Communication Commons^™

Ua12/2/1 Stressbusters, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Special finals week edition of the College Heights Herald.

• Hilltop Horoscopes
• Color Me Gary Ransdell
• 2014 Spring Semester Final Exam Schedule

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 89, No. 52, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

• Rogers, Shelby. Gary Ransdell to Push for 4.8% Tuition Increase
• Phillips, Jonah. Bill Powell Survives Rough Waters to Carry on Legacy – Swimming
• Parker, Jacob & Jackson French. Student Pulls Gun by Bates-Runner Hall, Arrested on Campus – Michael Dearborn
• Conniff, Ben. Five Films to Induce Finals Procrastination – Movies
• Pait, Ryan. HBO’s Veep Continues to Find Its Identity Amid Stand-Out Writing – Television
• Holloway, Kae. Mean Girls Celebrates A Fetch Tenth Anniversary – Fashion
• French, Jackson. Crimes Remain Steady on Campus – WKU Police
• Mathews, Mackenzie. Professors Discuss …

Staff Perceptions Of Work-Environment Factors Affecting Morale In Southeastern Registrar's Offices, Rheanna Plemons

Dissertations

Studies on morale are prevalent in industry, healthcare, and public educational systems. However, morale studies are limited within higher education and focusing on the support staff at universities. This qualitative study used focus groups to identify themes among support staff in selected Registrar’s Offices in the Southeastern region of the United States. Institutions were chosen based on comparable enrollments and similar organizational structure. The researcher asked participants to discuss their perceptions on current morale levels in the office and how different work responsibilities affect morale. In addition, participants were asked to discuss motivators used by leaders and whether those motivators …

With Whom To Coordinate, Why And How In Ad-Hoc Social Media Communications During Crisis Response, Hemant Purohit, Shreyansh Bhatt, Andrew Hampton, Valerie L. Shalin, Amit P. Sheth, John M. Flach

Kno.e.sis Publications

During crises affected people, well-wishers, and observers join social media communities to discuss the event. They often share useful information relevant to response coordination, for example, specific resource needs. However, responders face the challenge of massive data overload and lack the time to monitor social media traffic for important information. Analysis shows that only a small number of event related conversations are actionable. Moreover, responders do not know which sources are trustworthy. To address these challenges, response teams may apply manual filtering methods, resulting in limited coverage and quality. We propose a framework and interface for extracting specific resource-related information …

Tensions And Metaphors In Higher Education Fundraising Profession, Jessica Martin Carver

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This research examined the language used by higher education development professionals, specifically similar and dissimilar tropes and how they shape the perception of those development professionals. By studying these linguistic devices, insight is provided into this particular occupation and the effects these devices have on perceptions and interpretation. The findings in this study could help to produce more skilled communicators in the field and could be used as a framework to study other professional positions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data from twelve participants, and the data was then analyzed through thematic analysis. Findings revealed the types of metaphors …

Relational Development, Self-Disclosure, And Invasion Of Privacy: College Students And Teachers As Facebook Friends, Ryan Dearbone

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This research examined how college students feel about their professors requesting them to be a Facebook friend. Recognizing the ways in which professors and students communicating through social networking could produce additional educational opportunities for collaboration and instruction, while also causing tension or awkwardness as the process develops. Semistructured interviews were utilized by the researcher to obtain information from the selected participants, and the data were analyzed by comparative methods. Through this study, it was revealed that students are split on the appropriateness of professors as Facebook friends. They prefer little to no self-disclosure from their professors. They do not …

The Perceived Relevance Of Training In Industrial/Organizational Psychology At The Terminal Master's Level, Seth A. Kline

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The purpose of this study was to replicate and expand upon the survey research by Erffmeyer and Mendel (1990) on the perceived relevance of graduate training in industrial-organizational (I-O) psychology at the terminal master’s level. A review of the literature discussed core competencies, as well as the advantages of internship experiences and thesis requirements. Results indicated that graduates view their training as well targeted towards knowledge and skills they regard as useful at their internship, first job, and current position. Results also indicated that graduates viewed their internship experiences as highly beneficial and worthwhile experiences, regardless of their supervisor. Results …

