Critical and Cultural Studies Commons^™

Approaches To Managerial Influence In The People’S Republic Of China, Kathleen J. Krone, Ling Chen, Hongwei Xia

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study identifies approaches to managerial influence in the People’s Republic of China and examines the reflection of cultural themes in these approaches. Forty-eight factory directors from state-owned enterprises completed a survey in which they reported what they would say to workers in obligatory and nonobligatory work situations. Descriptive coding was used to develop message category systems for each situation. A more interpretive form of analysis was used to identify how the cultural themes of values, political ideology, and changing managerial roles were reflected in the influence approaches reported. The interrelated cultural values of group-centeredness, hierarchy, and face concern were …

Conjuring Post-Worthlessness: Contemporary Web Art And The Postmodern Context: Part 1, Brett Stalbaum

SWITCH

This article is part one of two of an analysis of the Jean Baudrillard's essay, "A Conjuration of Imbeciles". This essay compares the idea of art as a metaphor for French politics and the “uselessness” of contemporary art. A sense of postmodernism is drawn from that comparison and relates to contemporary art shared on the World Wide Web. Inevitable messages and meaning found in art will change, but economics and distribution continues to ground the economy on a global scale. Therefore, contemporary art represented on the web actively dates the practice of art, and the value of the practice is …

Consumption Of Over-The-Counter Drugs And Attitudes Towards Over-The-Counter Drug Advertising: A Comparison Between The United States And Hong Kong, Kara K. Chan, Louisa Ha

School of Media and Communication Faculty Publications

A survey of 547 adults from the United States and Hong Kong was conducted to compare their perceptions about functions and consequences of OTC drug advertising and medical decisions when encountering health problems. Results indicate that American and Hong Kong consumers were very similar in their overall perception of functions and consequences of OTC drugs. A large majority of American consumers relied heavily on OTC drugs for all five types of selected health problems in this study. In contrast, Hong Kong consumers took OTC drugs only for specific illness.

Computer-Mediated Communication As The Paradigm: Resistance To Technology And The New Style Of Human Communication, Kaori Konta

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

“Here?” Strategies For Teaching About Cultural Diversity In Non-Diverse Settings, Anneliese Harper, Carol Cumber, Charles Braithwaite, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

How can educators motivate people in ethnically non-diverse areas to learn about multiculturalism? The roadblocks people may encounter in this process are explored and ways instructors may address multiculturalism in the classroom are presented.

Implications Of A Feminist Narratology: Temporality, Focalization And Voice In The Films Of Julie Dash, Mona Smith And Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Jennifer Alyce Machiorlatti

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation conducts feminist narrative textual analysis of films by three independent women film-makers-of- color: Julie Dash, Mona Smith and Trinh T. Minh-ha. The research utilizes traditional cinematic narratological methods combined with a feminist perspective. Narratology is the structural/textual study of narrative organization, style and content. Feminism is a theoretical body of inquiry which lends implications of gender difference, power relationships, cinematic stereotypes, and cultural significance to textual analysis. Feminist inquiry contributes a social, cultural, ideological and historical perspective to the taxomony of a structuralist narrative methodology. By combining this contextual perspective with a topological textual method, I propose consideration …

A Critical Theory Research Project: A Program Evaluation Of The Blueprint For Volunteer Diversity Project, Vassar Jean Vessup

Theses Digitization Project

No abstract provided.

A Binding Tie: Supportive Communication Of Family Kinkeepers, Margaret S. Leach, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Families are an important source of social support, and little scholarship exists regarding how family members stay in touch and provide support for one another. Kinkeepers are said to provide support and keep family members informed about one another, yet there has been little research on who family kinkeepers are and how they communicate and enact this role. Two studies were undertaken. The first study used surveys to provide demographic data on kinkeepers and to ascertain information on their activities. The second study used diaries and interviews to document the activities of a set of kinkeepers and to describe outcomes …

The Contract With America As Reported In Time And Newsweek : A Cluster-Agon Analysis, Cheryl J. Wilson-Ward

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The 1992 presidential election was labeled "The Election of Discontent" by the November 1992 edition of The World and I. Voter participation decreased steadily during the 1980s and the cynicism about politicians was labeled as the primary reason. In an November 7, 1994, Newsweek Poll, sixty-eight percent of Americans polled said they were dissatisfied with the way things were going in their country and more than seventy percent blamed politicians for those problems. Americans seemed not to be interested in casting their vote based on issues but on a growing angry sentiment toward incumbents.

