Critical and Cultural Studies Commons^™

Governing Algorithmic Attention: Attention Safeguard Models And The Cognitive Attentional Standard As System Level Interventions In Human Computer Interaction, Behavioral Economics, And Artificial Intelligence, Delante Clark

Graduate Scholarship and Creative Works

Algorithmic recommendation systems and interface designs shape attention by combining visually salient cues with uncertain reward timing and low friction interaction. These conditions can sustain anticipatory checking, extend time on task, and reduce natural disengagement points through patterns such as infinite scrolling and autoplay. This paper synthesizes research across neuroscience, human computer interaction, behavioral economics, and artificial intelligence to argue that attention capture is a predictable outcome of incentive driven design rather than an individual failure of self regulation. It advances the Attention Safeguard Models and the Cognitive Attentional Standard as system level interventions that regulate exposure conditions, pacing, and …

Platform Affordances, Produsage, And The Attention Economy: From Red (Taylor’S Version) To The Life Of A Showgirl, Angela Rose Asuncion

The Manuscript: Journal of Taylor Swift Studies

Social media platforms increasingly operate as infrastructures of visibility, shaping the conditions under which cultural content is produced, circulated, and recognised (van Dijck et al.; Nieborg and Poell). This article examines Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) and The Life of a Showgirl as two distinct visibility configurations emerging from the affordances and algorithmic logics of TikTok and Instagram. Drawing on platform studies (Abidin), celebrity theory (Dyer; Marshall; Marwick), and participatory culture and produsage (Jenkins; Bruns), the study employs a QCA-inspired configurational approach (Ragin) to analyse how clusters of affective cues, aesthetic strategies, parasocial signals, and circulation patterns generate contrasting visibility …

The Migrant As A Pilgrim: Decolonising Identity And Belonging, Susan Nemec

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper responds to pilgrimage scholar George Greenia’s assertion that meaningful intersections exist between pilgrimage and various forms of displacement, such as migration or involuntary exile due to famine, war, or political unrest. Greenia proposes that vulnerable, displaced individuals might find shelter, both conceptually and emotionally, within the framing of pilgrimage. By extending concepts of pilgrimage, it can be understood as a deliberate and intentional journey, simultaneously emphasising the transformative potential inherent in migratory movement. By adopting a working definition of pilgrimage as ‘any form of travel that is intentional, purposeful, or transformative,’ the paper considers how migrancy, particularly within …

International Students In Early American Forensics: Notes On The History Of The U.S.-Japan Forensics Relationship During The Late 19th And Early 20th Centuries, Satoru Aonuma, Junya Morooka, Tomohiro Kanke

Studies in Debate and Oratory

Ending 215 years of “national seclusion,” in 1854, Japan ratified the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United States and opened its doors to the rest of the world. Because of this special bilateral relationship, between the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, more Japanese began traveling to the U.S. than to any other country. Focusing on young Japanese who went to the U.S. as students and participated in debate and oratorical education during this period, this essay will re-examine the history of the U.S.-Japan relationship in terms of academic debate and oratory. During this period, American …

Leading The Temporary Workforce: Leadership Communication And Adaptation Among Seasonal Employees, Alfred Kwabena Obiri

Theses and Dissertations

Seasonal employees constitute an essential yet understudied workforce sustaining organizational operations during peak demand periods across industries. Despite the growing organizational reliance on temporary employees, organizational communication studies have primary focused on permanent employees with extended socialization periods, leaving important questions about how leadership communication operates in compressed timeframes inadequately addressed. This qualitative study examined how leadership communication practices shape seasonal employees’ adaptation, belonging, and morale within the temporal constraints characteristic of temporary employment. Drawing on organizational socialization theory, leader-member exchange theory and cultural dimensions, this study employed semi-structured interviews with 19 seasonal employees across hospitality, camp, retail, and education …

You Are Your Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams: A Journey Beyond The Lens Blueprinting The Influence And Impact Of Media And Podcast Pedagogy On Black And Brown Creatives In Higher Education And Beyond, Diamond N. Morgan Dr.