Using Statistical Methods To Determine Geolocation Via Twitter, Christopher M. Wright

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

With the ever expanding usage of social media websites such as Twitter, it is possible to use statistical inquires to form a geographic location of a person using solely the content of their tweets. According to a study done in 2010, Zhiyuan Cheng, was able to detect a location of a Twitter user within 100 miles of their actual location 51% of the time. While this may seem like an already significant find, this study was done while Twitter was still finding its ground to stand on. In 2010, Twitter had 75 million unique users registered, as of March 2013, …

Maximizing Doctor-Patient Communication Of A Positive Hiv/Aids Test Result: A Best Practices Approach, Vikki Yashandra Spann

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine healthcare practitioner (HCP) communication of a positive human immodeficiency syndrome/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) test result in an effort to find best practices. The population of this study included healthcare practitioners who had to disclose a positive HIV/AIDS status to a patient. Data from specific accounts recalled by the healthcare practitioners were analyzed using grounded theory approach. The first research question was concerned with the strategies used by healthcare practitioners. The results indicated that there are two primary strategies used in HIV/AIDS disclosure: strategic interactive facilitation and strategic interactive force. The second and …

Mining Contrast Subspaces, Lei Duan, Guanting Tang, Jian Pei, James Bailey, Guozhu Dong, Akiko Campbell, Changjie Tang

Kno.e.sis Publications

In this paper, we tackle a novel problem of mining contrast subspaces. Given a set of multidimensional objects in two classes C₊  and C₋ and a query object o, we want to find top-k subspaces S that maximize the ratio of likelihood of o in C₊  against that in C₋. We demonstrate that this problem has important applications, and at the same time, is very challenging. It even does not allow polynomial time approximation. We present CSMiner, a mining method with various pruning techniques. CSMiner is substantially faster than the baseline method. Our …

Impact Of Resident Assistants And Community On Student Grades, Kayla Arrington

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

On-campus student housing at any university has the opportunity to positively impact student experiences. This exploratory study looks at how frequency of interaction with the Resident Assistant (RA) and interaction with the residence hall community, sense of community, social self-efficacy, and academic self-concept correlate with academic success. This study is intended to show the effect the Resident Assistant has on students' academic and social experiences in apartment-style housing. Therefore, this study also looks at how variables are related to each other in order to give Resident Assistants a better understanding of their sphere of influence in a community. The relationships …

Communitas In Youtube Comments : The March 2012 Henryville Tornadoes., Richard William Slawsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper serves as a critical case in analyzing the emergence of communitas in online discussions. Although communitas, or the unstructured community that often emerges in the wake of major societal upheavals, has often been documented in a common geographic setting, little research has been done into the emergence of communitas in online or computer-mediated settings. Determining whether or not communitas emerges in the comment streams attached to YouTube videos related to the tornadoes that struck Henryville, Ind., on March 2, 2012, will serve as an indicator that communitas will emerge in other online channels as well. This project consisted …

Developing An Intentional Mentoring Model For Disciple Formation At The Mayfair Church Of Christ, Jason Bybee

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This doctor of ministry thesis presents the results of a project to lead a team in the development of an intentional mentoring model for disciple formation at the Mayfair Church of Christ. This intervention involved the team members in a series of sessions during September and October 2013. Project sessions were designed to provide participants an intentional mentoring experience through exposure to four core practices: exploration of the biblical text, appreciative inquiry exercises, communal sharing, and prayer. Sessions were informed by (1) an understanding of discipleship as following behind Jesus and walking alongside our fellow sojourners, (2) the nature of …

Interrupting The Silence: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of A Pilot Seminar On Racism, Intersectionality, And White Privilege, Angela Putman