香港流行文化與流行歌詞縱橫談, Minghui Liao

Dissertations from all years

本地文化與流行歌詞的關係

文化，就是指人類慣有的生活模式。它會因時代、地域、歷史、民族性等差異而有所不同。香港開埠已歷百餘載，但真正建立屬於"香港人"的文化，還只是近數十年的事。舊日歷史遺留的問題，令香港被視為無根的土地：加上其特殊的地理位置，香港自然成為東西方不同文化的交流點。香港的本土文化，就在強大的外來文化壓力下建立起來。

流行歌曲是流行文化的一個組成部分，亦能反映出時代變化。所謂 "流行" 是指一段時期內，大部分人熱衷於某種生活模式；時間一久，人們又轉而追求新一種生活模式。這種潮來潮去、乘時盛衰的表現，正是通俗文化發展的特點。值得注意的是，香港的流行歌詞或多或少沾有商業味道，而香港流行歌曲之所以發展蓬勃，亦有賴於 "經濟掛帥"；故此，仔細研究本地的流行歌詞，就像把弄著鏡子，不難照出香港獨特文化的真面目。

例如七十年代中期，香港經濟起飛，"大香港文化" 一時成為主流，許冠傑的通俗淺白的粵語歌曲大行其道；八九年六四前後，香港洋溢著一片愛國氣氛，遂於當時湧現了一批支持學運的歌曲。

由此可見，本地文化與流行歌詞的關係相當密切，歌詞反映的是六百萬香港人多年來的眾生相。本文以近三十年來粵語流行歌詞的演變作藍本，逐一細析香港這一時代的歌詞，並兼論三位具代表性的填詞人，探索他們的詞風在潮流漲退之下，如何產生變化。

穩定與不定 : 李碧華三部小說中的文化認同與性別意識 Certainty And Uncertainty: Cultural Identification And Gender Consciousness In Three Novels By Li Bihua, Siu Leung Li

Volume 4

No abstract provided.

The Nebraska Department Of Communication Studies Story: There Are Happy Endings That Go Beyond Football And A Good Crop Year, William J. Seiler

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The following essay discusses the proposed targeting of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Department of Communication Studies for total elimination. The essay describes the department’s demographics, the university’s budget crisis, and the department’s status at its time of peril. The essay reveals how the department learned of the proposal to eliminate it, how the department reacted to the proposed cut, how the administration established an appeals process to the proposed cuts, what explanation and criteria were used to target the department, how the department responded to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affair’s (VCAA) criteria for targeting the department, how the VCAA …

Popular Religious Radio Programs (A Content Analysis), Anthony Brian Corea

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Humanities at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Anthony Brian Corea in July of 1995.

The Nature And Authority Of Scripture : Historical Sources And Theological Engagement For Congregational Awareness And Reflection, Carson Reed

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

For many Christians, biblical authority is rooted in the concept of inerrancy or in the historical veracity. But within a increasingly post-modern culture, the church faces a crisis in both of these foundations. The modern presuppositions that undergird the inerrancy doctrine and the historical-critical method are showing distinct cracks in the once seamless confidence placed in both approaches. Additionally, for Churches of Christ, understandings about the nature and authority of Scripture area just below the surface of a number of issues confronting congregations. This project/thesis seeks to address this growing dilemma within the context of the Westlake Church of Christ …

“I Do” Again: The Relational Dialectics Of Renewing Marriage Vows, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Leslie A. Baxter

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This study provides descriptive insight into the dialectical themes of one public relationship ritual in modern US society, the renewal of marital vows between spouses. Interpretive analyses of in-depth interview data revealed that this ritual allows spouses to manage three underlying dialectical contradictions: private-public, stability-change, and conventionality-uniqueness.

