Communication Commons^™

Environmental Communication Dominated By Corporate Giants, Molly Powers

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

There are grave disparities between the environmental communication put forth by agribusiness corporations, and the extensive malpractice and abuse that actually occurs. Through their monopolizing power and wealth, corporate giants are able to continue to maximize their profits at the expense of animal, environment, and public well-being. Following a major shift from personalized farming to industrialized food production in the early 20th century, we have become increasingly dependent on what we see and hear in the news media discourse, largely controlled by these dominating corporations, to stay informed on industrialized agricultural practices. This creates an environment in which the connection …

Victims, Heroes, And Villains: Imaginary Beings In Contemporary Television Serials, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Communications: Faculty Publications

This chapter traces melodrama’s historical triumvirate of characters – victims, heroes, and villains – to examine how they are applied in contemporary television serial dramas. Looking in particular at the examples of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, the author argues that the characterological trio now often exists within singular protagonists who follow a narrative trajectory from victim through hero to arrive, ultimately, at villainy. Collapsing the characterological triad into single protagonists marks a late modern version of melodrama in which the possibilities for heroism are circumscribed, leaving characters able to opt only for victimization or villainy.

Ensemble Storytelling: Dramatic Television Seriality, The Melodramatic Mode, And Emotions, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Communications: Faculty Publications

This chapter considers seriality in contemporary television dramas in light of arguments that most popular culture falls within melodrama as modality (to include legal shows, police and detective programs, westerns, and medical series), instead of narrow genres, such as soap operas. The recent success of fully serialized dramas is a noteworthy development, producing highly popular and highly regarded programming. The traditions of melodrama, including its deep commitment to the uses of emotionality, address story worlds and audiences in terms of social relations, in contrast to psychological realism’s more individualized and inward turning tendencies. “Ensemble Storytelling” explores three specific strategies available …

Covid 19 And The Pedagogy Of Culture-Centered Community Radical Democracy: A Response From Aotearoa New Zealand, Mohan J. Dutta, Gayle Moana-Johnson, Christine Elers

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

In this essay, drawing on our ethnographic work at the “margins of the margins” in Aotearoa New Zealand, we depict the role of communicative pedagogy for radical democracy in sustaining spaces for community participation in pandemic response. Based on accounts offered by community advisory group members and observations of emergent community spaces of co-operation amidst the pandemic, we suggest that the ongoing work of building co-creative pedagogy for “habits of democracy” is vital to community response. The work of learning to learn together the habits of radical democracy in communities is permanent work that prepares communities for crises, simultaneously building …

“It’S Hidden, After All:” A Modified Delphi Study Exploring Faculty And Students’ Perceptions Of A Graduate Professional Seminar In Communication, Krista Hoffmann-Longtin, Maria Brann, The Professional Seminar Delphi Working Group

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Graduate student socialization has been studied in multiple disciplines, including communication. As their career trajectories change, faculty must consider how to socialize students into the field and their subsequent careers. Using a modified Delphi survey, we examined the differences in faculty and students’ perceptions regarding the content of a graduate professional seminar in communication. Results indicate that students would prefer a focus on implicit norms and the hidden curriculum, while faculty would prefer to focus on disciplinary content. We offer recommendations for developing a course that addresses both needs and, thus, simultaneously attends to the changing job market.

Integrative Ethical Education: An Exploratory Investigation Into A Relationally Based Approach To Ethics Education, Drew T. Ashby-King, Karen D. Boyd

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate the effect of a curricular application of the integrative ethical education (IEE) model and its effect on first-year college students’ ethical development. Using a pretest posttest design, participants’ moral judgment and reasoning were measured before and after they participated in an IEE-based academic course and compared using descriptive analysis. Results revealed that participants’ moral judgment and reasoning increased while participating in the program. These results provide initial support for the use of IEE-based curricula and academic experiences to promote college students’ ethical development. Implications for communication education and future research are …

Trends In The Introductory Communication Course From 1956 To 2016: A Systematic Review Of The Results Of 11 National Survey Studies, Sherwyn Morreale

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Researchers have conducted surveys of the introductory communication course for more than 60 years, starting with two seminal studies in 1956 and 1965, followed by a series of nine replicative studies extending from 1970 to 2016. This systematic review examines the results from those 11 surveys. The results of that review are presented here, including historical trends observed in the thematic categories that indicate how the course has remained consistent or changed during the time period of the surveys. This study concludes with recommendations to inform decision-making about the future of the introductory course, based on the identified historical trends …

Accelerating Professional Socialization With An Undergraduate Proseminar Course, Carrie Anne Platt

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Guiding students on their professional paths, from selecting a major to pursuing a particular career after graduation, can be a significant challenge for faculty and program leaders. Students, particularly those in broad fields like Communication, rarely know what the major involves, or how their studies will translate into a meaningful career. This uncertainty makes it harder for students to see connections between their coursework, campus resources, and extracurricular activities, a disconnect that impacts engagement, academic performance, and retention. In this best practices article, I explain how an undergraduate proseminar can accelerate professional socialization and help students develop more integrated perspectives …

Project-Based Learning: Lessons Learned With Teaching The Non-Communication Majors, Sarah Leblanc

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Family communication, as an upper-level communication course, attracts communication majors and students studying in other disciplines. As such, instructors employ pedagogies that appeal to both majors and non-majors. This essay reflects on how I used project-based learning (PBL) in a family communication course filled with mostly non-majors. The essay highlights my rationale for choosing PBL, provides an explanation of the PBL activity, describes how PBL addresses two key problems I experienced in teaching the family communication course, and offers conclusions regarding lessons learned.

