Communication Technology and New Media Commons^™

Thiscollegestory.Com: How Interactive Writing Media Influenced The Way First-Year Students Made Sense Of Their College Transition, Philip Kreniske

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Drawing on insights from Bakhtin (1986) that demonstrated the significance of writing as an interaction, and building on recent developments in narrative analysis that offer insights into narrator’s sense making processes (Daiute, 2014; Lucic, 2013); this research explores how freshmen in an educational opportunity program used interactive writing media to make sense of their transition to college. The exploration involved three main questions and each question concerns students’ development over time:

• First, did college students’ writing in two different media (blogs and word-processed text) differ and did these differences change over time?
• Second, how did the narrators and audience interact …

Gender Bias And The Evaluation Of Players: Voice And Gender In Narrated Gameplay Videos, Robin April Crowell

Dissertations and Theses

This study evaluates perception differences of male and female narrators in video game tutorials. Video games have long been considered a masculine pursuit, and because of this, women have endured unpleasant surroundings and interactions in gaming and related communities. With the proliferation of technologies like Twitch and YouTube gaming, gaming is more communicative than ever, increasing potential for problematic interactions. Recent booms in these technologies emphasize the importance of understanding how varying demographics are perceived, as these perceptions influence interactions, potentially limiting the likelihood of women and others' involvement and interest.

Involvement in technology during youth is associated with interests …

Perceptions Surrounding Cyberbullying And Self-Disclosure Among The Lgbtq Community: A Qualitative Approach, Alec Martin

Media and Communication Studies Summer Fellows

LGBTQ adolescents, like all youth, face challenges: the push for high academic marks, the desire for positive relationships, and the right to be themselves in a safe environment. Unfortunately, LGBTQ youths are far more likely than their heterosexual peers to experience bullying and cyberbullying. According to a 2005 study by the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, the second largest cause of bullying was actual or presumed sexual orientation or identity. Gay males were more than twice as likely to be bullied on school property than their heterosexual peers, 43.1% and 18.3%, respectively (Olsen et al, 2014). In addition, 23.1% …

Volume 111 Issue 25, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

News Editor...............................Maggie Tran

Online Editor.............................Raven White

Features Editor..........................Hannah Flaherty

Publications Manager................Laura Howe

Advertising Manager.................Kierra Prewitt

Photographers............................Riley Roberson, Maggie Tran, Nakota Taylor

Staff Reporters...........................Amber Bachiochi, Bayli Blanchard, Elizabeth Fuller, Kelsie Gerlach, Brooke Harden, Bailey Hood, Maxwell Jirak, Conner Kent, Makenli Ladd, Katie Lafferty, Ayo Ojo, Caylie Patton, Jennifer Steiner, Michelle Taylor, Andikan Usanga

Editing Staff...............................Amber Bachiochi, Bayli Blanchard, Tariq Carey, Hunter Green, Bailey Hood, Maxwell Jirak, Bailey Kephart, Katie Lafferty, Delmi Menendez, Ayo Ojo, Saul Pina, Bradley Rowson, Jennifer Steiner, Jessica Tortorelli, Amber Trogdon

Television In Ireland Before Irish Television: 1950s Audiences And British Programming, Edward Brennan

Conference Papers

The first television broadcasts in Ireland were watched in the 1950s. These initial programmes were British. This history of these early viewers, however, has been ignored. A dominant narrative has addressed the history of television in Ireland as the history of the public broadcaster Radio Telefís Éireann (RTÉ). Thus, the history of Irish television often begins in 1961, overlooking Irish people’s experience of the medium in the preceding decade. This paper breaks with traditional historiography by employing life history interviews to explore the uses, rituals and feelings attached to television in the years before RTÉ.

Irish people who watched television …

The Role And Usage Of Apps And Instant Messaging In Religious Mass Events, Juan Narbona, Daniel Arasa

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Over the last few years, large events have conferred great importance on Event Management, or the management of mass meetings. In the religious sector, for centuries, pilgrimages have been a clear example of mass events of a spiritual nature. Due to globalization and increased mobility, recent times have seen the multiplication of international events without a fixed location: Taizé encounters, Kumbh Mela (India), and World Youth Day are all good examples of this. These events imply at least a threefold spiritual, organizational and touristic challenge, and success in each one of these areas contributes to the favourable result of the …

Professional Resource: The Routledge Companion To Remix Studies (2015), Benjamin Thevenin

Journal of Media Literacy Education

No abstract provided.

