Communication Commons^™

The Death Of Mississippi House Bill 488: Latinos In America, Mary Faye Stanton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In March 2012, the Mississippi House of Representatives passed House Bill 488, an immigration bill similar to those passed in Arizona and Alabama that allowed, among other provisions, law enforcement officers to check the legal status of an individual after a legal stop. This thesis sets out to show how three key factors: the opposition of industry and agricultural representatives, the outcry against the racial aspects of the bill, and an alliance between Democrats, the Black Caucus, and Latino rights activists -- prevented the bill from becoming a law in a state with a Republican governor and Republican majority in …

Big Ben: The Gentle Rebel, Brandon Christopher Rook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the University of Mississippi having a deep and somewhat negative history with racial tension, the sole purpose of this study was to figure out if Ben Williams, the first African American varsity football player experienced any issues with racism while he attended school. Over the years Williams has stated that no issues have come about because of his race. After interviewing Ben Williams and over 10 others for the thesis project documentary entitled "The Ole Miss Black Athlete,” it can be predicted that Williams didn't receive any racial tension on the campus of Ole Miss from the media or …

How Does Culture Influence Corporate Risk-Taking?, Kai Li, Dale Griffin, Heng Yue, Longkai Zhao

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

We investigate the role of national culture in corporate risk-taking. We postulate that culture influencescorporate risk-taking both through its effect on managerial decision-making and through its effect on acountry’s formal institutions. Further, we postulate that the influence of culture is conditioned on theextent of managerial discretion as measured by earnings discretion and firm size. Using firm-level datafrom 35 countries and employing a hierarchical linear modeling approach to isolate the effects of firmleveland country-level variables, we show that individualism has a positive and significant association,whereas uncertainty avoidance and harmony have negative and significant associations, with corporaterisk-taking. Greater earnings discretion strengthens and …

Glidden At Walmart: There For You, University Of Nebraska–Lincoln Nsac Team, Cody Elmore, Adam Kroft, Rachel Leitschuck, Brittany Rypkema, Jordan Oddo, Derek Niewohner, Matthew Anderson, Mitchell Benes, Meg Brannen, Griffin Gale, Devin Mcdermott, Grant Weber, Jennifer Gortik, Geremy Gortemaker, Katie Hottovy, Matt Wengert, Toan Chu, Devin Specht, Rich Bailey, Michael Goff

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Student Advertising Projects

Hectic, busy, tiring—these are just a few words our target markets use to describe their day-to-day lives. Millennials, young families, and Baby Boomers all feel the pressure of life. With jobs, schoolwork, and family, they find it hard to keep up. Because of these busy lifestyles, savvy consumers crave home improvement solutions that are both quick and reliable. Glidden offers a solution to these issues by placing its top-quality paint in the most convenient store on Earth, Walmart. The University of Nebraska–Lincoln NSAC Team has created a plan to promote this symbiotic relationship of Glidden’s quality and Walmart’s convenience as …

Expediency Versus Harmony: Reconsidering The Values Of Collectivist Cultures In Intercultural Communication, Tori Hagy

Undergraduate Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Battle Of The Brands: Producing Medium-Specific Video Promotion Of Music Commodity Signs For The New Media Epoch, Josh Grube

Undergraduate Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Situating The Study Of Messages About Non-Heterosexual Sexual Orientation In Everyday Ordinary Interactions: A Call For Paradigm Change, Clinton Lee Brown

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study explores the motivations that may orient an individual to another' s sexual orientation. Extant literature has traditionally focused on the ways in which individuals "detect" or recognize another's sexual orientation, but has failed to explore the communicative strategies individuals routinely engage in and the reasons he or she may be interested in another' s sexual orientation. As such, this study fits nicely into the interpersonal and intercultural communication literatures that concern themselves with the social construction of identity, which is an ongoing interactional task to which conversationalists orient. The data for this study was collected during the fall …