Postmodernism And Anthropology, Elisabeth R. Gaines

Nebraska Anthropologist

Postmodem anthropology questions the authority of the objective participant observer, yet eludes a precise definition. Many different experimental approaches comprise the postmodern stand, and represents a diversion from interpretive anthropology. Deconstructionists peel away the layers of subjectivity from written text derived from observation. The movement presently resides in a whirlwind of conflicting opinions conceming the postmodem style of ethnography. One of these styles, inclusive of anything and everything, conveys a chaotic message, but lacks a truly holistic quality. Some postmodem critics believe the key to fundamental meaning lies in a historical perspective where the subtleties of interpretation and writing are …

A Qualitative Study Of Interpretive Communities Among Lds Women, Oleah Clegg

Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies have shown that a number of researchers have turned to the concept of the interpretive community to explain how audiences interpret the media within the context of their everyday experiences (Biocca, 1989; Gunter, 1989; Lindlof, 1989, 1992; Radway, 1984; Schrøder, 1994). D. A. Stout (1993) conducted a study that discovered three interpretive communities among LDS women who watch television, establishing that interpretive communities do exist among religious media audiences.

In 1994, K. Schrøder showed that the interpretive community can be further understood by taking a "social semiotic" approach to analyzing interpretive community members' social interaction with other communities. …

A Study Of The Rhetoric Of Rachel Carson's Spoken Messages, Kellie Dean Crump

Morehead State Theses and Dissertations

A thesis presented to the faculty of the Caudill College of Humanities at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Communication by Kellie Dean Crump on December 8, 1994

The Relationship Between Exposure To Television Violence And Committing Anti-Social Acts By Adolescent Male Juveniles, Rasha Abdel Hamid Kamhawi

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Responding To The Americans With Disabilities Act: Contributions Of Interpersonal Communication Research And Training, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Denise Labreque

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), has resulted in considerable misinformation and resistance, especially when ablebodied individuals and persons with disabilities interact. This essay reviews contributions of interpersonal communication researchers who address the challenges persons with disabilities face when communicating with ablebodied others, suggesting ways to mitigate communication discomfort and to reduce problems in helping situations. The authors suggest foci for future research and training which can contribute to the acceptance and effectiveness of ADA and to facilitate communication between ablebodied persons and persons with disabilities.

Structuring Constraints On Perceptions Of Upward Influence And Supervisory Relationships, Kathleen J. Krone

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This research examined the effects of centralization of authority on employees’ perceptions of the likelihood of attempting upward influence and their perceptions of supervisory trust and leader-member exchange. Three hundred and sixty-two employees from five different organizations responded to a questionnaire that assessed perceptions of centralization, attitudes toward upward influence, leader-member exchange, and supervisory trust. Consistent with earlier formulations, centralization was operationalized as perceptions of participation in decision making and job autonomy (Hage, 1980; Hage & Aiken, 1967). Results revealed that both job autonomy and participation in decision making significantly affect subordinates’ attitudes toward attempting upward influence and the levels …

The Contributions And Challenges Of Family Communication To The Field Of Communication, Sandra Petronio, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

As the Family Communication Commission in the Speech Communication Association is off to a good start, it seems appropriate to bring attention to the contributions and challenges studying family communication has for the discipline of communication. More than a decade ago, Bochner (1976) outlined several fruitful areas of investigation. Clearly, people heeded Bochner’s persuasive arguments and produced research on family communication problems (e.g., Bochner & Eisenberg, 1987; Fitzpatrick, 1988; Noller & Fitzpatrick, 1988; Petronio, 1982; Sillars, Weisberg, Burggraff, & Wilson, 1987). But, the need to examine family communication in more depth is essential to the growth and development of the …

Assessing Patterns Of Disengagement And Re-Entry In Two Local Congregations Of Churches Of Christ, David Mitchell Malone

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates two congregations among Churches of Christ with a prototype instrument adapted from questions used in a national survey (The Unchurched American, The Princeton Religion Research Center, 1978). The ministry objective for this project thesis is to generate an assessment instrument to be used as a tool for ministry between active and inactive church members.