Presidential Spotlight: Dialoguing The Possible — Creating A Public Record Of Csca Challenges, Lessons Learned, And Envisioning The Future, M. Chad Mcbride, Chad Edwards

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume, 2020

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Web Content Management System And Accessibility Awareness: A Comparative Study Of Novice Users And Accessibility Outcomes, Fatima Artiba Diaz

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Since its creation, the Web has progressively developed and become a vital source of information in every domain and for almost all people. It is crucial to guarantee that the information contained on the Web is available for everyone, especially for people with special needs. Removing accessibility barriers is fundamentally based on tools, skills and support of all contributors, particularly the content creators, to ensure information is navigable and usable in the context of the end users experience. Web Content Management Systems play a significant role in structuring, storing and provision content to the Web and have evolved to address …

Facebook As A Disruptor Of Journalism And Political Debate In Vietnam, Viet Tho Le

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research interrogates Habermas’s theory of the public sphere and applies it to the specific situation of ‘state digital authoritarianism’ in the Vietnamese Facebook environment. It examines how Facebook is disrupting the situation in Vietnam, offering a new dimension to the situation and enabling greater political understanding and engagement by young Vietnamese Facebook users.

The thesis asks whether Facebook should be constructed as a new forum for the expression of public opinion, creating a quasi-public sphere, promoting the country’s democracy and fuelling dissidents’ hope? If the answer is ‘yes’, to what extent has the Vietnamese Facebook sphere expanded or deepened …

Conflict In Communication: Evaluating Potential Predictors For Pro-Social Communication Outcomes, Paul Javier Villa

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The importance of communication in every aspect of our lives cannot be understated, in many ways it is the foundation upon which society rests. As a result of communication being ubiquitous in nature, it becomes inevitable that at some point conflict will occur as competing ideas, world views, or beliefs are exchanged. This inevitability, therefore, necessitates researchers make attempts to better understand the role conflict tendencies can play in influencing communication variables that are generally understood to be pro-social. The researcher administered a questionnaire to 226 college students from one private university and three community colleges on the west coast …

God Of War: Masculinity And Fatherhood Through Procedural Rhetoric, Andrew A. Morgan

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Video games and academia have a long history with one another. Academic researchers have continued to debate the extent to which video games can materialize real world effects. In this thesis, I employ procedural rhetoric and feminist scholarship to analyze the rhetorical power of God of War. I focus on the game’s immersive procedures and the performances of masculinity from Kratos, Atreus, and Baldur. These three characters all perform different masculinities, and their interactions with one another inform the game’s portrayal of masculinity and fatherhood. By engaging in violence and depicting nuanced performances of masculinity, God of War positions the …

How Much Do You Care About Education? Exploring Fluctuations Of Public Interest In Education Issues Among Top National Priorities In The U.S., Dana Nehoran

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

It is well known that a strong education system produces citizens who are more engaged in civil and social duties, with obvious benefits to society and the individuals. Policymakers who have the power to help improve the education system frequently rely on the news or the polls to better understand the issues involved, but these tools are often unable to answer customized questions on the public view with a large enough coverage.

Monitoring the American public interest in education over the years is not new. In fact, a number of national polling agencies have tracked education as part of their …

Democratizing Policy Debates: Experts, Media & Public Involvement In The Discourses Of Economy, Brendan K. O'Rourke, John Hogan, Joseph K. Fitzgerald

Other

No abstract provided.

Ireland, Broadcasting And The Spectrum Wars, Kenneth W Murphy

Articles

This paper offers an overview and evaluation of Ireland’s changing media landscape through the prism of the recent policy contestation surrounding the future use of the UHF spectrum and it’s implications for the medium of television broadcasting. The article brings into focus current policy and governance developments and their interplay with market and technological change and how they are shaping a small open European state’s adaptation to the increasingly complex national/global hybrid media ecosystem. It examines the contexts surrounding the competition for spectrum resources and its implications for the role of free to air broadcasting and mobile broadband technologies in …

Minority Representations In Crime Drama: An Examination Of Roles, Identity, And Power, Megan E. Chatelain

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The storytelling ability of television can be observed in any genre. Crime drama offers a unique perspective because victims and offenders change every episode increasing stereotypes with each new character. In other words, the more victims and criminals observed by the audience, the more likely the show creates the perception of a mean world. Based on previous literature, three questions emerged which this study focused on by asking the extent of Criminal Minds’ ability to portray crime accurately compared to the Federal Bureau of Investigations Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and the Behavioral Analysis Unit’s (BAU-4) report on serial murderers and …

Accessibility Of Deepfakes, Andrew L. Collings

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

The danger posed by falsified media, commonly referred to as deepfakes, has been well researched and documented. The software Faceswap to was used to swap the faces of two politician (Joe Biden and Donald Trump). The testing was performed using an affordable consumer GPU (an AMD Radeon RX 570) over 100,000 iterations. The process and results for the two attempts with the best results (and largest differences) were recorded. The result was ultimately unconvincing, while the software was able to recreate the facial structure the lighting and skin tone did not blend at all.