Communication ETDs

This dissertation is based on the design and implementation of a pilot seminar for college undergraduates on the topics of racism, intersectionality, and white privilege. Utilizing Critical Communication Pedagogy as a theoretical and methodological approach, the author discusses the learning competencies, activities, and achieved learning outcomes related to the pilot seminar. Next, the author analyzes participants' discourse that emerged through seminar surveys, recordings of seminar activities, and observations. The author then analyzes the first research question, related to participants' negotiated constructions of racism, intersectionality, and white privilege and examines how these constructions did/did not reflect change throughout the seminar process. …

“Parallel Poleis”: Towards A Theoretical Framework Of The Modern Public Sphere, Civic Engagement And The Structural Advantages Of The Internet To Foster And Maintain Parallel Socio-Political Institutions, Taso Logos, Ted Coopman, Jonathan Tomhave

Faculty Publications

The role of the internet in large-scale demonstrations, as witnessed in the Arab Spring, has been debated and reflects continued interest in the intermingling of social movements and digital technology. Yet behind these large photogenic events stand other less obvious social activities that may be equally profound, particularly in the form of alternative institutional frameworks that better meet the social needs of individuals than current models. We categorize these “dissident” frameworks as “parallel poleis” as developed by Czech philosopher and activist Vaclav Benda and offer two case studies to support this contention. At the heart of parallel poleis lies the …

Media Frames And Cognitive Accessibility: What Do "Global Warming" And "Climate Change" Evoke Partisan Minds?, Jonathon P. Schuldt, Sungjong Roh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Decades of research demonstrate that how the public thinks about a given issue is affected by how it is framed by the media. Typically, studies of framing vary how an issue is portrayed (often, by altering the text of written communication) and compare subsequent beliefs, attitudes, or preferences—taking a framing effect as evidence that a media frame (or frame in communication) instantiated a particular audience frame (or frame in thought). Less work, however, has attempted to measure frames in thought directly, which may illuminate cognitive mechanisms that underlie framing effects. In this vein, we describe a Web experiment (n = …

Caring Is Sharing: Reconciling The Federal Trade Commission’S Online Privacy Suggestions With Young Social Media Users’ Privacy Reality, Katherine Macdonald

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Flaws In The Federal Communications Commission, Sally Kay Mcpherson

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Media Framing Of Yusuf Islam’S An Other Cup: Music, Religion, And Narrative Construction, Joshua Hamburg

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Revolutionizing The Revolution: An Examination Of Social Media's Role In The Egyptian Arab Spring, Needa A. Malik

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

By asserting that no revolution occurs singularly, I propose that revolutions occur in a multiplicity. Within the framework of the Arab Spring Revolutions, another revolution has been occurring concurrently: a social media revolution. This revolution is taking place in the digital, social media age. It is a revolution that has been tweeted, facebooked, recorded, documented and shared instantaneously on platforms that obeys few lines of political sovereignty. Revolution and political action can now truly be shown from the perspective of the common citizen. Activists have discovered a greater platform for their voices to be distributed and causes promoted. The Arab …

Media And Information Literacy Policies In Ireland (2013), Brian O'Neill

Reports

This report is produced as part of the ANR Translit and COST IS0906 Transforming Audiences, Transforming Societies project.

The "transliteracy" includes three meanings of Information = news (in relation to the device in press) = Information Document (in relation to digital media), Information = data (in relation to social, occupational and cognitive Web ).

A Case Study Of An All Female Workplace: The Coffee Crew, Ashley C. Henry

Senior Honors Projects

Dealing with different personalities and gender roles is nothing new in the workplace. Today, the workplace is filled with an abundance of elements that affect the overall climate of the work environment. The elements have a direct influence on the ways in which co-workers interact with one another on a daily basis. In order to see how an organization works, it is important to observe the employees of the organization. The employees each play vital roles in the company and add to the organization’s overall climate and dynamics.

