Communication Commons^™

Keeping Children Moving, Active, And Healthy. Hef609, Participant Guide, Tonia Durden, Jennifer K. Gerdes, Ruth E. Vonderohe, Kayla Colgrove, Ladonna Werth, Lorene Bartos, Leslie Crandall, Carrie Miller

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

This program introduces parents, caregivers, and other adults to fun, interactive, and simple ways to encourage at-home movement activities with children birth to age 8.

Lesson Objectives: After completing this lesson, you will (1) have an increased understanding of the health benefits to children and adults of at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day, (2) understand how movement activities support children’s academic success, and social and emotional development, and (3) learn new strategies for helping children stay active and healthy.

Climate Change Beliefs, Concerns, And Attitudes Toward Adaptation And Mitigation Among Farmers In The Midwestern United States, J. Gordon Arbuckle, Linda Stalker Prokopy, Tonya Haigh, Jon Hobbs, Tricia Knoot, Cody Knutson, Adam Loy, Amber Saylor Mase, Jean Mcguire, Lois Wright Morton, John Tyndall, Melissa Widhalm

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

A February 2012 survey of almost 5,000 farmers across a region of the U.S. that produces more than half of the nation’s corn and soybean revealed that 66% of farmers believed climate change is occurring (8% mostly anthropogenic, 33% equally human and natural, 25% mostly natural), while 31% were uncertain and 3.5% did not believe that climate change is occurring. Results of initial analyses indicate that farmers’ beliefs about climate change and its causes vary considerably, and the relationships between those beliefs, concern about the potential impacts of climate change, and attitudes toward adaptive and mitigative action differ in systematic …

Antecedents To Mobbing, Anita Lois Lane

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The research examines possible antecedents to mobbing behavior. Mobbing typically occurs following a bullying incident. Dyadic Power Theory (Dunbar, 2004) is applied to the behaviors associated with this phenomenon. Indirect Interpersonal Aggression can be perceived as a communicative strategy to demonstrate control attempts. Those who lack in self-assurance may be more apt to join in with the mob and cultivate mobbing episodes in the adult world. Emerging adults are entering vocational spheres in large numbers. Becoming aware of unethical communicative behaviors that lead to severe workplace and individual consequences is the focus of this study.

The Politicization Of Popular Culture: A Case Study In Reagan And Star Wars, Nathan A. Wingert

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This project examined the use of Ronald Reagan’s rhetoric, specifically the “Star Wars,” “Zero Option” and “Evil Empire” speeches. It answers the question: Why do we know SDI as Star Wars? It also The rationale for the study came from myriad sources, including the historical and political undertones of the Star Wars films and rhetorical criticism of other Reagan speeches. G. Thomas Goodnight’s analysis linked all three speeches together as a reformulation of wartime rhetoric, so that was the rationale for analyzing three speeches. After performing a rhetorical criticism using Burkean identification as the lens, there are several results: Reagan …

Challenging The Media-Incarceration Complex Through Media Education, Bill Yousman

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

Focusing on prime-time dramatic television as the most prevalent source of fictional images of violence, crime, and incarceration, in this chapter I address the distorted narratives and images that saturate popular television dramas. I also draw upon interviews I conducted with ex-prisoners to show how media representations of imprisonment, though inaccurate and misleading, shape the perceptions even of those who have themselves been incarcerated.

The Impact Of Online Non-Partisan Videos On Self-Reported Intention To Vote, Milad Minooie

Communication Theses - Archive

Previous studies have concluded that Web-based get out the vote (GOTV) messages do not impact voting behavior. However, the primary shortcoming of these studies has been the form of GOTV media studied, focusing on lean, text-based internet media, analogous to direct mail. With the advent of Web 2.0, where users are both consumers and generators of content, further research into internet-based GOTV efforts is warranted. To study the effects of richer Internet media, two sets of videos were created, utilizing proximity and peripheral elaboration of messages to positively stimulate voting engagement and intent. Male and female presenters from the same …

Mydigitalfootprint.Org: Young People And The Proprietary Ecology Of Everyday Data, Gregory Thomas Donovan

