Communication Commons^™

Because I Said So: A Functional Theory Analysis Of Evidence In Political Tv Spots, Jayne R. Henson, William L. Benoit

Speaker & Gavel

This study examines presidential general election television advertising (1952-2004), primary advertising (1952-2008), and non-presidential advertising from 2002 (gubernatorial, U.S. Senate, U.S. House) to understand the use of evidence (statements for which sources are provided) in such campaign messages. 8% of the themes in these spots were supported by evidence (that is, identified a source for a claim). However, the longitudinal presidential data suggests that evidence in advertising was rare until the 1990s, when Bill Clinton in particular employed a great deal of evidence in his spots. Although the appeals across all ads were mainly positive (70% of the themes in …

Front Matter

Speaker & Gavel

Front matter and table of contents for Volume 47 of Speaker & Gavel.

Review: A Pedagogy Of Powerful Communication: Youth Radio And Radio Arts In The Multilingual Classroom, Jillian M. Belanger

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In this review of Dana Walker's 2014 book A Pedagogy of Powerful Communication: Youth Radio and Radio Arts in the Multilingual Classroom, Jillian Belanger recounts the project's four main aims of media production, community engagement, student confidence, and language development, and offers insight to what made Walker's work engaging English Learners with youth radio production a success, including recommendations for how her findings might be replicated in other environments.

Review: Sexualized Media Messages And Our Children: Teaching Kids To Be Smart Critics And Consumers, Becky Michelson

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Today’s youth are exposed to sexualized media at an alarming rate. The inundation of sexuality and gender stereotypes is further perpetuated by youth interactions with celebrity culture, the search for fame, and social media. In her book, Sexualized Media Messages and Our Children: Teaching Kids to be Smart Critics and Consumers, Jennifer Shewmaker explains the increasingly sexualized media’s effects on the self-esteem, identity formations, and sexual behavior of youth. Shewmaker offers a research-based approach to the detrimental effects of media that is supplemented by case studies, interactive media critique exercises, and discussion pointers for influential adults and educators in …

What Do Facts Have To Do With It? Exploring Instructional Emphasis In The Stony Brook News Literacy Curriculum, Jennifer Fleming

Journal of Media Literacy Education

An analytic matrix comprised of multiple media literacy teaching and learning principles is conceptualized to examine a model of news literacy developed by journalism educators at Stony Brook University. The multidimensional analysis indicates that news literacy instructors focus on teaching students how to question and assess the veracity of news texts, and their approach favors cognitive skill development over other ways people make meaning of media messages. Based on these findings, a cognitive theory of news literacy is proposed as a means to situate the journalistic methods and mindsets that informed the Stony Brook curriculum within the parameters of established …

Rap Music Literacy: A Case Study Of Millennial Audience Reception To Rap Lyrics Depicting Independent Women, Mia Moody-Ramirez, Lakia M. Scott

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Using a feminist lens and a constructivist approach as the theoretical framework, we used rap lyrics and videos to help college students explore mass media’s representation of the “independent” Black woman and the concept of “independence” in general. Students must be able to formulate their own concept of independence to counteract the messages and stereotypes they receive in popular culture through advertisements, film, print and music. The authors found that independence is situationally defined and it is a complex concept that is differentiated in consideration of age, race, and gender. Participants noted that rap music has the potential to influence …

A Multi-Dimensional Approach To Measuring News Media Literacy, Emily K. Vraga, Melissa Tully, John E. Kotcher, Anne-Bennett Smithson, Melissa Broeckelman-Post

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Measuring news media literacy is important in order for it to thrive in a variety of educational and civic contexts. This research builds on existing measures of news media literacy and two new scales are presented that measure self-perceived media literacy (SPML) and perceptions of the value of media literacy (VML). Research with a larger sample of college undergraduate students and a smaller sample of adults enabled the validation of these measures. Results confirm the value of conceptualizing news media literacy using the theoretical subcomponents of authors & audiences, messages & meaning, and representation & realities. The VML scale, in …

Web-Based Media Literacy To Prevent Tobacco Use Among High School Students, Jane S. Phelps-Tschang, Elizabeth Miller, Kristen R. Rice, Brian A. Primack

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Facilitator-led smoking media literacy (SML) programs have improved media literacy and reduced intention to smoke. However, these programs face limitations including high costs and barriers to standardization. We examined the efficacy of a Web-based media literacy program in improving smoking media literacy skills among adolescents. Sixty-six 9th grade students participated in a Web-based SML tobacco education program based on health behavior theory. Pre- and post-test assessments demonstrated statistically significant changes in the primary outcome of total SML as well as each of the individual SML items. However, there were inconsistent changes in other theory-based outcomes including attitudes and normative beliefs.

