Communication Commons^™

From Myplate To Mcteacher's Night : A Communication-Centered And Ecological Investigation Of Nutrition Education In Middle School : A Case Study, Crystal Lee Brandow

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

We have an undeniable awareness about the rates of obesity in our country, and we know that rates of obesity among children and youth are higher than ever. In fact, this is predicted to be the first generation of children who will not live longer than their parents. An abundance of research has identified the challenges and the causes of childhood obesity, and even proposed solutions for addressing this growing public health concern. One of the suggested solutions, or at least preventative measures, involves schools playing an active role in combating the obesity epidemic through the provision of nutrition interventions. …

The Television Spoiler Nuisance Rationale, Lisa Glebatis Perks, Noelle Mcelrath-Hart

Communication and Media Faculty Publications

This essay explores tensions surrounding television spoilers through interviews with thirteen people who are paid to write or edit discourse about television. These professionals include television critics, editors, an entertainment reporter, a popular culture writer, and a television columnist. Analysis of interview transcripts revealed that varying attitudes toward television pleasure undergird the spoiler debate. After describing three divergent television pleasure attitudes, we present the second half of our analysis: interviewees’ statements about the timing of their publications, the content of their writing, and the packaging of their writing. Properly packaging articles so that readers need to “opt in” was the …

The Constancy Of Immediacy: From Printing Press To Digital Age, Nik Usher

Communication: Faculty Scholarship

The newspaper crisis has raised considerable concern about the quality of daily news in the United States. Fears about the decline of watchdog journalism have been sounded as newspapers cut investigative staff, slash State House and Washington bureaus, and turn to more banal, audience-pleasing local news in an effort to capture Web attention. Books, whitepapers, and essays have maligned the erosion of what Alex Jones (2009) of Harvard's Shorenstein Center calls the “Iron Core” of journalism – quality, public interest journalism. Much of the discourse about the state of journalism takes place at a macro level, rather than through a …

Situated Transgressiveness: Exploring One Transwoman's Lived Experiences Across Three Situated Contexts, Sara Louise Muhr, Craig Rich, Katie R. Sullivan

Communication Studies Faculty Works

This study investigates the lived experience of one transwoman, Claire, a public advocate and a manager with client services responsibilities. We examine Claire’s story in order to discuss how situated contexts, such as different roles, locales, and interactions, shape the way she experiences and perceives her trans body and gender identity. In particular, our analysis centers on how Claire’s lived experience of personal and professional life shift across three different situated contexts, each enabling and constraining opportunities for political transgression. Our findings contribute to existing conversations within queer theory, transgender, and organization studies by highlighting how situated contexts mediate the …

Designing Journalism Capstone Units That Demonstrate Student Skills, Trevor Cullen

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

There are considerable differences in the structure, content, and delivery of tertiary journalism degrees in Australia as identified in a 2014 Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT) Innovation and Development Project report on graduate qualities and journalism curriculum renewal. To address this situation, the author argues for journalism capstone units, designed by both journalism educators and news editors, to include a series of agreed criteria and standards to guide journalism educators, and for journalism students to demonstrate not only a broad knowledge base together with research and communication skills but also entrepreneurial skills to help them adapt to new media …

A Study Of The Media's Portrayal Of The Measles Outbreak, Ashley K. Lawrence

Honors College Theses

This thesis project examines how social media was used during the measles outbreak in the United States from February 1, 2015-April 30, 2015. This content analysis research project will examine social media, specifically Twitter and Facebook, on the basis of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The media outlets will be observed in order to determine the context of the measles outbreak, and the responses from the public (positive and negative) about how they felt or reacted to the information. In order to examine the social media outlets, research from the CDC …

Mitt Romney In Denver: “Obamacare” As Ideological Enthymeme, Justin Ward Kirk

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This paper argues that surface-level analysis of political argument fails to explain the effectiveness of ideological enthymemes, particularly within the context of presidential debates. This paper uses the first presidential debate of the 2012 election as a case study for the use of “Obamacare” as an ideological enthymeme. The choice of a terminological system limits and shapes the argumentative choices afforded the candidate. Presidential debates provide a unique context within which to examine the interaction of ideological constraints and argument due to their relatively committed and ideologically homogenous audiences.