All Open Access Legacy Dissertations and Capstone Projects

Young people are the canaries in our contemporary data mine. They are at the forefront of complex negotiations over privacy, property, and security in environments saturated with information systems. The productive and entertaining promises of proprietary media have led to widespread adoption among youth whose daily activities now generate troves of data that are mined for governance and profit. As they text, email, network, and search within these proprietary ecologies, young people's identity configurations link up with modes of capitalist production. The MyDigitalFootprint.ORG Project was thus initiated to unpack and engage young people's material social relations with/in proprietary ecologies through …

Fair And Square?: An Examination Of The Relationships Among Classroom Justice And Relational Teaching Messages, Laura E. Young, Sean M. Horan, Brandi N. Frisby

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

Students and instructors acknowledge the importance of the instructor–student relationship in the classroom. Despite the importance of the instructor–student interpersonal relationship, there can also be unexpected or undesirable outcomes associated with relational teaching. Using the theoretical framework of leader–member exchange, we explored relational teaching messages to understand how they may relate positively or negatively to student perceptions of classroom justice. Participants (N = 124) completed measures about relational communication strategies (i.e., rapport, confirmation, and affinity-seeking) and classroom justice (i.e., procedural, interactional, and distributive). Results indicate the enjoyable interaction dimension of rapport positively predicted perceptions of all three types of justice. …

South Africa: Newsrooms In Transition, Margaretha Geertsema-Sligh

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

South African is a beautiful country with a a diverse citizenry at the Southernmost tip of the African continent. But the nation also has a long history of racial struggle, which includes an era of racial segregation, called apartheid that ended formally in 1994 after nearly 50 years of policital oppression and protest. The country today is a land of contrasts. It has a vibrant media scene and one of the most progressive constitutions in the world, guaranteeing equality for all and freedom of the press. Women are breaking through newsroom boundaries, making up about half of the journalism workforce, …

Malcolm Chisholm: An Evaluation Of Traditional Audio Engineering, Paul Linden

Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication

The career of longtime Chicago area audio engineer and notable Chess Records session recorder Malcolm Chisholm (1929-2003) serves as a window for assessing the stakes of technological and cultural developments around the birth of Rock & Roll. Chisholm stands within the traditional art-versus-commerce debate as an example of the post-World War II craftsman ethos marginalized by an incoming, corporate-determined paradigm. Contextual maps locate Chisholm’s style and environment of audio production as well as his impact within the rebranding of electrified Blues music into mainstream genres like Rock music. Interviews of former students and professional associates provide first-hand accounts of core …

Forum Magazine, Spring 2013

Forum Magazine

No abstract provided.

Framing Disability: A Content Analysis Of Newspapers In Nigeria, Olusola John Ogundola

Media Studies - Theses

This study examined how the media in Nigeria framed people with disabilities and issues concerning them with a view to appreciating how news media frames impact society's perception of people with disabilities. A textual analysis method was used to examine newspapers' reports of disability within the period of a decade - 2001 to 2010. The sample was drawn from two major newspapers in Nigeria - Daily Trust based in Abuja, north-central Nigeria and Nigerian Tribune based in Ibadan, south-western Nigeria. This was done to ascertain whether cultural and religious differences between the north (predominantly Islam) and south (predominantly Christian) impact …

There Is No Word For Work In The Dragon Tongue, Kevin Moberly, Brent Moberly

English Faculty Publications

The past decade or so has witnessed a relatively steady stream of scholarly interest in the mundane medieval—in labor, local economies, and their influence upon wider cultural production.¹ Despite this interest (and perhaps as a reaction to it), popular medievalism has continued to emphasize versions of the medieval that are decidedly more heroic—productions that are simultaneously (and paradoxically) more “realistic” and more “fantastic.” Labor plays, at best, a supporting role in these fantasies: while not absent, it rarely, if ever, has the same productive presence as it does in recent scholarly treatments of medieval economies. Inasmuch as popular medievalism …

Empowering And Engaging Students In Learning Research Methods, Rhonda Breit, Shaung Liu

Graduate School of Media and Communications

The capacity to conduct research is essential for university graduates to survive and thrive in their future career. However, research methods courses have often been considered by students as "abstract", "uninteresting", and "hard". Thus, motivating students to engage in the process of learning research methods has become a crucial challenge for lecturers. This paper reports a study which incorporates students' prior (international) experiences into learning academic research in order to enhance relatedness, engagement, and a sense of empowerment. The findings indicate that student attitudes to learning research methods are closely related to the level of their engagement in the learning …

