Communication Commons^™

Changing Views On Media Ethics And Societal Functions Among Students In Singapore, Benjamin Hill Detenber, Sonny Rosenthal

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This panel study assessed changes in ethical ideology and beliefs about the societal function of media over the course of undergraduate communication education in Singapore. First, students' agreement with the ethical principles of truth telling, independence, and accountability increased. Second, change in agreement with the ethical principle of minimizing harm was negatively related to change in justification of contentious newsgathering methods. Third, belief that the media should function as a watchdog increased and that it should serve national development decreased. Change in these variables was inversely correlated. We relate these findings to global contexts and make recommendations for curriculum development.

Jamaica: A Famous, Strong But Damaged Brand, Hume N. Johnson

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

Image, brand and reputation are the new capital for nations in the twenty-first century. In this era of the global marketplace, nations, regions and cities are forced to compete with each other for tourists, investment, aid, students, for buyers of their products and services, and for talent. Scholars now agree that nations themselves have become brands, and are now obliged to manage their images in order to influence people’s decision in terms of purchasing, investing and traveling. Nations with unknown or poor reputations, including those enduring prolonged crises are thus likely to suffer marginalization and will not easily witness economic …

The Identity Of The Heart Patient In The Context Of The Gift Economy: Heartnet And Media Framing, Lynsey Uridge

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This health communication research examines the identity levels of the heart patient on a therapeutic website HeartNET through an empirical investigation of site interactions as manifestations of a gift economy. The thesis also explores the media’s representation of heart health in both television and print.

This research utilised a longitudinal qualitative ethnographic and netnographic approach involving twenty-six participants who completed two in-depth interviews. The first one-on-one interview occurred during the early stages of the participants’ heart journey, explored their heart story and use of interactive technology for heart health support. The second interview occurred six to twelve months later, and …

Children’S Rights Online: Challenges, Dilemmas And Emerging Directions, Sonia Livingstone, Brian O'Neill

Articles

Although it is widely held that a more inclusive and trusted internet can support a competitive knowledge economy, a digitally skilled labour force, civic participation and a pluralistic media sector, governments and regulators have tended to avoid intervening directly to achieve these aims, believing that industry is best positioned to respond to the fast pace of change in information and communication technologies (ICT).This reflects a wider policy shift away from top-down government measures towards flexible, dispersed and indirect forms of governance, encompassing industry self-regulation as well as elements of cooperation or co-regulation with relevant state agencies.

Ireland, Brian O'Neill

Books/Book chapters

Media literacy education in Ireland despite being under-resourced and relatively new to the public policy arena, builds on a long tradition and a solid foundation of critical engagement, creative activity and practical implementation. From a traditional position of protectionism in Irish cultural and educational policy, media literacy has rapidly moved to embrace new opportunities for greater participation and creative endeavour.

Critical Experiential Learning And Rhetorical Interventions In New Media Ecologies, Jennifer Niester-Mika

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation puts into conversation new media and network theories with the philosophical writings of John Dewey to reconstruct a more relevant and current approach to critical pedagogy that takes into account the shift in socioeconomic power as we move into a control society comprised of immaterial labor. My chapters tackle three different critical pedagogy dilemmas: the neglect of affect, agency in late-capitalism, and critical literacy in new media ecologies. Each chapter defines the dilemma, offers a theoretical response, and details a possible pedagogical application for the composition classroom.

