Mass Communication Commons^™

The Effect Of Emotionally Arousing Negative Images On Judgments About News Stories, Martin Daniel Smith-Rodden

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Two experiments investigated the effects of the presentations of photographic images (highly emotionally arousing/low arousal/no image) on people's attitudes after reading a news story. Experiment 1 presented a story and images about U.S. involvement in the Afghanistan War. Experiment 2 replicated the design with a story and images about African famine relief efforts. Consistent with predictions of the affect heuristic model of judgment formation, the addition of emotionally arousing pictures had an effect on people's support for the war in Afghanistan and their support for famine aid. Additionally, effects were observed in broader attitudes concerning participant's support of a militaristic …

An Investigation Of Boaters' Attitudes Toward And Usage Of Targeted Mobile Apps, Kamra Bowerman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand boaters’ adoption and usage of smartphones and mobile apps as well as to obtain their opinion on potential features of a targeted mobile app being developed as part of a broader interdisciplinary Florida Sea Grant outreach project. Data were gathered from an online survey of a sample of 164 boaters from the surrounding Central Florida area. In contrast with previous empirical mobile app studies, many respondents reported using mobile apps for information-seeking versus escape gratifications. Further more than half of the respondents’ age sixty-five and over indicated using smartphones and mobile apps. …

Segmentation In Hispanic-Targeted Marketing, Silvia Irene Medrano

LSU Master's Theses

Hispanic-oriented advertising is a growing area in the advertising industry. Findings reported in this research examined agency strategies for advertising in Hispanic-oriented advertising. Interviews with agency practitioners involved in the planning, creation and media selection provided insight into agency best practices in Hispanic-oriented advertising. In-depth interviews at two Hispanic-oriented agencies revealed that a focus on cultural understanding, client relationships, and opposition of common stereotypes and segmentation practices were key in creating successful advertising that connected to Hispanic mindsets. Research results suggest that growth in the U.S. Hispanic population will not only affect the advertising industry, but will also create changes …

Corporate Use Of Social Media, Viktorya Mirzoyan

LSU Master's Theses

Despite significant and constantly increasing volume of social media use by both individuals and corporate entities, scarce scholastic attention has been paid to practices undertaken by companies and organizations in creating presence on social media, managing social media accounts and communicating with constituents on social media. New social media platforms appear regularly, attracting millions of daily visitors, however, this new type of communication media still lacks in-depth analysis, which would provide guidelines to be used by corporate entities to make their presence on social media most effective. This study makes the first step to analyze possible relationships between companies’ practices …

March Madness For Men, Gabrielle P. Jones

LSU Master's Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the manner in which the media covers men’s and women’s athletics and how it may affect the public’s perception of women’s athletics. The study also seeks to examine how the hegemonic devices and primes that the sports media use can affect viewers’ enjoyment of women’s athletic coverage as well as the effect that sports fandom plays on viewers perceptions. Using an experiment exposing participants to heavy men’s college and women’s college basketball coverage, the results showed that sports media coverage did not elicit negative perceptions toward women’s athletics.

When Your Good Friends Wear Prada : A Study Of Parasocial Relationships, Attractiveness, And Life Satisfaction, Kristen Marie Higdon

LSU Master's Theses

This study focuses on how viewers’ relationships with their favorite media characters can impact their outlook on their own lives. Through the examination of parasocial relationships (PSRs), attractiveness, and the traits of materialism and envy, this study looks at the consequences of such traits on one’s life satisfaction. Overall, the theoretical model presented argues to make the connection from one’s PSR to his or her life satisfaction. Using a sample of undergraduate students, participants were asked to complete a survey that examined individuals' relationships with their favorite fictional media character through the study of various characteristics, habits, and media uses. …

An Analysis Of Femininity : How Popular Female Characters In The Media Portray Contemporary Womanhood, Stephanie Ortego Roussell

LSU Master's Theses

The impact of the media on adolescent girls has received greater theoretical, legal and societal focus over the last few decades. Several studies link the development of women’s gendered identities, healthy sexual activity and self-efficacy to how the media portray women. Restrictive or unrealistic themes of womanhood or femininity in the media can impact a young girl’s social construction of identity and provide limited examples of what it means to be a woman in today’s society. This study qualitatively examines femininity in contemporary media by analyzing—via textual analysis and focus groups—how popular female characters embody, portray and promote different conceptualizations …

Did You Watch #Thewalkingdead Last Night? An Examination Of Television Hashtags And Twitter Activity, Jessica Hutchinson