State Of Mississippi Crisis Communications: Examining Mswin Preparedness, Michael Knox Graham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the Mississippi Wireless Information Network (MSWIN) and its level of preparedness to avert the communication problems for the State of Mississippi that were seen during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, in the event of a similar crisis. It explores the technical workings of the network and the makeup of the Mississippi Wireless Communication Commission (WCC) who oversees MSWIN. It also takes a look at similar networks in Louisiana and Arkansas to compare and contrast those to what is in Mississippi. Primary interviews with the WCC, State of Mississippi officials, and others on the Mississippi Gulf Coast paint a …

The Relationship Between Media And Cultural Identity In Hispanic Families In Mississippi, Marlen Polito

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is a qualitative thesis with in-depth interviews with three children and one parent or caretaker of Hispanic descent. These interviews were conducted to find a connection between media use and cultural identity. By doing a qualitative project the researcher was able to do a video documentary with a written portion explaining the methods and findings. The researcher interviethree students with at least one parent or primary caretaker of Hispanic descent seventh through twelfth grade child, who serves as the main child for the study. This research investigated the relationship between the media and cultural identity among Hispanic children in …

The Impact Of French Camp Academy On Child Abuse And Neglect, Ji Hoon Heo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Within the last few decades, child abuse and neglect has not improved in the United States. Government services provides facilities and licensed families for abused and neglected children, but children often do not adjust due to negative past experiences. However, there are other non-governmental programs that help counter child abuse and neglect. This research focuses on one student attending French Camp Academy, a Christian-based boarding school in central Mississippi, in order to shed light on possible ways to stop the vicious cycle that children go through. When children receive the acknowledgment and support from a parental figure, they are more …

Community Newspapers In The Digital Age A Case Study: The Pass Christian, Mississippi Gazebo Gazette, Jace R. Ponder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Print newspapers in the 21st century America exist in a diverse media landscape. Radio, television and online media all compete with newspapers to reach news consumers. With 24-hour cable news and the widespread adoption of the internet, information is available to viewers and readers anytime and anywhere. Much of that information is available free of charge. Traditionally, advertising revenue has carried the costs of print news production. But as the media pie gets cut smaller and smaller, that traditional model is failing to support print newspapers. In the five years since 2010, America has seen a net loss of 331 …

Posting Topics ≠ Reading Topics: On Discovering Posting And Reading Topics In Social Media, Wei Gong, Ee-Peng Lim, Feida Zhu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Social media users make decisions about what content to post and read. As posted content is often visible to others, users are likely to impose self-censorship when deciding what content to post. On the other hand, such a concern may not apply to reading social media content. As a result, the topics of content that a user posted and read can be different and this has major implications to the applications that require personalization. To better determine and profile social media users’ topic interests, we conduct a user survey in Twitter. In this survey, participants chose the topics they like …

A Comparison Of Fundamental Network Formation Principles Between Offline And Online Friends On Twitter, Felicia Natali, Feida Zhu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

We investigate the differences between how some of the fundamental principles of network formation apply among offline friends and how they apply among online friends on Twitter. We consider three fundamental principles of network formation proposed by Schaefer et al.: reciprocity, popularity, and triadic closure. Overall, we discover that these principles mainly apply to offline friends on Twitter. Based on how these principles apply to offline versus online friends, we formulate rules to predict offline friendship on Twitter. We compare our algorithm with popular machine learning algorithms and Xiewei’s random walk algorithm. Our algorithm beats the machine learning algorithms on …

Friendship Maintenance And Prediction In Multiple Social Networks, Roy Ka-Wei Lee, Ee-Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Due to the proliferation of online social networks (OSNs), users find themselves participating in multiple OSNs. These users leave their activity traces as they maintain friendships and interact with other users in these OSNs. In this work, we analyze how users maintain friendship in multiple OSNs by studying users who have accounts in both Twitter and Instagram. Specifically, we study the similarity of a user's friendship and the evenness of friendship distribution in multiple OSNs. Our study shows that most users in Twitter and Instagram prefer to maintain different friendships in the two OSNs, keeping only a small clique of …

