Communication Commons^™

Family Ties: A Profile Of Television Family Configurations, 2004–2013, Samantha Ann Wiscombe

Theses and Dissertations

This study provides a content analysis of television families portrayed in family-focused programs aired between 2004 and 2013. The analysis focuses on family configuration type, parent type and marital status, and the frequency and gender of children characters, as well as each program's genre, channel type, and target audience. The study uses cultivation theory as the basis of understanding and aims to anticipate television's potential effects and raise important questions that should be addressed in future studies. Results indicate that the traditional nuclear family configuration held the largest portion of the television family landscape. The study found an increase in …

Cross Cultural Analysis For Training And Facilitating Latin-American Audiences, Jose P. Alcazar

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The purpose of this project is to help Creative Problem Solving (CPS) trainers and facilitators to improve the efficacy when working with Hispanic groups and individuals, either in a personal or in organizational environments. This project will guide the facilitators to use a more appropriate tools that will allow the resource group to feel more comfortable during the idea generation, creating an environment more according to the believes and behavioral habits; and the client to feel more confident to converge and make decisions accordingly to the initial goals. When training people in CPS, the project will align the methodology and …

Women's Health And Abortion Culture In China: Policy, Perception And Practice , Naomi Bouchard

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Since China’s implementation of the Family Planning Policy in 1973, much research has been dedicated to analyzing the effects of a policy that strictly controls the reproductive lives of a population now comprisedof 1.35 billion people. Analyses focus on the rise of abortions in China, now at an annual rate of at least 13 million, but offer little insight into the perceptions of the population in regard to China’s new abortion culture. This study aims to shed light on current perceptions through a range of in-person, qualitative interviews conducted in Kunming, China. The study is limited to a sample size …

Is The Smartphone Smart In Kathmandu?, Seth Bird

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This is the extensive study of the smartphone in the developing country of Nepal, specifically the Kathmandu valley. Throughout my research I conducted various interviews with businesses, Tibetan refugees, and Nepali millennials (18yrs-33yrs) with the goal of identifying how the smartphone is used and understood. I chose the Kathmandu valley as my main area of research because the usage of smartphones in rural Nepal is extremely limited, and the valley represents the economic hub where progressive thinking flourishes. As a main objective I sought to understand how, if at all, the smartphone is used differently between Nepal and America. All …

Issues In Central Bank Communication, Williams D. Kareem

Bullion

This article examines salient issues in communication which is a key aspect of Central Banking. Although, the value of communication has been hitherto ignored, it has become evident over time that, for a central bank to succeed in achieving its set objectives and mandates, it must put in place effective and efficient mechanisms needed in crafting, and disseminating information about its policies. The ability of the central banks to identify their stakeholders and address their unique communication needs will enable them to earn the trust of their stakeholders and portray them as transparent and accountable entities.

Fundraising Techniques Of San Luis Obispo Nonprofit Organizations, Samantha Suyemoto

Graphic Communication

The purpose of this study was to identify the strengths and weaknesses of using direct mail and electronic media in the fundraising techniques of local San Luis Obispo nonprofit organizations. The intended audience includes the nonprofits interviewed in each case study as well as the other organizations that fundraise within the San Luis Obispo area. Three case studies of nonprofit organizations within the area were conducted in conjunction with research on various types of funding. Results of this study are intended to benefit the nonprofits by providing more information on successful fundraising habits.

Anomaly Detection Through Enhanced Sentiment Analysis On Social Media Data, Zhaoxia Wang, Victor Joo, Chuan Tong, Xin Xin, Hoong Chor Chin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Anomaly detection in sentiment analysis refers to detecting abnormal opinions, sentiment patterns or special temporal aspects of such patterns in a collection of data. The anomalies detected may be due to sudden sentiment changes hidden in large amounts of text. If these anomalies are undetected or poorly managed, the consequences may be severe, e.g. A business whose customers reveal negative sentiments and will no longer support the establishment. Social media platforms, such as Twitter, provide a vast source of information, which includes user feedback, opinion and information on most issues. Many organizations also leverage social media platforms to publish information …

