Communication Commons^™

Cognitive Warfare In The South China Sea: Analyzing Media Influence And Public Opinion In Taiwan, Wyatt F. Blatti

Theses and Dissertations

In a time where conflict extends beyond traditional battlefields, cognitive warfare emerges as a powerful tool to influence perceptions and gain strategic advantages. This study investigates China’s cognitive warfare strategies against Taiwan through trend analysis, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis of news media articles from March 2013 to August 2024 to uncover evolving techniques and mitigation efforts. The findings highlight the potential for tracking cognitive campaigns overtime but will require more than news media alone and suggests future research to better understand indicators of cognitive warfare.

Exploring Female-Centered Storytelling Techniques In Travel Podcasting With 'Chicks Take Flight', Layla M. Bakhshandeh

Journalism

The following study explores storytelling through the lens of podcasting to effectively engage audiences. This study addresses the gap in academic literature regarding gender-specific audio storytelling techniques by analyzing how narrative structure, vocal delivery, and content authenticity in podcasts specifically resonate with female audiences, providing practical applications for podcast creators targeting this demographic. Accompanying this literary research is a travel podcast titled Chicks Take Flight. This entertainment podcast tells the stories of young women’s travel experiences. Its goal is to provide a platform to discuss modern travel tips and stories for female audiences. Utilizing the podcasting advice from research findings …

The Effects Of Fact-Checking Misinformation About U.S. Politics On Tiktok Through The Lens Of Two-Step Flow Theory: A Quantitative Content Analysis, Toi Travis Thornton

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The social media platform, TikTok, has grown tremendously over the past few years. With the freedom that users have to communicate in the way they desire to and with any information they want to communicate, the spread of misinformation has continued to spread on the application. This has called for a need for reputable fact-checking organizations to correct the misinformation with truth. This research paper examines the effects of fact-checking on TikTok videos containing misinformation about American politics. It addresses the research problem which is that misinformation spread on TikTok has confused users about American politics, which in turn could …

Social Media Influencers' Impact On Purchasing Decisions, Kennedi Kutz, Erin Flynn, Kiara Espinal, Julia Cheney

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

The study conducted entails how the usage of social media and the parasocial relationships with social media influencers impact the audience’s purchases as a consumer. The survey covers a wide range of questions discussing the different social media platforms, how often they engage on these platforms, and how often they click and engage with advertisements and influencers. It also covered questions that collected the demographics of the participants to give a better understanding of which groups are more likely to be influenced by advertisements and influencers. We have found that younger audiences are more likely to have their consumer purchases …

Stochastic Gradient Descent-Based Inference For Dynamic Network Models With Attractors, Hancong Pan, Xiaojing Zhu, Cantay Caliskan, Dino P. Christenson, Konstantinos Spiliopoulos, Dylan Walker, Eric D. Kolaczyk

Business Faculty Articles and Research

In Coevolving Latent Space Networks with Attractors (CLSNA) models, nodes in a latent space represent social actors, and edges indicate their dynamic interactions. Attractors are added at the latent level to capture the notion of attractive and repulsive forces between nodes, borrowing from dynamical systems theory. However, CLSNA reliance on MCMC estimation makes scaling difficult, and the requirement for nodes to be present throughout the study period limit practical applications. We address these issues by (i) introducing a Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) parameter estimation method, (ii) developing a novel approach for uncertainty quantification using SGD, and (iii) extending the model …

The Cowl - V. 88 N. 15 - February 27, 2025

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol. 88 No. 15 - February 27, 2025. 16 pages

Cripistemology And Creative Practice: Disability, Aesthetics, Digital Art, Generative Ai, Talan Memmott Phd

CLASP Lecture Series

Dr. Memmott’s presentation will showcase “Introducing Lary”—an ongoing AI project that explores the re-invention of the self following life-changing cancer surgery and treatment. This talk profiles the artist’s experience with a laryngeal cancer diagnosis and the medical interventions that follow. Utilizing a variety of AI platforms for both video and image production along with journal entries and medical reports as text prompts, the resulting work is a set of distinctive media that range, in Dr. Memmott’s words, “from the mythic to the horrific; the historical to the speculative.” Though at times the resulting media may emphasize the emergent body horror …