Specific questions addressed are: what are the patterns of disengagement and re-entry in two local congregations connected with Churches of Christ? Is the disengagement of teenagers and young adults (age 13-24) in each local congregation measurably greater than other recognized age categories over …

A Biblical Program For Building New Self-Love In African American Males And Fathers, Anthony Roach Sr.

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

A training program for building new self-love in African American males and fathers was developed, taught, and implemented. The author made a conscious effort to employ an integrative approach to the curriculum, using both the resources of theology and psychology in its framework.

A Comparison Of Organizational, Structural, And Relationship Effects On Subordinates’ Upward Influence Choices, Kathleen J. Krone

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This research examined the extent to which organizational membership, centralization of authority, and subordinates’ perceptions of supervisory relationship quality affected how frequently they report using different types of tactics in their upward influence attempts. Participants from five different organizations were surveyed. A typology of upward influence tactics was created based on the extent to which: (1) the means employed to attempt influence are open or closed, and (2) the desired outcomes are openly expressed or left undisclosed. The resulting dependent variable consisted of three types of tactics: open upward influence, strategic upward influence, and political upward influence. MANOVA results indicated …

Narratives Of Action And Identity In Cloth: The Textiles Of Highland Luzon, The Philippines, B. Lynne Milgram

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The textile artifact, although framed by its physical existence, is not an isolated entity, but functions as a vital part in the ongoing systems of society. By viewing the artifact as an actor with its own life history and with particular parts to play in every sphere of life's narrative, we are provided with an entry to discovering how both the textile object and the subject, its creator and user, collaborate to mutually define one another. To interpret fully the significance of textiles within their cultural context one must examine not only the artifact's physical qualities, its materials, techniques and …

Managerial Communication Practices In Chinese Factories: A Preliminary Investigation, Kathleen J. Krone, Mary Garrett, Ling Chen

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of a preliminary study of selected managerial communication practices in Chinese factories. Members of a delegation of Chinese managers visiting the United States were interviewed to explore: (a) the extent to which Chinese factories conform to a bureaucratic model of organization, and (b) factory director communication within these organization. Of particular interest were their upward and downward communication practices, and their methods for persuading and motivating workers and managing conflicts with problem employees. The results of our investigation reveal a distinctive form of bureaucracy operating within these factories. Moreover, we describe patterns of managerial communication …

Protecting Defamatory Fiction And Reader-Response Theory With Emphasis On The German Experience, Henry Ordower

All Faculty Scholarship

Examines the litigation in Germany surrounding the publication of Klaus Mann's novel Mephisto. Analyzes the concepts of libel and defamation in fictional works and concludes that neither injunctive relief nor damages is appropriate because of the limited risk of injury and the potential for adverse impact on creative expression.

“Just How Much Did That Wheelchair Cost?”: Management Of Privacy Boundaries By Persons With Disabilities, Dawn O. Braithwaite

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Persons with physical disabilities were studied to determine how they communicate when they perceive able-bodied persons are expecting or demanding disclosure about their disability in new relationships. An interpretive analysis was performed on 350 pages of transcripted data from interviews with disabled adults. The results showed that disabled persons were able to describe the communication of able-bodied others and their attributions when disclosure was demanded or expected. This study revealed communication strategies disabled persons use to manage disclosure. These strategies were discussed as regulating privacy boundaries, whereby disabled persons seek to be acknowledged as “persons first” by controlling dissemination of …

Effects Of Leader-Member Exchange On Subordinates’ Upward Influence Attempts, Kathleen J. Krone

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This research examined the extent to which subordinates’ perceptions of supervisory relationship quality affected how frequently they use different types of tactics in their self-reported upward influence attempts. Based on their responses to the Leader-Member Exchange Scale (1982), three hundred and thirty-seven respondents from five different organizations were classified into an in-group or out-group supervisory relationship. As a part of a larger study, a typology of upward influence messages was created based on the extent to which: (l) the means employed to attempt influence are open or closed, and (2) the desired outcomes are openly expressed or left undisclosed. The …