Communication Administration As A Tri-Voiced Sustainable Community, Ronald C. Arnett

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Books and authors have challenged the focus on “me” alone, rejecting “individualism” that seeks to stand above social context and constraints (Tocqueville, 1955; Arnett, 2019; Arnett, 2020), “narcissism” that falls in love with one’s own image (Lasch, 1985), and “emotivism” that limits decision making to personal preferences (MacIntyre, 1984). Contrary to a focus on an individual abstracted from a social context, one finds an emphasis on community (Arnett, 1986). When, however, a conception of community embraces only those empirically present, it becomes an abstraction oblivious of the phenomenological considerations of persons before and after the present moment. This essay textures …

A Social Media Strategy For An Academic Department, Stephanie Buermann, Heidi Everett, R. Jeffrey Ringer, Traci Anderson, Alex Davenport, Eddah Mutua

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This essay describes the process one communication studies department used to develop a social media strategy. That process involved identifying the audiences to be reached, establishing goals and objectives, conducting an audit to identify possible message posts, and selecting posts to reach our goals and objectives. The resulting strategy involves posting messages two to three times per week targeted toward specific audiences and reflecting twelve objectives. A calendar was created to guide the posts. Future research will assess the effectiveness of the strategy.

Complete Issue, Volume 39, Issue 2

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the complete issue for Volume 39, Issue 2 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

Small Business Social Media Marketing Strategies In The Retail Industry, Mari E. Mew

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many small business owners lack social media marketing (SMM) strategies to generate sales growth. Small business owners are concerned with increasing sales growth to ensure sustainability. Grounded in Rogers’ diffusion of innovation theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore SMM strategies some small business owners in the women’s retail apparel industry use to generate growth in sales. The participants comprised 3 small business owners in the women’s retail apparel industry in South Carolina with successful experience using SMM strategies to generate sales growth. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, archival organizational documentation, and physical artifacts. …

Employee Motivation And Knowledge Transfer In Nonprofit Organizations, Heidi Keam Nors

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractIneffective knowledge transfer strategies can negatively affect knowledge creation and employee motivation. Nonprofit business leaders who struggle with knowledge transfer among department staff are at a high risk of not improving employee motivation. Grounded in Kahn’s organizational theory on leadership and structure, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore the knowledge transfer strategies used by nonprofit business leaders to transfer knowledge among departmental staff and to improve employee motivation. The participants comprised business leaders and staff, consisting of 2 executives, 2 managers, and 2 departmental staff members from a nonprofit charter school management company in North …

Strategies For News Professionals To Mitigate Negative Social Media Posts, Airielle J. Vincent

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Businesses use social media to promote services and products as well as connect with current and potential customers. The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study was to explore and understand the strategies that effectively remedy negative social media comments, the skills used to employ remedial actions, the reasons why organizations fail to develop effective strategies, and the motivations to develop them among the participants and their organizations. The conceptual framework of this study combined elements from the skills approach to leadership and e-leadership theory. The target population included news directors, assignment managers, and executive producers who have used social …

Volume 37 - Editor's Note, Richard E. Paine, Emily M. Cramer

National Forensic Journal

No abstract provided.

The Inter-State Oratorical Contest In The 1800s: The Beginning Of Organized Collegiate Competitive Speaking, Lisa Roth

National Forensic Journal

The purpose of this article is to explore the beginnings of the Inter-State Oratorical Contest (IOC) and the Inter-State Oratorical Association (IOA) and to examine the characteristics of the Inter-State Oratorical speeches from 1874 to 1899. Through an analysis of the top two speeches from each of these years in regard to topic, evidence, organization, style, and delivery, I identify trends and strategies which appeared in competitive collegiate persuasive speaking in the late 1800s.

Discovery: The Student Journal Of Dale Bumpers College Of Agricultural, Food And Life Sciences - Volume 21 2020, Several Authors

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

No abstract provided.

A Content Analysis Of Institutions Of Higher Education's Sexual Assault Policies: Assessing Response To Sexual Assault In Georgia, Brianna Williams

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Sexual assault is a public health concern that must be systematically addressed. The existence of a comprehensive sexual assault policy and compliance with federal regulations can guide institutions of higher education in responding to and preventing sexual assault on campus. Federal laws hold institutions accountable for providing a safe environment for students. The purpose of this qualitative content analysis was to assess compliance with federal policy and assess the response to sexual assault by IHE in Georgia. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics was utilized to identify Georgia's institutions receiving federal aid during 2018-2019. Using a proportionate stratified …