The Diminishing Role Of The Ombudsman In American Journalism, Wade B. Hilligoss

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses

News ombudsmen have been around since 1967 when two Louisville newspapers created a position that served as an independent accountability buffer between the newspapers and the publics they served. That position was called the news ombudsman. Its role was to respond to reader complaints, call out newspaper errors and explain behind-the-scenes news decisions, processes and more in a weekly or bi-weekly column in the Sunday paper. In 1970, the Washington Post created an ombudsman position and other news outlets followed over the next 30 years. The New York Times instituted its first ombudsman in 2003 after the Jason Blair plagiarism …

Exploring The Invocation Of Emotion In Presidential Speeches, Cengiz Erisen, José Villalobos

Departmental Papers (PS)

Scholars have long explored why presidential rhetoric is important and how it matters for public leadership and policy-making. However, relatively few works have considered the role that emotion plays in leadership communication and no research has conducted a thorough examination of the various types of emotions invoked in presidential rhetoric, their frequency, or how they have shaped presidential discourse over time. In this study, presidential speeches across 13 administrations (1933–2011) are examined to provide a first assessment of the extent to which US presidents have invoked fear, anger, and hope across policy domains and key types of speeches.

Facilitating Holistic Spiritual Formation At The Northside Church Of Christ In Laredo, Texas, Kirk R. Cowell

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes a project to facilitate holistic spiritual formation at the Northside Church of Christ in Laredo, Texas. A program consisting of seven weekly sessions of intergenerational religious experiences was enacted at the church in hopes of catalyzing growth in the cognitive, relational, affective, and behavioral domains. These sessions were constructed on a foundation consisting of the experiences of the non-class Churches of Christ—a group of congregations that has historically rejected the Bible class model—and informed by the intergenerational formation literature. Evaluation of this project showed relational and affective growth greater than what the congregation had experienced with the …

Beyond The Digital Divide: Language Factors, Resource Wealth, And Post-Communism In Mongolia, Undrah Baasanjav

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

This chapter explores the interplay between society and Internet technology in the context of the developing former socialist country of Mongolia. This chapter goes beyond questions of access to the Internet and explores three factors of the global digital divide. First, this chapter explores how language factors such as non-Roman domain names and the use of the Cyrillic alphabet exacerbate the digital divide in the impoverished country of Mongolia. ICANN’s initiation of international domain names is an initial development toward achieving linguistic diversity on the Internet. Second, this chapter explores how post-communist settings and foreign investment and aid dependency afflict …

Testing A Risky Sex Behavior Intervention Pilot Website For Adolescents, Randall Starling, Don Helme, Jessica A. Nodulman, Angela D. Bryan, David B. Buller, Robert Lewis Donohew, W. Gill Woodall

Communication Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Each year, teenagers account for about one-fifth of all unintended pregnancies in the United States. As such, delivering sexual risk reduction educational materials to teens in a timely fashion is of critical importance. Web-based delivery of these materials shows promise for reaching and persuading teens away from risky sexual and substance abuse behaviors. The purpose of this study was to pilot test a web-based program aimed at reducing risky sexual behavior and related outcomes among adolescents in a high school setting.

METHODS: A beta-test of the website was conducted in three public schools in New Mexico, USA …

Exploring The Effects Of Social Media Use On The Mental Health Of Young Adults, Amelia Strickland

HIM 1990-2015

The intent of this thesis is to explore the relationship between social media use and mental health in the young adult population. Current research indicates that there is a connection between increased social media use and deteriorated mental health. Unfortunately, young adults, the most active social media users, have a predominantly high risk for developing mental health issues, making this connection particularly concerning. At present, it is unclear how social media and mental health are connected; therefore this thesis explores the individual and social theories that may give reason for this connection. Theories that are discussed include: the impact of …

Library Education And Development Newsletter, Volume 8, Issue 2, Uno Library Science Education

Library Education and Development (L.E.A.D.)

This issue of the Library Education and Development Newsletter features Advice from the Frontlines from Krystal Spilgers, a Student Spotlight of Jen Prasch, Announcements, and Professional Development.

Impact Of An Interprofessional Communication Course On Nursing, Medical, And Pharmacy Students’ Communication Skill Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Nicholas E. Hagemeier, Rick Hess, Kyle S. Hagen, Emily L. Sorah

ETSU Faculty Works

Objective. To describe an interprofessional communication course in an academic health sciences center and to evaluate and compare interpersonal and interprofessional communication self-efficacy beliefs of medical, nursing, and pharmacy students before and after course participation, using Bandura’s self-efficacy theory as a guiding framework.