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Explores the influence and impact of media and podcast pedagogy on Black and Brown creatives (BBC) in higher education. Grounded in Critical Race Theory (CRT), the Black Creative Educational Experience (BCEEs) framework, and the conceptual lenses of sociological and public podcasting, this study examines how podcasting functions as a transformative pedagogical and sociocultural tool for storytelling, identity development, creative expression, and community building within collegiate environments. Utilizing a convergent parallel mixed methods design, the study integrates quantitative survey data from 65 participants with qualitative focus group discussions to provide a holistic understanding of participant experiences across personal, professional, academic, social, …

If It Walks Like A Duck: Self-Identification, Definition, And Experiences Of Non-Traditional Doctoral Students In The Communication Discipline, Laura C. Bruns, Sara V.A. Kaufman, Ana Lisa Padron Eberline, Meredith L. Pruden, Erin Perry, Elise P. Taylor, Deborah J. Danuser

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This study aimed to understand experiences of nontraditional doctoral students pursuing their PhD in Communication. Although the term “nontraditional student” exists in the literature (Cox & Ebbers, 2010; Stone & O’Shea, 2019), there is little consensus about demographics of nontraditional doctoral students (NTDS), nor their experiences navigating these programs. Using qualitative, thematic analysis of survey responses (n = 52), this critical mixed-method study found three themes— age, experience, and education gap—as defining identity factors, barriers, and benefits. Participants described themselves as nontraditional due to different lived experiences from graduate peers, resulting in feelings of “Otherness” within their programs. These findings …

Becoming A Beloved Community: A Restorative Reckoning For A Radical Conversion To Transform Discourse In Higher Education, Latasha Tomay Varlack-Butler

Dissertations

This dissertation critically examines the misappropriation of Restorative Justice Discourse (RJD) within three predominantly white institutions (PWIs), analyzing 59 institutional documents through Critical Discourse Analysis, Relational Critical Discourse Analysis, and Rhetorical Criticism (Fairclough, 1995; Vaandering, 2021; van Dijk, 2008). Tribal Colleges and Universities and South African institutions have emerged as exemplars of authentic RJD, countering co-optation within PWIs. The findings demonstrate that RJD as applied in PWIs is framed in ways that attenuate its transformative potential, perpetuating color-evasiveness (Bonilla-Silva, 2017) and obscuring the intersectional experiences of Black, Indigenous, and disabled communities (Crenshaw, 1991; Million, 2009).

Grounded in decolonial praxis (Smith, …

Punk's Not Dead, You Are: Punk, Shock-Effects, & Self-Reflection, Fernando Martinez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In this thesis, I argue that punk can be anything, but dead. I honor punk as part of a wider avant-garde movement. In that spirit, I lay out a theoretical framework of shock-effects that I eventually employ as a lens for analyzing data. In “reviewing” the literature, I call attention to the mysteries that early scholarship revealed, how present-day scholars have turned these mysteries into practical approaches to living, and the importance of autoethnographic approaches to studying punk. To employ autoethnography, I generated data through personal memories of punk, self-observation and self-reflection of punk in my life, and considered what …

Media Quiteracy: Why Digital Disconnection Belongs In The Media Literacy Curriculum, Katie Day Good, Michelle Ciccone

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In this essay, we introduce media quiteracy, which we use to conceptualize and describe the valuable learning that can happen through the refusal to take up new media or the act of pausing or ceasing its use. We see media quiteracy as an active and generative approach to learning and argue for its inclusion in the media literacy curriculum. We trace the history of critical engagement with technologies within education and then articulate what media quiteracy can look like in practice. We surface and discuss three potential obstacles to teaching media quiteracy, which include the ways in which it …

The "Green Gals" Podcast And Website, Courtney Perkins

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Professional Projects

This is a series of three podcast episodes under the series name "Green Gals" with a companion website of the same name. Each episode focuses on a different aspect of sustainable living with the goal of providing valuable tools, tips and information that everyday people can use to integrate sustainability into their everyday lives. The episodes ("Reduce, Reuse... Recycle?"; "Food Waste" and "Composting 101") are hosted by myself and a co-host, discussing the topic along with pre-recorded interviews which I conducted with experts in the field. The material is presented in a casual, engaging manner, employing music intros, transitions and …