Extension's Capacity To Deliver Quality Early Childhood Professional Development, Tonia Durden, Claudia C. Mincemoyer, Jennifer Gerdes, Kathleen Lodl

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

In recent years much attention has focused on the role of enhancing a teacher's professional knowledge and skills in helping to improve the quality of early care experiences for young children birth–5. In the study reported here, an environmental scan of the early childhood professional development programs offered within the Extension system was conducted to identify the programs' content, delivery, scope, evaluation, and partners. Results indicate that Extension has been a player in providing professional development opportunities for early childhood professionals and with a focused effort in streamlining the current resources has the capacity to become a leader in this …

Communication Of Emotion In Music, Jesse Paul Huhnerkoch

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The communication of emotion in music has been shown to be dependent on musical structure and emotional prompting with lyrical messages. This study seeks a new approach to researching the communication of emotion in music by creating musical samples that are based upon the sound wave frequency parameters of emotive speaking. An electronic survey containing six different emotive musical samples was conducted to gather listener interpretations of the intended emotional quality. Further research is needed to properly distinguish the parameters of emotive frequencies in order to provide for exposure of the functionalities of this phenomenon.

The Extent Of Ethics Instruction In Technical And Professional Communication Graduate Programs, Kristopher R. O'Neil

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In this research, I performed a content analysis of the required courses in technical and professional communication (TPC) graduate course syllabi to investigate the prevalence of ethics-related materials included in course instruction. The literature on the topic of ethics instruction in TPC programs identifies ethics as an important area of study for technical communication students. The literature also suggests that effective ethics instruction is layered into assignments and throughout TPC curricula. The content analysis for my research included collecting the syllabi of required courses from a sample of TPC graduate programs, and coding for the occurrence of journal articles and …

Nbc Peacock North Winter 2013, Peacock North Staff

NBC Peacock North Newsletter

Highlights include: Steve Capus Guest Speaker at Spring Luncheon -- NBC's Richard Engel and Crew are Freed in Syria -- Sandy Destroys Peacock North Members' House -- Peacock Apples: Frank & Cort Snell -- A Today Show Memoir

Engaging Young Professionals In Credit Unions: Reviving A Movement Through Online Social Networking, Meet-Ups, And Events, Rebecca Spachek

Capstone Collection

Credit Union young professionals feel distanced from their jobs and comparatively less satisfied than their older coworkers. The industry is failing to retain young talent causing a growing gap between the young professionals and aging leaders. The Cooperative Trust is a network of young professionals working to close this gap by connecting and engaging members with the larger Credit Union Movement. This paper will examine the question, “Have active members of the Cooperative Trust experienced an increase in engagement in the credit union movement since joining the Cooperative Trust?”.

A New Model: Improving Adult Experiences In The Holy Land With Effective Pre-Departure Information, Resources And Procedures, Sarah A. Loan

Capstone Collection

Since September 11, 2001, Group Travel Directors (GTD) has noted an increase in self-reported anxiety among adult travelers preparing to depart to the Holy Land. This observation has been made by long-term employees both objectively and subjectively by comparing evaluation scores, cancellation percentages, tracking numbers of phone calls from anxious travelers and through staff accounts of conversations with travelers. GTD staff reports that clients often are inclined to make rash decisions based on perfunctory judgments influenced by media coverage.

GTD has collected evaluations from adult travelers for more than twenty years in an effort to better understand traveler perceptions of …

Study Abroad And Identity: The African American Experience, Alicia Ranney

Capstone Collection

Not all students are alike, nor should they be treated as 'one size fits all' in study abroad. Students have different backgrounds, goals, and expectations of what they will gain from an international academic experience. Minority students face different types of challenges in study abroad than their non-minority counterparts.

This paper seeks to answer the question “does study abroad change the identity of African American students?” and examines the challenges of identity and racism and how those two factors may decrease participation rates of African Americans in study abroad. Students from Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan were surveyed before and …

Exploring Motivation Through Athlete Communication, Tye G. Davis

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The current study examined the communication ecology of athlete motivation. Furthermore, gender differences in communication ecologies were evaluated, as were variations in communication tendencies for highly and lowly motivated athletes. Findings suggest that teammates and parents are strong motivators for athletes. Mass media were associated with athlete motivation while social media were not. Gender differences were found with males reporting being more motivated by mass media than females, while females were more strongly motivated by their parents and friends. There were significant differences found in the communication ecologies of highly motivated athletes compared to less motivated athletes. Athletes who were …

Lessons Learned From Aac Camp, Janet L. Dodd

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Children who benefit from augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) need not only the support of individuals knowledgeable in the technologies themselves, but ones who understand the translation of language intervention principles to AAC.