Exploiting Fluencies: Educational Expropriation Of Social Networking Site Consumer Training, Lucinda Rush, Dylan E. Wittkower

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

The idea of the digital native was based on abstraction; when we look in detail at the digital activities of high-school and college students, we see deskilling and consumer training rather than information literacy or technical fluency. Yet that training is still training, and may be adaptable in such a way that it can become a literacy—in, for example, the way militaries have mobilised skill-sets produced through gaming. We too can and should mine the narrow and profit-driven consumer training that emerging adults have undergone for kinds of inquiry and critical engagement for which they may have inadvertently been given …

Made In Germany: Integration As Inside Joke In The Ethno-Comedy Of Kaya Yanar And Bülent Ceylan, Kathrin M. Bower

Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

As the largest “foreign” population in Germany, Turkish immigrants have been the primary target for concerns about integration and the impact of immigration on German culture. Since the founding of the first Turkish German cabaret in 1985 by Şinasi Dikmen and Muhsin Omurca, the misconceptions and one-sided expectations associated with integration have been played, parodied, and satirized by Turkish German performers. As producers of contemporary ethno-comedy, Kaya Yanar and Bülent Ceylan appeal to mass audiences with a new approach, inverting questions of integration by creating communities through laughter in which audiences are at once in on the joke and its …

Instructors' Perceptions Of Their Own Effectiveness, Abdullah S. Al-Asmari

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of college instructors regarding the role of credibility and nonverbal immediacy in teacher’s effective behavior in the classroom. It seeks to understand instructors’ perceptions of the importance of nonverbal immediacy and its impact on their credibility. A qualitative method was used to examine the perceptions of instructors. A sample table and two graphs provide numeric indicators to illustrate the study’s results. Participants were selected based on a convenience sampling of twelve instructors from a communication department at a mid-sized Midwestern university. Although the sample is one of convenience, efforts were …

Quench The Thirst: A Content Analysis Of The Persuasive Techniques Of Unicef's Tap Project, Rachel Chadalavada

Masters Theses

This study analyzes the persuasive techniques utilized by UNICEF's Tap Project. This water related campaign began in 2007 and since then has created four themes. These themes are: Dine out, Celebrity Tap, Facebook Push and Cellphone Challenge. The study finds that the videos employed by the Tap Project portray all six Facets of Effects. However, their usage was based on the message that was being delivered. That said, not all videos utilized all of the facets. This implies that an advertisement need not necessarily use all six Facets of Effects to be successful. The facet of association however, stood out …

Duck, Duck, Oops!: A Content Analysis Of The Crisis Surrounding Phil Robertson, Sarah Malinda

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to apply Benoit's theory of image restoration to apologetic discourse offered by those involved in the crisis surrounding Phil Robertson following his January 2014, GQ Magazine interview. This content analysis applied the theoretical framework to a collection of news segments, articles, and letters that contained apologetic discourse and analyzed them to identify the strategies of image restoration used. The results indicated that the most prevalent strategy used was transcendence- placing the act that caused offense in a different context. Robertson and those involved in his image restoration directed the audience's attention to higher moral …

The Devil Made Her Do It: Three Horror Film Case Studies In The Exorcism Subgenre, Charles Austin Mcdonald Ii

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Although interest in exorcism has spiked in real world and fictional filmic contexts, scholars have yet to fully identify the exorcism film as a subgenre of the horror film. Following Anne Rothe’s (2011) argument that representation of trauma in popular culture may function like “a discursive knot in contemporary culture due to its vast associative powers of generating interactions between disparate ideas” (p. 4), this study recognizes exorcism as a discursive knot that deserves further attention. Utilizing a case study approach, this dissertation focuses on three exorcism films: The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), The Last Exorcism (2010), and The …

Human Trafficking And The Media: Comparing Newspapers' Portrayal Of Victims And Offenders, Brittany Leigh Virkus

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

his study examined the portrayal of victims and offenders of human trafficking in three major newspapers from 2005- 2012. Additionally, this study examined if the age, gender, and legal status effected the portrayal of victims and offenders in the newspapers. Also included is an examination of groups of claims-makers and whether different groups portrayed victims and offenders same or differently. Utilizing a quantitative and qualitative content analysis to analyze the newspapers’ framing of victims and offenders, this research compared the portrayal of its groups. The findings indicated that claims-makers socially construct victims and offenders in ways that may not reflect …

Slaying The Assessment Dragon: One Department’S Efforts To Tame The Beast And Survive As The Knights In Shining Armor, Mary M. Eicholtz, Jay Baglia

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Assessment looms large across our campuses as an instrument of evaluation, accountability, and development. Communication departments are called on to establish assessment programs for their graduate and undergraduate curriculum programs. Additionally, departments that offer courses in the general education programs are often the first departments approached for assessment of those courses as part of general education assessment. This case study describes the successes and challenges of a communication department’s experience in establishing and maintaining a general education assessment program of their Basic Oral Communication course. Preliminary data and analysis is included in reporting the outcome of these efforts.