LSU Master's Theses

This study examined on-screen hashtags and Twitter activity associated with four television programs (The Walking Dead, Pretty Little Liars, Scandal and Hannibal). Twitter facilitates real time discussions, allowing “water cooler conversations” about television to occur while shows air live. Hashtags organize these conversations around topics of interest. Active viewers will migrate to new media sources, searching for additional content that interests them. The act of complementarity increases their level of media enjoyment. The desire for this additional content dictates the viewer’s behavior. Network producers also promote media convergence, utilizing websites and social media to build word of mouth advertising for …

Multitude Of Needs Met By An Online Mom Community, Shannon Alexis Snell

LSU Master's Theses

Online communities for expectant mothers have existed for many years, but newer social media sites are allowing these groups to exist in different formats. This study features an online community of 94 women that originated from TheBump.com’s forums who then formed their own community, a Facebook group for February 2012 moms. The women exist in many different social media spheres including the group, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a separate Buy/Sell/Trade Facebook group. This study used a survey questionnaire to determine whether these different social media sites and platforms met different needs for this specific group of women. The study also …

Chronic Pain In Entertainment Media: Using Empathy To Reduce Stigma, Rebecca Lang

LSU Master's Theses

Entertainment media represent a primary source of health information, making it a prime area of research for wide-spread health issues such as chronic pain. Chronic pain conditions can elicit stigmatization due to pain representing a subjective experience; coming to understand the experience of a person in pain can reduce stigma for that person as well as the entire group of people with chronic pain. Entertainment media, through the use of an engaging narrative and characters, can portray an illness experience that potentially elicits empathy and reduces stigma for chronic pain conditions. This study is among the few to employ empathy …

Speak, And Speak Immediately : The Risen Subpoena, The Executive Branch, And The Reporter's Privilege, Matthew Schafer

LSU Master's Theses

In 1972, Branzburg v. Hayes required the Supreme Court to consider whether the First Amendment to the United States Constitution conferred on journalists a right to quash grand jury subpoenas issued by the government. The Court held in a five-to-four opinion that it did not. Yet, in 2011, a federal district judge found that James Risen, a New York Times reporter, had a First Amendment reporter’s privilege that protected him from having to reveal his source for a book chapter about a secretive CIA operation. This judge is not alone in finding such a privilege in spite of Branzburg; indeed, …

Front Cover

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Title Page

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Editorial Board

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Editor's Page, Stephen K. Hunt, Joseph P. Mazer

Basic Communication Course Annual

Over the past 20 years, the basic communication course has become a staple of many of general education programs. The ability to communicate effectively is viewed as a prerequisite to interpersonal relationships, success in the workplace, and meaningful participation as a citizen in our democracy.

The role of the basic communication course in general education affords the discipline with substantial political capital on many campuses—administrators often look to the basic course as an ideal location for launching new initiatives and capturing important data regarding student learning outcomes. To the extent that basic course directors are able to deliver those initiatives …

Contents And Abstracts

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Directing The Winds Of Change: The Basic Course And General Education, Joseph M. Valenzano Iii

Basic Communication Course Annual

Communication departments remain heavily reliant on the inclusion of an introductory communication course in their institution’s general education program. For this reason it is essential for Basic Course Directors (BCDs) to educate themselves on general education. In doing so they will find a new iteration of change to general education where the required course and distribution model are disappearing in favor of an interdisciplinary outcomes-driven approach. Such a shift can have dramatic repercussions on the basic course and communication programs if the course is not further connected with other areas of general education. In this essay, I argue for Basic …

Embracing And Rejecting Student Agency: Documenting Critical Reflection Practices In The Basic Communication Course Classroom, Blair C. Thompson, Renee Robinson

Basic Communication Course Annual

This interpretive study explored classroom power through the implementation of critical reflection exercises aimed at promoting student agency and learning in the basic course classroom. Data included over 400 critical reflection responses from 81 undergraduate students from four different basic course sections.

Three emergent patterns revealed students’ positive re-action to the critical reflection process, how students both embrace and reject power in the classroom, and connections between the critical reflection process and student learning. The findings offer teachers support for implementing critical reflection practices in the communication classroom.

