Communication Commons^™

Extracting Common Emotions From Blogs Based On Fine-Grained Sentiment Clustering, Shi Feng, Daling Wang, Ge Yu, Wei Gao, Kam-Fai Wong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recently, blogs have emerged as the major platform for people to express their feelings and sentiments in the age of Web 2.0. The common emotions, which reflect people’s collective and overall sentiments, are becoming the major concern for governments, business companies and individual users. Different from previous literatures on sentiment classification and summarization, the major issue of common emotion extraction is to find out people’s collective sentiments and their corresponding distributions on the Web. Most existing blog clustering methods take into account keywords, stories or timelines but neglect the embedded sentiments, which are considered very important features of blogs. In …

An Ecology Of Performance: Gregory Bateson's Cybernetic Performance, Daniel Matthew Blaeuer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a case study of the public performances of Gregory Bateson at The Esalen Institute. The case study is a reconsideration of the work of Gregory Bateson from the perspective of performance studies. The author brings together performativity, cybernetics, and the sacred to argue that Gregory Bateson, in his public performances, was striving for grace in encounters with others. The author has conducted archival research into Bateson’s presentations and has spoken with several close to Bateson to get a sense of how his process of public presentation paralleled his ideas—a process of continually working through ideas in conversation …

Bastards, Brains, Boobs And Performance: A Retrospective Account, Joanna Bartell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The two essays that comprise this thesis use personal narrative to discuss various aspects of illness, resistance and the body. The first essay uses performance theory to explore the social structures, mandates and restrictions concerning illness. I use the cancer experience to explore the co-creation of self, identity, and modes of being between "performer" and "audience." "Performer," in this case, is the "breast cancer patient," and the "audience" is comprised of the "social others.” The second essay explores cyborgization of the body, its painful effects, and associated social and moral values. It also discusses how we create theory and understanding …

Comparing Discrete Simulation And System Dynamics: Modeling An Anti-Insurgency Influence Operation, Wayne Wakeland, Una E. Medina

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper contrasts the tradeoffs of modeling the same dynamic problem at a micro scale and at a macro scale of analysis: discrete system simulation (DS) versus continuous system simulation or system dynamics (SD). Both are employed to model the influence of entertainment education on terrorist system decay, with implications for field application. Each method optimizes different design, scope/scale, data availability/accuracy, parameter settings, and system sensitivities. Whether the research served by the computer model is applied or theoretical, DS tends to be useful for understand low-level individual unit/step influences on system change over time, whereas SD tends to shine when …

The Debate Authors Working Group Model For Collaborative Knowledge Production In Forensics Scholarship, Gordon R. Mitchell, Carly Woods, Matthew Brigham, Eric English, Catherine E. Morrison, John Rief

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The disconnect between modes of knowledge production in forensics (mostly collaborative) and academic study in the humanities (mostly solo work) is a chasm that can complicate the transition from tournament competitor to professional scholar. Might arrangements that promote joint authorship help harmonize the two modes of knowledge production and convert creative energy from the forensics setting to the academic publishing enterprise? This essay considers the possibility, reflecting on how efforts to coordinate collaborative knowledge production in debate authors working groups relate to professional development challenges isolated in the 1974 Sedalia Conference, the 1984 National Developmental Conference on Forensics, the 1993 …

Orwellian Language And The Politics Of Tribal Termination (1953–1960), Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

From 1953 to 1960, the federal government terminated sovereign recognition for 109 American Indian nations. Termination was a haphazard policy of assimilation that had disastrous consequences for Indian land and culture. Nonetheless, termination cloaked latent motivations for Indian land within individual rights rhetoric that was at odds with Indian sovereignty. Termination highlights the rhetorical features of social control under capitalism portrayed in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), in which opposing principles are fused and inverted. This essay critiques termination’s Orwellian language to show how ideographs of social liberation are refashioned by the state to subvert Indian sovereignty and popular dissent.