African Americans And The Communication Of Religious Exit, William P. Cooper

Wayne State University Theses

This exploratory study investigates Christian disaffiliation, or deconversion, in a sample of African American ex-Christians living in the metro-Detroit area. The data obtained from 15 interviews were used to address the following research questions: (1) How do participants recall the religious socialization process? (2) What are some catalysts for African Americans disaffiliating from their former Christian denominations? (3) How does the Christian disaffiliation process unfold communicatively for African-Americans? Specifically, did participants utilize any strategies of SMC in their communication of exit? Jablin’s (2001) Model of Organizational Exit and Meisenbach’s (2010) Stigma Management Communication Strategy Typology were used as theoretical frameworks. …

Conversations On Controversy: An Examination Of Internet Discussions On High-Profile Incidents Of Recorded Police Brutality, Brittany Nicole Jefferson

Wayne State University Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the conversations that Internet user have when discussing publicized, recorded incidents of police brutality. This study examined the deaths of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner and Walter Scott and the subsequent discussions about the incidents on YouTube.com, MSNBC.com and NYTimes.com. This was accomplished by using an exploratory content analysis to establish what are the general topics of these discussions. This analysis found that there are 2 major themes that are discussed by Internet users when they comment; the content of the video and the social context of the incident itself. However, the popularity …

Anders Breivik And Elliot Rodger: Violence, Communication, And The Mediated Sphere., Walter Anthony Lucken Iv

Wayne State University Theses

The “mass shooting” has become a major hallmark of everyday news and discussions in mass media. Through the lens of two specific cases, this research situates the mass shooting within a few preexisting historical continuities and disciplines. The mass shooting is read as a communicative media event, and is considered from the perspective of mass media proliferation, political violence, discourse, semiotics, and turn of the century cultural antagonisms. The methods employed herein are textual analysis, rhetorical analysis, and post-Marxian models of historical causation.

The mass shooting is an outgrowth of global consolidation and proliferation of mass media. The mass shootings …

A Vernacular Of Surveillance: Taylor Swift And Miley Cyrus Perform White Authenticity, Rachel E. Dubrofsky

Communication Faculty Publications

This article looks at popular visual media in the context of the larger surveillance society in which it occurs. Bringing into conversation scholarship in feminist media studies, surveillance, performance, and critical race studies, the piece offers another way to explore race in popular media and consider the implications of surveillance. The work examines how principles from contexts of surveillance carry over into contexts not under surveillance. The article explores the vernacularization-the process of making things mundane, everyday, unremarkable-of ideas about authenticity and performing, and the implications when it comes to race issues, which are animated in contexts of surveillance, but …

Actitud De Los Ciudadanos Andaluces En Cuanto Al Empleo Del Dialecto Andaluz En Los Medios De Comunicación Audiovisuales, Victoriano Pimentel Rivas

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This study presents regulations and linguistic awareness respecting the use of Andalusian dialect on television, radio, and cinema among others to provide a full description of the subject. The qualitative method will reveal aspects more fine-grained through data collection of the different habits and reactions of participants with TV, radio, internet or another audiovisual platform. For example, this research concludes, among other factors, that young Andalusians are more in contact with their dialect than older ones. Empirical and statistical data reflects that the young individual is open to different audiovisual platforms apart from TV and radio. Finally, this thesis leads …

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 17 2016, Several Authors

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

No abstract provided.

Message From The Faculty Editor, Mary Savin

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

No abstract provided.

Instructions For Authors, Discovery Editors

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

No abstract provided.

