Communication Commons^™

Headset Chatter, Lynn G. Lower

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Use Of Strategic Influencer Leadership (Sil) In Health Communication: A Cross-Cultural, Multi-Case Study, Katharina Wolf, Catherine Archer, Syafiq B. Assegaff, Joseph Nalloor

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose This study challenges the social media-centric view of influencers, arguing that health communication benefits from diverse strategic influencers beyond commercial figures. Trust, credibility and cultural resonance are essential for effective public health messaging, yet contemporary approaches often prioritise engagement metrics over strategic influence. Design/methodology/approach This paper employs a multi-case study approach to examine the strategic use of influencers in health communication across Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores how health professionals, royal representatives and a politician shaped public health messaging within culturally specific contexts. A mixed-methods approach, incorporating ethnographic research and thematic …

Vaccine Hesitancy In Arabic Discourse: A Multi-Method Social Media Study, Nada Dimashkieh Chehab

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Vaccine hesitancy — the state of uncertainty about vaccination — poses global public health challenges, undermining efforts to prevent infectious diseases. It is also a contextual phenomenon, shaped by social and political forces. While survey-based research on vaccine hesitancy is abundant both globally and in the Arab world, humanities-oriented approaches using discourse analysis remain limited especially in Arabic on social media: some have tracked trends on Twitter, but virtually none have done so on Facebook. This dissertation addresses these gaps through a multimethod design combining Textual and Trend Analyses and Critical Discourse Study. It examines vaccine-related trends and discourses among …

Mapping Multiclass-Targeted Hate Speech In Online Discourse: An Open Dataset, Sanaa Kaddoura, Sumaia Al-Kohlani

All Works

Online social networks have become central spaces for public discourse, where hostile and discriminatory language toward social groups can cause psychological and social consequences for marginalized communities. Although multiple public hate speech datasets are available, many rely on binary categorization practices that obscure linguistic, cultural, and contextual variation across targeted groups. As a result, minority and less visible forms of hate speech remain insufficiently documented and analyzed. This discussion paper examines methodological limitations in existing hate speech annotation schemes and presents a re-annotation framework applied to the HatEval2019 dataset. The proposed framework introduces target-specific multiclass labels that distinguish subcategories of …

Socio-Spatial Patterns Of Suicide Mortality In The United States, Kushagra Tiwari, M. Amin Rahimian, Marie-Laure Charpignon, Philippe J. Giabbanelli, Praveen Kumar

VMASC Publications

Suicides cause more than 49,000 deaths per year in the United States, including 55% associated with the use of a firearm. Across states and counties in the US, suicide mortality exhibits substantial geographical and sociodemographic heterogeneity. However, the role of large-scale social networks in shaping this variation remains underexplored. To assess how both the risk of suicide mortality and the effect of firearm restriction policies propagate through inter-county social ties, we integrate data on county-level suicide mortality (2010–2022) and the Facebook Social Connectedness Index (SCI), a continuous measure of the strength of social ties between counties used to derive weighted …

#Shoutyourabortion And Being Heard: The Affordances Of Hashtags For Feminist Counterpublics In Hostile Digital Atmospheres, Claire Fitzpatrick

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article critically explores counterpublic responses to the overturning of Roe v Wade and the intense contestation on Twitter (now X) between pro-abortion and anti-abortion advocates. Focusing on networked acts of deliberation, this study shows how #ShoutYourAbortion and #RoevWade facilitated the formation of defensive publics and Counterpublics. Hashtag feminism can enable affected groups to share experiences that are often marginalised by traditional media outlets, while witnessing and affirming similar experiences shared by others within their community. In this article, I examine the extent to which the collectivising hashtag #ShoutYourAbortion facilitates deliberation and listening in the context of polarising abortion debates …

No Screens Before Two: How First-Time Australian Parents Negotiate Enduring Digital Media Guidelines, Stephanie C. Milford, Emma Jayakumar, Harrison W. See, Lelia Green