Design. First-year nursing (n=36), first-year medical (n=73), and second-year pharmacy students (n=83) enrolled in an interprofessional communication skills development course voluntarily completed a 33-item survey instrument based on Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) core competencies prior to and upon completion of the course during the fall semester of 2012.

Assessment. Nursing students entered the course with higher interpersonal …

Lady Gaga: Performer, Persona, And Political Advocate, Cassidy Burns

Communication Studies

No abstract provided.

The Use Of Experiential Marketing In The Wine Industry Of Paso Robles Wine Country To Build Brand And Educate Wine Buyers, Caitlin Moore

Journalism

The Paso Robles Wine Country Alliance hosted a buyer’s retreat November 2-4, 2014. The buyer’s retreat consisted of business/restaurant owners coming to Paso Robles for three days of seminars, tastings, tours, etc. about the wine industry in Paso Robles. The hope from this retreat was that the guests would end up buying Paso Robles wine, ultimately helping to brand the wine industry of Paso Robles.

Ocbf Fundraising Handbook, Clare Devlin

Communication Studies

This project was created to help the Orange County Bar Foundation, a non-profit organization, enhance its communication with its stakeholders. Task messages in a handbook give instructions stipulating how the Foundation staff could be more persuasive at the Foundation's annual golf tournament, and get more golfers to enter their sweepstake. The handbook is informed by persuasion theories such as the door-in-the-face theory, reciprocity theory, and supply and demand theory.

Media For The Masses The Usage Patterns And Social Consequences Of A Mobile-Phone Based Citizen Journalism Platform In Madhya-Pradesh , Sarah Corsa

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In a country as diverse and hierarchical as India, certain marginalized populations are bound to be excluded from the mainstream media. In particular, the adivasi and lower caste populations in rural regions receive either no representation or biased coverage. CGNet Swara, a citizen journalism initiative, seeks to remedy these disparities by utilizing cellphone technology to report and distribute news in the Central Gondwana region. Each citizen with a cellphone in his or her hand, regardless of religion, caste, age or literacy level, can disseminate information he or she sees as valuable by leaving a voice recording at a certain number. …

Economic Equity In The Annapurna Conservation Area: Effects Of Government And Community-Based Organizations, Hanna Seltz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research addresses the impact of community-based and government organizations on rural livelihoods in protected areas (PAs) by investigating whether benefits of such organizations involved in conservation and community development reach more marginalized members of communities in the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) of Nepal. I conduct a case study focusing on two villages within ACA, Kagbeni and Phalyek, examining how local groups interact with each other and with the government in trying to promote equity through the ACA Project primarily through indepth, unstructured interviews. Locally-created and locally-based groups in these communities appear to be successful in managing local resources and …

An Examination Of Governmental And Nongovernmental Organizations In Nepal: A Partnership In Managing And Eliminating Waste In The Solukhumbu, Kristen Kelliher

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study, examined whether governmental organizations and nongovernmental organizations in Nepal can effectively work together on eliminating trash and establishing waste management systems in the Solukhumbu region. Historically, the overwhelming presence of discarded items has detracted from tourists’ enjoyment of the Himalayas as well as caused severe environmental ramifications. In the last twenty years however, NGOs and GOs have begun to work together to address these issues and this project looks at whether their working relationship is effective as they often have different objectives and methodology for reaching those goals. Conducting ten personal interviews, visiting GOs and NGOs in Sagarmatha …

Exploring The Preservation Of Pastoralism And The Natural World In Western Mongolia , Josephine Brownell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

At a time when Mongolia is experiencing the intense effects of land degradation, human activity, and climate change, it is crucial that a new land management framework is developed with conservation in mind. Pastoralism’s unique relationship with the land serves as a method of protecting the natural world for the future. This study focuses on a pastoral community in Western Mongolia while considering a main research question: Is a herder’s historically deep connection with the land enough to protect the modern pastoral lifestyle in Mongolia for years to come? In answering this question, a review of related previous studies on …

