Ethnic Audiences In A Fragmented Media Era: Ethnic Audiences' Selective Exposure To Likeminded Media, Mingxiao Sui

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The conventional wisdom that U.S. and ethnic media have distinctive effects on ethnic populations’ assimilation into the American society inspires two closely related questions: (1) how do English- and ethnic-language media differ in news content?, and (2) to what extent is ethnic audiences’ preference for English- versus ethnic-language media systematically biased such that they seek to use media congenial to their most salient ethnic identity? The first question is expected to provide insights into what ethnic audiences learn about the U.S. and their country of origin from distinct news outlets, and to explain whether and how U.S. and ethnic media …

Questing With Grandma: Building Closer Families Through Intergenerational Video Gaming, Sanela Osmanovic Vukelic

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

While small and large technological miracles have undoubtedly made our lives easier, they have potentially also made a significant part of our daily social routine obsolete. People live in the same space but rarely spend quality time together, interacting and bonding. One of the solutions to diminishing family relationships may lie in the technology itself—video games. Previous research having shown the sociability of video games, and in this study, we examined their potential in creating closer family relationships, especially among different generations. Participants (n = 183), mainly grandparents and grandchildren, were asked to play video games together over a period …

Thoreau's Melancholia, Walden's Friendship, And Queer Agency, Julia Morgan Leslie

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Walden queers its readers. While many have investigated Thoreau’s queerness, there has been little notice of Walden’s queerness. This project begins with a situational analysis that identifies the melancholic antecedents of Walden in Thoreau’s life and his choices that led to the illumination of his melancholia. Thoreau had already been experimenting with what Branka Arsić identified as “literalization.” Nevertheless, a period of crisis, detailed by Robert Milder, made him aware of what Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok have referred to as the melancholic’s blind skill of “demetaphorization.” I suggest that Thoreau exploited this skill to produce Walden’s unique …

The White Bicycle: Performance, Installation Art, And Activism In Ghost Bike Memorials, Nicole Marie Costantini

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this project I examine the performative nature of the ghost bike memorial. Ghost bikes, flat-white painted immobile bicycles created by cycling communities and loved ones of victims, are installed roadside to mark the locations of cycling related deaths. Using critical performance ethnography and critical-cultural analysis as methods, I analyze how the ghost bike performs as an artifact of mourning and inspires co-incident performances of grief, activism, and community building and maintenance. As a memorial object used worldwide to represent cycling culture, the ghost bike acts as a social network link that connects a multitude of diverse cycling communities. I …

Statistics-Bierce Library Study, Tyler J. Hushour

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This is a report from two surveys that I created and administered to students and faculty at Bierce library who came to the Circulation Desk or the Tech Desk, as well as some of my other findings when periodically looking around the library to see where students like to study or hang-out. There was a written survey given at the Circulation Desk, and a different survey given at the Tech Check-Out Desk. The project is for Melanie Smith-Farrell, the head of Access Services, and is based on a similar study Ian McCullough did in the science library. While this is …

Uncovering The Processes And Consequences Of Egyptian Immigrant Parental Involvement In Their Children’S Education: Bridging Cultural Differences, Hend Shalan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

For more than a decade, researchers have concluded that immigrant parents face several barriers to becoming involved in their children’s education. All studies agree that language and cultural differences are the most significant barriers to immigrants’ involvement in their children’s education, yet we know little about what these cultural differences are and how these cultural differences influence the school involvement of immigrant parents. This study integrates theories of cultural differences, acculturation, and culture shock and the corresponding literature to investigate the lesser involvement of immigrant parents in school-related activities.

A focused ethnographic design was employed and a thematic analysis …

Canada’S Relationship With Women Migrant Sex Workers; Producing ‘Vulnerable Migrant Workers’ Through “Protecting Workers From Abuse And Exploitation”, Rachelle Daley

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Canada’s immigration regulations and policy instructions, collectively known as ‘Protecting Workers from Abuse and Exploitation’ (PWAE), instruct visa officials not to process temporary work permits when there is suspicion that migrants may be at risk of sexual abuse or exploitation in industries related to sex work. The regulations are part of Canada’s temporary foreign worker program, located within an anti-trafficking initiative.

