Communication Commons^™

Kicking The Can: Understanding The Financial Crisis Of 2008, John Arthur Rutter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This thesis explores the processes of producing and directing a documentary film about the 2008 financial crisis. The paper follows the development of the team project as individual group members researched the crisis in literature and in film, and then discusses the filmmaking process required to direct such a film.

自我保護與 "另類" 實踐 : "雙向運動" 視野下的中國鄉村建設, Jiaen Pan

Lingnan Theses

本論文希望把中國鄉村建設運動放置在更為複雜與動態的脈絡下，嘗試以一種有別于“成王敗寇”邏輯的敍述與視野，通過參與者獨特的視角，結合起微觀與宏觀層面，將具體實踐扣聯（articulate）到近代中國轉型的“百年激進”、“百年鄉村破壞”、“百年鄉建”這一主線中。以理解鄉村建設的生命力、深層意義與內在困境，並在此基礎上對已有各種“類型化”評價認識、“刻板化”參照座標及背後的“意義系統”進行梳理與反思。

為更好實現以上目的，筆者借助卡爾•波蘭尼“雙向運動”視野，但努力避免因生搬硬套而“削足適履”式的尋找或對應本土及“三農”領域的“雙向運動”，而是更多借鑒其“視野”上的啟示。希望通過該“視野”的幫助，讓筆者可以更好的探討那些被遮蔽與忽略的面向，進而解決困擾筆者的理論思考與現實實踐問題。同時，本論文結合了歷史與當代鄉村建設的各組案例，實踐所蘊含的複雜性與豐富性也希望可以推進筆者對“雙向運動”發生及運作機制所展開的討論。

正如標題所示，本論文希望從“自我保護”和“另類實踐”結合起來的角度重新理解鄉村建設的定位與特點及其與“主流”社會的複雜關係及互動。它們既是鄉村建設的主要意義，同時也決定其將一直面對著各種困境與矛盾張力。

本論文借鑒文化研究的思想資源及其對脈絡與扣聯的強調，希望以此打破“研究者-行動者”、“理論-實踐”的習慣性分割。同時希望能跳出一般分析所隱含“樂觀-悲觀”、“積極-消極”的二元框架，也挑戰將鄉村建設納入“效果論”、“好人好事說”和“效果論”這三種常見的類型化處理。故本文儘量避免事實羅列、簡單代言與一般辯護，而是呼應以個人參與鄉村建設的生命史，反觀其中的興奮、困惑、不甘、無奈等複雜情感與認識，除以此帶出對所存在社會基礎與宏觀環境的討論外，希望再次說明鄉村建設的動力與張力。

Keeping Church Goers Motivated: Church Worship Communication Study, Anne Trelstad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At a time when mainline Protestant churches in America are concerned with stagnant or declining worship attendance (Duin, 2008) a better understanding of worshippers' motivations could help church leaders plan and create positive worship experiences (Katt & Trelstad, 2009). This study extends the scope of the previous research of Katt and Trelstad by employing a larger sample of purposively selected churches. It attempts to more clearly answer the following question more clearly: What types of incidents serve as motivator and de-motivator factors in the church worship service setting? A sample of 105 church members from thirty-eight churches participated in a …

Salud Y Saludos: The E-News Of The College Of Health Sciences, College Of Health Sciences

College of Health Sciences

Monthly e-newsletter of the College of Health Sciences.

Johnson & Johnson's Recall Debacle, Lashonda Louallen Eaddy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has been viewed as a role model by many organizations for its successful handling of a 1982 crisis involving cyanide-laced Tylenol capsules that resulted in seven deaths. The public relations community applauded J&J for a swift response and for promptly implementing actions to prevent a similar crisis from occurring in the future. However more recently, J&J has become a poster child for poor crisis communications amidst a flood of recalls that started in November 2009. The present study used concepts from Coombs’ (2004) Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and media framing research to develop a coding …

From The Top: Impression Management Strategies And Organizational Identity In Executive-Authored Weblogs, Teryl A. Mclane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines impression management strategies high-ranking organizational executives employ to create an identity for themselves and their companies via executive authored Weblogs (blogs). This study attempts to identify specific patterns of impression management strategies through a deductive content analysis applying Jones’ (1990) taxonomy of self-presentation strategies to this particular type of computer mediated communication. Sampling for this study (n=227) was limited to blogs solely and regularly authored by the highest-ranking leaders of Fortune 500 companies. The study revealed that executive bloggers frequently employed impression management strategies aimed at currying competency attributes (self-promotion), likeability (ingratiation), and moral worthiness (exemplification) to …

The Management Of Feral Pig Socio-Ecological Systems In Far North Queensland, Australia, Gabriela Shuster

