Communication Commons^™

Impact Of Social Media On The Mental Health Of College Student Athletes, Maria Blasco Maurici

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the influence of social media on the mental health of college student-athletes. With the adoption of social media platforms and the challenges faced by college student-athletes, understanding the implications of social media usage becomes a priority. This study examines the potential positive and negative effects of social media on the mental health of collegiate student-athletes and considers the role of social media in shaping their self-perception and identity. By comparing with existing research and conducting qualitative and quantitative analysis, this thesis aims to find answers on the relationship between social media and the mental health of college …

Analyzing Media Representations Of Rape Investigations And Interrogating The Representation Of Victim Blaming And Rape Myths: A Feminist Rhetorical Critique On The Netflix Limited Series Unbelievable, Kelly N. Hutchison

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The problematic portrayals of rape investigations in televised media reify a culture ofvictim blaming and perpetuate an ideology that is harmful to victims and survivors. This thesis utilizes a feminist rhetorical critique to analyze the gender and socioeconomic representations of rape victims and rape investigators, in the Netflix limit series Unbelievable, to understand the problems in their portrayals. In a world where individuals are consuming media constantly, it is important to be critical of media representations because even seemingly progressive media representations may perpetuate harmful stereotypes.

Giving Power To Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Of The Organization-Public Relationship Between A Public Utility And Its Community Stakeholders, Rhyanna C. Wiethe

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this research is to examine how, if at all, relationships between public utility companies and their stakeholders changes following a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, and based on the results, how can companies restructure their initiatives to better serve their publics in order to build stronger, more positive relationships. A multi-method case study using in-depth interviews and two content analyses (a social media analysis and a news coverage analysis) was used to explore the relationship between a public utility company and a community affected by the implementation of a CSR initiative. The findings suggest that the relationship …

Epistemological Insecurity In The Anthropocene, Dustin Purvis

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation analyzes how increased mainstream awareness of climate change and other complex environmental phenomena transforms some of the basic tools we use to understand the world, including notions of agency, evidence, and causality. More specifically, this project highlights numerous contemporary literary and cultural narratives that formally and thematically depict impromptu systems of action and comprehension developed by humans confronting the unique forms of information overload that result from damaged and rapidly changing environments. Following critics like Ulrich Beck, Rob Nixon, and Stacy Alaimo, I suggest our current era of ecological instability and destructive environmental practices dictate what I refer …

Empowering Elderpreneurs Scommerce For Genx Consignment Store Owners In West Virginia, Joyita Sarkar

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In an ever-evolving digital landscape, this research explores Generation X (GenX) consignment store owners in West Virginia and the transformative power of Social commerce (sCommerce). Despite the ubiquity of Social media platforms, little attention has been given to the impact of sCommerce on the consignment store industry. Drawing from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DIT), this study examines the factors influencing sCommerce adoption decisions for GenX consignment store owners.

Through qualitative research, this study uncovers untold stories within this entrepreneurial landscape. Purposeful sampling of 11 women and 20-60 minutes of in-depth interviews reveal the …

A Test Of The Control Value Theory Of Achievement Emotions In An Instructional Communication Context, Katherine E. Armstrong

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation tested the control-value theory of achievement emotions (CVTAE) in an instructional communication context. Based on the assumptions of CVTAE, the researcher predicted that when instructors were clearer, students would feel more confident in their abilities to perform well in their class and, in turn, experience positive achievement emotions (i.e., enjoyment and hope), ultimately becoming be more intrinsically motivated to learn. If instructors were less clear, however, students would experience decreased motivation to learn through negative appraisals of performance efficacy and negative achievement emotions (i.e., boredom, anxiety, and hopelessness). Additionally, the researcher hypothesized that when instructors made the course …

Mitigation And Preparedness In Disaster Communication: Examining The Need For Closing The Loop In The Discourse Of Renewal Theory, Abigail Renee Riggs

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Flooding across rural Appalachia has historically negatively impacted communities, and flood frequency is only expected to increase in the region as global temperatures rise. This indicates a need for effective disaster and crisis communication in flood-prone communities within the region. The discourse of renewal and readiness for renewal theories provide potential avenues for improving crisis and disaster communication. Readiness for renewal in particular focuses on closing the gap between the pre and post-crisis phases. However, readiness for renewal has yet to be applied to disaster communication and has not been studied qualitatively. Additionally, ethical guidelines for communication within renewal have …

