, I set out to answer two important questions: how does new media affect the relationship among candidates, journalists, and citizens during elections and how will traditional media adapt to the new technology? Since this topic is evolving, I read blogs and news articles during the 2008 presidential election and reflected on past elections to discover key differences.

I found that four key distinctions pertaining to new media that made the 2008 election different than previous ones. First was the creation of a virtual town hall, which was illustrated through public …

Comm.Unity And The Role Of Public Relations In Nonprofit Community Organizations, Carissa Matthews

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Nonprofit community organizations need solid public relations strategies and communications skills to accomplish an array of objectives, ranging from fundraising to increasing awareness to changing public opinion. Not only do many students attending Syracuse University possess these skills, but these individuals are also ready and willing to help nonprofit organizations because they would like to make a difference in the community, as well as add real-life work experience to their resumes and portfolios. Because of these facts, Communications for the Community (comm.UNITY) was created in October 2007 with the mission of connecting students with nonprofit organizations to help them create …

From Page To Screen: Television And The Decline Of Fiction In Magazines, Mirel Ketchiff

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My Capstone project explores how the rise of television contributed to the decline of fiction in magazines and the decline of general interest magazines in America. I argue that television appealed more to advertisers as a mass-market medium than general interest magazines. Magazines had to find a new way to appeal to advertisers, and they did so by becoming niche publications that could offer advertisers a specific type of audience, rather than just a huge amount of readers. Fiction had been used in magazines as a form of mass-market entertainment; with magazines become geared towards specialized interests, fiction fell by …

Intergenerational Leadership Communication In The Workplace, Gayle Ruddick

All Theses

For the first time in history there are four generations in the workforce: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y. Generation Y, the emergent working generation, has a vastly different way of communicating, a different perspective on work, and a different set of needs and values than those who dominate the current workforce. When Traditionalists and Baby Boomers retire Generation Y will be placed into professional positions they may not be prepared for. With the current trend of young people frequently changing jobs and feeling unfulfilled by the work they do, Generation Y needs guidance, leadership, and mentoring in …

Unconventional Means: Technology And Resistance In The Emergence Of Three Forms Of New Media, Caroline Stone

All Theses

The media change we currently witness, the numbers of newspapers that have recently folded, those that face a similar fate and the degree to which the death of print generally is predicted within and outside of academic circles, all call for more research into shifts in forms of media over time. From the first American colonial newspaper Publick Occurrences in 1690 in Boston, to the first punk rock zine Punk in New York City in 1975, to the emergence of the massively multi-player game World of Warcraft in 2004, understanding the factors which may have led to the emergence of …

Strategic Stories: An Analysis Of The Profile Genre, Amy Jessee

All Theses

This case study examined the form and function of student profiles published on five university websites. This emergent form of the profile stems from antecedents in journalism, biography, and art, while adapting to a new rhetorical situation: the marketization of university discourse. Through this theoretical framework, universities market their products and services to their consumer, the student, and stories of current students realize and reveal a shift in discursive practices that changes the way we view universities. A genre analysis of 15 profiles demonstrates how their visual patterns and obligatory move structure create a cohesive narrative and two characters. They …

Semsos: Semantic Sensor Observation Service, Cory Andrew Henson, Josh Pschorr, Amit P. Sheth, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan

Kno.e.sis Publications

Sensor observation service (SOS) is a Web service specification defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) group in order to standardize the way sensors and sensor data are discovered and accessed on the Web. This standard goes a long way in providing interoperability between repositories of heterogeneous sensor data and applications that use this data. Many of these applications, however, are ill equipped at handling raw sensor data as provided by SOS and require actionable knowledge of the environment in order to be practically useful. There are two approaches to deal with this obstacle, make the …

Southern Sudan Health Care, Amanda Giger

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Statement of Concept: The concept of my creative project was use pictures, film, and music, and to create short yet visually inspiring promotional videos for the John Dau Sudan Foundation (JDSF), a non-profit organization started by former Lost Boy of Sudan, John Bul Dau. These videos were made to serve a variety of purposes for JDSF including: helping John Dau in acquiring speaking engagements, assisting JDSF in raising money for the clinic, raising awareness on the inadequate healthcare and struggles for Southern Sudan, and serving as web content for JDSF’s website.