Padawan’S Journey: Remixing Star Wars Radio For Adolescent Literacy Education, Mark J. Davis

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The Star Wars phenomenon motivates adolescents who may be disengaged in the classroom. The wealth of visual content may overshadow the power of the music, sound effects, and dialogue. In literacy education, skills are often practiced by reading and discussing traditional texts. In this digital literacy project, struggling readers remixed the Star Wars canon through audio storytelling. Students served as actors, Foley artists, and directors in the recording of brief episodes based on the original trilogy. The project heightens students’ oral fluency and text comprehension by engaging in close reading and structured dialogue. The recordings demonstrate how students can be …

Confessions Of A Media Literacy Scholar-Practitioner: Job Market Advantages, Research Agenda Challenges, And Theory-Driven Production, Christopher Boulton

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This essay explores how higher education’s move away from the liberal arts tradition of learning by thinking and towards more vocational “experiential” approaches has implications for media literacy educators’ career options, scholarly identities, and teaching strategies. Specifically, I consider my own negotiation of increasing administrative and student demands for “hands-on” production courses by confessing both my advantages on the job market and my post-hire challenges in articulating a clear research agenda. I then conclude with a case study of how I repurposed my scholar-practitioner identity and used critical theory to drive production by bringing film students into a cultural studies …

Evaluating Online Media Literacy In Higher Education: Validity And Reliability Of The Digital Online Media Literacy Assessment (Domla), Tom Hallaq

Journal of Media Literacy Education

While new technology continues to develop and become increasingly affordable, and students have increased access to digital media, one might wonder if requiring such technology in the classroom is akin to throwing the car keys to a teen-ager who has not completed a driver’s education course. The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable quantitative survey providing accurate data about the digital online media literacy of university-level students in order to better understand how digital online media can and should be used within a teaching/learning environment at a university. This study identifies core constructs of media …

The Think Aloud Approach. A Promising Tool For Online Reading Comprehension, Stefania Carioli, Andrea Peru

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Despite its unquestionable interest from a theoretical and practical point of view, so far there has been little research on online reading and there is a lack of attention paid to this topic in most European educational institutions. In particular, primary and secondary school teachers are not adequately trained on how and when to intervene to support students’ proficiency in the online reading comprehension. After presenting a rationale demonstrating why students may struggle with online reading comprehension and the importance to adopt a self-regulated reading, this study proposes a Teacher’s Guide that could support late primary and secondary school teachers …

The Issues And Challenges Of Assessing Media Literacy Education, Evelien A. Schilder, Barbara B. Lockee, D. Patrick Saxon

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In the media literacy literature, the challenges associated with assessment have, to a great extent, been ignored. The purpose of this mixed methods study was therefore to explore the views of media literacy scholars and professionals on assessment challenges through qualitative interviews (n = 10) with the intent of using this information to develop a quantitative survey to validate and extend the qualitative findings with a larger sample of media literacy professionals and scholars from around the world (n = 133). The findings offer an overview of the assessment challenges encountered by these participants.

How It All Started: 1996, The First Year Of Dokvit, Niels W. Lund

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This article describes in detail the first year of the Documentation Studies (Dokvit) program in Tromsø (1996) in attempt to offer an understanding of how Dokvit was part of the neo-documentation movement that began in the mid-90s with the rediscovery of Suzanne Briet and discussions on "What is a 'document'?" This article discusses how the Dokvit program was structured, including its curriculum, syllabus and teaching principles. In particular, it details the undergraduate student projects done this year and demonstrates how they were embedded within the historical and media situation of 1996. In conclusion, this article discusses how the experience of …

Television In Ireland: A History From The Mediated Centre, Edward Brennan

Conference Papers

This paper identifies and critiques a dominant narrative in the history of Irish television, which is too often passed off for, or accepted as, the history of television in Ireland. The his- tory of television in Ireland has been written within an institutional framework and depends on the cultural binary of tradition and modernity, ‘old Ireland’ and ‘new Ireland’. This dom- inant narrative fails to interrogate television as a medium. It provides an account of the Irish broadcaster RTÉ rather than an account of the arrival of a new medium. Ironically this nar- rative which hinges on the role of …

Why Does Film And Television Sci-Fi Tend To Portray Machines As Being Human?, Edward Brennan

Conference Papers

This paper identifies, and attempts to explain, a lack of diversity in the way that cinema and television science fiction represents robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). Through a qualitative content analysis of recent film and television portrayals, it is argued, that a limited and limiting vision predominates. This limitation may serve to ideologically reinforce the power of corporate elites. It may also hamper discussion and debate around technological possibilities and their relationship with society.

There has been a slew of entertainment productions since 2013 that represent AI and robotics. This work examines Her (2013), Transcendence (2014), Interstellar (2014), Chappie (2015), …

Using A Non-Judgmental Stance To Promote Trustworthiness In Action Research, Serge Gabarre, Cécile Gabarre, Rosseni Din

The Qualitative Report

This article describes the use of action research to increase trustworthiness through a non-judgmental approach. Two foreign language lecturers implemented an action research to improve their teaching with the use of Facebook and mobile devices. In order to remain open to all possible interpretation of the events and to incite their students to provide them with honest feedback, they openly adopted a non-judgmental stance. As a result, students freely revealed how they used funds which were given to them to access mobile Internet. Findings showed that not all students used the money as was anticipated by the lecturers, and that …

The Effects Of Social Media On Music Sharing, Rachel Zucker

Senior Theses

Studying music and its evolution in a society can give researchers a clue about the culture of a group of people as a whole. I believe that studying the way that music is shared is an integral part of this. In my research, I explored the historical roots of the digitization of music, while simultaneously examining the evolution of social media networks and their role in music sharing. Through my research, I gained an understanding of the flow of music exchange in today’s society by identifying the current, dominant social media and music streaming platforms and examining how each platform …

