Communication Commons^™

¡Estamos Aqui!: The Underrepresentation Of Latinos In Professional Sports And Sports Media, Antonio Hernandez

University Honors Theses

The Latino population has had a long and complicated history within the United States. Since the turn of the 21st century, Latinos continue to become the largest minority group within the country. As the Latino population continues to rise, other industries have failed to properly represent the community. Within the world of professional sports, Latinos continue to be grossly underrepresented, with professional athletes from Latino backgrounds representing less than 6% of all professional athletes across all disciplines. This number is just under ¼ of the total percentage of Latinos within the United States. With Latino's influence of other cultural phenomena …

Draw To Breathe, Ranran Ma

Masters Theses

This thesis explores visual expression in drawing as an intuitive mode of thinking suited to everyday life—a form of expression that runs parallel to language and surpasses it.

The project begins with a daily Post-it note drawing practice. These drawings often emerge before conscious understanding, subsequently accompanied by brief text, allowing image and word to resonate through emotion and intuition. Through the use of small-scale, portable, low-pressure materials, and with immediacy and intuitive freedom as the foundation of making, a visual language system grounded in the self develops. Through this sustained practice, I developed an instruction-based card system titled Draw …

Reading Exercise (You Are The Hero): Dedicated To The Providence River Under The Mall, 02.17.2026, Deborah Fischer

Masters Theses

This play uses the performative potential of guilt, forgiveness, and self-help techniques as a catalyst for a new dynamic, one in which the pursuit of a false narrative, along with the structures it generates, becomes more real than reality itself. It employs “bad acting” and the practice of cold reading to stage a series of acts that function as an entry point into one’s own psyche, leveraging the peripheral space around familiar actions to allow chance, free will, and the experience of “real time” to temporarily come into effect. PLAYER 1: The bad actor is the most utopian one. CLOWN: …

Archives Of The Future, Ka Oskar Ly

Masters Theses

Archives Of The Future is a practice-based thesis that invokes the archive and the future as simultaneous.

This research insists on the recentering of HMong Indigeneity and its own rooted traditions of HMong Queerness and HMong Feminism as ancestral knowledge systems.

They are the medicine. To recover their cosmological capacity is to traverse centuries of systematic eradication by empires and patriarchy.

I treat artistic making, community encounter, memory, and materials as equally valid ways of knowing and as collaborators. Field research from 2020 to 2026 moves through kinship and artisan teachings. It spans Southeast Asia, France, the United States, and …

Lindenwood Digest, May 20, 2026, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

Event & Date: The Lindenwood University Employee Digest was published on May 20, 2026.

Geographic Grounding: The events and programs originate from Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri.

Key Honorees/Awards: Web Strategy and Development Manager Jason Waack was recognized for enhancing the digital commencement program; Communications Operations Specialist Crystal Carter was commended for optimizing the Honors Academy recruitment invitation email sent to students with a 3.5 GPA or higher; Public Safety and Security Officer April Johnson was thanked for roadside assistance.

Multimodal Analysis Of Content Drift And Algorithmic Bias In Youtube Recommendations, Mert Can Cakmak

Theses and Dissertations

Recommendation systems play a major role in shaping how users encounter information on digital platforms, yet their influence often unfolds through sequences of recommended content rather than isolated outputs. This dissertation investigates recommendation bias on YouTube by examining how recommendation pathways evolve across long-form videos and YouTube Shorts. Focusing on politically sensitive narratives, including the China–Uyghur conflict, the South China Sea dispute, and Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election, the dissertation develops a unified framework for understanding how recommendation systems reshape exposure across platform formats. Using an audit-based and multimodal methodology, the dissertation combines controlled recommendation collection, topic and relevance analysis, emotion …

Exploring The Uses And Gratifications Of Digital Ministry: A Qualitative Case Study Of Christian Engagement With Jonathan Pokluda’S Instagram, Lashalle A. Schornberg

Masters Theses

This study explores the uses and gratifications of Christian social media engagement through a qualitative content analysis of Instagram posts and user comments from digital ministry figure Jonathan Pokluda. While online ministries reach millions daily, limited research has examined how this content meets the spiritual, emotional, and relational needs of young audiences within a social media context. Grounded in uses and gratifications theory, this study analyzes 1,534 publicly available Instagram comments to identify patterns of engagement and user motivation. Through thematic analysis, eight primary forms of engagement emerged: brief encouragement and affirmation, emotional resonance, personal testimony and life disclosure, conversational …

Family Is Forever: A Qualitative Study Of The Impacts Of Adoption On Adoptees, Rebekah Mei Hedlund

Masters Theses

This study explores the lived experiences of adoptees and the ways in which adoption has impacted them. Grounded in communication theory of identity (CTI), this research examines how adoptees express their identities throughout their lives via communication. Using a qualitative approach, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with adoptees over the age of 18 from diverse backgrounds. The findings revealed three key themes from adoptees: identity, education, and opportunity. Participants described identity to be an ongoing and evolving process throughout life, often influenced by biological origins and family dynamics.