The Ability Of Chatgpt To Aid In The Rapid Development Of Inoculation Message Treatments: A Case Study And Recommendations, Alicia Mason, Josh Compton, Griffin Cooper

Faculty Submissions

One of the most widely known types of AI technologies in recent years is ChatGPT. ChatGPT is a state-of-the-art language model that has revolutionized natural language processing by generating human-like text with context and coherence, enabling new possibilities for human-AI interaction (Brown et al., 2020). This case study reports on a 10-week conversational AI training initiative to assess whether ChatGPT4 can (a) identify the structural elements and features of conventional inoculation messages (i.e., forewarnings and preemptive refutations); (b) augment inoculation message design features (i.e., linguistic signatures, language, and length); (c) adapt messages for specific audiences (i.e., younger populations, experts); and …

Lindenwood Digest, February 26, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

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

The Presidency, Press, And Public Opinion: Has The Relationship Between The Press And The Office Of The Presidency Shifted Since Trump’S Administration?, Jonas Kammeyer-Mueller

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

In political science, studies focusing on the relationship between the press and the president have a long and rich history. However, few presidents have fought the press as strongly as Donald Trump. Given that many of these attacks utilized the influence afforded to Trump by occupying the Office of the Presidency, and that the press has long been noted to have influence over the public, it is worth examining if the relationship between the Office of the President and the press has shifted as a result of these attacks. Because the ability of the Presidency to govern as they wish …

Mobile Technology-Based Library Services In Academic Libraries Of Ghana, Silas Adjei, Patience Adetsi, Isaac Kojo Agyeman

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

In contemporary academic library settings, there's a growing need for libraries to offer access to their resources and services remotely and without boundaries. Mobile technologies (MT) have gained widespread acceptance among academic library stakeholders globally, as they are seen as effective communication tools for providing convenient library services to patrons. This study aimed to explore the potential benefits of adopting and implementing Mobile Technology-based Library Services in academic libraries in Ghana. Conducted as a descriptive survey using a quantitative approach, the research focused on two private universities in Ghana: Valley View University and Central University. The sample comprised 390 undergraduate …

Educating Nurses To Use Age-Appropriate Communication Strategies In A Pediatric Hospital, Diane Arce

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This quality improvement staff education project was developed to address a gap in practice related to family-centered communication in the project facility. New nurses are often unaware of the impact of family-centered communication when caring for pediatric patients. The lack of preparation for basic nursing tasks after graduation may be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and loss of clinical time related to hospitals ceasing school rotations for clinical training. This impacts new nurses’ preparation for the duties and responsibilities of a licensed registered nurse in a pediatric hospital. This education program aimed to increase nurses’ knowledge about evidence-based family-centered communication …

Mentoring And Change Management: Integrating Organizational Mentorship With Change Initiatives, Ramiro Pesina, Danny Darden, David Silberman

Student Posters

Change is an inevitable and defining force in organizations. While structured change management frameworks provide critical guidance, they often overlook the human dimensions of change. We investigate mentoring and argue that it should not merely support change initiatives but serve as a strategic driver of successful transformations, serving as a multidimensional driver of cognitive alignment, emotional support, and behavioral adaptation, and introduce a mentoring framework that addresses these areas while bridging the gap between the procedural and human-centric change elements.

By interviewing participants who have been involved in mentoring programs yet experienced significant organizational change, we will identify their support …

Microsimulation: A Solution For Effective Client Engagement, Girish Balakrishnan

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

A key challenge that product management professionals face is to convince their clients about the relevance of a product towards their business needs by aligning those with the product vision. To accomplish this need, new strategies to engage the clients with the product vision are extremely critical. Microsimulation is a wonderful way to not just communicate product vision but also to familiarize clients with unique functionalities offered by the product. Microsimulations avoid miscommunications by establishing interaction between provider and consumer. This research study primarily focuses on solving the problem of client disengagement in organizations involved in product development and operating …

The Current - Volume 35 Issue 9, Nova Southeastern University

Student Newspapers

No abstract provided.