Mentoring Faculty Members Into (And Away From) Serving As Department Chair, Sue Pendell

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Briefly Noted: Mentoring Faculty Members into (and away from) Serving as Department Chair.

Complete Issue, Volume 33, Issue 1

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the complete issue for Volume 33, Issue 1 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

Front Matter, Nfa Journal

National Forensic Journal

No abstract provided.

Abuse Of Evidence In Persuasive Speaking: An Un-Conventional Solution, Amy Mendes

National Forensic Journal

Scholars in the forensics community have been lamenting the misuse and abuse of evidence in forensics competition for decades. Beginning with Frank’s 1983 discussion of evidentiary abuse in Persuasive speaking, authors have offered possible solutions to end the problem. However, as the ongoing focus might suggest, these solutions have not had the intended effect. In this paper, we continue the investigation into evidence use in Persuasive speaking by repeating Frank’s original study but offer an unusual solution that may finally effectively address the problem.

“Do You Know Why That’S Funny?” Connecting The Scholarship Of Humor To The Practice Of After-Dinner Speaking, Adam J. Sharples

National Forensic Journal

Forensic educators have a unique opportunity to connect students with centuries of scholarship, yet it remains unclear how coaches utilize communication research to aid students in constructing events. This article questions how studies of humor can enhance connections between the forensic student and the broader field of research. Through applying theories of humor to the practice of After- Dinner Speaking (ADS), this paper indicates studies of humor in classical and contemporary scholarship provide useful frameworks in the construction of ADS, and offers suggestions for making more explicit connections between theory, pedagogy, and practice.

Reimagining Metaphor In Rhetorical Criticism, R. Kyle Kellam

National Forensic Journal

This paper seeks to open a discussion about language use in rhetorical criticism. Analyzing the 2011 final round of rhetorical criticism at the NFA national tournament, the essay argues that competitors should reimagine the social scientific metaphors in contest rhetorical criticism that invite outdated, instrumental models of rhetorical criticism. Instead, an alternative vocabulary that constructs contest rhetorical criticism as a student-centered interpretive performance focused on discursive dynamics is proposed.

Let Us Rank Journalism Programs, Joseph Weber

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

Unlike law, business, and medical schools, as well as universities in general, journalism schools and journalism programs have rarely been ranked. Publishers such as U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Washington Monthly do not pay them much mind. What is the best journalism school in the country? The top ten undergraduate and graduate schools? It is impossible to know. That should change, and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) should lead the way. It should develop a ranking system that would be helpful to anyone interested, especially because federal policy makers soon will …

Tweeted Out: Management Tools To Prevent Social Media From Monopolizing Your Time, Ashley A. Ahlbrand

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Annual Report: 2014, Centracare Health

Annual Report

• Farewell letter from Terry Pladson
• Various changes to organizations operations
• Story of how the St. Cloud Hospital saved the life of a patient
• Financial information regarding CentraCare Health Foundation
• List of Donors

Heritage Speakers Of Spanish In The Us Midwest: Reported Interlocutors As A Measure Of Family Language Relevance, Isabel Velázquez, Marisol Garrido, Mónica Millán

Spanish Language and Literature Papers

This article presents the results of an analysis of reported interlocutors in Spanish in a group of heritage speakers (HS), in three communities of the US Midwest. Participants were college-aged bilinguals developing their own personal and professional networks outside the direct influence of their parents. Responses are compared with those from two control groups: college-aged native speakers (NS) and college-aged second-language learners (L2). Seventy-seven per cent of HS reported speaking primarily in Spanish with 4–5 interlocutors on the week of the study. HS and NS reported more interactions in Spanish with older relatives, and more interactions with peers outside their …