This Machine Kills Fascists: Music, Speech And War, Robert J. Crisler

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses

This thesis examines the history and persuasive power of rhetoric through the mass medium of popular music from Woody Guthrie to the modern era. It focuses on the Vietnam War era as a particularly significant and prolific era of topical (“protest”) music. Through interviews with media observers, historians and veterans of the Vietnam war, it seeks to understand the relevance of rhetorical speech in music within an overall mass media context, both within that era and extending to the present day. Through contemporaneous accounts of the intent of the songwriters and artists, an understanding is gained of the intent to …

Uncovering America’S Horror Story: A Content And Critical Analysis Of American Horror Story., Jessica Maio

Honors Projects in Communication

The popular television series American Horror Story has captivated millions of Americans with its shocking and twisted plotlines that never fail to surprise. Perhaps one of the reasons that the show has become so popular is that it uses the horror genre as a way to explore controversial topics. The purpose of this project is to examine the controversial topics that are presented in American Horror Society and compare them with the current views of mainstream society to determine whether the show primarily reflects the views of the larger society or challenges them. In other words, how does American Horror …

2nd Place Contest Entry: From A Chat In The Parlor To Viral Music Videos: An Analysis Of Music As A Social Occasion, Emma F. Plotnik

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Emma Plotnik's submission for the 2016 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won second place. She wrote about the impact of salons on the musical world in past centuries, and created a modern virtual salon of her own.

Emma is a senior at Chapman University, majoring in Music with a minor in Law, Justice, and Social Control. Her faculty mentor is Dr. Jessica Sternfeld.

Technical Communication In Place-Making Professions: Exploring The Network Pictures Of Urban Designers, Fernando Sanchez

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation addresses how professional writing as a field can pay attention to broader definitions of design in order to help further conversations of spatial justice (the act of helping to promote equity in matters of development in urban spaces). I begin by noting the conversations that have circulated regarding the relationship between urban design and rhetoric, noting that professional writing can help add a unique lens to the conversation. The second chapter provides an overview of how design is discussed in technical communication scholarship. Here, I showcase how most of these discussions regarding research in design have centered on …

Social Media & Political Engagement: Environmental Organizations, Social Media And Political Engagement, Tyler Cate

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Social media is becoming more important in today’s digital society, but how effective is the use of social media when it comes to political engagement? How do environmental organizations use social media and is it effective in encouraging their “followers” to engage in online and/or offline political activity? I collected Facebook and Twitter data from ten environmental organizations to assess the effectiveness of each posting. I hypothesize that the groups making direct calls for action via social media receive a greater response – beyond “clicktivism” or “slacktivism” – than the groups that do not. The data includes the number of …

"We Can't Do It Without You!" Crowdfunding As Cultural And Economic Negotiations Within Neoliberal Culture, David Zachary Gehring

Institute for the Humanities Theses

This thesis is a qualitative study that critically examines crowdfunding campaigns established to fund music projects. It argues that these campaigns are instantiations of neoliberalism, influenced by and reflective of cultural commitments operative within music communities and a shifting industrial context. For this study, neoliberalism represents a particular mode of free market capitalism characterized by discourses emphasizing individual agency free from regulatory constraints, and the rearticulation of cultural values rhetorically prioritized over market interests. Emerging within this cultural and industrial ecology informed and motivated by neoliberalism, and shaped through the dynamic flux of fan/artist relationships and industrial uncertainty, the crowdfunding …

Differential Media Portrayal Of The Pope, Keara King, James Morris

Undergraduate Research Conference

This project presented the media portrayals of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. It examined theories of media impact on media consumers, and applied these to media coverage of the Popes and perceptions of Catholicism in America.

The Big Short, Elizabeth Armon

Communication Studies

The Big Short (McKay, 2015), adapted from the non-fiction novel The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis (2010), follows three separate but parallel stories leading up to the United States housing crisis of 2008. On a macro-level, the film brilliantly depicted the creation, and the ultimate burst, of the credit and housing market bubble. However, on a micro-level the audience is given an opportunity to realize and empathize with the internal struggle that many of the main characters faced as they grappled with the fact that their financial gain from shorting the market came with the caveat …

Using Social Media For Evangelism, S. Joseph Kidder

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The New Reflexivity: Puzzle Films, Found Footage, And Cinematic Narration In The Digital Age, Jordan Lavender-Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“The New Reflexivity” tracks two narrative styles of contemporary Hollywood production that have yet to be studied in tandem: the puzzle film and the found footage horror film. In early August 1999, near the end of what D.N. Rodowick refers to as “the summer of digital paranoia,” two films entered the wide-release U.S. theatrical marketplace and enjoyed surprisingly massive financial success, just as news of the “death of film” circulated widely. Though each might typically be classified as belonging to the horror genre, both the unreliable “puzzle film” The Sixth Sense and the fake-documentary “found footage film” The Blair Witch …

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

Journal of Media Literacy Education

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

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

Journal of Media Literacy Education

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

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

Journal of Media Literacy Education

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