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Digital parenting guidance often fails to reflect early caregiving realities, particularly for first-time parents navigating screentime. Although professional guidelines have shifted from rigid time limits toward co-engagement and content quality, these shifts are inconsistently communicated and poorly absorbed into public discourse. Meanwhile, technopanic narratives fuel confusion, guilt, and social judgement. While some studies link extended screen use with adverse outcomes, we examine how correlational findings become blanket prescriptions in early caregiving. Drawing on two interview rounds and three focus groups with 23 Australian first-time parents of children aged birth-to-four, and informed by a socio-ecological approach, we explore how parents interpret …

Modeling Joint Visual Attention In Naturalistic Dyadic Interactions, Kuushini Thennakoon, Yasasi Abeysinghe, Bhanuka Mahanama, Vikas Ashok, Sampath Jayarathna

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Joint visual attention (JVA) provides important insight into how individuals coordinate attention during social interaction. Egocentric eye tracking enables the study of JVA in natural, multi-user settings. This work presents a multi-stage framework to identify and analyze JVA using egocentric video and gaze data. The approach consists of three steps: spatiotemporal tube-based visual similarity, gaze-guided object detection, and attention pattern analysis using the ambient–focal coefficient K. Results show that object-focused collaborative activities exhibit high JVA, with object detection capturing higher joint attention than visual similarity, whereas conversation-based or independent activities show lower and more fragmented joint attention. Analysis of K …

An Explainable Transformer Framework For Sentiment Analysis In Aviation Workforce Data, Sovon Chakraborty, Protiva Das, Fahmid Al Farid, Fuyad Hasan Bhoyan, Farig Yousuf Sadeque, Jia Uddin, Hezerul Abdul Karim

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Aviation is one of the predominant sectors that contribute significantly to the global economy. With the advent of technology, this industry is witnessing a paradigm shift towards data-driven approaches. The morale of the airline employees is barely noticed, which causes fatigue and depression. Furthermore, these mental health issues can be active reasons for destructive accidents. In this research, the authors are focused on collecting insightful information on aviation employees from Glassdoor.com. Moreover, the authors focus on analyzing the sentiments of the employees of renowned aviation companies. Primarily, the authors scraped necessary data from Glassdoor.com and created a dataset named JetJobJoy …

Susceptibility To High-Fidelity Misinformation: An Eye-Tracking Analysis, Yasasi Abeysinghe, Gavindya Jayawardena, Enkelejda Kasneci, Sampath Jayarathna

Computer Science Faculty Publications

With the rise of online misinformation and AI-generated text, understanding human perception of news truthfulness is critical. In this study, we examine visual attention and cognitive processing using eye-tracking measures as individuals read fake and real news articles sharing nearly identical structure and imagery, differing only in subtle textual changes. Using the public FakeNewsPerception dataset, we analyze advanced gaze measures, including scanpaths, AOI transitions, and luminance-corrected pupil measures, beyond basic gaze features, in relation to news truthfulness and perceived believability. Results show that, given the high fidelity of the fake news, readers exhibited comparable visual scanning patterns, attention allocation across …

Algorhythm: Commodification Of Hobbies On Social Media Platforms, Fariha Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

Forcing the world online, the COVID-19 pandemic appeared to turn social-media-based hobbies into income-generating cash cows. Digital creative spaces became sites of capitalist logic where hobbyists came to operate as both laborers and commodities. Profit-focused algorithms operate imperceptibly, shaping creative behavior and decision-making in ways that are difficult to recognize, and even harder to resist. This thesis asks how algorithmic participation on platforms such as Instagram conditions a hobbyist, and how that conditioning can be made legible to audiences who inhabit such platforms without always seeing them. Using autoethnography, I position myself as both researcher and subject to document the …

Impact Of Father-Daughter Communication And Conflict In Emerging Adulthood, Scarlett E. Gomez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This paper investigated how father-daughter communication patterns, motives, and conflict styles related to daughters’ perceived satisfaction in their relationship during emerging adulthood. Undergraduate participants were involved in an online survey assessing family communication patterns theory, interpersonal communication motives, conflict resolution styles, and father-daughter satisfaction. Bivariate correlations and mean comparisons were primarily relied on for analysis, with a sample size of one hundred thirty-eight undergraduate participants. Results showed that a more open family communication pattern such as the conversation orientation, was positively associated with daughters’ perceived satisfaction of the relationship. A more obedient-focused environment such as the conformity orientation was negatively …