The theme of education emerged through participants’ desire for educating potential adoptive …

A Quantitative Case Study Of Family Communication Patterns Theory And Parental Awareness Of Divine Rivals, Calista Coletti

Masters Theses

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine how parents of different family communication pattern types are aware of the connect of the books their teens read. The problem is that parents have different awareness levels of the content of teens’ books or the books their teens read and it is unknown why they differ and what factors influence differences in awareness. This study focuses on the book Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross. The findings show that families with a high conversation orientation have parents who know more about the content in the books their teens read. The results …

War Stories: A Rhetorical Criticism Of How The War Stories In Extreme Ownership Are Used To Teach And Reinforce Leadership Principles., Landon Roseberry

Masters Theses

This rhetorical criticism examines how military combat narratives, or war stories, exhibit distinct narrative elements that communicate leadership principles. This study operationalizes Walter Fisher’s (1984; 1989) narrative paradigm for rhetorical criticism to examine how narrative rationality (narrative fidelity and narrative coherence) is created in four war stories from the New York Times bestselling book Extreme Ownership, written by Jocko Willink and Lief Babin. This study views the narrative elements and leadership values through the lens of Generation Y values and norms. This study found that war stories create an extreme setting in which narrative consequences are heightened, and leadership values …

The Impact Of Teacher Verbal And Nonverbal Communication On Student Motivation, Claire E. Haines

Masters Theses

The classroom environment is one of vast areas of scholarly literature yet may levels of understanding classroom communication remain unexplored. This study provides an in-depth analysis of the lived student experience with how teacher communication impacts student motivation in general as well as intrinsic forms of communication. Data for this research was taken directly from student accounts of verbal and nonverbal interactions with teachers that impacted their motivation. One of the key findings of this research was the observed process that participants described through interviews. This observed three step process displayed how verbal and nonverbal communication were expressed to have …

The Message Within The Show: A Cultivation Study On The Impact Of Children's Television On Perceptions Of The Family, Ashley Bowes Fletcher

Masters Theses

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to explore the impacts of popular early 2000s children’s television shows on now-adult viewers’ perceptions of the nuclear family. The problem is that current scholarly literature had not addressed how early 2000s television shows have impacted the perception of a traditional nuclear family’s role in society. This study sought to identify the views currently held by the participants regarding the importance and roles of the nuclear family. The study also sought to identify the participant’s perceptions of the portrayals of the nuclear family in specific early 2000s children’s sitcoms. Through a variety …

“Looking For Group”: A Qualitative Thematic Analysis Of The Uses And Gratifications Behind World Of Warcraft Player Communication, Joshua Michael Hutt

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the uses and gratifications of in-game communication in World of Warcraft (WoW). The problem is that scholars do not precisely know how uses and gratifications motivate players to use certain channels of communication within WoW. The rationale for the research was to determine whether certain motivations are being fulfilled during in-game communication, influencing players to select certain channels over others. The data collection method for this research used semi-structured interviews conducted online via Microsoft Teams. A screening application was sent to Reddit pages and Discord groups associated with World of Warcraft …

Host Communities' Perceptions Of Multinational Oil Companies' Corporate Social Responsibility (Csr) Communication In The Niger Delta, Nigeria, James E. Onosu

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examined the lived experiences and perceptions of oil-producing communities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria regarding the corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication and messages of multinational oil companies (MOCs) operating in the region. This became imperative in the face of unabated conflicts between the giant oil companies and their host community counterparts, despite the companies' claims of numerous CSR projects, and to fill a gap in the literature on the dearth of CSR communication in the region. The central research question that the study sought to answer was: What is the perception of host communities regarding the …

Disney Princess Films Representation Of Food And Their Effects On Teenage Girls' Eating Norms, Addison Benninghoff

InnovateHER Meeting 2026

Media portrayal obviously have some profound impacts on our society. The problem at hand is that there have been and will continue to be body image and eating habits linked to the media in teenage girls' lives. A mainstream example of this can be seen early on in young girls' lives when they are first exposed to princess films, which have representations of both femininity and the idealized female form. Disney maintains these body ideals whether the heroine is Asian, Scottish, African-American, or Native American.  How are these body ideals broadcast through eating habits? What messages about normative eating might …