The Relationship Between The First Impression That Dress Creates And College Students’ Reactions Toward It, Quang Ngo, Kathleen Smith

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Dress preserves history, embraces traditions, and links different generations together. With the ability to communicate non-verbally, dress conveys a picture or sends a message about its wearer to those who observe the individual. Therefore, dress can create first impressions for the beholders. Previous research reveals that professional dress creates more positive first impressions. The goal of this study was to identify whether college students would react differently to different types of dress and whether specific types of dress would have influences on college students’ first impressions of a male or female peer. Results of the study indicated that college students …

“I Took Up The Case Of The Stranger”: Arguments From Faith, History And Law, David H. Michels, David Blaikie

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

It may seem surprising that faith groups would offer sanctuary to refused refugees, or material support to undocumented migrants. These acts of resistance and compassion require normally law-abiding moral people to make a conscious choice to defy government and perhaps, if necessary, even break the law. The success of sanctuary movements (defined broadly here) relies on broad public support both to attract willing collaborators, and to forestall government intervention. Previous studies have examined the discourse around sanctuary practice, and the ensuing public debates. This chapter adds to this body of work by offering an empirical study of how individuals and …

Unleashed From The Shackles: Modern Media's Portrayal Of Mental Illness: United States Of Tara, Kayla Brown

Theses and Dissertations

"[With mental illness] you get a real sense of shame, because your friends go, 'Oh come on, show me the lump, show me the x-rays,' and of course you've got nothing to show," stated famous comedian Ruby Wax. A longtime sufferer of depression, Ruby Wax shares her experiences with others by advocating mental health awareness through television shows and support groups. Wax was one of many other speakers included in Technology Entertainment Design's (TED's) All Kinds of Minds segment. Elyn Saks, another speaker within this segment, overcame many challenges in spite of her condition of chronic schizophrenia. A Yale graduate, …

Contents, Discovery Editors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 14 2013, Several Authors

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

No abstract provided.

What Can Reader Comments To News Online Contribute To Engagement And Interactivity? A Quantitative Approach, Brett A. Borton

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the relationship between journalism and computer-mediated communication by exploring the degree to which newly empowered audience members are using the reader comment forum on newspaper websites to participate in democratic discourse - a key component of civic engagement. Twenty-first century journalism has evolved from the traditional asynchronous, 'one-to-many' model into a process involving producers, content and audiences. The interactive capabilities of Internet-based news products have enabled legacy media to connect with audiences in unprecedented fashion. Perhaps more than any other interactive platform, the reader comment forum on online news sites reflects the ideal of the 'public sphere,' …

Logical Linked Data Compression, Amit Krishna Joshi, Pascal Hitzler, Guozhu Dong

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

Linked data has experienced accelerated growth in recent years. With the continuing proliferation of structured data, demand for RDF compression is becoming increasingly important. In this study, we introduce a novel lossless compression technique for RDF datasets, called Rule Based Compression (RB Compression) that compresses datasets by generating a set of new logical rules from the dataset and removing triples that can be inferred from these rules. Unlike other compression techniques, our approach not only takes advantage of syntactic verbosity and data redundancy but also utilizes semantic associations present in the RDF graph. Depending on the nature of the dataset, …

Research And Pedagogy In Business Analytics: Opportunities And Illustrative Examples, Ramesh Sharda, Daniel Asamoah, Natraj Ponna

Management Information Systems Faculty Publications

In recent times, business analytics and big data have gained momentum both in industry practice and academic research. The objective of this paper is to provide both a research and teaching introduction to business analytics in the context of both current and prospective perspective of the business analytics domain. It begins by providing a quick overview of the three types of analytics. To assist the future analytics professionals, we identify, group and discuss nine different participants of the analytics industry into clusters. We then include a brief description of some current research projects under way in our team. We also …

How Strong Is The Pull Of The Past? Measuring Personal Nostalgia Evoked By Advertising, Altaf Merchant, Kathryn Latour, John B. Ford