How Does Media Exposure Promote Nature Deprivation, Impacting Next Generational Social Interaction? Screen Time Vs. Green Time: A Cross-Sectional Survey Study, Mia N. Ryder

Honors Theses and Capstones

This study explores the impact social media can have on individuals' other qualities of life. This study particularly highlights its impact on in-person social engagement along with nature utilization and enjoyment, keeping in mind the corresponding benefits associated with those two variables. UNH undergraduate students were selected as participants. Participants completed surveys assessing their sense of regulation with social media consumption and reliance, their tendency to use and enjoy accessible natural resources, and their overall capacity to experience social comfort. Our survey was designed using 3 separate scales: A Green Space Enjoyment Scale, Social Comfortability Scale, and the third being …

Assessing Positive Digital Experiences: A Spanish Validation Of The Digital Flourishing Scale For Adolescents, Alfredo Zarco-Alpuente, Victor Ciudad Fernández, Jasmina Rosič, Sophie Janicke-Bowles, Tamara Escrivà-Martínez, Paula Samper-García

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Background: Adolescents are immersed in digital communication, which can benefit or harm their well-being. Digital flourishing captures positive perceptions of this communication-connectedness, authentic self-presentation, positive social comparison, civil participation, and self-control-and how it contributes to well-being. In Spain there is still no validated instrument for adolescents. Method: We adapted and validated the Digital Flourishing Scale for Adolescents (DFSA) for Spanish adolescents. Study 1 involved a pilot survey (n = 13) and cognitive interviews (n = 10) to improve clarity and cultural relevance. Study 2 used a cross-sectional survey (n = 1,786) to examine the DFSA’s latent structure, measurement invariance by …

Adolescent Girls’ Experiences Of Digital Dating Abuse Through Social Media: A Scoping Review, Kiara E. Rodriguez

Social Work Theses

Teen dating violence (TDV) is a prevalent adverse childhood experience with lasting psychological and behavioral consequences. As adolescents increasingly engage with social media, with 95% of teens aged 13-17 reporting using it, digital spaces have become a significant context in which dating abuse can occur. Digital dating abuse (DDA) refers to patterns of abusive behaviors that are directed toward a dating partner through digital technologies, including social media and mobile phones. Despite the growing role of social media in adolescent relationships, research on how adolescent girls experience DDA in these contexts remains limited. The central question for this scoping review …

Prescriptive Behaviors: Tracking The Social Impact Of Film Portrayals Of Black Men, Garfield Ronald Benjamin

Theses and Dissertations

Cinematic and televisual media express the thoughts and emotions of people and cultures with the potential of unifying people through the social realities that are created around the visuals, narratives, and on-screen interpersonal interactions. Through media like film, television, and short-form online video, people interact with others in ways that, because of barriers like physical distance and/or social structures, they may not be able to in real life. The images, sounds, and stories depict their own realities, which are consumed, interpreted, and understood by viewers and can inform their perceptions and interpersonal interactions. Stuart Hall, Jamaican-British, cultural theorist, and political …

“America Is For Americans Only”: Journalistic Professionalism, Populism, And Latino Ethnic Media In The 2024 U.S. Presidential Election, Maria Villarroel

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how journalistic professionalism shaped news coverage of Latino-related issues during the 2024 U.S. presidential election across mainstream and Latino ethnic media outlets. In a polarized political environment, immigration and the “Latino vote” were not only central campaign issues but also sites of radicalized rhetoric that frequently targeted Latino communities and journalists. In this context, journalists were tasked with reporting on highly contentious, hostile narratives while adhering to professional norms. This study argues that these norms influenced how journalists selected, framed, and contextualized political rhetoric, and how media coverage further elevated immigration and Latino communities as key electoral …

Spe 1200 - Interpersonal Communication Syllabus Redesigned For Use With Oer, Gordon Alley-Young

Open Educational Resources

This document is a syllabus for an Interpersonal Communication course that has been redesigned to be used with open educational resources (OERs). The class outlined in the syllabus is for first and second year college students.