Financial Literacy Explicated: The Case For A Clearer Definition In An Increasingly Complex Economy, David L. Remund

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

This study explicates the concept of financial literacy, which has blossomed in use this century. Scholars, policy officials, financial experts, and consumer advocates have used the phrase loosely to describe the knowledge, skills, confidence, and motivation necessary to effectively manage money. As a result, financial literacy has varying conceptual definitions in existing research as well as diverse operational definitions and values. This study dissects the differing financial literacy definitions and measures, urging researchers toward common ground. A clearer definition should improve future research, in turn helping consumers better understand and adapt to changing life events and an increasingly complex economy.

Contesting Sphere Boundaries Online: Private/Technical/Public Discourses In Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Discussion Groups, Kittie E. Grace

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The internet is fast becoming a means for people to obtain information, creating a unique forum for the intersection of the public, technical, and private spheres. To ground my research theoretically, I used Jürgen Habermas’s sphere theory. Habermas (1987) explains that the technical sphere colonizes the private sphere, which decreases democratic potential. In particular, the internet is a place for altering technical colonization of the private and public spheres.

My research focuses on women’s health because it is a particularly useful case study for examining sphere tensions. Historically, the biomedical health establishment has been a powerful agent of colonization, resulting …

A Heuristic Algorithm For Trust-Oriented Service Provider Selection In Complex Social Networks, Guanfeng Liu, Yan Wang, Mehmet A. Orgun, Ee Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In a service-oriented online social network consisting of service providers and consumers, a service consumer can search trustworthy service providers via the social network. This requires the evaluation of the trustworthiness of a service provider along a certain social trust path from the service consumer to the service provider. However, there are usually many social trust paths between participants in social networks. Thus, a challenging problem is which social trust path is the optimal one that can yield the most trustworthy evaluation result. In this paper, we first present a novel complex social network structure and a new concept, Quality …

An Examination Of Communicative Dialectical Tensions And Paradoxes Encountered By Native American Researchers In The Field And In The Academy, Lorenda Belone

Communication ETDs

This study investigated the communicative dialectical tensions and paradoxical situations faced by Native researchers in the academy and in research with their own communities or with other Native communities. Thematic analysis was conducted on narratives from 12 semi-structured interviews from participants across the country. Three major themes emerged regarding communicative struggles for the participants when conducting research with Native communities: a dialectic of insider/outsider; challenge of developing positive communication; and concerns of appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Four major themes emerged with regards to communication challenges for the participants while working in the academy: insider-outsider dialectic, paradox of walking the talk, …

Navigating Reentry Shock: The Use Of Communication As A Facilitative Tool, Caroline C. Niesen

Communication ETDs

Even though many university students travel and study abroad, there is minimal literature and research about supporting these students when they return from their study abroad experience. In order to understand and incorporate the experience into the students everyday life, communication plays a key role in facilitating the transition back into the United States. Thus, the principal purpose of this study was to expand the research on reentry shock and communication by creating a new scale of reentry shock and testing a proposed model of variables to uncover which factor is most important (individual, interpersonal, and cultural). One hundred fifty …

Why Can't We Be Friends? Examining The Influence Of Social Network Profiles On Initial Interactions, Liesel Sharabi

Communication ETDs

Despite the growing number of people using social network Web sites to establish and maintain relationships, we know little about how the information available on these sites affects communication patterns and perceptions of partners. Therefore, the primary purpose of this study was to extend Uncertainty Reduction Theory (URT) into the Information age by examining the effect that the type of information available on social network sites may have on initial interactions. Thirty strangers were matched with one another to create fifteen dyads. These dyads were assigned to one of two groups: one group received their partners social network profile and …

What Are Physicians' Perceptions Of Proposed Federalized Healthcare And How Do They Feel It Will Impact The Quality Of Health Care?, Katrina Stier

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine physicians' opinions of a federalized health care system as well as the effect federalized health care will have on the quality of patient care provided by physicians. A survey was randomly administrated to physicians from across the United States. The survey was administered as an on-line instrument. Because physicians are difficult to gather together for a focus group, a survey, consisting of multiple choice questions and personal interviews, was used for data collection. The survey was comprised of matrix questions. Each physician was given the opportunity to write in additional comments or …

U.S. Press Representation Of The Southern Sudanese Civil War, 1983-2005, Abdissa Zerai