Approval Motivations In Sharing Humorous Tiktok's, Mariam Al-Areedy

InnovateHER Meeting 2026

TikTok is a short-form video platform where users create and share content that is often centered around humor, trends, and everyday social experiences. In face-to-face interactions, people typically rely on immediate feedback to navigate conversations, often using approval seeking behaviors to gain positive reactions and rejection-avoidant behaviors to reduce the risk of negative judgement. While these motivations are well-established in in-person settings, less is known about how they function in digital environments like TikTok, where teens privately share humorous content without immediate social cues to guide their interactions. My general hypothesis was that both rejection avoidance and approval-seeking behaviors will …

Health-Seeking Behaviors Of Ethiopian Women In The United States: A Pilot Qualitative Study, Hanna Belay, Felicia Leammuda, Ahmed Ugbad, Beamlak Kebede

InnovateHER Meeting 2026

This study explores how Ethiopian immigrant women understand health and navigate healthcare in the United States. Using qualitative interviews with two participants, findings show that health is viewed holistically, with strong reliance on traditional remedies. Participants engage with the U.S. healthcare system selectively, often seeking care only when symptoms become severe. Barriers such as system complexity, fear, and time delays influence healthcare decisions.

The Influence Of Social Media On Body Image, Self-Esteem, And Eating Disorder Risk In Adolescent Females, Nestanet A. Molla

InnovateHER Meeting 2026

• This literature review explored how appearance-focused social media affects adolescent girls. The studies showed that social media is linked to body dissatisfaction, comparison behaviors, lower self-esteem, and unhealthy eating behaviors, especially when use is intensive, problematic, or strongly appearance-focused^1–4

• At the same time, protective factors such as media literacy, family support, and body-positive interventions may help reduce these negative effects^4,5

Improving Amber Alerts: Results From A National Experimental Study Of Wireless Emergency Alerts, Lauren B. Cain, Jeannette Sutton, Hugh Walpole, Micki Olson

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Faculty Scholarship

In the United States, Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs) are used to notify the public of abducted children. However, there is no established guidance for writing AMBER Alert WEAs, and the vast majority have been incomplete. Using three randomly assigned groups recruited via a Qualtrics survey panel, we test an incomplete message containing a link to additional information, which reflects baseline messaging practices, against complete ‘plain language’ messages written using the MEP Message Framework with and without links. We find that plain language messages outperformed the baseline message when participants did not click the link for outcomes including message understanding, belief, …

Politainment And Celebrity Officials In Online Journalism: A Study Of Kompas.Com And Public Discourse In Indonesia, Dewi Y. Cahyani

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

This study examines how politainment shapes the news coverage of public officials with celebrity backgrounds (celebrity officials) in Indonesia's post-electoral governance context. Focusing on Kompas.com during the first six months of the Prabowo–Gibran administration, the study integrates theories and concepts of politainment, celebrity politics, and the public sphere to address a gap in global scholarship. Existing research has largely focused on Western democracies, electoral campaigns, and social media platforms, while paying limited attention to how politainment operates within professional online journalism in emerging democracies. Using a mixed-method approach that combines quantitative content analysis of 102 news articles with qualitative framing …

Corporate Sociopolitical Activism On Instagram: Brand Responses To Covid-19 And Black Lives Matter, Cynthia B. Hanson

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

No abstract provided.

From Chennai To Texas: Major League Cricket, Glocalization, And The Uber-Sport Assemblage, Glenn Houlihan

Journal of Global South Sport Studies

This article examines Major League Cricket (MLC), an American professional Twenty20 (T20) cricket franchise league which began in July 2023 with a sold-out match at Grand Prairie Stadium in Grand Prairie, Texas. The fans in attendance were predominantly immigrants from South Asia, a region where cricket is the dominant sport. MLC’s connection to South Asia, however, extends beyond domestic U.S. fandom, as four of the league’s six franchises are operated by Indian Premier League (IPL) teams. Here, the IPL is expanding operations into the U.S. market, leveraging the recognizable branding of the league’s teams to offer the nascent MLC a …

Tiktok And The Brain: Neuropsychological Correlates Of Short-Form Video Consumption, Caty Enders

Psychology ETDs

Short-form video platforms like TikTok have quickly become the fastest growing segment of social media, thanks to powerful algorithms serving up personalized content driven by large quantities of user data. This study investigates the neuropsychological correlates of digital media use, with a particular focus on TikTok and smartphone screen time among young adults. Combining correlational analyses and an experimental design (n = 49; n = 44 included in final sample), we examined the relationship between digital media use and cognitive and emotional functioning across multiple domains. Objective measures of digital media consumption (daily average screen time and time on TikTok) …