To Eat Or Not To Eat: Body Neutrality In The Context Of Educator Eating Disorders, Victoria Mcdermott, Nike Jacob

Feminist Pedagogy

Academia, like many other industries, polices its members through explicit and implicit systems of oppression: thinness, patriarchy, accessibility, and whiteness. Previous research has argued that professors who meet the criteria of current beauty standards (e.g., thinness, attractiveness) experience higher student evaluations, more opportunities for promotion, and better overall academic success than those in diverse body shapes and sizes. As a result, decoupling one's sense of self-worth from these expectations based in power can prove challenging. The present critical reflection and commentary explores the perceptions of two academics with histories of eating disorders (e.g., anorexia and binge-eating disorder), disordered eating, and …

Still Accounting For My Teacher’S Body: The Objective Body/Body As Objective In The Classroom/Classzoom, Leda M. Cooks, Jennifer A. Zenovich

Feminist Pedagogy

This critical commentary reflects on Cooks’ 2007 article, “Accounting for my Teacher’s Body: What can I teach/What can we learn?” by reconsidering power and body relations in light of the concept and pedagogy of body neutrality in the classroom in the 2023 COVID-19 era. The digital and physical classroom are spaces where the (embodied) body is never neutral. By extension, the body is never neutral anywhere regardless of the mindful body neutrality practices suggested by Pellizzer and Wade (2023). In this commentary, we first discuss how the teacher in physical and digital space communicates ideals of competence in performance of …

Reenvisioning Identities That Precede Us: “Body Acknowledgement” As Social Justice Practice Within A Communication Ethics Course Redesign, Wendy Kz Anderson, Ollivia Webster, Nicole Yang, Cass Bryant, Taylor Herr

Feminist Pedagogy

We infuse this conversation of “body neutrality” through social justice responsiveness (compassion, equity, and accountability of body/presence privilege) by specifically attending to intersections of race, gender, and body mindset built into our identities. In reimagining the term “body-neutrality” through identity engagement, we introduce the term “body acknowledgment” as an active interpretative state. As a co-authored pedagogical “co-conspiring” for racial justice (Houdek and Ore, 2021, p. 92), we (instructor, teaching assistants, and previous students) offered a course redesign centering social justice strategies to address the following question: How can dialogue about intersectional communication work toward redesigning learning with difference and develop …

Exploring The Role Of Body Neutrality Perspectives In Feminist Pedagogy, Sydney E. Brammer

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

How Effective Are Fact-Checks In Pakistan And Who Engages With Them?, Waqas Ejaz, Sacha Altay, Muhammad Ittefaq

School of Communication Studies - Faculty Scholarship

For fact-checks to be effective, they must first and foremost reach their intended audience. Yet, little is known about what determines engagement with fact-checks and how to enhance their reach. We conducted a pre-registered online survey experiment in Pakistan (N participants = 302, N observations = 1208) investigating the effectiveness of fact-checking, and the determinants of engagement with fact-checks and misinformation. We found that fact-checking reduced misperceptions, especially among the most misinformed. Trust was an important moderator of the effectiveness of fact-checking and of engagement with both the fact-checks and misinformation. For instance, fact-checks were more effective among participants who …

Navigating Trauma: A Linguistic Exploration Of Bilingual Trauma Expressions, Amira Mahmoud Othman

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the relationship between language, trauma, and emotional expression among bilingual Arabic-English speakers, focusing on code-switching patterns and euphemisms, and more broadly the emotional roles of native and non-native languages in trauma narratives. Through qualitative interviews with 20 Egyptian participants, the research reveals that code-switching serves as both a linguistic and emotional tool, allowing speakers to navigate trauma by creating distance or engaging more intimately. Such codeswitching patterns include the integration of English content words within Arabic structures, morphosyntactic innovations, and gender agreement applications, reflecting the creative adaptability of bilingual speakers in emotionally charged contexts, in line with …

Lindenwood Digest, February 19, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

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

The Shift To Visual News Consumption: Exploring Egyptian Users' Motivations, Behaviors, And Perceptions Of News Values, Credibility, And Recognition On Instagram As A News Source., Hussein Battah

Theses and Dissertations

With the evolution of visual social media such as Instagram, news consumption and dissemination became different, focusing on Visual and Graphic content. With the current political and social-economic challenges in Egypt and the Region, such as The war in Gaza and the Egyptian economic crisis, the need for simple and immediate news updates became essential. Instagram has now satisfied that need among various users, specifically youth. This paper explores how consuming news over "Instagram" has influenced Egyptian users' perception of News Values and their definition of what to consider news. The paper also studies how several sources on Instagram have …

