Communication Commons^™

Communication Techniques: Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility, Laurie Beth Fried

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasingly important for businesses and their stakeholders. Successful communication ofa companies' CSR program remains a huge challenge. It is important for business leaders to understand how to build customer awareness of CSR efforts, and identify the factors that positively impact customers' beliefs and purchasing behavior, and thus the bottom line. Research for this study was both quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative analysis utilized data from a recent e-mail customer survey conducted by a national retailer. Top CSR Communicators were identified and then a qualitative analysis was applied with in-depth employee interviews. The results revealed that …

Source Credibility And How New Churchgoers Choose A Church, Stephanie Araujo

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

The church as a faith community seeks to expand interpersonal and ethical communication by inviting new members. However, much of the effort to successfully communicate with non-attenders has fallen on deaf ears as the church in the United States has seen stagnant growth over the last few decades. This study considers the various tactics employed by the faith community to overcome this malaise and attract new people by asking how new churchgoers choose a church. Using source credibility as the theoretical basis, this study attempts to show that most churchgoers choose a faith community based on the pastor’s source credibility; …

Public Speaking: Breaking Down Barrier And Building Confidence, Cameron Scott Knauerhaze

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This paper is a consulting project for prospective public speakers. This project is intended to help break down barriers and build confidence of students when faced with public speaking situations. The project is designed for adult students. Students will be introduced to public speaking from a historical perspective with the hope they will build a foundation for accepting the remaining course material. The theory of Communication Apprehension (CA) is identified and discussed throughout the paper. As students start to recognize what barriers they possess in public speaking, they will learn simple methods in how to create and deliver a speech. …

Critical Analysis Of Hiv/Aids Communication Messages, Charli Marie Wilson

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

For the last thirty years HIV/AIDS has affected the lives of many people in the United States. Since the first introduction of the disease to America, healthcare officials have implemented several methods in various disciplines to prevent new cases. The information in this thesis examines how public health campaigns have contributed to the prevention of HIV. The research method in this thesis assumes a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of three HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns and how these media educate men who have sex with men (MSM) about prevention. The CDA method is useful in identifying consistent emerging themes in the campaigns …

"Dear Jane": An Examination Of Female Combat Warriors, The Communiaction Styles Used During War Vs. The Communication Used In The Home, Renee Humphrey

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

War has been happening for centuries. Women have been in the United States Armed Forces since the War of Independence in 1775, with very little research done on how war affects these women once on the home front. The purpose of my research is to evaluate the role of communication because of being a female in a combat zone at a time of war, and how it has affected the female‘s life back home once returned. Specifically, I used Relational Dialectic Theory and Expectancy Violations Theory as a basis of ethnographic research and one on one interviews to research the …

Exploring The Use And Effectiveness Of Mediated Communication By Churches, Sarah Christine Syptak Hinrichs

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

In an era categorized by a decline in traditional religious participation, Protestant church leaders in the United States are utilizing computer mediated forms of communication to attract and retain members. Research shows, however, that many churches lack the resources or knowledge to communicate effectively online. To aid in a greater understanding of webbed communication tools, this thesis looks at the ability of dialogic mediated communication to contribute to satisfaction with communication in the church as well as overall organizational satisfaction and involvement. Rooted in the phenomenological tradition and in relationship management theory, the study focuses on mediated communication as a …

Teleconferencing In Large Corporations, Thomas E. Howard

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Technology based communication tools in business represent an area that has been intensely researched. Of all the available tools, teleconferencing remains the most widely and frequently used in business communication. This case study explores whether teleconferencing is a useful communication tool for leadership to express objectives to the organization’s members. Philosophical assumptions in this paper are based on Aristotle’s components of rhetoric: ethos, pathos, and logos. Media Naturalness (Kock, 2004) and Social Presence Theory (Short & Williams, 1976) provide the theoretical basis for this paper. The study is based on qualitative data gathering and analysis surrounding the 3rd Quarter Organization-wide …

Determining Cultural Influence On Crisis Communications, Adam Thomas Holst

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This study implemented an interpretive social science approach with an egalitarian perspective. It explores the relationship between culture and crisis communication. The researcher created a fictitious organizational crisis, then surveyed participants to gather their insights and guidance as they related to organizational response. The literature reviewed in this study provides detailed examination of crisis and culture. It calls for examination of how the two impact one another in communication settings. Survey questions were derived from Hofstede’s dimensions of cultural variability, which was the theoretical framework for this study. Efforts were made to include broad participation and incorporate simple random probability …