Marketing Faculty Publications

Marketers frequently evoke personal nostalgia in their advertising. To date, scales have been developed to measure the propensity to get nostalgic but not the actual dimensions of personal nostalgia. Results from four studies show that advertising-evoked personal nostalgia comprises four correlated but distinct dimensions: past imagery, positive emotions, negative emotions, and physiological reactions. This multidimensional scale showed a high level of validity and reliability. Moreover, due to careful choice of sampling frames, the study demonstrates a high level of external generalizability. Evaluating nostalgia-based advertising using the study's multidimensional scale may provide marketers with strategic insights for developing and fine-tuning advertising …

Once Upon A Time: Fairytales Past And Present, Jordan L. Keithley

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Eros And Psyche From Apuleius To Paranormal Romance: A Communication Analysis Of The Archetype's Message, Arielle Nicole Reed

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Bereaved Mothers Seek Support Online: Ethnography & Autoethnography In A Virtual Community, Catherine Holestine

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Transcending The Status Quo: A Communication Perspective For Improving Health Behaviors At Eastern Washington University, Nicole L. Ridnour

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"There is a belief known as the 'college experience;' an experience that some understand as a right of passage. This notion continues to be passed from generation to generation; what happens without our noticing is that the demands of that 'college experience' are changing. Survey results indicate that this 'experience' continues to perpetuate, that college students have skewed perceptions of vulnerabilities and are willing to take unhealthy risks, all as part of the 'college experience.' Through a mixed methods approach, this research demonstrates that advances in remedial health education are positively affecting students 'abilities' to "gain access to, understand and …

What Bothers Australian Kids Online? Children Comment On Bullies, Porn And Violence, Lelia Green, Danielle Brady, Donell Holloway, Elisabeth Staksrud, Kjartan Ólafsson

Research outputs 2013

This briefing on what bothers Australian kids online builds upon a short report from the EU Kids Online network: In their own words: What bothers children online? Based upon research across 25 European nations, with 25,142 children (aged 9-16) and the parent or caregiver most involved in supporting the child’s internet use, the In their own words report addresses children’s answers to the question: ‘What things on the internet would bother people about your age?’ Children had not been asked about troubling content at this stage in the research, so their open-ended answers to this question represent the issues and …

Zero To Eight: Young Children And Their Internet Use, Donell Holloway, Lelia Green, Sonia Livingstone

Research outputs 2013

EU Kids Online has spent seven years investigating 9-16 year olds’ engagement with the internet, focusing on the benefits and risks of children’s internet use. While this meant examining the experiences of much younger children than had been researched before EU Kids Online began its work in 2006, there is now a critical need for information about the internet-related behaviours of 0-8 year olds. EU Kids Online’s research shows that children are now going online at a younger and younger age, and that young children’s “lack of technical, critical and social skills may pose [a greater] risk” (Livingstone et al, …

Nutritional Narratives: Cultural And Communications Perspectives On Plant-Based Diets, Julie S. Dare, Leesa N. Costello, Lelia R. Green

Research outputs 2013

This paper responds to a range of popular materials circulating in the public sphere asserting a plant-based (PB) diet is of benefit to humans and a protection against many chronic diseases. Although directed at a lay audience, books such as The China Study (Campbell & Campbell) are based upon extensive academic research, and highlight multiple health, environmental and social advantages of PB diets over traditional western diets. Arguments advocating PB nutrition, however, generally struggle to achieve traction in the public sphere. Narratives around PB food choices, and difficulties in shifting mainstream eating patterns, reflect the cultural symbolism attached to food, …

Toward A Phen(Omen)Ology Of The Seasons: The Emergence Of The Indigenous Weather Knowledge Project (Iwkp), John Charles Ryan