Healthcare Provider Uncertainty And Communicative Management Strategies, Katie Benson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Uncertainty exists ubiquitously within provider-patient interactions. Healthcare providers (HCPs) often face uncertainty during patient-provider interactions, for reasons including inconclusive test results, ambiguous communication, and lacking the resources to make diagnoses. When healthcare providers experience uncertainty, their behavior and communication can be negatively impacted. For example, prior research suggests when HCPs experience uncertainty, they may engage in authoritative, prejudiced and assumption-ridden behavior towards patients (Dietta & Rand, 2007; Drewniak et al., 2017: Portnoy et al., 2013; Poteat et al., 2013). To date, research on HCP uncertainty has been limited to specific health conditions and contexts such as cancer, vascular anomalies, and …

Covering (Il)Legible Bodies: A Cda Of News Discourse About Undocuqueer Life In The U.S., Ayleen Cabas-Mijares

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

News narratives about immigration shape not only constructions of immigrants but of nation states. Through a critical content analysis informed by intersectionality and queer of color critique, this study explores how the news coverage of undocumented LGBTQ immigrants and the Undocuqueer Movement render distorted and incomplete constructions of these immigrants, their struggles and activism. Furthermore, the analysis shows how selective (mis)representations and erasures in the coverage contribute to the constitution of a homonationalist reimagination of the United States. Additionally, the paper makes the case for the incorporation of transnational sensibilities to enhance intersectional approaches to reporting.

Leading The Charge: Female Leaders Advance Dei Initiatives Through Employee Empowerment, Kati Tusinski Berg, Katharine Miller

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Today the public relations industry faces the challenge of championing and executing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Women leaders in public relations are well situated to do this work and drive meaningful change. A grounded theory approach was chosen to analyze narratives from the honorees of PRWeek’s Women of Distinction classes from the last three years. We argue that female public relations leaders are advancing the conversation related to DEI initiatives to empower their organizations and, in turn, shape the larger societal discourse on DEI. Our thematic analysis of narratives by female leaders in public relations resulted in four …

Fakestack: Hierarchical Tri-Bert-Cnn-Lstm Stacked Model For Effective Fake News Detection, Ashfia Jannat Keya, Hasibul Hossain Shajeeb, Md Saifur Rahman, M F Mridha

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

False news articles pose a serious challenge in today's information landscape, impacting public opinion and decision-making. Efforts to counter this issue have led to research in deep learning and machine learning methods. However, a gap exists in effectively using contextual cues and skip connections within models, limiting the development of comprehensive detection systems that harness contextual information and vital data propagation. Thus, we propose a model of deep learning, FakeStack, in order to identify bogus news accurately. The model combines the power of pre-trained Bidirectional Encoder Representation of Transformers (BERT) embeddings with a deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) having skip …

Overcoming The Space Between Us: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach To Bridge Building, Kate Hanisian

Theses and Dissertations

Facilitators in organization and community contexts (and other practitioners whose job it is to move groups of people forward together) are faced with the undercurrent of human conflict every day in meetings and gatherings around the world; often with limited access to an overarching tool to help prevent and manage conflict in most settings. The purpose of this paper was to uncover patterns in bridge building practices so that anyone who finds themselves in the role of facilitating conversations between people who are very different or do not like each other might lean into a set of practices that can …

Investigating Collaborative Explainable Ai (Cxai)/Social Forum As An Explainable Ai (Xai) Method In Autonomous Driving (Ad), Tauseef Ibne Mamun

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Explainable AI (XAI) systems primarily focus on algorithms, integrating additional information into AI decisions and classifications to enhance user or developer comprehension of the system's behavior. These systems often incorporate untested concepts of explainability, lacking grounding in the cognitive and educational psychology literature (S. T. Mueller et al., 2021). Consequently, their effectiveness may be limited, as they may address problems that real users don't encounter or provide information that users do not seek.