Digital Inequalities And U.S. Undergraduate Outcomes Over The First Two Years Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Vikki Katz, Amy B. Jordan, Katherine Ognyanova

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated major and rapid changes to undergraduate student learning conditions, but the longer-term consequences of those changes have yet to be fully understood. We assess how digital inequality—defined as challenges in accessing or maintaining a broadband internet connection and functional digital devices—affected undergraduates’ advancement toward on-time graduation over the first two years of the pandemic (2020-2022). We utilize survey data from a representative sample of 1,106 undergraduates at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, a public, 4-year university located in New Jersey, USA. Respondents were undergraduates who had been enrolled in full-time student status throughout the first two years …

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

Feminist Pedagogy

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

Resilience And Reality: Exploring The Lived Experiences Of People Living With Hiv In Texas During The Covid-19 Pandemic – A Qualitative Study., Ahmed F. Alanazi

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

This study investigated the lived experiences of individuals living with HIV (PLWH) in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area of Texas during the COVID-19 pandemic, using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) framework. The research examined the intersection of health, social dynamics, and psychological resilience among PLWH, who faced compounded vulnerabilities due to systemic inequities and the dual public health crises of HIV and COVID-19. Through semi-structured interviews with ten participants from diverse backgrounds, the study captured the profound impacts of disrupted healthcare systems, heightened stigma, and social isolation on this marginalized population. The findings reveal that the pandemic exacerbated existing inequities …

Co-Creation, Interpretations And Engagement With A Movement-Based Symbol For Climate Justice: A Qualitative Inquiry, Kai Reimer-Watts

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The climate crisis demonstrates with complete clarity the need for massive systems-level changes towards far more sustainable societies. Global and local emissions need to decline rapidly to mitigate intensifying climate breakdown, accompanied by climate and sustainability solutions, to secure a far more stable, safe, and just future for all people and all life. Within these changes, engaging in our communities is essential to support and co-create broader solutions to help advance more sustainable societies, reduce negative impacts of a changing climate, and to move towards cultures and systems that recognize natural limits and centre care for people and planet.

‘Climate …

A New Theater For Age-Old Social Patterns: An Exploratory Study Of Interpersonal Dynamics And The Overlay Of Gender Within Ai Companionship, Miriam Wolff

Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) companions fundamentally shifts the landscape of interpersonal communication, introducing artificial entities as relational partners rather than mere facilitators of human-to-human interaction. This exploratory study examines the interplay of machine gendering, self-disclosure, perceived partner responsiveness (PPR), and interpersonal satisfaction within human-AI interactions. Participants engaged in conversations with gendered AI companions through the program Replika, completed structured surveys, and participated in qualitative interviews. Findings indicate that users' willingness to self-disclose was influenced by their perceptions of AI responsiveness, while gendered characteristics of AI significantly shaped user expectations and communication patterns. Specifically, users often attributed distinct personality …

Healthcare-Seeking Behavior In A Toxic Landscape: Investigating Cancer Care Awareness In Louisiana's Cancer Alley, Moumita Roy

LSU Master's Theses

The fossil fuel and petrochemical sector in the Louisiana region, known as "Cancer Alley," has a devastating impact not only on the environment but also on the health and lives of the local population. Extreme pollution from the petrochemical industry not only elevated cancer rates in this region but also maternal, reproductive, and newborn health harms, respiratory diseases, and other complex health issues. This study examined the healthcare-seeking behavior of some residents and their awareness of cancer facilities within a 100-mile radius of their homes and identified key challenges, such as proximity of cancer care and accessibility, financial constraints, and …

Introducing The Transcendent Media Experience Model (Tmem), Sophie H. Janicke-Bowles