Research outputs 2013

Since European settlement, the Western calendar has insufficiently accounted for the seasonal nuances and multiple temporalities of Australia. Beginning with Tim Entwistle’s recent proposal to revise the four-season Australian norm, this article traces the emergence of the Western calendar in Europe and its institutionalization ‘Down Under.’ With its emphasis on land-based calendars, the Indigenous Weather Knowledge Project (IWKP) is a partnership between Aboriginal communities and the Bureau of Meteorology aimed at preserving and promoting knowledge of the endemic seasons of Australian regions. As the most recent addition to the IWKP, the six-season Nyoongar calendar of the South-West of Western Australia …

Virtual Travel And The Pleasure Peripheries -- Case Study Of Second Life, Judith A. Elund, Panizza R. Allmark

Research outputs 2013

No abstract available

"Your Neighbours Are Your Friends": An Investigation Into Microgeographical Exchanges In The Remote Northwest Of Australia Between 1987-2012, Donell J. Holloway, Lelia R. Green, David Holloway

Research outputs 2013

This paper addresses intersections of communication, technology and geography in remote areas of Western Australia. It uses verbatim accounts from fieldwork bracketing decades of communication development to explore changes and constants in the micro-geographical exchange strategies of people living in the remote northwest of Australia. It articulates the continuing irony that the Australians who most need reliable and effective communications are those who experience the greatest difficulty in accessing them. We contend that geographical isolation and continuing problems with the reliability and reach of communication technologies in remote Western Australia have cultivated a robust community in which flexibility, resilience and …

Tackling Overweight And Obesity: Does The Public Health Message Match The Science?, Katherine Hafekost, David Lawrence, Francis Mitrou, Therese O'Sullivan, Stephen R. Zubrick

Research outputs 2013

Background

Despite the increasing understanding of the mechanisms relating to weight loss and maintenance, there are currently no validated public health interventions that are able to achieve sustained long-term weight loss or to stem the increasing prevalence of obesity in the population. We aimed to examine the models of energy balance underpinning current research about weight-loss intervention from the field of public health, and to determine whether they are consistent with the model provided by basic science. EMBASE was searched for papers published in 2011 on weight-loss interventions. We extracted details of the population, nature of the intervention, and key …

Framing News In 140 Characters: How Social Media Editors Frame The News And Interact With Audiences Via Twitter, Ben S. Wasike

Communication Faculty Publications

The social media editor, the newsroom liaison to the digital world, is the newest position in journalism. This study used content analysis to examine how these editors interacted with audiences on Twitter; which frames occurred within the news articles they posted via Twitter and if these two points of foci varied according to the media format the SMEs represent—print vs. TV news. TV SMEs were more personal in their interaction with their Twitter followers. They also posted more articles that carried the technology frame while print SMEs emphasized the human interest, conflict and economic impact frames the most. Overall, all …

The Republican Primaries In 140 Characters: How The 2012 Candidates Used Twitter To Mobilize Their Supporters, Interact With Them And Frame The Campaign, Ben S. Wasike

Communication Faculty Publications

This study used content analysis to examine how the 2012 Republican candidates used Twitter to mobilize their supporters, interact with them, frame campaign issues and frame their opponents. The results indicated that Santorum has used Twitter the most. The most popular mobilization tactics were announcing appearances and voter recruitment. However, the candidates minimally used Twitter to frame campaign issues. Overall, the candidates’ use of Twitter was limited. Pertinent implications for the 2012 presidential elections are discussed.

Embedded, Participatory Research: Creating A Grounded Theory With Teenagers, Shannon Crawford Barniskis

Communication Faculty Publications

Objective – This project, based on a study of the impact of art programs in public libraries on the teenaged participants, sought to show how library practitioners can perform embedded, participatory research by adding participants to their research team. Embedded participatory techniques, when paired with grounded theory methods, build testable theories from the ground up, based on the real experiences of those involved, including the librarian. This method offers practical solutions for other librarians while furthering a theoretical research agenda. Methods – This example of embedded, participatory techniques used grounded theory methods based on the experiences of teens who participated …