Dating In Dharamsala The Tibetan Exile Dating Experience, Ben Kingstone

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

By studying the younger generation’s dating culture in the Tibetan exile community of Dharamsala, I hoped to glean a deeper insight into how cultural values effected interpersonal relationships in an everyday context, and in doing so hoped to find a bit about the unique qualities of Tibetan culture. I came in with many ideas of different themes, from Buddhist values and their effect on the dating culture, to the effect of assimilation on imported Tibetan ideas about dating and relationships. What I ultimately found had very little to do with Buddhist ideas and had far larger implications about the effects …

Data Preparation For Social Network Mining And Analysis, Yazhe Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This dissertation studies the problem of preparing good-quality social network data for data analysis and mining. Modern online social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn have rapidly grown in popularity. The consequent availability of a wealth of social network data provides an unprecedented opportunity for data analysis and mining researchers to determine useful and actionable information in a wide variety of fields such as social sciences, marketing, management, and security. However, raw social network data are vast, noisy, distributed, and sensitive in nature, which challenge data mining and analysis tasks in storage, efficiency, accuracy, etc. Many mining algorithms cannot …

Teaching Communication: Helping Students To Learn And To Love A New Language, Jacob Fredrickson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio represents many hours spent in classrooms (as a student and as a teacher), in the library reading and writing, and spent in quiet contemplation. My views on teaching languages and on education in general have grown and changed. What a tragedy it would be to pass through a graduate program and not to have one’s views evolve and grow. Most importantly, this portfolio represents that growth and the ideal that, as an educator and as a human being, time on this earth ought to be spent growing, learning, and striving for something better.

A Comparison Of The Rhetorical Modes Of Persuasion Used By Churches In The Proselytization Of Peoples Of Lower Economic Status In South Mississippi, Blake W. Houston

Honors Theses

This study provides insight into the persuasion techniques used by churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, as well as the reactions of people of lower economic status to the persuasion techniques. Furthermore, this study provides a unique look at rhetorical persuasion strategies used by a religious organization. Results of this study indicate that church members relied on its own credibility, logical and emotional appeals to need, and appeals to humor to influence, it turned out, a person of lower economic status’ acceptance of persuasion via a peripheral route and being positively affected by the church’s credibility. The findings also suggest …

Docam 2014 Founders Lecture: Photocutionary Acts, Selfies And Public Knowledge, Brian C. O'Connor

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper is drawn from the DOCAM 2014 Founders Lecture Selfies and Public Knowledge: DOCAM 2014 Founders Lecture, "Selfies and Public Knowledge: Technology & Situational Documents"

Virtual Escapes And Intercultural Explorations: How Members Of Interpals Are Using Their Online Community As A Window To The World, Ryan Scott Bartlett

Theses and Dissertations

This study utilized in-depth, one-on-one interviews to examine the experiences, attitudes, and opinions, with regard to their use of the Internet for online intercultural communication (OIC), of a culturally diverse sample of 17 members of the global online social community, Interpals. The purpose of this study was threefold: first, the study sought to determine how OIC is shaping the intercultural perceptions of English-speaking Interpals members; second, the study sought to determine how OIC shapes and/or reinforces the cultural identities of English-speaking Interpals members; and finally, the study set out to examine the various ways that English-speaking Interpals members are using …

Issues Of Social Data Analytics With A New Method For Sentiment Analysis Of Social Media Data, Zhaoxia Wang, Victor J. C. Tong, David Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Social media data consists of feedback, critiques and other comments that are posted online by internet users. Collectively, these comments may reflect sentiments that are sometimes not captured in traditional data collection methods such as administering a survey questionnaire. Thus, social media data offers a rich source of information, which can be adequately analyzed and understood. In this paper, we survey the extant research literature on sentiment analysis and discuss various limitations of the existing analytical methods. A major limitation in the large majority of existing research is the exclusive focus on social media data in the English language. There …

Participatory Democracy In The Chinese Cyber World: Case Studies From Weibo, Duyi Li

Master's Theses

This thesis discusses features of citizen communication on Weibo, the Chinese social media platform, and its relationship to participatory democracy in China. Weibo is a complex social space due to the interplay of different forces and social actors. On the one hand, Weibo provides the space for bottom-up political participation: it expands the horizontal discursive space where plural discourses coexist and interact; provides a social sphere where counter-discourses are created; a space where the culture of resistance is formed; and serves as an alternative source for information. On the other hand, the vertical political control of the state, and the …