In contrast, an alternative approach called Collaborative XAI (CXAI), as proposed by S. Mueller et al (2021), emphasizes generating explanations without relying solely on algorithms. CXAI centers …

Information Use And Decision-Making For Evacuation At Fuego Volcano, Guatemala, Beth A. Bartel

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

For populations living with risk to rapid-onset environmental hazards, an effective early warning system (EWS) may be the most viable short- to mid-term solution for risk reduction. At Fuego volcano, Guatemala, more than 60,000 people distributed between more than 30 small communities live within the identified hazard zones for pyroclastic density currents (PDCS), highly lethal hot avalanches and surges of volcanic gases, rock, and ash. Despite ongoing risk reduction efforts by scientific and civil protection authorities, more than 400 people died during a paroxysmal eruption on 3 June 2018 when PDCs reached populated areas. A high-end resort, La Reunión, evacuated …

Is A Pretrained Model The Answer To Situational Awareness Detection On Social Media?, Siaw Ling Lo, Kahhe Lee, Yuhao Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Social media can be valuable for extracting information about an event or incident on the ground. However, the vast amount of content shared, and the linguistic variants of languages used on social media make it challenging to identify important situational awareness content to aid in decision-making for first responders. In this study, we assess whether pretrained models can be used to address the aforementioned challenges on social media. Various pretrained models, including static word embedding (such as Word2Vec and GloVe) and contextualized word embedding (such as DistilBERT) are studied in detail. According to our findings, a vanilla DistilBERT pretrained language …

Anchorage: Visual Analysis Of Satisfaction In Customer Service Videos Via Anchor Events, Kam Kwai Wong, Xingbo Wang, Yong Wang, Jianben He, Rong Zhang, Huamin Qu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Delivering customer services through video communications has brought new opportunities to analyze customer satisfaction for quality management. However, due to the lack of reliable self-reported responses, service providers are troubled by the inadequate estimation of customer services and the tedious investigation into multimodal video recordings. We introduce , a visual analytics system to evaluate customer satisfaction by summarizing multimodal behavioral features in customer service videos and revealing abnormal operations in the service process. We leverage the semantically meaningful operations to introduce structured event understanding into videos which help service providers quickly navigate to events of their interest. supports a comprehensive …

Snake In The Grass: Adapting Sex And Sexuality From Journalistic Truth To The Silver Screen, Patrick R. Johnson

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Nigerian Media: A Comparative Media Analysis, Temilade Inumidun Adeeko

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The comparative media analysis of Nigeria using Hallin and Mancini's model provides an insightful examination of the country's media system. Hallin and Mancini's model analyzes four dimensions: the degree of state intervention, the degree of political parallelism, the level of journalistic professionalism, and the role of the state. They offer three models of media and politics: The Liberal model, the Democratic Corporatist, and the Polarized Pluralist. Nigeria’s media system is characterized by high state intervention and political parallelism, significant control over media content by the state, a close relationship between the media and political parties, and a low level of …

Social Media, Gender, And Cancel Culture In The Punk Scene, Elizabeth Alexandra Mitchell

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis intends to examine the technological, political, and social dynamics surrounding the cancelation of musicians within the punk scene, specifically, modern Bay Area punk band, SWMRS. The technological dynamics involve the internet, networked publics, and digital politics. The social dynamics are not separate from sociality facilitated by social media and the networks they create. The politics of this context involves gender and the struggle over women’s agency to fight against sexual abuse and the social injustice it perpetuates. Because this thesis is interested in these issues within the context of popular music, it draws on the work on music …

The Toolkit For Social Support And Social Anxiety: S*A*S*S*, Cynthia E. Kmety

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to create a toolkit for social support and social anxiety using the Communal Coping method. There was background research conducted on social anxiety and social support, COVID impact, Communal Coping, and resilience and skill building. Before constructing the toolkit, a survey was conducted with 29 Eastern Illinois University students to measure their assessment of their social anxiety and social support. The results of this survey found that students have a need for social support and are affected by their anxiety. Once the toolkit: the workbook and the facilitator’s manual, were completed, a pilot class …

A Non-Profit As A Branded House: Douglas-Hart Nature Center And Foundation Branding Alignment, Skylar Fushi

Masters Theses

Branding plays a significant role in representing an organization and can help further its mission (Kylander & Stone, 2012). The purpose of this creative thesis is to help the Douglas-Hart Foundation and its three nature locations: the Douglas-Hart Nature Center, Friendship Garden, and the Whiteside Garden assess its branding and establish fitting strategies for the branding of the organization moving forwards. The method used to accomplish this was a brand audit of several key communication channels and documents of the organization and a SWOT analysis of these aspects along with suggested strategies and examples showing how the organization might integrate …

Distinctly Average: Analysis Of The Musician Celebrity's Persona Shift, Cole J. Belcher

Masters Theses

Shifting genres is not an entirely new concept for any celebrity, however, it is something that can severely impact the connection that they share with their audience members who have formed parasocial relationships with them. This study which focuses on the uses and gratifications within the parasocial connection between audience members and musician celebrities sought out to better understand how negotiations are conducted when expectations placed on the relationship are violated during a shift in celebrity persona. During this time, there are competing ideologies at play which determine whether or not this change in the foundations of the relationship will …