Context of Work: I have been working with John …

Effects Of Script Fading On The Abilities Of Children With Autism To Reciprocate Information, Marc Alan Tedoff

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Teaching communication skills to children with autism is a primary concern because speech and/or language delay characterize autism. One method of teaching verbal communication skills to children with autism is script fading.

This study examined the effects of teaching children with autism to exchange information to peers about objects and pictures using script fading. Six children with autism were recruited from a special program for children with autism at a public elementary school. Participants were formed into dyads that remained intact throughout the study. Two dyads consisted of first grade students, one dyad consisted of a second and a fifth …

Structural Attributes Associated With The Prevalence Of Hate Groups: A State-Level Analysis, Paula Jean Kutneski

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

With the number of hate groups increasing 54 percent since 2000, it is important to understand what is triggering these groups to form in geographical areas. The current study examined whether structural characteristics predicted the number of hate groups within a state. Using hate group listings from the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report and U. S. Census data from 2000, this study explored a state's racial and ethnic heterogeneity, economic disadvantage, and regional location to explain hate group existence within that state. Employing correlations, Chi-Square analyses, multiple and logistic regressions, and a conjunctive analysis, this study found that a …

Understanding Gender Differences In Online Experience And Internet Advertising, Seema Harryginsingh

Honors College Theses

The purposes of this article is to first review the literature on gender differences in advertising then explore areas that are important in today’s online environment including differences in the various areas of online experience and behavior such as shopping, privacy issues, internet usage, use of website, and new media and user generated content considerations. I will also look at online advertising particularly, online video ads and banner ads. I will attempt to show through research that there are differences that exist among the genders, which also translate to the online environment and specifically in the various areas of experience …

The Creation, Development, And Operation Of A Spanish-Language News Division, Jason William Tarr

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My Honors Capstone is the creation, development and operation of a Spanish-language news division on theSyracuseUniversitycampus. I chose to start this division at CitrusTV, the oldest and largest student-run television station in theUnited States. At the heart of the Spanish-language news division, is the Spanish-language news broadcast I created: CitrusTV Noticias en Espanol (CitrusTV News in Spanish). The broadcast is a thirty-minute news program covering campus, local, national and international news for theSyracuseUniversity, andSyracusearea, communities. It is student run and includesSyracuseUniversityundergraduate and graduate students from nearly every college at the University.

Having the broadcast is more important than ever because …

Go Green-Eat Slow: A Public Relations Approach To “Going Green”, Amanda Gaynor

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

My Capstone project is rooted in public relations and the launching of a specific publicity campaign. The context of this creative work is unique in that I implemented field research in order to conduct an actual campus event.

The nature of the field research was food tasting events. More specifically, it consisted of interviews with public relations representatives, publicity chairs, event planners, restaurateurs, and many others who play roles in the planning and execution of these food tastings. I then took this research and applied it to the creation of a “go green” themed food tasting event at Syracuse University …

Rationale And Proposal For The Establishment Of A Consumer-Behavior Curriculum And Research Institute At Syracuse University, Carolyn Meitzner

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This thesis project was inspired by a course formerly offered by the Department of Psychology at Syracuse University, which has not been offered since at least 2006 – PSY 377: Consumer Behavior. Circumstances – including that the professor who taught the course left the university and that the Department of Psychology is uncertain about the volume of student interest in the course – led to PSY 377 being taken off the time schedule indefinitely, though it remains in the course catalog. The timing of the course’s cancellation is especially unfortunate, given that revolutionary changes in consumer behavior have occurred over …