Static And Dynamic Interplay Among Communication Apprehension, Communicative Self-Efficacy, And Willingness To Communicate In The Communication Course, Georgeta M. Hodis, Flaviu A. Hodis

Basic Communication Course Annual

This research offers an in-depth analysis of both static (cross-sectional) and dynamic (longitudinal) relations among communication apprehension, communicative self-efficacy, and willingness to communicate pertaining to the public speaking context. Using longitudinal data from undergraduate students enrolled in a semester-long basic communication course (BCC) focusing on public speaking, the study sheds light on the complex patterns of interrelationships among the three constructs and on the differences arising when regarding them from a static versus dynamic standpoint. The research reveals important findings that have salient implications for instruction in the BCC and are informative for theory-development and general pedagogical practice in the …

Assessment Of E-Textbook Usage In A Large Public Speaking Program, Marlina M. Davidson, Karen Kangas Dwyer

Basic Communication Course Annual

This study examined student usage of an e-textbook in a large multi-section basic pubic speaking course that fulfills the oral communication general education requirement at a large state university in the Midwest. The results collected from students surveys (n=598) indicated that they are not yet using e-textbooks across other university classes, they prefer printed textbooks to e-textbooks, they perceive advantages of e-textbooks to be cost, weight, ability to quickly find topics and conveniences, while they perceive advantages of printed textbooks to be the ability to highlight and take notes, ease of reading, and keeping the printed text-book for future reference. …

Assessing Student Public Speaking Competence In The Hybrid Basic Communication Course, Kristen Leblanc Farris, Marian L. Houser, Crystal D. Wotipka

Basic Communication Course Annual

Public speaking remains one of the most sought-after skill sets by employers. However, a method to accurately assess these public speaking skills has long been debated by educators and scholars alike (Morreale, Hugenberg, & Worley, 2006). This study sought to ex-amine the assessment tools used to demonstrate student learning of public speaking skills in the hybrid orientation of the basic communication course. Statistical analyses were conducted to determine the validity of two assessment instruments (Informative Presentation Assessment Form and Persuasive Presentation Assessment Form) measuring student public speaking competency. Results established concurrent validity of the two assessment instruments used to measure …

A New Hybrid: Students’ Extensions Of Integrated Communication Content, Amy L. Housley Gaffney, Brandi N. Frisby

Basic Communication Course Annual

Using Bandura’s (1977) self-efficacy theory, this study examined student perceptions of changes in efficacy and affect toward a variety of communication skills (e.g., interpersonal, writing, visual, public speaking, group collaboration) over a sequence of two hybrid basic course classes. As part of a larger assessment initiative, both quantitative and qualitative data from the first course (n = 793) and the second course (n = 273) were analyzed. Students reported greater affect and efficacy during the second course when compared to the first course. Specifically, students reported six affective changes including expanded knowledge, enhanced collaborative skills, increased openness and acceptance, heightened …

Facing With Non-Nativeness While Teaching: Enacting Voices Of International Teaching Assistants Of Basic Communication Courses, Arata Miyazaki, Kaori Yamada

Basic Communication Course Annual

This paper presents our voices as international teaching assistants (ITAs) of public speaking courses at American universities and discusses how non-native English speaker identity, or non-nativeness is displayed, developed, and negotiated through our inter-actions with both native and other non-native speakers. Regarding our companionship as ITAs of public speaking as a subject of study, we engage in narrative co-construction about our survival in graduate programs. We argue that non-nativeness is not monolithic but is more relational and multilayered than it tends to be assumed. Obtaining a teaching position was an epiphany for our relationship, changing the perceptions about and attitude …

Effect Of Goal-Setting And Self-Generated Feedback On Student Speechmaking, Luke Lefebvre

Basic Communication Course Annual

This investigation examined how goal setting strategies and self-generated feedback from video affects student grade improvement on subsequent speaking occasions. Students (n =140) across ten course sections were conveniently assigned to experimental conditions manipulating video use and goal setting strategies. Significant and meaningful main effects of anticipatory goal setting combined with self-generated feedback from video were obtained when compared to unstructured video replay, only goal setting, and self-reactive goal setting with self-generated feedback from video. Implications for these findings are examined along with the potential of video as an instructional technological tool for student learning in the introductory course.

Author Biographies

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Index Of Titles And Authors, Volumes 1-24

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Submission Guidelines

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Back Cover

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Basic Communication Course Annual Vol. 25

Basic Communication Course Annual

Full issue (377 pages, 14.2 MB)

Theories Of Public Opinion, Patricia Moy, Brandon Bosch

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

While the issue of citizen competency has vexed scholars throughout history, the modern concepts of a mass public and mass media are relatively new. Beginning with the seminal works of Lippmann and Dewey, we chart the evolving theories of public opinion, from the "hypodermic needle" model of the early twentieth century to the more psychologically oriented approach to media effects of today. We argue that in addition to understanding how audiences process media content, theories of public opinion must account for how media content is constructed and disseminated, which is complicated by the ever-changing nature of our media landscape.