Communication Commons^™

Assimilating Through Consumption: A Rhetorical History Of The Early Years Of The Advocate, Cora Beth Butcher-Spellman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses analysis of constitutive rhetoric and queer archival methods to examines how The Advocate used assimilationist rhetoric and consumerist rhetoric in fundamentally anti-democratic ways to consolidate the form of ideal gay consumer-citizenship. Focusing on the first three years of the publication, I utilize queer theory and theories of citizenship and political economy to explain how The Advocate’s rhetoric and mainstream success allowed the publication to normalize a limited and politically weak gay identity. This thesis argues The Advocate’s rhetoric of exclusion, authority, and consumerism were three central features shaping ideal gay consumer-citizenship as most available to people who …

What's On Job Seekers' Social Media Sites? A Content Analysis And Effects Of Structure On Recruiter Judgments And Predictive Validity, Liwen Zhang, Chad H. Van Iddekinge, John D. Arnold, Philip L. Roth, Filip Lievens, Stephen E. Lanivich, Samantha L. Jordan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Many organizational representatives review social media (SM) information (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) when recruiting and assessing job applicants. Despite this, very little empirical data exist concerning the SM information available to organizations or whether assessments of such information are a valid predictor of work outcomes. This multi-study investigation examines several critical issues in this emerging area. In Study 1, we conducted a content analysis of job seekers’ Facebook sites (n = 266) and found that these sites often provide demographic variables that U.S. employment laws typically prohibit organizations from using when making personnel decisions (e.g., age, ethnicity, religion), as well as …

Survivor: An Analysis Of The Term From India, Pravin Patkar

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article discusses the need for greater conceptual clarity of the term survivor. It raises questions about the propriety of the term to refer to the victims of sex trafficking. It points out that in the Indian context, the term victim is legally and operationally defined. It cautions against the hasty incorporation of the term survivor into public policies addressing the trafficked victims' problems. Different social platforms use the term survivor differently, and the difference is not nominal. The use of the term survivor is both casual as well as intentional. The term survivor trivializes the exploitation and makes invisible …

Lindenwood Digest, December 1, 2020, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

Social Media Influencers And Instagram Storytelling: Case Study Of Singapore Instagram Influencers, Mark Chong, Gottipati Swapna

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

While the use of social media influencers (SMIs) by brands is becoming more widespread, the academic literature about SMI communication is still scarce. This is one of the first studies on SMI brand storytelling, using data mining and natural language processing to understand how SMIs tell brand stories on Instagram, what kinds of stories they tell, and the impact they have on follower engagement. The findings show that the "rise-fall" emotional arc was the most common story arc used by SMIs. In addition, SMIs frequently used the first-person perspective and featured themselves as the protagonists in their stories. Last, SMIs …

Rewriting The Unwritten: Decorum As A Tool For Social Justice In Technical Communication, Jennifer L. Scucchi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

With the recent turn to social justice in Technical and Professional Communication (TPC), it is important to develop a variety of theories and methods that can address issues of power and oppression within TPC. Additionally, some of these theories and methods should work to engage resistant audiences and persuade them to not only be aware, but to also take meaningful action for change. Social justice efforts should also consider the intersectionality that occurs when multiple marginalizing factors intersect, compounding the experiences of oppression for those who fall into each unique category. In this dissertation, I present a theory and method …

Family Communication Patterns During Recovery Maintenance: Relapse Prevention For Alcoholics & Addicts, Adam Pyecha

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

The following thesis is research into the Family Communication Patterns (FCP) (McLeod & Chaffee, 1972) of “alcoholics and drug addicts” (ADA) with long-term recovery stages III and IV. Improving relapse rates of ADA in early recovery stage I and stage II may require knowledge about the family communication environment and family type of those ADA with extended recovery time. This is an exploratory descriptive of FCP and family typology of 81 ADA identifying as Twelve-step fellowship (TSF) members recovering from the disease of addiction (Jellinek, 1947; 1960). Data was collected via online questionnaire with adapted scales; AWARE 3.0 relapse awareness …