U.S Fans’ Identification With La Liga Teams, Pilar Barrio Sánchez

Masters Theses

This study explores LaLiga fandom in the U.S. by examining fan identification, loyalty, and commitment to their favorite LaLiga team. Moreover, the study explored the reasons why fans first choose their favorite team to support as well as their motives to watch or attend soccer games. To do so, a mixed method approach was used in which participants from LaLiga teams around the U.S. were asked to complete a survey questionnaire and participate in an in-depth interview. Based on the findings, the discussion identifies key strategic considerations and needs of future research for LaLiga to better adjust its communication strategies …

Personal Branding, Reality Television, And Social Media: How Former Big Brother Contestants Create, Maintain, And Alter Their Public Image, Justin L. Richards

Masters Theses

This study interrogated how these theories were potentially used, or aspects of the theories used to create, alter, or maintain, the contestant’s personal brands on two social media platforms. Informed by previous literature on personal branding and impression management, 1,021 pieces of social media communication were analyzed, 499 pieces of communication from Taylor Hale, and 522 pieces of communication from Paulie Calafiore. This study determined that there were up to five different patterns on the kind of content produced that still qualified under these theories for Taylor Hale, and up to four different patterns for Paulie Calafiore. Some patterns appeared …

Not A Do-Or-Die Affair: Freelance Journalists In Nigeria And Ethical Dilemmas, Tolulope O. Olasoji

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study explores the ethical dilemmas Nigerian freelance journalists face and their implications for their work. It will use in-depth interviews with select freelance journalists. Several studies have established that ethical concerns are rife in—and indeed the bane of—journalism in Nigeria. However, these pieces of research reflect the reality across conventional newsrooms, where, ideally, there is some organizational structure and support. No scholarly attention has been given to freelance journalists, otherwise known as entrepreneurial journalists, due to their autonomous nature, to understand the ethical dilemmas they may be entangled in primarily. This study seeks to address this gap in research. …

What Gives? Leveraging Marketing Knowledge To Increase Consumers’ Charitable Giving, Caitlin Michael

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Marketing plays a central role in nonprofit organizations that compete for the donations of individual consumers to achieve their respective missions. To this end, marketing researchers and practitioners have devoted much attention to the antecedents of charitable giving and ways in which solicitations may be made more effective and efficient. This gives rise to the questions: “What has the field learned?” and, relatedly, “What novel effects have not yet been explored?” Within this dissertation, three essays address these questions through the use of multiple methodologies.

The first essay seeks to outline what the marketing field has learned about consumers’ charitable …

Aadej Comm 9 1 2023

AADEJ - The Communicator

The Communicator is the official journal of the American Association of Dental Editors and Journalists (AADEJ). It is published quarterly, distributed digitally via email to members, and posted on the Association's website, AADEJ.org. Each issue includes regular updates from the editorial team and AADEJ board, as well as feature articles on current issues in the field.

Aadej Comm 9 3 2023

AADEJ - The Communicator

The Communicator is the official journal of the American Association of Dental Editors and Journalists (AADEJ). It is published quarterly, distributed digitally via email to members, and posted on the Association's website, AADEJ.org. Each issue includes regular updates from the editorial team and AADEJ board, as well as feature articles on current issues in the field.

Marketing Ploy Or Mental Health Crisis? An Analysis Of Fan Responses To Celebrity Narratives, Kayla M. Ostrander

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Recently, celebrities have become more candid with their narratives than ever before through use of their social media accounts. While most celebrities use their social media accounts for purposes such as showing a positive or unknown side of them or to promote their work, others have posted narratives that have come under public criticism, especially Kanye ‘Ye’ West with his recent antisemitic-themed posts. In my study I examine what Kanye’s fans and the public believes to be his motivation for his recent narratives in October 2022 and December 2022, and their reasoning for assigning these motives. I collected a total …

Professional Communication During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Corrie Eggimann

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In the early spring of 2020, the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019)1 pandemic spread across the planet, causing a scale of infection and fatalities that was unprecedented in modern times, and that was not well predicted by scientists, public health officials and government entities. Despite travel bans and quarantine requirements popping up across the globe, COVID-19 infections continued to spread. As of February 2023, more than 6.8 million people have died from COVID-19 (World Health Organization, 2023). In an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 and the growing number of deaths, schools and businesses began closing down throughout the world …