College Students' Motivations For Using Podcasts, Mun-Young Chung, Hyang-Sook Kim

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Despite potential benefits of podcasts for college education, little research has examined students’ psychological drives for using podcasts. To explore the relationship between the use of podcasts and college students’ appreciation of them, this study investigated students’ motivations, attitudes and behaviors with regard to podcasts use including their learning environment. Based on a survey with 636 college students, this study found that six dimensions of motivations were prominent for podcasts use: (1) voyeurism/social interaction/companionship, (2) entertainment/relaxation/arousal, (3) education/information, (4) pastime/escape, (5) habit, and (6) convenience. In particular, motivations catering to relationship consolidation, excitement and educational achievement better explained the actual …

Debates About The Future Of Media Literacy In Turkey, Ebubekir Cakmak Ec, Sait Tuzel St

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Media literacy has been widely debated in Turkey since the early 2000s and has been in the curriculum of the secondary schools as an optional subject for nearly a decade. During this time period, about four million students have received media literacy education. The multidisciplinary structure of media literacy has contributed to the interest of many researchers from varying fields. These researchers, who have different viewpoints, acceptations and expectations, have formed certain groups in a short time period and have started to defend their particular media literacy approaches and practices. This study examines the basic debates and issues that have …

Complete Issue 48(1)

Speaker & Gavel

Complete digitized issue (volume 48, issue 1) of Speaker & Gavel.

Sculpting The Rhetorician: A Transformation, Crystal Lane Swift

Speaker & Gavel

The following study is the result of a naive scholar infiltrating and analyzing a culture that she was unaware of before this experience. The participants in the study demonstrated numerous consistent patterns in their communicative interactions with each other, including: invitational community, marking space, the metaphor of "life as a journey", non-materialistic collectors, concrete positionality, producers and consumers of visual culture, and "the joke is on all of us."

Through The Linguistic Looking Glass: An Examination Of A Newspaper As Negotiator Of Hybrid Cultural And Linguistic Spaces, Anthony Spencer

Speaker & Gavel

I contend English-language media outlets could and should be viewed as minority-language media outlets as they are cultural negotiators for tourists, sojourners and other transnational migrants. To better understand the cultural and linguistic forces these English-language media outlets exert upon the host cultures and nations in which they exist, I performed three months of ethnographic observations at a newspaper in Costa Rica and conducted in-depth interviews with staffers. I particularly focus on the hybrid identities of the staffers as they in turn instruct their readers how to navigate this hybrid community. I identify and explain the themes, which emerged in …

Pragmatism, Pragma-Dialectics, And Methodology: Toward A More Ethical Notion Of Argument Criticism, Matthew Gerber

Speaker & Gavel

In this essay, I argue that the pragma-dialectical approach to the analysis of argumentative discourse is limited, or could better serve critics, if it provided a more defined method for the evaluation of arguments based upon goals, purposes, and consequences. Specifically, I argue current conceptions and applications of pragma-dialectical methodology potentially run the risk of amorality in that arguments are deemed ‗good‘ as long as they meet the goals of the speaker, regardless of what those goals or purposes might be. In the following segments of this essay, I will more clearly and specifically identify and investigate the aforementioned ethical …

The Fantasy Of Separatism: An Examination Of The Rhetoric Of Sri Lanka’S Tamil Separatist Movement, Carolyn Prentice, Suranthi Boange

Speaker & Gavel

The study used symbolic convergence theory to analyze the rhetoric of the Tamil separatist movement in Sri Lanka to garner support for their cause. Examining two texts, the 1976 Vaddukoddai Resolution and the 2008 Heroes Day speech, we identified three main fantasy themes and a dominant rhetorical vision in both. This timely study clearly demonstrates the usefulness of SCT as a method of rhetorical analysis across cultures and also incorporates some recent criticisms of the theory. Thus, the study provides nuanced insights into how terrorists inspire followers through their rhetoric.

Introduction To The Special Issue On Method In Communication, Stephen M. Croucher

Speaker & Gavel

Editor's introduction by Stephen M. Croucher from volume 48, issue 1 of Speaker & Gavel.

Front Matter

Speaker & Gavel

Front matter and table of contents for volume 48, issue 1 of Speaker & Gavel.

Complete Issue 48(2)

Speaker & Gavel

Complete digitized issue (volume 48, issue 2) of Speaker & Gavel.

When Men Are Sexually Harassed: A Foundation For Studying Men’S Experiences As Targets Of Sexual Harassment, Leland Spencer, Joshua Trey Barnett

Speaker & Gavel

While much scholarly attention has been given to sexual harassment, scholarship about men’s experiences as targets of sexual harassment has been limited. This essay is a review of the literature about men’s experiences of sexual harassment; it explores the operational definitions and sources of sexual harassment, the inadequacy of the instruments used to study sexual harassment, and the implications of this research for organizations and the field of communication studies. It also examines sexual harassment at the intersections of gender and sexual orientation, finding that there are apparent differences in incidences that feature diversity in these areas. This review concludes …

‘I Don’T Want To Become A Rules Cop’: An Organizational Culture And Leadership Discourse Analysis Of The Npda As A Failed Organization, Audra R. Diers