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The development of management programs for socio-ecological systems that include multiple stakeholders is a complex process and requires careful evaluation and planning. This is particularly a challenge in the presence of intractable conflict. The feral pig (Sus scrofa) in Australia is part of one such socio-ecological system. There is a large and heterogeneous group of stakeholders interested in pig management. Pigs have diverse effects on wildlife and plant ecology, economic, health, and social sectors. This study used the feral pig management system as a vehicle to examine intractable conflict in socio-ecological systems. The purpose of the study was …

Social Media: Changing Advertising Education, Deborah A. Lester

Faculty Articles

Creating an academic assignment that closely parallels an advertising agency's real world business experience is a challenge, but social media has destroyed many of the barriers that historically limited media options and completion of advertising plans. Because digital media is cost effective and easily used, commercials, videos, podcasts, and multimedia messaging can be filmed, edited, and broadcast, within the time frame of an advertising course This article presents an applied advertising project that incorporates YouTube, Flicker, MySpace, Face book, Twitter, Linkedin, Ning, Tagged, Google +, and other online social networking sites as the foundation for an integrated marketing communication strategy. …

Turtle Cam: Live Multimedia Interaction For Engaging Potential Visitor Population To Canaveral National Seashore, Brian Alfred Tortorelli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project expands the outreach of the Canaveral National Seashore to its visitors, potential visitors, and virtual visitors through its goals in conservancy and preservation of its natural resources. This paper is involved with the current iteration of a series of digital media projects, the Sea Turtle Nest Camera, also known as, Turtle Cam. It details how and why this project was designed to be an ongoing initiative to assist in those goals.

The Stories They Tell: An International Focus Group Study Identifying Families’ Communication About Alcohol, Marie Haverfield, J. Theiss

Faculty Publications

This study sought to explore how alcoholism is experienced and communicated in the context of the family. Drawing on Fitzpatrick and Ritchie’s (1994) Family Communication Patterns Theory, this study compared features of conversation and conformity in family interactions about alcoholism in German and American culture. This cross-cultural comparison provides insight to the cultural extremes of alcohol related behavior and how such behaviors may or may not affect communication in the family. 

Digital Video: Engaging Students In Critical Media Literacy And Community Activism, Jessie Daniels

Publications and Research

This article presents a strategy for teaching health communication that fosters critical media literacy through the strategic combination of digital video, documentary film, video worksheets, and peer-reviewed journal articles. Given the media-saturated environment in which notions of health are shaped, critical media literacy skills are crucial to students in health-related fields. Cases of key concepts illustrated through documentary films and the peer-reviewed literature are presented. The article then explores how one class took the lead in designing a community event that critically engaged both a YouTube video and a documentary film about police brutality as a public health issue.

Performing Nostalgia: Body, Memory, And The Aesthetics Of Past-Home, Jade C. Huell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Since its etymological beginnings, the meanings and usages of nostalgia have shifted markedly. In the shifting, nostalgia’s associations with the body and with the concept of home has diminished. This study of African American nostalgia for Africa uses genealogical inquiry, personal and autoethnographic narrative, and performance theories and practices to reinvigorate the relations between body, memory, aesthetics, past, and home. Attending to operations of time and space, I theorize the aforementioned relations in order to build a theory of critical nostalgia. Following Debbora Battaglia, I argue and illustrate that nostalgia is an act realized in performance, and I develop my …

Family Matters: Influential Factors Of Choice Regarding The Family-Career Dichotomy For The Next Generation Of Mothers, Beth Lindberg

Honors Program Theses

This study was performed for an undergraduate thesis project for a university honor's program. The thesis project sought to discover female college students' viewpoints on stay-at-home mothering and various influences on said viewpoints through the administration of a survey to college women. Various statistical tests, such as t-test, chi-square, correlation, and regression tests, were completed to analyze the data. From this data, it was found that most participants in the study had positive, socially constructed, stereotypical viewpoints of stay-at-home mothers. Three influences were found to be unique predictors for the choice to plan to be a full-time stay-at-home mother: number …

From Strangers To Siblings: An Ethnography Of The Appalachia Service Project Summer Staffers, Rachel Elizabeth Tish

Honors Program Theses

Communication research has typically focused on relationship development in fairly regular, true-to-life settings; there is a lack of focus on friendships that grow out of situations in which people have no relational alternatives. This ethnographic study of the Appalachia Service Project (ASP) offers a contrast: observations, interviews, cultural artifacts, and researcher memories shed light on the friendship processes within various groups of four college-aged individuals who are assigned as work teams for 12 weeks. Together the members of these teams repair homes, oversee volunteers, and typically form relationships that reach a deeper level than most friendships. The study of how …

“If You Can Dream It, You Can Achieve It”: Parent Memorable Messages As Indicators Of College Student Success, Haley Kranstuber, Kristen Carr, Angela M. Hosek

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

This study investigated various aspects of parents’ memorable messages about college as they relate to indicators of college student success. Findings revealed that parents’ memorable messages about college focused on working (and playing) hard, the necessity of attending college, providing encouragement and support, and general advice based on parents’ own experiences. Although these message themes were not uniquely predictive of college student success, the students’ perceptions of message and sender characteristics emerged as significant predictors of cognitive learning indicators, learner empowerment, college motivation, and satisfaction with college. Theoretical and practical implications for findings are discussed.