Typically at organizations, there are both male and female employees. However, I …

Enterprise Social Networks : Effective Internal Organizational Communication Strategies, Makeda A. Boucaud

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Social Networking Sites (SNSs) such as Facebook and Twitter have reinvented how publics communicate with one another. Enterprise Social Networks (ESNs) are a form of Social Network Sites (SNS) which many organizations are adopting within their communication practices. The primary goal of ESNs is to engage employees through social interaction which is intended to create company communities which users can use to access business information, team updates and team performance statistics. The current study examines assumptions present in purveyor literature about how ESNs are intended to provide benefit in six aspects of organizational development: organizational communication, information communication technology, technology …

Variations In The Facial Prominence Of A Hollywood Action Heroine: The Case Of Katniss In The Hunger Games, Alexandra M. Mastorides

Communication

Numerous studies have found that in a variety of media, men are depicted with a greater degree of facial prominence than women. This tendency has earned the name, “the face-­‐ism phenomenon.” It is argued to promote sexist notions that enable the objectification of women while simultaneously reinforcing stereotypical gender roles. Greater focus on the face is said to give off stronger impressions of intelligence, dominance, and the personality of an individual. This study measures the face-­‐ism of the character Katniss Everdeen over the course of film, The Hunger Games. The results found that compared to other women in previous studies, …

Investigating The World Of Disney’S Heroines: A Close Analysis Of Cinderella And Beauty And The Beast, Victoria Margaret Gurrieri

Communication

This thesis will provide an in- depth analysis of the films Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, drawing principally (though not exclusively) on techniques of film analysis propounded by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson’s Film Art. Bordwell and Thompson provide explanations of the devices that should be used to critique a film. These include repetitions and patterns, visual and aural techniques, and narrative structures, which all serve to enhance the overall film. After examining each film individually, the two films are compared and contrasted. This highlights the progress made by Walt Disney Studios and their filmmakers in the years between …

Journalism Portfolio, William R. Brunelle

Journalism Program

No abstract provided.

Obsession: Journalistic Pieces Through Four Years, Rebecca Melnitsky

Journalism Program

No abstract provided.

Multimedia Portfolio, Dan Clark

Journalism Program

For a journalist, there are only a few things that can land you a job. One of those things is having a professional portfolio. That’s why the Journalism Department has its students complete a professional portfolio as part of their Honors program. The Honors Program takes work students have already completed, then asks them to revise it, or even do it again. That way, when we leave the program, we’re ready to start sending out portfolios and resumés to potential employers. My portfolio is dominated by work that I wrote for a print medium because that’s what our program focuses …

Precious Lord, Take My Brand: Consumer Analysis Of Branding Effectiveness Of First Hattiesburg, Kelsey D. Walsh

Honors Theses

This study provides insight into consumer perception of First Hattiesburg’s image strategy, physical space/environment, and personnel/human factors and how they have enticed the community to attend and even become partners at First Hattiesburg. Furthermore, this study provides a unique look at integrated marketing communication (IMC) in a religious organization. Results of this study indicate that First Hattiesburg’s branding style, particularly the consistency of its IMC, contributes significantly to members/attendees’ positive view of the church. Because First Hattiesburg’s branding is so different from most southern Baptist churches and the church is currently experiencing a season of growth, it can be inferred …

The Effects Of Juror Disclosiveness, Empathy, And Interpersonal Communication Competence On Jury Selection, Owen P. Terry

Honors Theses

The trial jury is one of the most basic elements of our court system and is vital for ensuring a fair trial for all parties involved in a case. This research was concerned with the final stage of the jury selection process in which attorneys are able to select, through various challenges, the jurors who are most well suited for service. Particularly, the goal of this research was to determine whether certain juror communicator characteristics, namely interpersonal communication competence and its derivatives, had effects upon jury selection. A sample of potential jurors completed questionnaires related to these characteristics, and the …