Stretching across disciplines and focusing on critical migration scholarship, this research uses a communications studies lens to unpack the power of categorization, and the dividing practices that produce, maintain and normalize inclusion and exclusion, through the conceptualization of the …

Violence, Paratexts, And Fandoms: The Walking Dead As A Societal Mirror, Jessica Lolli

All Student Theses and Dissertations

This project is a critical textual analysis of fan discourse surrounding the season seven premiere of The Walking Dead “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be” that aired on AMC on October 23rd, 2016. Focusing on paratexts, fandoms, and the violence/horror genre as the theoretical framework, the project highlights fans role in the contemporary age of television and provides insight into how much violence and gore is acceptable for fans of the genre. This project also highlights how the premiere can be read as a societal mirror for violence’s representation in society. The artifact to be analyzed is fan …

Examining Collaborative Knowledge Construction In Microblogging-Based Learning Environments, Tian Luo, Lacey Clifton

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of the study is to provide foundational research to exemplify how knowledge construction takes place in microblogging-based learning environments, to understand learner interaction representing the knowledge construction process, and to analyze learner perception, thereby suggesting a model of delivery for microblogging.

Background: Up-and-coming digital native learners crave the real-time, multimedia, global-interconnectedness of microblogging, yet there has been limited research that specifically proposes a working model of Twitter's classroom integration for designers and practitioners without bundling it in with other social media tools.

Methodology: This semester-long study utilized a case-study research design via a multi-dimensional approach in a …

Hydraulic Fracturing In The United States: A Framing Analysis, Kenneth Stephen Cardell Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This research considers the issue of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method of extracting natural gas from shale and coal deposits. The technology, commonly referred to as “fracking,” has only been employed on an industrial scale since the late 1990s and is increasingly becoming the focus of news coverage. In this thesis research, a representative sample of both national and regional newspaper coverage on the issue of hydraulic fracturing is analyzed, looking at several key elements of framing. This study also examines differences in issue framing between the national elite press and regional news sources, as well as based upon partisanship. …

Back To Africa In The 21st Century: The Cultural Reconnection Experiences Of African American Women, Marcia Tate Arunga

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the lived experiences of 18 African American women who went to Kenya, East Africa as part of a Cultural Reconnection delegation. A qualitative narrative inquiry method was used for data collection. This was an optimal approach to honoring the authentic voices of African American women. Eighteen African American women shared their stories, revelations, feelings and thoughts on reconnecting in their ancestral homeland of Africa. The literature discussed includes diasporic returns as a subject of study, barriers to the return including the causes of historic trauma, and how Black women as culture bearers …

Youth And Social Media: Power To Empower?, Sujith Kumar Prankumar

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Much has been written on social media and how it has positively revolutionised communication and information transmission. The infl uence of social media is indubitable—it reaches anyone with an Internet connection, no matter their geographic location or socioeconomic status. This means information that was previously out of reach for isolated and less well-off communities is now accessible by more people than ever before. For example, University College London’s “Why We Post” social media anthropology project—conducted by nine researchers in nine different communities over 15 months—found that communities that have traditionally received comparatively lower levels of schooling now have access to …

Navigating The (Im)Perfect Performances Of Queer Iranian-American Identity, Shadee Abdi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Within the social sciences and humanities, failure to adequately account for the intersectional ways people of color navigate their multiple identities within contesting cultural systems, creates an unfinished portrait of queer identity. For queer people of color, negotiating queer identity is always in relation to their nationality, race-ethnicity, class, gender, religion, and family. While many queer of color stories share similar obligatory cultural norms, the legal ramifications that impact the lives of queer Iranians and their families, both within Iran and abroad, challenge many queer of color expectations. Due to stringent cultural and legal influences, Iranian social discourse heavily impacts …

Negotiating Desire: Resisting, Reimagining And Reinscribing Normalized Sexuality And Gender In Fan Fiction, Charity A. Fowler

Theses and Dissertations

Fan studies has examined how fan fiction resists heteronormativity by challenging depictions of gender and sexuality, but to date, this inquiry has focused disproportionately on slash, to the exclusion of other genres of fan fiction. Additionally, scholars disagree about slash’s subversive effects by setting up a seemingly stable dichotomy—subversive vs. misogynistic—where one does not necessarily exist.

In this project, I examine multiple genres of fan fiction—namely, slash arising from bromances; femslash from female friendships; incestuous fan fiction from dysfunctional familial relationships; and polyamorous fics. I chose fics from four televisions shows—NBC’s Revolution, MTV’s Teen Wolf, the CW’s The …

Restoration, Shannon M. Slaight-Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The marks I make in clay have different characteristics, and the physical mark of one’s fingertips or visual record of the hand is personal and intimate. This visible activity is the evidence of my constant presence and control within each object. Its repetitive meditation produces a private relief from my persistent anxieties. This exploration for me is not only visual, but also physical. This is the start of my infatuation with the idea of pattern. It has its own discrete visual language and modes of communication; and through my research I am developing a method of intercommunication.