Drag Incorporated: The Homonormative Brand Culture Of Rupaul's Drag Race, Nathan T. Workman

Institute for the Humanities Theses

This thesis argues RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR, 2009–) positions itself as a homonormative pathway to LGBTQ+ social inclusion through privileging neoliberal selfbranding and commodity activist practices that reify privileged raced, classed, and sexuality identity markers. Utilizing interdisciplinary and intersectional cultural studies methods to conduct a textual analysis, I examine how RPDR produces homonormative LGBTQ+ identities through the commodification and standardization of drag cultures. In conversation with existing RPDR scholars, I critically survey RPDR’s gender biases and prosocial messaging as an example of brand culture’s reification of hegemony and homonormativity within LGBTQ+ communities. This research considers the …

The Effects Of Security Framing, Time Pressure, And Brand Familiarity On Risky Mobile Application Downloads, Cody Parker

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The current study examined the effects of security system framing, time pressure, and brand familiarity on mobile application download behaviors, with an emphasis on risk taking. According to the Prospect Theory, people tend to engage in irrational decision making, and make qualitatively different decisions when information is framed in terms of gains and losses (i.e., the framing effect). Past research has used this framing effect to guide the design of a risk display for mobile applications (apps), with the purpose of communicating the potential risks and minimizing insecure app selections. Time pressure has been shown to influence the framing effect …

Business Practice Of Social Media - Platform And Customer Service Adoption, Shujing Sun, Yang Gao, Huaxia Rui

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper examines the key drivers in business adoptions of the platform and customer service within the context of social media. We carry out the empirical analyses using the decision trajectories of the international airline industry on Twitter. We find that a firm's decision-making is subject to both peer influence and consumer pressure. Regarding peer influence, we find that the odds of both adoptions increase when the extent of peers' adoption increases. We also identify the distinctive role of consumers. Specifically, before the platform adoption, firms learn about potential consequences from consumer reactions to peers' adoptions. Upon the platform adoption, …

Adelaidecyc At Semeval-2020 Task 12: Ensemble Of Classifiers For Offensive Language Detection In Social Media, Mahen Herath, Thushari Atapattu, Hoang Anh Dung, Christoph Treude, Katrina Falkner

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper describes the systems our team (AdelaideCyC) has developed for SemEval Task 12 (OffensEval 2020) to detect offensive language in social media. The challenge focuses on three subtasks – offensive language identification (subtask A), offense type identification (subtask B), and offense target identification (subtask C). Our team has participated in all the three subtasks. We have developed machine learning and deep learning-based ensembles of models. We have achieved F1-scores of 0.906, 0.552, and 0.623 in subtask A, B, and C respectively. While our performance scores are promising for subtask A, the results demonstrate that subtask B and C still …

Churches Can Increase Membership Among Millennials And Generation Z By Using Social Media, Deja Erin Mcghaw

Theses

This project examines how churches can increase membership among Millennials and Generation Z on social media. The final deliverable is a 45-minute webinar offering tips for churches to create effective and relevant content online. This webinar will be housed on a website created called Social Media for Churches. It features many videos and resources to help churches with social media such as trends, recommendations, practical tips, and free tools for content creation. Doc

Shutdown University: Comparing Video Content Performance Against Non-Video In Digital Crisis Communications At Institutions Of Higher Learning During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Brian Patrick Vorce

Theses

This thesis project examines best practices in crisis communications at institutions of higher learning during the beginning stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a large amount of literature stating the importance of video content in the digital realm, video communications were closely examined and compared with non-video communications in terms of efficacy and successful engagement on social media platforms. The final deliverable for the project is a website where communications professionals can access resources, data, and research on these crisis communications, all delivered through accessible blogs and videos.

