Other Communication Commons^™

Exploring The Impact Of Pediatric Short Bowel Syndrome On Parent Well‐Being Using A Disease‐Specific Pilot Survey, Marie L. Neumann, Jessica Y. Allen, Amy Ladner, Swapna Kakani, Meaghann S. Weaver, David F. Mercer

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Background: Children with short bowel syndrome (SBS) have complex care needs, most of which are met in the home by family caregivers who may experience a range of stressors unique to this experience. Prior research suggests that parents of children with SBS have poorer health‐related quality of life than peers parenting children without health needs, but the mechanisms shaping parent outcomes are understudied.

Methods: A pilot survey was developed using a community‐driven research design to measure the impact of disease‐specific items on parent‐perceived well‐being. The cross‐sectional survey, which included both closed‐ended and open‐ended items, was distributed to a …

Paradox As Resistance In Male Dominated Fields And The Value Of (Sur)Facing Enthymematic Narratives, Jennifer J. Mease (Also Peeksmease), Bronwyn Neal

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Women working in masculine organizational contexts face a challenge of balancing (1) access to power by co-opting masculine discourse in ways that risk reinforcing it, with (2) challenging and resisting practices that privilege masculinity. In this manuscript, we address one communication strategy for navigating that challenge: The denial/acknowledgment paradox in which women explicitly deny that gender affected their experience, but also describe the many ways it affected their experience. To do so, we examined transcripts of interviews with 11 women candidates who ran in the 2017 Virginia House of Delegates election in the United States and demonstrated this paradoxical communication …

Difficult Conversations Concerning Identity And Difference: Diverse Approaches And Perspectives, Jordan Soliz, Srividya Ramasubramanian

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay is an introduction to the special issue on “Difficult Conversations Concerning Identity and Difference.” The essay begins with our argument that inquiries into difficult conversations are important as these interactions are key to addressing social inequities, creating and/or maintaining community and relational solidarity, amplifying voices of marginalized populations and/or diverse experiences, and enacting social change. Following this, we introduce the articles in the special issue highlighting the theoretical frameworks and methodological pluralism across the various relational and social contexts represented in the research (e.g., health care, higher education, community organizations, personal relationships). To complement the implications discussed by …

Exploring The Impact Of Pediatric Short Bowel Syndrome On Parent Well‐Being Using A Disease‐Specific Pilot Survey, Marie L. Neumann, Jessica Y. Allen, Amy Ladner, Swapna Kakani, Meaghann S. Weaver, David F. Mercer

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Background: Children with short bowel syndrome (SBS) have complex care needs, most of which are met in the home by family caregivers who may experience a range of stressors unique to this experience. Prior research suggests that parents of children with SBS have poorer health‐related quality of life than peers parenting children without health needs, but the mechanisms shaping parent outcomes are understudied.

Methods: A pilot survey was developed using a community‐driven research design to measure the impact of disease‐specific items on parent‐perceived well‐being. The cross‐sectional survey, which included both closed‐ended and open‐ended items, was distributed to a …

Advocating For A Patient‐ And Family Centered Care Approach To Management Of Short Bowel Syndrome, Vanessa J. Kumpf, Marie L. Neumann, Swapna R. Kakani

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Patient‐ and family centered care (PFCC) is a model of providing healthcare that incorporates the preferences, needs, and values of the patient and their family and is built on a solid partnership between the healthcare team and patient/family. This partnership is critical in short bowel syndrome (SBS) management since the condition is rare, chronic, involves a heterogenous population, and calls for a personalized approach to care. Institutions can facilitate the practice of PFCC by supporting a teamwork approach to care, which, in the case of SBS, ideally involves a comprehensive intestinal rehabilitation program consisting of qualified healthcare practitioners who are …

Designing A Loving Robot: A Social Construction Analysis Of A Sex Robot Creator’S Vision, Annette Masterson

Human-Machine Communication

In 2018, one of the world’s first sex robots was released by CEO Matt McMullen and his company, RealDoll. With artificial intelligence capabilities, the Harmony model is meant to support and converse with users. Using a social construction of technology theory lens, this study develops the theory’s fourth level of analysis, emphasizing mass media’s construction abilities. A critical discourse analysis of 38 publicity interviews found a tendency to emphasize the companionship of sex robots while envisioning a future where integration is normalized, and a sentient robot is possible. As the creator, McMullen’s vision could determine the future of robotic design, …

Gender And Human-Machine Communication: Where Are We?, Leopoldina Fortunati, Autumn P. Edwards

Human-Machine Communication

In this introduction to the fifth volume of the journal Human-Machine Communication, we present and discuss the five articles focusing on gender and human-machine communication. In this essay, we will analyze the theme of gender, including how this notion has historically and politically been set up, and for what reasons. We will start by considering gender in in-person communication, then we will progress to consider what happens to gender when it is mediated by the most important ICTs that preceded HMC: the telephone, mobile phone, and computer-mediated communication (CMC). We outline the historical framework necessary to analyze the last section …

Front Matter

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.