The Facebook Effect: Considering The Influence Of Facebook On The User's Sense Of Community, Stephanie Jo Hansen

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

A recent report on the impact of social media on children, adolescents and families cautioned that parents should now be concerned about Facebook Depression. This alleged new condition has been gaining popularity in social commentary regarding the effects of social networking websites, such as Facebook.com. Thus, it is critical that the potential effects of this social networking site be studied to counteract under-researched claims. This thesis focused on how the observable community construct created by Facebook may or may not have an effect on the user’s sense of community. Specifically, this paper used Walther’s Social Information Processing theory to explain …

Analyzing Espn And The Agenda-Setting Theory, Justin John Kischefsky

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This thesis initially discussed the agenda-setting theory and framing and then examined how the two concepts related to the presentation of the lead stories on a trio of ESPN outlets in comparison to a pair of non-ESPN sports media outlets. This study was achieved by conducting a content analysis of the lead stories appearing on ESPN's SportsCenter and The Highlight Express televisions shows, ESPN.com, SportsIllustrated.com and CBSSports.com daily for four weeks. While the ESPN outlets made similar decisions to that of the non-ESPN outlets on the priority of story placement, there were enough instances to show that ESPN did frame …

Actor Skills In Managerial And Professional Development: Effective Leadership Training For The Information Age, David Hendrik De Vries

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

The knowledge-based economies of today’s information age demand a higher level of communication skills in the workplace. One viable method of teaching communication skills leverages the techniques found in actor training. This thesis explores the use and effectiveness of actor training in the training and development of managers and professionals. The theories of Aristotle, Burke, Dewey and Ong are referenced to understand the value of the performance metaphor—“As a leader, you’re always onstage”—as an underlying approach, while the theories of Wiener, Watzlawick, Baxter, Ting Toomey and others reinforce the viability of actor training in the field of communication. A review …

Computer-Mediated Communication And Educational Games, Stacy Lee Keller

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

The continuous development of technology has made Computer-mediated communication the normal means of communication in many organizations. Many educators are beginning to use resources designed to prepare their students for the global world of computer-mediated communication. Even though computer-mediated communication is different from face-to-face, it does not necessarily inhibit collaboration. This study examined the success of a non-collocated team playing MoonWorld using only computer-mediated communication versus the success of a team that was collocated and able to use face-to-face communication. The data showed that there were differences in the collaboration between the two teams, but that both teams were successful …

Authentic Blackness And The Portrayals Of African Americans In Prime Time Television Commercials, Dari L. Rogers

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Though each African American person holds unique experiences, beliefs and preferences that are molded by his or her background, education, gender, sexual orientation and religion, he or she is often defined by superficial characteristics, such as how a person behaves, speaks and dresses, that determine his or her degree of authentic blackness. This thesis explores authentic blackness within the African American community and how television commercials help define what is considered authentically black. Based on the Social Cognitive Theory, Hall’s Theory of Encoding and Decoding, the Cultivation Theory and the Social Construction of Reality Theory, this thesis explores how African …

President Barack Obama's Speech In Cairo: A Metaphor Analysis, George Ebimobowei Oti

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates the metaphors embedded in President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo, delivered on June 4, 2009. Mr.Obama delivered his speech at a time when the dissonance between the Muslim world and the West expanded. The rhetor’s motive was to arrest the increasingly compounded atmosphere of rapprochements between the two worlds. The study employed two philosophical foundations, Burkean identification- consubstantiation and Buber’s I-thou personality theory. The two philosophies promote the notion of humankind’s sharing of a bond. The study categorizes the deployment of metaphors into archetypal and transcendent metaphors; the results show that both types of metaphors serve a …

Incorporating Aspects Of The 'Emotional Intelligence' Theory To Tactical Fundraising Strategies For Non-Profit Organizations (Npo's) In Recessive Economic Times "Vision Of Hope: Fundraising In Recessive Economic Times", Marc Knutson

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

The global economic picture over the past decade has created tough financial times for nations, individuals, and industry in general. With respect to organizations, there is no one single area more affected by devastating economic stress than non-profits. In economically prosperous times, philanthropists and other donors to non-profit organizations are open to, and regularly schedule, donations. However, as financial situations require belt-tightening and acute frugality, donations to non-profits are reconsidered. In light of the slumping economic times, I suggest that non-profit organizations, specifically those supporting laboratory research of debilitating diseases, review their fundraising strategies defining a differentiation strategy that sets …