Undergraduate Instructor Assistants (Uias): Friend Or Foe, William J. Seiler, Jenna Stephenson Abetz

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Undergraduate students have been and continue to be employed as instructor assistants (UIAs) in a variety of courses across disciplines. However, relatively little empirical research has been published regarding the educational merits for them or their students. The present essay extends such research by focusing specifically on UIAs’ perceived value of the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) on their learning and personal growth. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with six former UIAs and employed a qualitative thematic analysis of their responses. Perceived benefits that emerged from the analysis include, for example, learning how to balance many different roles and responsibilities, …

Communicatively Managing Religious Identity Difference In Parent-Child Relationships: The Role Of Accommodative And Nonaccommodative Communication, Colleen Warner Colaner, Jordan Soliz, Leslie R. Nelson

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Guided by Communication Accommodation Theory, we examine the communicative management of religious difference in parent-child relationships. Using survey data from emerging adults (N = 409), we found that religious difference is associated with decreases in relational satisfaction and shared family identity. Further, parents’ religious communication has the potential to promote relational well-being. Accommodative communication (religious-specific supportive communication and respecting divergent values) was associated with increases in relational satisfaction and shared family identity. Two forms of nonaccommodative communication (inappropriate self-disclosure and emphasizing divergent values) were associated with decreases with relational satisfaction and shared family identity; giving unwanted advice was associated …

Parental Socialization Of Ethnic Identity: Perspectives From Multiethnic Adults, Audra K. Nuru, Jordan Soliz

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Participants (N = 113) who indicated that their parents had different ethnic or racial backgrounds provided retrospective accounts of parental messages they perceived as influential in the development of their ethnic identity. Three themes of parental messages concerning ethnic identity emerged from the participants’ responses: (a) parental messages of encouragement/egalitarianism, (b) parental messages of preference, and (c) lack of explicit parental messages/silence. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for understanding multiethnic identity development, and future directions for research are put forth.

Discursive Struggles Animating Individuals’ Talk About Their Parents’ Coming Out As Lesbian Or Gay, Diana Breshears, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The goal in the present study was to understand the discourses that animate children’s talk about having a parent come out and how these discourses interplay to create meaning. Data were gathered through 20 in-depth interviews with adults who remembered a parent coming out to them as lesbian or gay. One discursive struggle animated the participants’ talk about their parents’ coming out: the discourse of lesbian and gay identity as wrong vs. the discourse of lesbian and gay identity as acceptable. Analysis of participants’ talk about their familial identities revealed a range of avenues for resisting the negative discourses regarding …

Theory And Research From The Communication Field: Discourses That Constitute And Reflect Families, Kathleen M. Galvin, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

From the disciplinary perspective of communication studies, we review theory and research in family communication, including a brief history of the family communication field; the contributions of a family communication perspective; and 5 theories of family communication: communication accommodation theory, communication privacy management theory, family communication patterns theory, narrative theor(ies), and relational dialectics theory. We then illustrate the concept of discourse dependence in family communication processes and discuss current trends in family communication research. We also suggest emerging directions for family communication scholarship.

"Post Your Version Here!": Performances In/Of Online, Noncommercial, Video-To-Video Adaptations, Lyndsay Michalik

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Processes of creative adaptation no longer fit traditional, culturally sanctioned forms, like commercial book-to-film adaptation, or vice versa. Meanwhile, internet users are demonstrating how noncommercial, creative text adaptation using video technology has become an everyday art form, a skill set, a form of communication, and a means of cultural commentary. Internet video adapters physically perform in their own videos and they create videos that work performatively online. Negotiating the slippery spaces between copyright, creativity, and cultural commentary, these creators adapt videos in myriad ways, and find spaces to share their adaptations online, despite (for most) a lack of financial return …