Communication ETDs

The study examines how the U.S. print news media discursively represented the civil war that raged from 1983-2005 between southern Sudan and the central government in the north over the tenures of three successive war-time Sudanese administrations. The study was situated within the broader theoretical umbrella of cultural studies. However, the theory of representation and postcolonial theory served as the principal theoretical frames for the study. Employing critical discourse analysis, with framing as a strategy, the study focused on five U.S. print news media outlets (three national newspapers and two national newsmagazines): The New York Times, The Washington Post, The …

Constructing, Consuming, And Complicating The Human-Nature Binary: Communication Practices In Forest Environmental Education, Elizabeth Dickinson

Communication ETDs

This project combines interdisciplinary conversations within the field of communication to examine environmental meaning systems and communication practices in the context of forest environmental education. Due to concerns over children's environmental alienation, there has been a continued push toward place-based environmental education. One such venture is the North Carolina Educational State Forest system (NCESF), where educators bring K-12 students into forests to help them reconnect with nature, expand environmental knowledge, and tackle what has been recently termed "nature-deficit disorder." When students visit the sites, rangers deliver structured lessons on ecosystems and forest management to children and chaperones--lessons that must adhere …

Multinational Advertising Campaigns As Intercultural Communications: Successes And Blunders In Mainland China [Slides], Louisa Ha, Lina Zang

School of Media and Communication Faculty Publications

Slides presented to International Communication Association Annual Conference, June 24-26, 2010, Singapore by Louisa Ha and Lina Zang.

How To Make Linked Data More Than Data, Prateek Jain, Amit P. Sheth, Kunal Verma, Pascal Hitzler, Peter Z. Yeh

Kno.e.sis Publications

The LOD cloud has a potential for applicability in many AI-related tasks, such as open domain question answering, knowledge discovery, and the Semantic Web. An important prerequisite before the LOD cloud can enable these goals is allowing its users (and applications) to effectively pose queries to and retrieve answers from it. However, this prerequisite is still an open problem for the LOD cloud and has restricted it to 'merely more data.' To transform the LOD cloud from 'merely more data' to 'semantically linked data' there are plenty of open issues which should be addressed. We believe this transformation of the …

The Public Relations Aspects Of Municipality Wind Energy Development: A Case Study Of Wind Energy In Ocean Gate, Nj, Gregory Richter

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this exploratory investigation were to (a) determine if the local government of Ocean Gate, NJ, would use communication techniques to achieve compliance, or sufficient approval, of government and citizens for wind turbine development and (b) determine if some citizens will express strong views against wind energy while the majority of Ocean Gate's citizens will favor wind turbine power generation in their municipality. This researcher used interviews with important figures surrounding the wind project. This researcher also conducted pen and paper survey research of 106 local residents of Ocean Gate and surrounding areas through a convenience sample found …

Formative Research Regarding Kidney Disease Health Information In A Latino American Sample: Associations Among Threat, Efficacy, Frame, And Behavioral Intent, Katheryn C. Maguire, Jay Gardner, Pradeep Sopory, Guowei Jian, Marcia Roach, Joe Amschlinger, Marcia Moreno, Garey Pettey, Gianfranco Piccone

Communication Faculty Publications

Using prospect theory and the extended parallel process model, this study examined the effect of gain/loss message framing on perceptions of severity, susceptibility, response efficacy, and self efficacy (derived from the extended parallel process model), as well as perception of message effectiveness and behavioral intention in a community based Latino American sample. Results indicated no significant differences between a gain- and loss-frame for any of the outcome variables. In addition, message effectiveness, susceptibility, and response efficacy were the best predictors of intention to engage in early testing behavior.