Pretendians, Settler Collectors, And #Nativetwitter: Indigenous Rhetorical Sovereignty, Carly Schaelling

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

This thesis paper uses thematic analysis to find and report themes in the minority online community space of #NativeTwitter. Drawing from Lisa King’s theory of rhetorical sovereignty, this paper outlines how Indigenous people use Twitter to assert and take back control of their voices and images, as well as build community and connect with each other. This paper outlines three major themes within #NativeTwitter, as analyzed from a group of tweets pulled from the community from October 28-31st in 2018. The themes are: Calling out and Calling in, Community Building and Fostering Connection, and Cultural Preservation. Examples for each of …

​Burned Out But Barely Begun: A Qualitative Study On Newer Clergy And Communication Surrounding Emotional Labor And Personal Well-Being In South Mississippi, Lauren Noll

Master's Theses

This study provides an overview of the concepts surrounding clergy burnout,

organizational culture, and emotional labor theory. Furthermore, it explains the need

for  clearer understanding of clergy perceptions of their own personal

experiences with burnout and their emotional wellbeing in relation to their organizational environment and careers as clergy members. The methodology of qualitative interviews sought to understand the narratives and experiences of clergy members from their own words and worldviews rather than from a statistical basis or analysis.

This research found answers to key questions involving communication about burnout in the context of organizational culture and emotional labor, including …

Navigating Hate: The Public Deliberation Of Matthew Shepard And Hate Crime Legislation, Abigail Barnes

Master's Theses

Since Matthew Shepard’s murder in 1998, his narrative has been recirculated to justify a federal hate crime statute and Shepard has been used as a symbol for the demand for hate crime legislation. This study seeks to evaluate how Shepard is used in public deliberation, the role of private organizations in the public deliberation of hate crime legislation, and the discursive history of the Shepard-Byrd Hate Crime Prevention Act of 2009. Through a rhetorical criticism, this study finds that the nuances of Shepard’s narrative are abandoned in order to construct him as a “permissible” symbol for LGBTQ+ protections. However, if …

“We Didn’T Have A Lot Of Money, We Worked Hard, And We Ate Beans”: Examining The Narrative Inheritance From An Appalachian Father To His Son, Thomas Townsend

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The author contends that narratives, shaped not only by events but also by socioeconomic and geographic factors, are narratives that require exploration and analysis because these narratives build the lives in which individuals exist. By understanding narratives passed down with which they have built their lives, individuals can come to greater understanding of the narratives in which they live. To understand the narratives, he created and continues to craft about his life, the author needed to understand his narrative inheritance. When a proposed thesis study imploded, the focus of the study shifted to exploring the circumstances of a single interview …

Newsroom Convergence In A College Journalism School: Are Students Prepared For A Job?, Travis Feltner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to examine the current state of broadcast journalism education at the college level. It will also ask if college broadcast journalism students are receiving sufficient education and experience in their university newsrooms to get a job after graduation. The study surveyed professional television news directors from the 210 Designated Market Areas (DMA) in the United States. Most respondents agreed to some extent that converged college newsrooms better prepare students for a job as prior research suggested. However, it does not appear that those same applicants would be preferred over ones with traditional broadcast journalism education. The survey …

Argumentation Stance Polarity And Intensity Prediction And Its Application For Argumentation Polarization Modeling And Diverse Social Connection Recommendation, Joseph Winstead Sirrianni

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cyber argumentation platforms implement theoretical argumentation structures that promote higher quality argumentation and allow for informative analysis of the discussions. Dr. Liu’s research group has designed and implemented a unique platform called the Intelligent Cyber Argumentation System (ICAS). ICAS structures its discussions into a weighted cyber argumentation graph, which describes the relationships between the different users, their posts in a discussion, the discussion topic, and the various subtopics in a discussion. This platform is unique as it encodes online discussions into weighted cyber argumentation graphs based on the user’s stances toward one another’s arguments and ideas. The resulting weighted cyber …

Smoking Behaviors In Patients Offered Lung Cancer Screening, Sara Elizabeth Golden

Dissertations and Theses

In the United States, smoking causes preventable diseases, including lung cancer, which is the leading cause of cancer deaths. Improving smoking cessation rates is important to decrease lung cancer deaths. Health care visits with a discussion about lung cancer screening (LCS) may help in increasing prevalence of smoking cessation. Importantly, insurers now require clinicians to have a shared decision-making discussion with patients that includes discussion of smoking abstinence before they can receive an LCS scan (i.e., a low-dose computed tomography scan). This discussion may represent a unique opportunity to encourage smoking cessation since it may prompt positive smoking behavior change. …

The Guardian, Week Of November 30, 2020, Wright State Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

News articles from The Guardian for the week of November 30, 2020. The Guardian is the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. It has been published regularly since March of 1965.