Investigating The Practice And Capacity Of Paediatric Occupational Therapists To Promote The Physical Activity Levels Of Children In Western Australia, Sally Coombs

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Reorientation of the Australian health care system to meet the increasing burden of disease requires health workers to develop a focus on disease prevention and health promotion. In Western Australia (WA) a priority area for the promotion of health involves increasing the physical activity levels (PAL) of children in accordance with Australia’s Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines. There is substantial support in the literature for paediatric occupational therapists, who assist children to participate in a range of meaningful occupations, to incorporate the promotion of children’s PAL into their service. However, there is a dearth of research world-wide regarding occupational …

Listening To The Divine Song Within The Greater Song Of Life, E. James Baesler

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

[First section]

Why I Teach Listening to the Divine Song

This autoethnography narrates how I came to teach listening to the divine song as part of an undergraduate listening course called Listening to the SONG of Life.¹ Before I describe two personal stories that explain why I teach listening to the divine, a brief introduction to my interpretation of the autoethnographic method is in order.

Autoethnography, as used in this story, is grounded in the assumptions that language is a primary medium by which we are conscious, understand the world, and communicate our learnings to others in stories,^{2 …}

Let's Talk About How We Talk: Communication Agreements In The Library Workplace, Kabel Nathan Stanwicks

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

Purpose: This chapter introduces a new tool, termed the Communication Agreement, for enhancing communication in the library workplace. The chapter defines the communication agreement, provides discussion questions for forming a communication agreement, provides examples of how communication agreements are beneficial to a diverse library workforce, and provides strategies to informally assess communication agreements’ effectiveness.

Practical implications: Communication problems in diverse library workplaces can lead to, or exacerbate, conflict between employees. Generational, cross-cultural, gender, and other differences can lead to misunderstandings and conflict between employees. The communication agreement provides library managers with a tool to bridge differences in communication styles …

Metaphor And Ideology In Economic Discourse, Brian Derhen

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Despite the presence of metaphors in American political discourse, little scholarly attention has been paid to the functioning of economic metaphors. This study addresses this shortcoming by examining the use of economic metaphors in contentious argument, while paying attention to how metaphor's linguistic variability derives from the rhetorical nature of discourse, and how the context of conflicting ideologies facilitates clashes between larger political metaphors. After establishing the ubiquity of metaphor in economic policy discourse, this study elaborates on an understanding of a fractured political discourse with an historical model that traces this fracture back to four dominant ideological positions. Finally, …

Complete Issue, Volume 36, Issue 1

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the complete issue for Volume 36, Issue 1 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

The Effect Of Perceived System Risks On His Misuse Intention: The Role Of System Resilience Under The Context Of Disasters, Dheyaaldin Alsalman, Insu Park

Research & Publications

Although, the usage of healthcare information systems (HIS) has provided many potential benefits such as enhancing the availability, accessibility and readability of information, healthcare information security has become a growing public concern. Most of the studies have shown the importance of sanctions, information security policy, and information awareness programs in reducing IS misuse behavior, but individuals may still tend to engage in inappropriate behaviors, especially under the context of disasters. The vulnerabilities and risks associated with the HIS could be very extreme under disasters, which may cause employees to misuse their HIS for the sake of delivery of health services …

The Role Of Familiarity In Shaping Country Reputation, Dane M. Kiambi

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Faculty Publications

This study examines inputs that contribute to country concept, specifically the country reputation of Ghana among Americans. The results of a structural equation model indicate that familiarity is a key mediator between participants' experiences with the country and Ghana's country reputation. It is found that the participants' experiences with Ghana affected the reputation of that country positively but indirectly through the mediating role of increased familiarity. Practitioners of international public relations and public diplomacy could benefit from the use of strategies and tactics that would increase the familiarity of the U.S. public with sub-Saharan African countries.