Engagement Across The Cultural Divide: Accommodative Communication In The Study Abroad Context, Charles W. Choi Ph.D.

All Faculty Open Access Publications

Study abroad contexts can generate apprehension and reluctance to communicate across cultural difference, constraining opportunities for meaningful intercultural engagement. This qualitative study examines how students described intercultural willingness to communicate and intercultural competence during study abroad. Using Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) as an interpretive framework, semi-structured interviews were analyzed thematically, yielding four interrelated themes: intercultural apprehension as it relates to a willingness to communicate, intergroup dynamics, accommodation, and intercultural communication competence. Participants described how apprehension and perceived group boundaries shaped whether interaction felt possible or worthwhile, while accommodation (both behavioral and psychological) helped them remain engaged, manage perceived distance, and …

Artificial Intelligence In Crisis Communication: Investigating Source Effects And Matched Crisis Responses On Stakeholder Perceptions, Erika Schneider Ph.D., Victoria Kyriakopoulos, Youngji Seo, Nalae Hong, Moon Lee, Joon Soo Lim

Media Studies - All Scholarship

As public relations efforts increasingly integrate AI into operations, examining how the disclosure of AI as the source in organizational crisis communications affects public perceptions is increasingly relevant. This research investigates the effects of AI disclosure across matched crisis responses within a 3 (match crisis response: victim crisis-scapegoating, accidental crisis-excuse, preventable crisis-apology) x 2 (source disclosure: AI vs. human) experimental design survey. Key findings reveal that crisis responses with human sources, compared to those with AI disclosure, led to greater perceptions of organizational reputation and credibility across the three matched crisis responses. AI-disclosed messages from the company were also associated …

The Guardian The Month Of January 2026, Wright State Student Body

The Guardian Student Newspaper

News articles from The Guardian for the Month of January 2026. The Guardian is the official student-run newspaper for Wright State University. It has been published regularly since March of 1965.

The Machine And The Masses: A Sociolinguistic Study Of Ai Political Rhetoric, Yaseen Tasnif

2026 Spring Honors Capstones Projects

With increased use of and access to generative Artificial Intelligence, or AI, political communications have begun to see its influence, leading to the question of how this AI generated political rhetoric is received. In previous research, AI output has been extensively researched and indexed, highlighting specific qualities such as overly polished speech as indicators of use. Research has also been done on perception and detectability of AI, showing that people can accurately identify AI-generated text, but tend to be overconfident. However, such research has not been done in the context of political rhetoric, which is consumed in different ways than …

Gendered Resistance: Women’S Strategies Against Military Dictatorships, Argentina And Chile, Maricarmen Canales-Moreno

Publications and Research

This article compares the Madres de Plaza de Mayo in Argentina and the Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos (AFDD) in Chile to examine how women transformed their identities as mothers, wives, and daughters into strategies of political resistance under military dictatorship. It argues that maternal imagery, public mourning, and the transformation of private grief into collective defiance enabled women-led human rights organizations to challenge authoritarian regimes while strategically drawing on gender roles those regimes sought to enforce. The article traces the emergence of both organizations, their occupation of public space, hunger strikes, legal action, and engagement with international human …

Las Pintas Inverview Project 2026, Beth Gulley, Luzma Alvarez, Lacey Andrews, Damien Duncan, Mariah Garman, Brenda Lofton, Alyssa Roland, Hero Sanner, Asja Thompson, Athena Gonzalez, Lee Martin, Samantha Miller, Lucy Sas

The Las Pintas Collection

Acknowledgements

Dear Reader,

This collection is the result of JCCC students’ efforts to reflect on the college’s decades long relationship with Centro Integral Comunitario (CIC) in Las Pintas, Mexico. Before they left on the trip, each student interviewed someone from JCCC who had traveled with the college to Las Pintas in the past. The first section of this book includes what students learned from their pre-departure interviews.