A Grounded Theory Approach To Healthy Work Environment: Its Impact On Nurses, Patient Safety, And Significance In Healthcare Settings, Nicole Sevilla-Zeigen

Dissertations

A healthy working environment has been an area of interest for occupation health providers. There is anticipation that a safe working environment improves patient safety, which is associated with reduction in clinical nurse errors. Issues with medication errors and poor working environment pose a greater risk to patient safety. The aim of this qualitative study was to provide a broad understanding on nurses’ perceptions on the processes that influence a healthy working environment and the impacts of a healthy working environment on patient safety. An interpretive grounded theory methodology was used in this study to evaluate nurses’ perceptions in acute …

A Study Of Social Web Data On Buprenorphine Abuse Using Semantic Web Technology, Raminta Daniulaityte, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

The Specific Aims of this application are to use a paradigmatic approach that combines Semantic Web technology, Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning techniques to:

1) Describe drug users’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to the non-medical use of Suboxone and Subutex as discussed on Web-based forums.
2) Identify and describe temporal patterns of non-medical use of Suboxone and Subutex as discussed on Web-based forums.

The research was carried out by an interdisciplinary team of members of the Center for Interventions, Treatment and Addictions Research (CITAR) and the Ohio Center of Excellence in Knowledge- enabled Computing (Kno.e.sis) at Wright State …

Building The Web Of Knowledge With Smart Iot Applications, Amelie Gyrard, Pankesh Patel, Amit P. Sheth, Martin Serrano

Kno.e.sis Publications

The Internet of Things (IoT) is experiencing fast adoption because of its positive impact to change all aspects of our lives, from agriculture in rural areas, to health and wellness, to smart home and smart-x applications in cities. The development of IoT applications and deployment of smart IoT-based solutions is just starting; smart IoT applications will modify our physical world and our interaction with cyber spaces, from how we remotely control appliances at home to how we care for patients or elderly persons. The massive deployment of IoT devices represents a tremendous economic impact and at the same time offers …

Co-Evolution Of Rdf Datasets, Sidra Faisal, Kemele M. Endris, Saeedeh Shekarpour, Sören Auer, Maria-Esther Vidal

Kno.e.sis Publications

Linking Data initiatives have fostered the publication of large number of RDF datasets in the Linked Open Data (LOD) cloud, as well as the development of query processing infrastructures to access these data in a federated fashion. However, different experimental studies have shown that availability of LOD datasets cannot be always ensured, being RDF data replication required for envisioning reliable federated query frameworks. Albeit enhancing data availability, RDF data replication requires synchronization and conflict resolution when replicas and source datasets are allowed to change data over time, i.e., co-evolution management needs to be provided to ensure consistency. In this paper, …

No More Mind Games: Content Analysis Of In-Game Commentary Of The National Football League’S Concussion Problem, Jeffrey Parker

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

American (gridiron) football played at the professional level in the National Football League (NFL) is an inherently physical spectator sport, in which players frequently engage in significant contact to the head and upper body. Until recently, the long-term health consequences associated with on the field head trauma were not fully disclosed to players or the public, potentially misrepresenting the dangers involved in gameplay. Crucial to the dissemination of this information to the public are in-game televised commentators of NFL games, regarded as the primary conduits for mediating in-game narratives to the viewing audience. Using a social constructionist theoretical lens, this …

Understanding The Influencers Of Second-Hand Apparel Shopping Behavior, Robyn Hobbs

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Shopping for second-hand apparel is rapidly growing and has become a notable segment of the retail market. The purpose of this study is to determine what influences consumers when shopping second-hand for apparel products in-store and online. According to the existing literature, a number of key factors play significant roles for second-hand apparel shopping consumer decisions. They include: social, costs, trends and environmental influencers. Past research has not concentrated in-depth on the hedonistic and social influences of second-hand apparel shopping, financial factors, and time spent shopping for second-hand apparel. This study has observed the socio-demographic profile of second-hand shoppers, what …

Yik Yak Posts: A Discourse Analysis, Snehal Ravindra Shirke

Masters Theses

"Anonymity and geolocation create a unique environment for users to communicate with each other. Discourse analysis was conducted to study the posts made on Yik Yak, an anonymous social networking mobile application to understand the communication patterns on an anonymous platform and the posts about taboo topics. The posts were analyzed specifically for patterns on taboo topics and how students interact on the anonymous platform on a particular campus (Missouri S&T campus). Student research assistants coded the collected posts into the pre-defined taboo categories namely sexual activity, non-sexual bodily functions, sexual orientation, mental/emotional health, and "other" taboo topics. I found …