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Eudaimonic media experiences are vast. A comprehensive theoretical model of inward- and outward-focused eudaimonic media outcomes, that can explain how they come about and how they can be discriminated, is still missing. The current manuscript introduces the Transcendent Media Experiences Model (TMEM) to categorize eudaimonic content and experiences as they pertain to healthy self-focus or outward-focused (transcendent) responses and outcomes using self-construal theory as a backbone. This model allows for a more cohesive understanding of when, how, and for whom inward- or outward focused eudaimonic media experiences develop and the mechanisms for why they do so. As such, the model …

Principal Agency 50 Years After The Lau Decision: Building And Sustaining Bilingual Education Programs For Asian Languages, Kevin M. Wong, Zhongfeng Tian

Education Division Scholarship

This study examined how three champion principals of Asian language dual language bilingual education (DLBE) programs—Cantonese, Korean, and Mandarin—in California have navigated the oscillating language-in-education policies after the Lau decision. We explored principals' various roles through a lens of agency in a social justice leadership framework, specifically considering the opportunities and challenges for agentive leadership from three different phases: foregrounding and engaging, planning and implementing, and evaluating and sustaining. Findings demonstrate that the success of DLBE programs goes beyond the overarching language policies that supposedly enable bilingual education; rather it hinges on the bottom-up commitment, collaboration and resilience of principals, …

Carceral Liberalism: Feminist Voices Against State Violence, Andrea Michaels

Feminist Pedagogy

The following book review of Shreerekha Pillai’s Carceral Liberalism: Feminist Voices against State Violence (2023) is an expansive and timely collection of essays on the carceral state in its implications for feminist educators. This review focuses on the connections and connectivity of two essays in the collection that attempt to address a minor examination of the person as political.

Rhetorical Tapestries Of Water Injustice: The Framing Of (In)Access And (In)Justice In The Struggle For Water Security In The United States, Carla R. Richards

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation argues that access to clean water is a fundamental human right and a cornerstone of environmental justice. It critiques existing communication and rhetorical scholarship for overlooking the environmental dimensions of water access and justice. This gap hinders progress toward equity for marginalized communities disproportionately burdened by water insecurity.

This project proposes a communication approach that prioritizes culturally relevant strategies to empower these communities in advocating for their environmental rights and health needs. By bridging the communication and environmental justice fields, this project equips communities with the tools to demand fair solutions. It ultimately calls for a transformative shift …

Training In Trauma-Responsive And Anti-Racist Telehealth: A Model For Behavioral Health Clinicians And Providers, Ritchie Rubio

Psychology Division Scholarship

Telehealth's uptake in behavioral health services has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, many clinicians continue to lack focused training in providing trauma-informed and culturally-responsive telehealth care. This article outlines a model curriculum that was created to instruct and coach behavioral health providers in California on how to integrate anti-racist and trauma-responsive techniques into telehealth. Topics like evidence-based trauma therapies, racial/ ethnic trauma, marginalized communities, digital divide, and provider selfcare were all covered in the nine-part curriculum. Every three-hour session included evidence-informed didactic content, telehealth skills practice, and concrete planning for implementation. Trauma-responsive frameworks such as the tri-phasic model …

The Post Pandemic Learner: How Spatial Dynamics & Accessibility Impact The Learning Experience, Erikka Misrahi

All Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic had unprecedented impacts on Generation Z (Gen Z) in regard to mental wellbeing and learning impacts. While the world shut down in March 2020, the majority of students who have since entered college were forced to attend some portion of high school using remote learning platforms. This transition, while necessary at the time, has had repercussions that are still being felt in higher education. These impacts, combined with the challenges that Gen Z were already experiencing due to the pressures of social media, and the impacts that technology has had on attention spans, have changed their learning …

A Rhetorical-Sociological Understanding Of Emotion, Amy Boone

All Dissertations

This project presents a rhetorical-sociological understanding of emotion while foregrounding the place and role of language. Born from Sara Ahmed’s work in The Cultural Politics of Emotion, it presents a simplified equation (contact + orientation = emotion) as both a prescriptive and descriptive formula for making sense of human emotional experience. Starting with an exploration of the difficult-to-understand affect system, this dissertation identifies both rhetoric and affect as energies which cannot be understood apart from their traces, the things they move, produce, and become. As a way to get at these often-invisible forces, two trace studies are conducted which explore …