Advertising Influence On Climate Change News Coverage: A Comparison Of The New York Times And The Guardian, Natalie L. Hamren

Communication ETDs

This study examines how fossil fuel advertising may influence climate change coverage by comparing The New York Times, which publishes fossil fuel advertisements, and The Guardian, which has banned them. Drawing on the Hierarchy of Influences and Social Responsibility Theory, the study uses ethnographic content analysis by analyzing (n=104) articles between 2022 and 2025 to examine framing, source usage, tone, and emphasis. Findings indicate that The New York Times more frequently framed climate change through political and economic lenses and relied heavily on government and business sources. In contrast, The Guardian more often employed scientific framing, cited researchers, …

Blockade Logic: Settler Consciousness And The Petro-Security Apparatus, Sarah Seroy

Communication ETDs

This study examines contemporary CID legislation and surrounding political rhetoric in Canada and its implications for Indigenous communities. It reveals how settler consciousness is affirmed through such legislation and how discourse rooted in colonial logics serves to strengthen Canada’s petro-security apparatus. Drawing from Teun van Dijk’s (1995) method of Ideological Discourse Analysis and integrating Indigenous epistemologies, it offers a research approach of anticolonial discourse analysis. This analysis reveals CID legislation as a racialized, colonial tool and a form of biopower the settler-state exerts over Indigenous communities. It normalizes settler-state hegemony and justifies the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous communities. This study …

Influence Of The Discipline Of Authentic Movement Practice On Interpersonal Relationships, Joy Ruben Welts

Educational Studies Dissertations

This mixed methods study explored how practicing the Discipline of Authentic Movement impacts relationships. This research was conducted to fill in the gaps around attunement and use of the Discipline of Authentic Movement as an intervention to support healthy relationships. Five self-selected adults met on Saturday afternoons for eight weeks to practice the Discipline of Authentic Movement. They completed a pre and post Revised Adult Attachment Scale and reflected weekly on their experience through journaling. Participants reported that it was the structure of the Discipline of Authentic Movement that allowed them to feel more comfortable being themselves with others. The …

War Photography & The Limits Of Empathy, Andrea Shi

Student Theses and Dissertations

The proliferation of photography, particularly war and poverty photography, has had massive implications for the level of vividness with which Americans are able to picture suffering beyond their doors. The mass atrocities that have occurred since the advent of photography – that is to say, the last 200 years – are so relentlessly circulated that they feel, sometimes, as an inevitable byproduct of human nature. It’s not surprising, then, that a lot of media theory and analysis reduce the dilemma of atrocity photographs to a psychological level. Do they numb us, or do they incite empathy? Are they a call …

Devuélveme A Mi Walkman: A Deep Dive Into Chicano Culture, New Wave And Punk During The 80s In Los Angeles, Michellas Baca

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Throughout this creative thesis/magazine, I explore and capture the essence of Chicano culture in the 80s and the role music played, in its simplest form. This project is heavily inspired by my dad and our shared love for music. Growing up in the 80's, pop culture was all around me, constantly; so much so, I never thought twice about it. As I got older, he told me more stories about growing up in L.A. He told me about breakdancing on Venice Beach and riding his bike under the L.A. River bridge. He would tell me stories about parties and how …

A Cross-Cultural Analysis Of Mukbang Influencers In China And The United States: Food, Identity, And Cultural Values, Anni Zhang

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Mukbang, a type of online eating broadcast which originated in South Korea, has become a widely popular form of digital media practice across different platforms. Although existing studies have examined Mukbang from perspectives such as audience psychology, health concerns, and platform economies, fewer studies have focused on how Mukbang influencers communicate cultural meanings and identity through food-related media contents in different cultural contexts. To address this gap, this study conducts a cross-cultural analysis of Mukbang influencers in China and the United States, focusing on how food, identity, and cultural values are represented in digital media environments.

This research adopts an …

Picture Of Health: Visual And Textual Gendered Ideals And Media Framing On Men’S Health And Women’S Health Magazine Covers, Gracie Marquez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Magazines play an influential role in shaping cultural understandings of health, fitness, and gender, yet differences emerge in how health is framed across media outlets. This study examines how Men’s Health and Women’s Health magazine covers construct and communicate gendered ideals of health through visual and textual elements. Guided by gender role theory and framing theory, this research explores how these magazines frame health in ways that reinforce expectations of masculinity and femininity. Using directed qualitative content analysis, magazine covers published between 2014 and 2024 were coded across visual and textual categories, and chi-square tests of independence were conducted to …