This Just In: Breaking News With Social Media By The Newspaper Organizations In The Southwestern Corner Of New York State, Chris Chapman

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Social media is the newest form of technology to tempt journalists. What is it? How can it be used to bring their information to the consumers? This thesis examines the ability of eight papers in the southwestern corner of New York state to break news on social media like Facebook and Twitter. The study, conducted by a survey of the journalists working for those papers, takes a look at the policies that govern social media within their organization. Through the lens of the agenda-setting theory, the data shows that the rural region of New York state has yet to find …

The Prettiest President I Ever Saw: Cold War Film Portrayals Of Women Political And Military Leaders, Michael Flannery Hatchett

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This thesis offers generic criticism of the portrayal of women political and military leaders in Cold War films. The study uses textual analysis of several films to judge certain factors, including ethical, philosophical, and aesthetic concerns. The films examined in this thesis are: Project Moonbase, The Manchurian Candidate, Kisses for My President, and By Dawn’s Early Light. This thesis traces the evolution of attitudes about women leaders, identifies qualities that are shown to be important to leaders during the Cold War, and examines the ways in which these leaders manage to defy stereotypes in each of their films. It also …

Impact Of Improvisation On Interpersonal Communication, Brooklin Green

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Improvisational games have grown outside the scope of performance to become tools to enhance, creativity, and communication. Recently, people have begun to use these games in a variety of fields including psychology, public speaking, corporate businesses, medicine, and education. Improvisational games help people learn through play. It shows that the use of these games can create an environment that opens communication to achieve learning and innovation. It is a positive tool in promoting confidence, empathy, listening skills, self-awareness, group awareness, quick thought and focus in the moment. While research on the benefit of improvisation does exist, few concentrate on the …

What Impact Does Social Media Have On Knowledge Transfer?, Michael Walgren Showalter

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Knowledge management and knowledge transfer is vital to the long-term success of any organization. Social media is connecting people in a way never before possible. Previous research has concluded that knowledge transfer is more likely to take place between individuals in an organization who have built a relationship with each other. In parallel, social media is compared to Roger‟s Diffusion of Innovations Theory and his Technology of Acceptance Model. This thesis contains the results of focus groups conducted with engineers from an international aerospace corporation and examines the likelihood of knowledge transfer taking place based on social media relationships. This …

Intercultural Virtual Communications: A New Course Proposal, Haléakala

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Technological advancements have introduced computer mediated communication (CMC) which has come to permeate our lives from the way we work, to the way we learn, to the way we teach. Current studies of CMC tend to ignore the importance of the intercultural factors that affect it. Additionally, CMC studies focus on the technology aspects of communication instead of focusing on the human aspect of CMC. This project puts together CMC research, community need, and business acumen, relates it to human theories of communication, and creates a usable course for teaching intercultural virtual communications in the undergraduate classroom. The findings from …

Bridging The Gap Between Academic And Practical Crisis Response Strategy Using A Public Risk Perception Model, Kyle Davidson

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

As risk is inherent in any profitable or viable business, it can be assumed that at some point an organization may face a crisis stemming from known or unknown risks. As such, it is important for organizations to understand how to respond to crises. Crisis communication really has one simple goal in mind: to minimize the effects of the crisis on the organization’s reputation. William Benoit’s “Image Restoration Theory” and Timothy Coombs’ “Situational Crisis Communication Theory” set a framework for how organizations can respond successfully in crisis situations. Yet much of the contemporary academic theory fails to translate from academic …

How Social Media Communities Impact Consumer Behavior, Leslie Martinka

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Social media, in particular, Facebook and Twitter, are comprised of communities typically of like-minded individuals. Through social media sites we can network with these communities and converse in ways that are sometimes difficult to do offline. But do these social media communities influence how one purchases online? Mead’s theory of symbolic interactionism describes how offline communities influence one’s actions and helps to create our cultural norms and ideologies. Using Mead’s theory as a basis for the following study, this thesis attempted to determine if Facebook and Twitter communities influence consumers’ online purchasing behaviors. Employing a Likert-like scale of 1-3, a …

Gender Bias In Network News Reporting: Inaccurate Risk Information About Male And Female Birth Control, Krista Currer