Risks And Benefits Of Seeking And Receiving Emotional Support During The Divorce Process: An Examination Of Divorcee Individual Adjustment, Closeness, And Relational Satisfaction With Multiple Partners From A Social Network, Sarah E. Wilder

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

Divorce is one of the most difficult life events an individual may face. Divorce impacts not only the individual who has to adjust to new physical and psychological conditions following divorce, but also extends to the many relationships in the divorcee’s social network. Central to divorce processes and relational outcomes is communication. One aspect that may influence the quality of divorcees’ post-divorce relationships and ability to adjust following the divorce is the provision of emotional support. In the current study, I examine a social network model of adjustment to divorce by examining the role of risk in seeking, and effectiveness …

The Challenge Of Flexible Intelligence For Models Of Human Behavior, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Mark Turner, Nicholas Weller

Faculty Scholarship

Game theoretic predictions about equilibrium behavior depend upon assumptions of inflexibility of belief, of accord between belief and choice, and of choice across situations that share a game-theoretic structure. However, researchers rarely possess any knowledge of the actual beliefs of subjects, and rarely compare how a subject behaves in settings that share game-theoretic structure but that differ in other respects. Our within-subject experiments utilize a belief elicitation mechanism, roughly similar to a prediction market, in a laboratory setting to identify subjects’ beliefs about other subjects’ choices and beliefs. These experiments additionally allow us to compare choices in different settings that …

Understanding Involuntary Job Loss Among Former Newspaper Staff Photographers, Ryan K. Morris

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines former newspaper photographers' experience with being laid-off from their staff positions. The purpose was to identify emerging themes within the context of involuntary job loss, job satisfaction, and occupational identity via interviews with 8 photojournalists who experienced the phenomenon of being laid-off. The newspaper industry has long been considered both the starting point for young and aspiring photojournalism careers and the most consistent and stable venue for an income. Yet recent changes in the media landscape, particularly economic stress on traditional business models and rapid adoption of digital technology sway the occupational future of photojournalism within newsrooms. …

Global Csr And Photographic Credibility: Exploring How International Companies Portray Efforts Through Photographs In Csr Reports, Janel Lynn Norton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We are living in the age of the visual. Imagery is an important element in constructing and deriving meaning through symbols, colors, and context. Images may hold persuasive power, be used as evidence, or simply provide a moment of beauty. Organizations rely on photographs to help them convey an image to their stakeholders within annual reports. Telling an organizations' story through photographs has become an intrinsic part of their efforts to convey sustainability. We live in the age of transparency, and organizations that construct an image that is not truthful will face consequences in today's socially connected and conscious world. …

Live Versus Recorded: Exploring Television Sales Presentations, Christopher Craig Novak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This is an exploratory study that poses the questions and discussion regarding live and recorded sales presentations via television. With its rich history, it appears that live television has more types of appeal that will get the shopper buying products. However, the recorded and edited presentation played back on television has had its share to grab the shopper's attention. Research questions are presented to determine which broadcasting method is stronger by examining factors related to home shopping such as credibility, authenticity, involvement, urgency, informativeness, entertaining value, sense of real time, spontaneity and interactivity. Additional questions will look at the …

An Evolving Dyke-Otomy: Lesbianism And Learning, Megan Pugh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Homophobia and prejudice against the lesbian community have been argued to be consequences of lack of education within academic and non-academic spaces. This study introduces a pedagogical model of gendered lesbian identity that can act as a tool for educators to understand lesbian experiences, and thus contribute to addressing issues related to homophobia and prejudices in the classrooms and beyond. Based on thematic analysis of data generated by a qualitative online survey of 29 participants, this study argues that notions of social norms, individual agency, and importance of advocacy are critical points of emphases in the proposed educational model. Although …

A Framing Analysis: The Nba's "One-And-Done"Rule, Daniel Ryan Beaulieu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2006, the NBA introduced the "one-and-done" rule that restricted high school graduates to enter directly into the NBA draft following high school. In turn, a high school prospect would essentially now have the option of playing professionally elsewhere (most likely overseas), enter the NBA's Developmental League, or play NCAA basketball. The rule has proved to be quite controversial, as it has had a great effect on both NBA and NCAA basketball, as well as the players. Various media outlets have been quite vocal not only about the rule itself, but the perceived effects it has had on both collegiate …