An Examination Of How The Media Portrayed Professional Female Athletes During The 2023 Women's World Cup In The Match-Up Between Spain And The United States, Brianna R. Breazier

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Professional Projects

This project is an examination of how the media portrayed professional female athletes during the 2023 Woen's World Cup in the match-up between Spain and the United States. This project consists of a literature review of the history of both countries, an overview of feminist theory, and past studies that show current patterns of biases or stereotypical behavior in today’s mainstream media. This project also consists of a cross-examination and comparison between Spain and the United States, specifically examining the timeline of events between the two. The purpose of this study is to compare the media trends of professional female …

Trust Me: Film + Q&A; (February 22, 2024, 5:30 Pm, Sheldon Museum Of Art) [Poster], Sheldon Museum Of Art, University Of Nebraska-Lincoln

Sheldon Museum of Art: Catalogs and Publications

Poster for Trust Me: Film + Q&A held February 22, 2024 at 5:30 PM at the Sheldon Museum of Art (University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States).

Poster blurb:

In today's information landscape, how do you know whom--and what--you can trust? Watch the award-winning, feature-length documentary Trust Me, which explores how media technology is influencing society and what we can do about it.

A Q&A with Rosemary Smith, filmmaker and managing director of the non-partisan Getting Better Foundation, follows.

More information about the screening is available at https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/trust-me-documentary-to-screen-at-sheldon/.

More information about the film is available at https://www.trustmedocumentary.com/ …

A Hip Hop Dialogic: Exploring Hip Hop Feminism In The College Classroom, Makini Beck, Nickesia Gordon

Feminist Pedagogy

In this paper, we explore the use of Hip Hop feminist pedagogy in an undergraduate classroom. We discuss the ways an in-class deliberation activity can: 1) engage students in ethical argumentation and critical reasoning on Black and Latina women’s representations in Hip Hop music and culture; 2) invoke discussions about the sexual and racial politics inherent in Hip Hop, including the objectification, hyper-visualization and marginalization of Black and Latina women; and 3) prompt students to think about Black and Latina women’s resistance to dominant male discourses and the ways women participation in the music and culture can be identified as …

Identifying Youth Appeals In Alcohol Alternative Social Media Content Through Framing, Melina Oneal

West Chester University Master’s Theses

Proposed regulations for alcohol advertising prevent beverage companies from targeting people under the legal drinking age. However, similar regulations for alcohol alternative beverages are less explored, which could allow alcohol alternative products to create awareness for alcoholic beverages among youth. Alcohol alternatives beverages, including no-alcohol and low-alcohol products, are increasing in popularity and can function as compliments to alcoholic products to decrease the total alcohol volume consumed or as substitutes for alcoholic products. Framing theory can be operationalized through the Content Appealing to Youth Index, an index of content elements found in research literature to be appealing to youth, to …

An Examination Of Scientific And Technical Communication For Forensic Engineering And Forensic Pathology., Tori C. Reeder

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Police communication sits at the unique intersection of risk communication, scientific and technical communication, and medical communication, as we see in forensic reports. In this dissertation, I examine the communicative underpinnings of forensic pathology and forensic engineering reports. I argue that there is not only an inherent link between the unpredictability of a written text and the reception of said text by both its intended and unintended audience, but also a link to the broader socio-cultural contexts. I will examine an atypical forensic pathology report (autopsy report) of George Floyd, a more standard forensic pathology report of an inmate who …

Argumentation For Critical Heterogenous Political Discussions: Constructing A Rebuttal, Rebecca Oliver

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This activity seeks to explain to undergraduate students how to craft a proper attack and defense in argumentation and debate, persuasion, or political communication courses. The activity teaches students 1) the parts of a basic argument structure and 2) how to construct a rebuttal using a basic argument structure. Students will argue against their true political typology by selecting an opposing typology from the Pew Research Typology Quiz. Broadly, this exercise is designed to encourage students to engage in dialogues with people who disagree with their political positionality. Specifically, the activity accomplishes this by teaching students the value of basic …