Speaker & Gavel

On March 23, 2010 Dr. Robert Trapp, former President of the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA), posted a message to the parli listserve (parli-l) suggesting the final round of the national tournament lacked the sub-stance and nuance that the community should see in debate. Trapp’s post reflects a larger issue in the NPDA—the emergent divide and disparate organizational cultures emerging over the organization’s short lifetime. This paper investigates the often discussed, but still under-developed relationship between leadership and culture in mission-based organizations by analyzing the discourse of cultural leadership in the NPDA from 1994 to 1999. Findings suggest that the …

Late Husserl For The Rhetorical Critic, J. Scott Andrews

Speaker & Gavel

Questions of objectivity are perennial concerns of rhetorical critics—whether it is attainable, what form it takes, and how generally its results may be held. Given the celebrated “particularity” of any given rhetorical act, “objectivity” in rhetorical criticism is generally inadmissible as a standard for evaluation. The most frequent response to such questions is to assume a relativistic critical stance. Another alternative is to take a phenomenological approach—to let “the things” speak for “themselves.” This approach has taken root in communication studies, but less so in rhetorical criticism, given the (false) dilemma that the objectivity-subjectivity dichotomy forces. Edmund Husserl, in his …

Organizational Identification Strategies Of A Low Face-To-Face Member-Contact Organization, Deepa Oommen

Speaker & Gavel

This study looked at the identification seeking strategies of a low face-to-face member-contact organization, The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. I used thematic analysis to identify the strategies that the organization used to seek the identification of its members. Findings of the study showed that by emphasizing membership as an exclusive privilege, recognizing the individual as a symbol of excellence, celebrating member achievements, inviting member contributions, emphasizing commitment to diversity, emphasizing organizational symbolism and highlighting testimonials of appreciation, the organization tried to seek the identification of its members. In many of the above-mentioned strategies, the overarching theme of elitism …

Front Matter

Speaker & Gavel

Front matter and table of contents for Volume 48, Issue 2 of Speaker & Gavel.

University Plans To Break World Record: Next Week's Wellness Fest Includes Attempt At Group Sit-Ups Record, Becky St. Clair

Andrews Agenda: Campus News

No abstract provided.

Honors Scholar Wins First At National Council: Students Present Research At National Collegiate Honors Council, Danni Francis

Andrews Agenda: Campus News

No abstract provided.

"Facebook To Mobilize, Twitter To Coordinate Protests, And Youtube To Tell The World": New Media, Cyberactivism, And The Arab Spring, Mohamed Arafa, Crystal Armstrong

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Research on media and contentious politics in the Arab world point to the vital role that social media played in the Arab Spring. For the purposes of this article, the Arab Spring is defined as a series of demonstrations and democratic uprisings—and in the cases of Libya, Syria, and Yemen armed rebel movements—that arose independently and spread across the Arab world from Tunisia and Egypt to Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and Syria in 2010-2011 and beyond. This article advances the theoretical assumption that while not causing the Arab uprisings, New Media (defined here as all forms of digital communication technology including …

If You Want To Be On Time, Make Sure You End On Time, Michael Preston

UCF Forum

Welcome to 2016! It is a new year and, of course, a new you.

Exploratory Study Of The Adoption And Use Of The Smartphone Technology In Emerging Regions: Case Of Saudi Arabia, Fahad Abdulaziz Aldhaban

Dissertations and Theses

Users' acceptance of a new information technology (IT) is considered to be a key determinant factor of its success. Also, studying users' adoption and use of new IT plays an important role in determining users' needs and reducing business risk, especially in industry segments with rapid changes in IT such as Smartphone technology. Such rapid evolution is influencing consumers' behaviors, their daily lifestyle, the manner of conducting their activities and their ways of consuming and using information.

Smartphone technology holds a promising future with an expected global market that could reach US $258 billion by the end of year 2015 …

Analyzing The Pvcs Documents: A Multimodal Rate-Based Approach To Understand Community’S Goals And Values, Anastasia Sergeeva, Bogdan Kirillov, Ekaterina Voronina

Proceedings from the Document Academy

A significant amount of modern professional communication takes place in the so-called Virtual Communities of Practice or Professional Virtual Communities (PVCs): social systems of individuals who use Information Technologies to mediate their relationships and facilitate knowledge exchange and generation. In current research we analyze one of the biggest Russian IT-PVCs, Habrahabr.ru. The community’s official goal is connecting the IT-specialists; communication takes form of users articles and comments; users can rate the articles, the comments and the other users themselves. Using the number of SNA instruments, community’s metadata, linguistics statistics and discourse analysis we show the structure of the community, main …

Wikia: Between Documentary Simulacra And Documented Fictions, Caroline Courbières, Sabine Roux

Proceedings from the Document Academy

Wikis are digital community spaces that have attracted high traffic but virtually no study as socio-communicational platforms. These platforms offer individuals the possibility of engaging in unique writing activities by defining a distinct material configuration and imposing a protocol of enunciation. Wikis are platforms developed through the contributions of anyone, and constitute collaborative encyclopedias dedicated to a cultural topic. This article more specifically examines the Harry Potter Wiki, which is devoted to the literary universe of J.K. Rowling. Our semio-communicational analysis concerns the structure, the authors and the contents of the French and Anglo-Saxon versions of this wiki. First we …