From Tv To Online To Mobile Phones: A National Study Of Us College Students’ Multiplatform Video Use And Satisfaction [Slides], Louisa Ha, Dominik Leconte, Jennifer Lavidge

School of Media and Communication Faculty Publications

Slides presented to the The Internet Turning 40: The Never- Ending Novelty of New Media Research Conference, June 17-19, 2010, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Mapping Information Literacy Outcomes And Other Intellectual Skills Into Students' Educational Experiences, Patricia A. Iannuzzi, L Dee Fink

Library Faculty Presentations

The 2007 report, College Learning for the New Global Century, outlines a cluster of intellectual and practical skills that are critical components of a liberal education: inquiry and analysis; critical and creative thinking; written and oral communication; quantitative literacy; information literacy; and teamwork and problem solving. The learning outcomes associated with information literacy relate to and incorporate many of the learning outcomes in all of these skill clusters. Participants in this session will address how these information literacy and related learning outcomes can be mapped into student learning experiences at three levels: in an individual course, in an academic sequence …

Semantically Annotated Restful Services For Large-Scale Metabolomics Data Analysis, Ashwin Manjunatha, Paul E. Anderson, Satya S. Sahoo, Ajith H. Ranabahu, Michael L. Raymer, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

No abstract provided.

Nor'easter News Volume 3 Issue 12.5: Orientation Edition, Nor'easter News Staff

Nor'easter News

The twenty-seventh issue of the University of New England's student-run newspaper, Nor'easter News.

Globalization: Acculturation Or Cultural Erosion? A Historical Reflection, Bolanle Awe

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper is a historical reflection on contemporary African culture history. It situates globalization within the context of Africa's role in the world. It examines the human dimension, the interaction of human beings globally, the migration of people from their original homes, and their settlement in new abodes. In addition, migration has raised the issue of the status of migrants in their adopted countries. Indeed, the growing incidence of African migration is currently at the center of various debates on the African continent and in the host countries.

The Missed Dialogues Of The Euro-Turkish Relationships, Juliette Tolay

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper attempts to assess the state of dialogue between Europe and Turkey. Using Thomas Risse's application of Habermas' theory of communicative action, it covers and analyzes four opportunity spaces for dialogue: the European Union-Turkish institutional relationship, the bilateral diplomatic relationships between European countries and Turkey, Turkish immigration to Europe, and European tourism in Turkey. Overall, most communicative interaction between Europe and Turkey is done under the logic of appropriateness (rule-guided behavior) as opposed to the logic of consequentialism (interest-guided behavior) or the logic of arguing (reasoning-guided behavior). As interactions remain superficial and one-sided, they merely are "missed dialogues."

Impressions Of Ebru And Turkishness In The 21st Century, Lisa Dicarlo

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

On June 18th, 2007, Ebru: Reflections of Cultural Diversity in Turkey began its ten-city tour of Turkey with a debut exhibit in Istanbul, and ended on March 31st, 2009 with the closing of the exhibit in Ankara. The mixed media project, a combination of text, music, visual images, essays and panel discussions, is dominated by Attila Durak's large-format documentary ethnographic photographs of 44 ethnic groups he encountered during seven consecutive summers of fieldwork throughout Turkey. Durak, who is from Turkey and studied photography in the US, began this project with the initial intention of learning about the cultural diversity of …

The Process Of Successfully Integrating Communication Technologies Into Short-Term, Faculty-Led Study Abroad Programs: Reflections From The Field, Todd L. Goen, Jennifer R. Billinson, Linda D. Manning

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

As advances in communication technologies (CT) continue to shape modern life, it is critical study abroad professionals and faculty leaders contemplate the ways in which such technologies impact study abroad. This essay provides an argument for the value and utility of such contemplation through an in-depth examination of a short-term, faculty-led study abroad program and the three faculty who lead it. The authors provide reflective summaries of their own experiences with CT and study abroad and discuss the ways in which changes in CT resulted in changes to their own study abroad program including the integration of CT into academic …

Central Florida Future, Vol. 42 No. 36, June 10, 2010

Central Florida Future

Students seek credible jobs; Uncover Thursdays; On the red carpet; Plus: Breaking the mold; Typecast; UCF near second in PECO funding; Student starts sustainability program.

Sea Cruise: Israelis And Palestinians Drowning In Water Sport, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The article discusses differing Israeli and Palestinian narratives in regards to the deaths of 9 people during an Israeli blockade of Hamas-controlled Gaza.

Central Florida Future, Vol. 42 No. 35, June 7, 2010

Central Florida Future

SGA candidacy rules may shift; Florida gubernatorial elections; Sink hopes to float; Car pool site gets in gear June 29; About Zimride; New art degree programs start in fall.