Learning Context Matters: Communication Strategy Development Through Spanish Interaction, Sonya Hildebrand

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

University studies in the Spanish language are often times confined to the classroom. However, more and more programs have been implementing civic engagement in the Hispanic community into the curriculum to create a service-learning experience. This study sought to determine the effectiveness of service-learning in enhancing communication techniques. Twenty undergraduate students at the University of Kentucky were surveyed at the onset and the conclusion of one semester while simultaneously serving the Hispanic community. The students, on average, increased the frequency of communication techniques after a semester of service-learning. Students who participate in a service-learning program often times see a result …

What Is This Music? Auteur Music In The Films Of Wes Anderson, Lara Rose Hrycaj

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the different types of music featured in the films of contemporary American film director Wes Anderson utilizing Claudia Gorbman's concepts of auteur music and auteur melomane. This analysis establishes the music in Anderson's films as auteur music and Anderson himself as an auteur melomane - a director with a passion for music. To establish Anderson as a melomane, it is important to look not only at the different types of music found in his films but also the different ways that the music is used within the films and his collaboration with …

Impacts Of Oral Language Proficiency, Television And Internet On Acculturation Of Taiwanese College Students, Huang Yu Lin

Wayne State University Dissertations

The majority of recent cross-cultural research with regard to the media's impact on acculturation has been aimed at Chinese immigrants' acculturation by the media in the United States with relatively little attention to Taiwanese college students' state of change in acculturation by various media sources while acquiring English as a second language. There are significant numbers of studies on assimilation to the host culture by both the ethnic and host media; however, there is a paucity of literature based on the one-dimensional media impact on a particular demographic group which can be easily traced to various types of media affecting …

Information Sources In Relation To Information Quality, Information-Seeking, And Uncertainty In The Context Of Healthcare Reform, Jennifer L. Bevan

Communication Faculty Books and Book Chapters

This exploratory study examines information-seeking about the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (i.e. healthcare reform) in relation to the potential barriers of uncertainty,uncertainty discrepancy, and low health self-efficacy. Adult United States participants completed an anonymous online survey about their perceptions and understanding of healthcare reform. Results confirmed recent literature, suggesting a complex relationship between information-seeking and uncertainty. Specifically, for this sample, significant positive relationships were observed between information-seeking about healthcare reform and uncertainty, uncertainty discrepancy, health self-efficacy. Further, uncertainty discrepancy was the potential barrier that accounted for the most variance in predicting information-seeking.Implications of these findings for improving …

Globalizing The Care Chain: Representations Of Latinas In Maid In America, Irune Del Rio Gabiola

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The article examines the portrayal of Latina women as housemaids in the U.S. as depicted in the documentary film "Maid in America" directed by Anayansi Prado. It discusses the social injustice and sacrifices undergone by the Latinas in order to survive in the host country. It also analyzes the image of the Latina as an ideal mother of both her native and host country.

Fair Cost Sharing Auction Mechanisms In Last Mile Ridesharing, Duc Thien Nguyen

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

With rapid growth of transportation demands in urban cities, one major challenge is to provide efficient and effective door-to-door service to passengers using the public transportation system. This is commonly known as the Last Mile problem. In this thesis, we consider a dynamic and demand responsive mechanism for Ridesharing on a non-dedicated commercial fleet (such as taxis). This problem is addressed as two sub-problems, the first of which is a special type of vehicle routing problems (VRP). The second sub-problem, which is more challenging, is to allocate the cost (i.e. total fare) fairly among passengers. We propose auction mechanisms where …

The Impact Of The Internet On The Sexual Health Of Adolescents: A Brief Review, Julia Springate, Hatim A. Omar

Pediatrics Faculty Publications

The object of this review is to summarize the impact of the Internet on the sexual health of adolescents. This article examines the use of websites, blogs and chat rooms as sources for sexual health information for adolescents. The influence of Internet pornography on sexual behaviors and attitudes is addressed. The use of the Internet as a place to find sexual partners is also assessed. During a time of great physical, emotional and sexual change, the Internet is playing a huge role in the decisions adolescents are making, both positive and negative.