In the second part of this book, students wrote about what they learned from interviewing people who they met in Las Pintas. While these interviews were conducted in Spanish, the students wrote their …

2026 Document For Faculty And Staff Scholarship Spring Soirée, Kara Schleck, Diana Symons

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

No abstract provided.

The Ruse Of Reconstruction; Or Notes On America’S Perpetual Abdication Of Racial Equality, Stephen E. Rahko, Byron B. Craig

Faculty Publications - Communications

A central component of American inequality has been the persistence of the racial wealth gap between White and Black Americans. In this essay we seek to understand how the racial wealth gap has been rhetorically framed as an unsolvable problem by examining the arguments opponents of structural reforms in the pursuit of racial equality have advanced. We argue that opponents of racial equality and justice have relied on a two-part rhetorical strategy that, first, frames the racial wealth gap as natural and thus no problem at all and, second, derides the pursuit of racial equality as a zero-sum competition wherein …

Response Efficacy And Discrete Emotions In Message Design: Testing Emotional Pathways To Help-Seeking Intentions And Engagement, Marian Jaitto-Jeffrey

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Research on fear appeals shows that threat-framed messages promote adaptive outcomes when accompanied by efficacy information. According to the extended parallel process model (EPPM), danger-control responses, including message acceptance, positive attitudes toward recommended behaviors, and help-seeking intentions, are most likely to occur when efficacy appraisals, particularly perceptions of response efficacy, are sufficient to meet perceived threat. When efficacy appraisals fall short of perceived threat, fear-control responses, such as message derogation, denial, or resistance to seeking help, are most likely to emerge. Beyond reducing defensive processing, response efficacy cues may also evoke positive emotions such as hope. Whereas fear is often …

Technology-Facilitated Violence And Abuse: Portrayals And Perceptions, Christina S. Walker

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

In the past, intimate partner violence (IPV) was primarily perpetrated in person. However, due to new mediated communication technologies and capabilities like social media and artificial intelligence (AI), perpetrators can use this technology for various purposes including subjecting others to violence, harassment, and abuse. Such violence can be a form of IPV and is referred to as technology-facilitated violence and abuse (TFVA). TFVA is becoming increasingly prevalent and is encountered by a staggering percent of women. Furthermore, unlike traditional forms of IPV, even men are subjected to TFVA at increasing and disproportionate rates, particularly male teens.

In the current state …

Adaptive Boundary-Aware Fact-Checker Placement For Misinformation Suppression In Social Networks, Mostafa Taghizade Firouzjaee, Ghazal Naderi, Ross Gore, Neda Moghim

School of Cybersecurity Faculty Publications

The spread of fake news on online social networks is driven by imitation-based user behavior and network topology, often leading to persistent misinformation clusters and echo chambers. In this study, we develop a spatial evolutionary game-theoretic framework in which agents update their latent opinions through payoff-biased imitation, while external fact-checkers act as non-imitative intervention nodes. Building on this formulation, we propose an adaptive, boundary-aware intervention mechanism that dynamically regulates both the density and spatial allocation of fact-checkers according to real-time system conditions. Competing information clusters are identified through local neighborhood composition, enabling boundary nodes, i.e., interfaces between fake-news and non-fake-news …

Exploring The Synergy Between Very Large Transformer And Lstm Models For Effective Medical Captioning From Videos To Text: The Impact Of Captioning In Healthcare, R. V. Aswiga, Moin Ahmed Zahir

Data Science Faculty Publications

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, the demand for accurate and contextually relevant subtitles for image and video content, particularly in the medical domain, is increasingly critical. Despite the proliferation of visual data across various platforms, existing captioning systems often struggle due to variations in visual settings, complex temporal relationships, and nuanced semantics. Additionally, challenges such as limited datasets, privacy issues, and specialized annotation requirements make medical image captioning particularly difficult. To tackle these challenges, we investigate cutting-edge deep learning methodologies, specifically Transfer Learning and Transformer models, through a comparative analysis. Specifically, we focus on Transfer Learning through the MedVisionCapturer …