Strategizing Relationships 2.0: An Analysis Of International Companies' Use Of Social Media, Jessica Marie Brightman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Because of technological advances and the blurring of boundaries, the world is becoming a global community. Global communications have made it essential for multinational corporations to develop and maintain a consistent worldwide identity and brand image. It is no longer possible to classify people into simple and stable segments of customers; the world is evolving and so is the population. The purpose of this research is to bridge the gap between the academic and professional world of international public relations by expanding the stream of literature and incorporating a global aspect. Within the last few years, social media has seen …

Communicating During An Organizational Crisis: Using Facebook As A Relationship Management Tool, Vjollca Hysenlika

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine how organizations communicate on Facebook during a crisis, from a relationship management perspective, and how their interactivity, responsiveness, and transparency affect their Fan page's relevance, importance, and appeal. In this study, the researcher conducted a controlled experiment to examine if a strategized Facebook Fan page that contained a high level of interaction, responsiveness, and transparency contributed to long-lasting relationships with fans or helped organizations recover/prevent a crisis. The researcher created eight different conditions (Facebook Fan Pages) presenting a crisis message, and recruited 200 students (25 participants per condition) from the University of …

Community As Metaphor: Dialectical Tensions Of A Racially Diverse Organization, Joseph Jacob Jenkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, a sense of community has declined throughout the United States. Common Point Community Church has responded to this trend by prioritizing "community" as an organizational metaphor. The present study explores how this metaphor is co-constructed through the communication practices of current organizational leaders and members. I begin this process, first, by positioning the study within existing literature on institutional theory, institutional legitimacy, community, community of practice, social construction of race, sensemaking, organizational metaphor, tension-centered approach, and dialectic theory. Building upon more than three years of ethnographic field work, I then outline the study's context and methodology. Next, …

An Exploration Of The Organization-Public Relationship Through Online Media: The Case Of The Tampa Bay Rays, Steven Lynch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Organizations are working to establish and maintain relationships with their target publics using a wide variety of communication tools. How they work at developing this organization-public relationship (OPR) is open to the organization, but previous research suggests there are measurement scales that can indicate what factors an organization may be doing right and those they may need to improve on.

This study examines relationship building efforts of the Tampa Bay Rays organization and the representation it has demonstrated through online content. Utilizing a content analysis, sample articles were collected and coded to examine if relationship components could be found …

Masculinity, Sexuality, And Soccer: An Exploration Of Three Grassroots Sport-For-Social-Change Organizations In South Africa, Sarah Theresa Mcghee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Programs that utilize soccer as a tool for social change are steadily emerging throughout townships and rural areas in South Africa, the most economically disadvantaged areas of the country. In South Africa, grassroots sport-for-social-change organizations are compensating for failed government policies and programs that seek to help at-risk youth. As a result, program staff are often members of the community who are not versed in academic critiques of the use of sport in development initiatives. Additionally, much of the existing literature on sport-for-social-change champions the advancement of specific projects without asking critical research questions, which should include the appropriateness of …

The Rhetoric Of Evidence In Recent Documentary Film And Video, Steven W. Schoen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Documentary is a genre of film that portrays "real" events using depictions that connote the objectivity and facticity implied by the processes of photorealism. Many contemporary documentary theorists and critics observe a constitutive problem in this ethos: despite the apparent constructions and agendas of documentary filmmaking, the framing and assumption of documentary as a window on the world tend to naturalize its own constructions as "real." Critics who engage documentary trace the multitude of ways this problem plays out in particular films. These projects yield many important insights, but they most often approach documentary as a form of inherently deficient …

Improvisational Music Performance: On-Stage Communication Of Power Relationships, David A. Steinweg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project explores how musical improvisational processes come into being through interacting discursive power relationships that are embodied and enacted through performance. By utilizing the concepts of framing and performativity I am able to show how discursive power constitutes the performance of improvisational music. To exemplify this theory, the project presents a case study examining a Grateful Dead cover band named Uncle John's Band that performs at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa, FL. Using an ethnographic methodology, the project articulates the dominant discursive power relationships that constitute Uncle John's Band's improvisational performances. The dominant discursive power relationships revolve around the lived …

A Search For Home: Navigating Change In Battlestar Galactica, Kimberly S. Yost

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation explores the various ways in which the multiple leaders portrayed in the science fiction television series Battlestar Galactica (2003-2009) navigate extreme conditions of continual change. In addition, the dissertation contains a discussion of the larger narrative themes of love, forgiveness, redemption, and embracing the Other as principles effective leaders must cultivate. Through an interpretation of this specific popular media text, a deeper emotional sensitivity to and understanding of leadership, positive and negative, during extreme crises is gained. Furthermore, the series serves as a vehicle through which viewers can reflect on and engage in their own self-awareness about issues …