Report To The Community 2017, Centracare Health

Annual Report

• INNOVATIVE CARE 4
• ACCESS TO CARE 6
• MEETING YOUR NEEDS 12
• FINANCIALS 14
• WAYS TO GIVE 17
• DONOR TRIBUTE 27

Changing Owners, Changing Content: Does Who Owns The News Matter For The News?, Allison M.N. Archer, Joshua D. Clinton

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

The press is essential for creating an informed citizenry, but its existence depends on attracting and maintaining an audience. It is unclear whether supply-side effects – including those dictated by the owners of the media – influence how the media cover politics, yet this question is essential given their abilities to set the agenda and frame issues that are covered. We examine how ownership influences media behavior by investigating the impact of Rupert Murdoch’s purchase of the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in August 2007. We collect data on every front-page story and editorial for 27 months, and we …

Communicatively Constructing The Bright And Dark Sides Of Hope: Family Caregivers’ Experiences During End Of Life Cancer Care, Jody Koenig Kellas, Katherine M. Castle, Alexis Johnson, Marlene Z. Cohen

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

(1) Background: The communication of hope is complicated, particularly for family caregivers in the context of cancer who struggle to maintain hope for themselves and their loved ones in the face of terminality. In order to understand these complexities, the current study examines the bright and dark sides of how hope is communicated across the cancer journey from the vantage point of bereaved family caregivers; (2) Methods: We analyzed interviews with bereaved family caregivers using qualitative thematic and case oriented strategies to identify patterns in the positive and negative lived experiences when communicating about hope at the end of life; …

“Love Needs To Be Exchanged”: A Diary Study Of Interaction And Enactment Of The Family Kinkeeper Role, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Jaclyn S. Marsh, Carol L. Tschampl-Diesing, Margaret S. Leach

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Family kinkeepers enact an important role centered on interaction and maintaining family relationships. The researchers studied kinkeeping communication in light of mediated communication, topics engaged, and kinkeepers’ assessments. Thirty-four self-identified kinkeepers kept an interaction diary over 2 weeks. Their 275 reports represented 1,487 interactions using largely mediated communication channels (text, telephone, e-mail, social media), centered on everyday activities, rituals, and health and safety. Despite potential complications of the role, kinkeepers reported high agreement and openness with family members, little conflict, and overall satisfaction with their interactions. Implications of these findings, new directions for researchers, and the important mediated role of …

Perceived Benefits And Challenges Of A Multiethnic-Racial Identity: Insight From Adults With Mixed Heritage, Jordan Soliz, Sierra Cronan, Gretchen Bergquist, Audra K. Nuru, Christine E. Rittenour

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this inquiry was to explore the lived experiences of multiethnic-racial individuals (i.e., individuals with parents from different ethnic-racial groups). In-depth interviews were conducted with 29 adults from the United States with mixed ethnic-racial backgrounds ranging in age from 18 to 52 (female n = 20, male n = 9). We identified a number of themes related to perceived benefits (e.g., pluralistic world views, stronger sense of self) and challenges (e.g., identity tensions, communal concerns) of having a mixed heritage. Findings are discussed in terms of four considerations for ethnic-racial identity of individuals with mixed ethnic-racial backgrounds: emphasizing …

The Role Of Health Care Provider And Partner Decisional Support In Patients’ Cancer Treatment Decision-Making Satisfaction, Angela L. Palmer-Wackerly, Janice L. Krieger, Nancy D. Rhodes

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Cancer patients rely on multiple sources of support when making treatment decisions; however, most research studies examine the influence of health care provider support while the influence of family member support is understudied. The current study fills this gap by examining the influence of health care providers and partners on decision-making satisfaction. In a cross-sectional study via an online Qualtrics panel, we surveyed cancer patients who reported that they had a spouse or romantic partner when making cancer treatment decisions (n = 479). Decisional support was measured using 5-point, single-item scales for emotional support, informational support, informational-advice support, and appraisal …

How Selective Amnesia Brought Us The First Black Socialist President Of The United States, Kristen Hoerl

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Post-Racial Amnesia during President Obama’s 2008 Inauguration

My interest in public memory explains why news coverage leading up to President Obama’s inauguration rankled me. The endless news cycle kept repeating trite statements that announced that the civil rights struggle had ended. Reports quoted public officials and former civil rights activists who described Obama’s election as the “fulfillment,” “embodiment,” “culmination,” and “validation” of Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream. The inauguration took place the day after Martin Luther King Day, and Obama delivered a pre-inauguration address in front of the Lincoln Memorial, the same location where King delivered his 1963 speech. Given …

Postmodern/Poststructural Approaches, Jennifer J. Mease (Also Peeksmease)

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Postmodern and poststructural approaches to organizational communication are marked by an emphasis on ruptures, disjunctions, tensions, instabilities, and other inconsistencies as a part of everyday organizational life. This emphasis is part of an attempt to question, critique, and often compromise the normalized, mundane power structures that regulate organizational life. By questioning and critiquing, these approaches reveal norms and power structures as contingently constructed with particular interests at play. This contrasts with more traditional assumptions that treat norms and power structures as natural, neutral, and stable constructions.

Poststructural and postmodern approaches to organizational communication find their roots in broader philosophical movements …