International and Intercultural Communication Commons^™

Managing Cosplay Performance: The Forms And Expectations Of Convention Roleplay, Isaac V. Price

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Costume play (i.e. cosplay) is a performance of fandom rife with rituals and communication practices. Cosplay roleplaying performances are cultural practices that reveal how cosplayers interact with one another and among non-cosplaying members of their fandoms. This study examines the expectations that cosplayers hold for roleplay, the forms of roleplay, and the ways in which roleplay can become an instigator of harassment. Through the lens of Face-Negotiation Theory, the author discusses how roleplay functions to maintain or threaten the public images of cosplayers and their audiences, and what strategies cosplayers implement to avoid the loss of face.

Exploring Ethnic Stereotypes Through The Production Of Five Short Films, Ines Galiano Torres

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is a nontraditional thesis that combines social research in ethnic stereotypes in TV and film with the creative process of film production. This paper contains the formal step of research, in addition to the details on the production and creation of five original short films related to the issue of ethnic representations.

Telling Tales As Oral Performance: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of Storytelling In Ireland, Scotland And Southern Appalachia, Annalee Tull

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I sought to link, through this paper, cultural performances of identity through storytelling in Ireland, Scotland, and southern Appalachia. I evaluated storytelling practices, whether it was a public or private performance, using symbolic interactionism, dramatist theory, narrative paradigm, and performance theory. The author studied abroad in Ireland and Scotland through the East Tennessee State University Appalachian, Scottish, and Irish Studies Program and experienced an array of stories. She then evaluated her own experiences with storytelling from growing up in southern Appalachia and visited the International Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN. The research is rooted in grounded theory from ethnographies, with …

Framing The 2012 Olympics: A Content Analysis Of International Newspaper Coverage Of Female Athletes, Jessica Giuggioli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present content analysis was designed to identify the representation of female athletes in the media during the 2012 London Olympics. Coders analyzed 617 mentions of male and female athletes in order to determine the quantity and quality of coverage during the 2012 Olympics. The research mostly supported previous literature concerning the depiction of female athletes in the media, as the study revealed an imbalance in the quantity and quality of coverage of male and female athletes in newspapers. The frequency of mentions of female athletes was lower than the frequency of mentions of male athletes. Furthermore, female athletes were …

Chinese International Students’ Intercultural Communication Competence And Intercultural Communication Apprehension In The Usa, Yi Lin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the intercultural communication competence and intercultural communication apprehension of Chinese international students. Participants in the study consisted of Chinese international students over 18 years old studying at two 4-year public universities in the southeastern United States. The study participants completed 2 online survey questionnaires: the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS), which measured the degree of intercultural communication competence, and the Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension (PRICA), which measured the degree of intercultural communication apprehension. The findings of the study indicated a significant relationship between Chinese international students' intercultural communication competence and their intercultural apprehension. Findings also noted …

Communicative Language Teaching In Current Chinese Colleges And Universities., Xiaorong Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been prioritized as the key instructional approach in colleges since the Chinese Ministry of Education issued a revised syllabus in 1999 that underlines college EFL students' communicative competence. The issuance of the syllabus was followed by a series of reforms on curricular designs and teaching methods. However, CLT has encountered great resistance. College teachers and learners are constrained by socio-cultural influences such as the perceptions of teachers' roles and ways of learning and teaching (Hu, 2002; Rao, 1996). Although some teachers have shown positive attitudes towards CLT, in general they have failed to practice it …

Are U.S. And French Cultural Differences Reflected In Advertising Appeals?, Ciprian S. Begu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using 2 of Hofstede's cultural dimensions (power distance and uncertainty avoidance) associated by the research of Albers-Millers and Gelb with some of Pollay's value appeals used in advertising, this study successfully replicated 3 of 8 dependant relationships when analyzing the content of print magazines in U.S. and France. Going beyond the scope of a highly educated audience in which Hofstede's cultural dimensions were developed and retested, we indirectly found that these 2 dimensions of culture are partially salient in non-business, less elitist environments in the form of value appeals such as "dear", "untamed", "magic", and "youth" reinforcing the idea that …

Current Public Relations Status In China., Fang Meng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is to explore the status of public relations in China. It examines if J. Grunig and Hunt's (1994) four models of public relations-press agentry, public information, two-way asymmetrical, and two-way symmetrical-are practiced by Chinese public relations practitioners and if there are additional patterns of practicing public relations in China. It is a qualitative study. Long interviews with 10 participants were conducted to learn about the phenomenon of public relations in China. The interviews were based on one-to-one chat via the Microsoft Messenger software online. The data were collected using open-end questions that allowed the participants to provide in-depth …

A Media Analysis Of Racism And Ethnocentrism Issues Framed In Us And European Mass Media Within The Setting Of The 2006 Fifa World Cup Competition., Monica Nastase

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present exploratory study, framed in agenda-setting theory, analyzes the way European and US newspapers frame racism and ethnocentrism issues, on the background of the 2006 FIFA World Cup. By combining quantitative and qualitative methods, 2 research hypotheses and 9 research questions were explored. The results showed the distribution of articles that used a positive frame and the ones that used a negative frame was relatively equal across geographical regions.

The US media have shown as the most ethnocentric nationality the Spanish, while the European media, the Scottish. There is an agreement across different geographical regions that the French and …

War On The Media: The News Framing Of The Iraqi War In The United States, Europe, And Latin America., Maria Pestalardo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes the framing of the war in Iraq (2003) during the week before and the week after the conflict started according to the media coverage of nine leading newspapers from United States, Europe, and Latin America. Through quantitative content analysis, the researcher answered seven research questions and analyzed the framing, sources, and approaches used by the newspapers in the news coverage of the conflict. The researcher compared the news coverage of each region and found that there were significant differences in the content of the war reporting according to the geographical area of the media. European and Latin …