Queering ‘Common Sense’: Using Critical Discourse Analysis Of Lgbtq+ Book Bans In Florida Public Schools To Unmask Heteronormativity, Talia Zito, Nicole E. Morse

Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy

Historically, censorship of LGBTQ+ content in education has been rooted in socio-political efforts to marginalize non-heteronormative identities. However, even those who oppose censorship tend to frame their arguments around concepts like “age-appropriateness” and “protecting children.” Our Critical Discourse Analysis examines formal challenges to And Tango Makes Three in one Florida school district in 2022 to show how these concepts are deployed on both sides of the debate. The book, depicting a same-sex penguin couple raising a chick, faced objections under Florida’s HB 1557, a law designed to restrict discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. Ultimately, the picture …

Building Blocks For New Kinship Partnerships And Coalitions, Kathy L. Dial, Daniel J. Koltz, Janet Salo, Erin Beasley

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

Building successful kinship partnerships and coalitions requires intentional effort to establish trust, align goals, and foster inclusivity. These collaborations are essential for addressing the unique and evolving needs of kinship families, who often face limited access to resources due to the informal nature of many caregiving arrangements. Effective partnerships prioritize clear missions, open communication, and active engagement with stakeholders, particularly those with lived experiences such as kinship caregivers. Research demonstrates that coordinated efforts among organizations enhance resource availability, improve advocacy capabilities, and strengthen service delivery. By integrating diversity, equity, and inclusion principles, coalitions can ensure that diverse perspectives shape solutions …

Podcasting Towards Togetherness: Utilizing Podcasts To Improve Departmental Camaraderie And Well-Being, Michael Petrauskis, Colleen Gutman, Rosemarie Fernandez

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Physician burnout is on the rise, and this is of particular concern in emergency medicine. Burnout is associated with medical errors, adverse events, poor professionalism, and litigation. A sense of community can build engagement and mitigate workplace stressors on well-being. Emergency physicians may have trouble connecting due to the nature of shift-work and various practice settings. Communication technology, and particularly podcasting, has the potential to help overcome these barriers and positively impact relatedness and well-being.

Approach: We developed an inward-facing podcast, “The ER Break Room” within the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Florida. Through the …

The Cowl - V. 88 N. 14 - February 13, 2025

The Cowl

The Cowl - student newspaper of Providence College. Vol. 88 No. 14 - February 13, 2025. 20 pages.

The Non-Apology Of Tyler, The Creator, John Gibaud

CAFE Symposium 2025

This project analyzes the behavior and statements of the musician Tyler, The Creator as compared to contemporary understandings of the steps, requirements, and functions of a public apology. In 2009, Tyler, The Creator began his career as a solo singer songwriter, using shock value tactics to gain the attention of the public with lyrics and online comments which glorified murder, sexual assault, and kidnapping. Outcries against the themes of the comments and lyrics called for an official public apology and acknowledgement from Tyler, The Creator, however, such a statement never came to fruition. Since his problematic debut, Tyler, The Creator …

Familiarity Of Psychiatric Terms Among College Students, Julia Pekala

CAFE Symposium 2025

Recently, there has been an increase in the usage of psychiatric terminology used among internet users. Terms such as autism, obsessive compulsive disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are thrown around without an understanding of these words and their true meaning. These words are picked up and used in a similar context as any other internet lingo, in an ironic, joking manner, without proper consideration of their origins and meaning. Due to most content on the internet being unmoderated and seemingly endless, users are often faced with misleading information about real clinical disorders. The use of these words follows the …

The Significance Of Social Media Neologisms Across The Globe, Molly Bushong

CAFE Symposium 2025

Social media neologisms, new terms coined through digital platforms, have drastically altered human communication, and will only continue to do so as technology rapidly advances. These words and phrases develop alongside society as innovative technology, experiences, and phenomena are continuously introduced into everyday life. Although neologisms have been present throughout all time and social media's existence, research has identified that their popularity has exponentially increased in recent years. My research builds upon previous research while exploring how social media neologisms have evolved over the past five years, their impact on language formality, and the familiarity of these terms across various …