War, Media, And Memory: American Television News Coverage Of The Vietnam War, Brock J. Vaughan

Bridges: An Undergraduate Journal of Contemporary Connections

Social and political impacts of television news coverage of the Vietnam War are often glorified and grossly overestimated. This paper argues that the role of the American media during the war did not directly affect public support for the war, nor did it profoundly impact American nationalism and military policy. Television news coverage did, however, influence how events were perceived and remembered. The commonly held belief that the American news media was directly responsible for the decline of public confidence in the U.S. government, ultimately contributing to the public’s distaste for any further involvement in Vietnam, is a narrow viewpoint …

Deaf Interpreters’ Perception Of Themselves As Professionals In Ireland: A Phenomenological Study, Noel P. O'Connell, Teresa Lynch

Journal of Interpretation

In the extensive literature on sign language interpreting, very little attention has been given to deaf interpreters’ understanding of themselves as professionals. This gap may be due to the fact that professional sign language interpreting is often seen to be synonymous with hearing people. The research therefore set out to gain an insight into how deaf interpreters’ view themselves as professionals, what their understanding of ‘being a professional’ is, and what issues are of concern to them. The authors present and discuss findings from an analysis, informed by professionalism theory, of data derived from interviews with 5 deaf interpreters in …

Spartan Daily, November 24, 2020, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2020

Volume 155, Issue 40

Law School News: 'Law Isn't A Foreign Language Anymore' 11/24/2020, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

The Guardian, Week Of November 23, 2020, Wright State Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

News articles from The Guardian for the week of November 23, 2020. The Guardian is the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. It has been published regularly since March of 1965.

Patrons And The Pandemic: How We Are Serving, Connecting, And Communicating With Library Patrons During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Lauren Puzier

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many libraries in the United States to focus on providing remote services and reimagine in-person services. At the same time, many library users are not or cannot visit physical buildings and may not be easy to reach. Libraries are communicating new service methods, protocols for health and safety, new and changing hours, policies, and more. This article discusses how libraries are communicating with patrons during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Effect Of An Intervention To Improve Smoking Cessation Treatment In A Federally Qualified Healthcare Clinic, Shirley A. Camp

The Corinthian

Abstract

Significant progress has been made in the reduction of tobacco use in the United States, but the smoking prevalence among the socially and economically disadvantaged populations (i.e. individuals who are homeless, uninsured, LGBT, and living with HIV) is significantly higher than the general population (CDC, 2018b). As a result, these vulnerable populations carry a disproportionate burden of tobacco-related mortality and morbidity (CDC, 2018b). There is a cost-effective and evidence-based treatment for tobacco use dependence (Fiore et al, 2008), but the delivery by primary care providers to this population is inconsistent (Tyman, Bonevski, Paul, & Bryant, 2014). This study focused …

Labor Gone Digital (Digifacket)! Experiences From Creating A Web Archive For Swedish Trade Unions, Jenny Jansson, Katrin Uba, Jaanus Karo

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

The Internet has become an increasingly important forum for societal activism, as event mobilization, member organization, and some actions have moved online. These new types of activities, often facilitated by diverse social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, form an increasingly important part of contemporary social movements’ and organizations’ communication, work, and expression. This rapid digitalization and the increase of online activities have created a dilemma for social movement archives and researchers: Born-digital material is necessary to understand our contemporary movements, yet the materials generated and available on the Internet are rarely systematically archived. To help find solutions …

Provost Announcement- November 20, 2020, Office Of The Provost, Wright State University

Office of the Provost Newsletters and Announcements

An official announcement from Wright State's Office of the Provost regarding an update and COVID-19 reminders for the 2020 Fall Semester.