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Pharmaceutical companies spend considerable amounts of revenue on advertising; therefore, media networks must portray an agenda which supports those companies. This thesis attempts to discover if and to what extent women are marginalized by the promotion of hormonal birth control. Particular focus is placed on the link between these drugs and breast cancer risk, as well as the existence of gendered messages. Framework for the study is established through Agenda-setting Theory and Marxist and feminist criticism. Media messages about birth control are then interpreted through content analysis. Only 9% of messages about female birth control mention the link with breast …

The Reconciliation Of Personal-Corporate Identity Conflicts By Evangelical Christian Workers, Michael E. Anderson

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Communication can be viewed as a negotiation of identity. In that negotiation it is inevitable that conflicts in identity will occur (Lederach, as cited in Stewart, 2006). When that conflict is between one’s personal identity and the corporate identity an organization asks, or even requires of that person, what processes are used to reconcile those differences? This question becomes even more salient in an organization utilizing a cultural style of organizational structure (Conrad & Poole, 2005). Cultural organizational structures are rooted in a belief that people, as emotional beings, need to feel connected to their work community. Understanding identity reconciliation …

The Corporate Social Network As An Internal Communication Medium: Employees' Perceptions Of Its Usefulness, Jeffrey Brady

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Social media have become important tools in the workplace, allowing employees to share ideas and participate in running the business. Most large corporations currently use a corporate social network for internal communication, with over 80% of Fortune 500 companies using the Yammer platform alone (Yammer, 2012). Deetz (1992, 2003) theorizes that this return to the ancient Greek concept of participation has the potential to improve corporate productivity—and ultimately, profitability.

This pilot study set out to better understand employees’ perceptions of social networks, and how they influence productivity and engagement. Twenty-one participants responded to an online survey on these topics. The …

The Role Of Communication And Listening In Leadership, Elinor Kay Van Engen

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

In our world today, leadership is important in many organizations. Leaders create the opportunity to develop relationships based on listening. Listening is a multidimensional construct that requires further integration within leadership studies. This study aimed to seek the validity of focusing on listening within the study of leadership. The research promotes the understanding of the verbal and nonverbal characteristics of the listening process that have the greatest ability to influence a person’s leadership potential, as well as examining what leadership characteristics can influence a person’s listening. Understanding these characteristics presents evidence that listening deserves the recognition to be studied as …

Communication In Engineering: Developing A Targeted Course, Krysta Nicole Kirsch

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

In many technical undergraduate programs, specifically engineering, focus is placed on developing the technical abilities of students. Little emphasis is placed on communication, to include verbal, written, and presentation skills. In a dynamic corporate world, technical students can be put at a disadvantage if they are not taught the importance of being able to communicate with a variety of demographics in varying contexts. Companies are looking for engineering graduates who have strengths in both arenas. To address this issue, a semester-long communication course for engineering majors has been developed. The foundation is in current research on communication apprehension, the communication …

The Impact Of Technology And Teachers' Perceptions Of Changes In Student Learning, Sandra Marie Aggen

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Today’s cell phones are small computers in their own right, many having the capability of Internet searching and downloading information, exchanging data, taking and storing pictures, and its most popular function with the current generation of young people: text messaging. While on the surface it appears that text messaging has brought users together and improved communication, its effects on learning and social relationships are cause for concern. Personal interviews and online surveys conducted with over 100 educators present a real and sometimes disturbing look at new challenges in teaching and communicating with today’s students. Reading and writing ability is declining, …

International Image Repair: Integrating Culture Into Image Repair Discourse, Nicole Mangiaracina

Masters Theses

An organization's image and reputation rely heavily on how it interacts with its stakeholders. With an increase in globalization, more organizations are conducting business internationally with diverse stakeholders. When an organization faces a crisis, it must design specific messages that meet the needs of its stakeholders and the public. Image Repair Theory not only provides strategies for crisis communicators when crafting messages, but it also provides guidelines to critically evaluate those messages. Most crisis communication research, including Image Repair Theory, does not address cultural differences. The ways in which a culture perceives, understands, and communicates about crises and image repair …

The Gendered Body In Virtual Space : Sexuality, Performance And Play In Four Second Life Spaces, Judith Elund

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This work is principally an investigation into visual and screen culture, using four specific regions of the three-dimensional virtual world of ‘Second Life’ as case studies. The analysis follows a thematic application of discourse analysis as a basis for critiquing Western screen culture, most importantly the cultural and social conditions that replicate dominant paradigms of power and agency. Of particular pertinence to this study are the framing, representational and spatial practices of gendered and sexual identities within ‘Second Life’ spaces. As is typical of the internet, sexual freedom is a given, yet representational performance (how one appears through their embodied …