A Frayed Edge: A Qualitative And Poetic Inquiry Analysis Of White Antiracist Protest In 2020, Emily Katt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This multiphasic study explored the narratives of five first-time Black Lives Matter protesters demonstrating during the historic confluence of conflicts in 2020 America. After positioning the liminal 2020 circumstances within an antiracist research lens, the author analyzed, first through grounded theory and then secondarily through poetic inquiry, how these five participants described their protest experiences. The grounded theory phase yielded an overarching theory that first-time protestors experienced a dual process of unsuturing and of calling-out, with three subthemes categorized within each of these two processes. The author moved into analysis with the poetic inquiry phase, crafting poems guided by six …

Black Female Athletes’ Use Of Social Media For Activism: An Intersectional And Cyberfeminist Analysis Of U.S. Hammer-Thrower, Gwen Berry's 2019 And 2021 Podium Protests, Ariel Newell

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Much attention has been paid to Black male athlete activism both historically and in the contemporary movement for black lives. Black female athletes have also made historic contributions as activists, and they continue to do so. However, Black female athlete activism has not always been acknowledged or heard. This is a problem, as Black women in American sports and society face overlapping racial and gender inequities and injustices that distinctly marginalize and oppress them. However, some Black female athlete activists (BFAAs) have begun using social media to challenge media narratives about themselves, to redefine what it means to be a …

Journal Of Communication Pedagogy, Complete Volume 6, 2022

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Communicating Across Eternal Divides: Conceptualizing Communicated Acceptance During Parent-Child Religious Difference, Toni Morgan, Jody Koenig Kellas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Significant religious difference in the family has become increasingly prevalent in recent years. While religious difference may be challenging for families to negotiate, the manner in which family members communicate about it seems to be helpful in promoting positive interactions between parents and children. The purpose of this study was to conceptualize a parental communicated (non) acceptance continuum in the context of significant parent-child religious difference. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 44 adults who identified a significant religious difference with their parent. The results suggested that communicated (non)acceptance occurred along a continuum with four ranges of behaviors: communicated nonacceptance, ambivalence, …

Symbolic Annihilation And Stereotyping Of Native American Women In News: A Content Analysis Of Health, Safety, And Economic Status Related News, Shreyoshi Ghosh

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Professional Projects

This is an exploratory study on the safety, economic, and health challenges of Native American women who constitute about 1.5% of the American population. With the symbolic annihilation and stereotyping of Native American people and women of color, there was a need to study the portrayal of Native American women in news. The findings indicated there was a growth in news coverage during 2018-19 and safety, including missing and murdered, emerged as a key topic. But symbolic annihilation in health and economic status including pay gap news was significant. Health news mostly covered maternal health and deaths but excluded most …

Witnessing With Cameras Off: Feminist Pedagogy And The Zoom Classroom, Kristin Comeforo

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Do You Believe What You Know?: A Quantitative Analysis Of Sexual Education, Sexual Consent, And Rape Myth Acceptance In College Student Attitudes And Actions, Julie Sisler

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Sexual education has long been a heavily debated topic, particularly in relation to appropriateness and effectiveness. The subject is further muddled by the difficulty of effectively addressing sexual consent and sexual assault in sexual education. The topics have garnered additional attention in today’s society, but remain ambiguous and complex. This quantitative thesis sought to examine the relationships between sexual education, sexual consent, and sexual assault, focusing specifically on college populations. Through surveying 445 college students using the Updated Rape Myth Acceptance Scale (IRMA), Sexual Consent Scale (SCS-R), and Affirmative Sexual Consent Situational Knowledge Scale, connections between attitudes and actions regarding …

Healing Racial Injustice With Mindfulness Research, Training, & Practice, Danielle "Danae" Laura

Mindfulness Studies Theses

This thesis offers a collection of authors and studies in support of improved research, training, and practice connecting mindfulness with racial justice through intergroup applications. The paper identifies barriers at work (e.g., colorblindness, spiritual bypass, white fragility, and implicit bias) in contemplative science, Western Buddhist communities, and secular mindfulness centers, which block the sizeable contributions possible in studying the intergroup application of mindfulness practice—specifically Lovingkindness Meditation, among others—when used as an intervention with anti-racist aims. Through secondary qualitative research, I reviewed six key works from Black authors on mindfulness and race, as well as six sample studies on the prosocial …

Protector And Friend: Turning Points And Discursive Constructions Of The Stepparent Role, Bailey M. Oliver, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Vincent R. Waldron, Robert Hall, Lucas Hackenburg, Braedon G. Worman

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Objective: To understand turning points (TPs) in the development of positive stepparent–stepchild communication and relationships.

Background: Scholars stress the importance of communication in co-constructing healthy stepparent–stepchild relationships. The researchers focused on positive stepparenting via understanding transformational turning point (TP) events across time. Research questions explored how stepparents with an overall positive relationship with a stepchild characterize TPs and the discursive constructions of the stepparent role.

Method: The team analyzed 877 pages of data from 37 in-depth interviews with stepparents who described self-identified TP events, reflected in visual graphs of 279 TPs.

Results: Data were coded into 11 TP types, focused …

Pants On Fyre: Parasitic Masculinity And The Fyre Festival Documentaries, Kristen Hoerl, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The documentaries Fyre Fraud and FYRE: The Greatest Party that Never Happened recount the fraudulent and imprudent decision-making process that led up to the ill-fated Fyre Fest. These documentaries represent the music festival’s failure through depictions of white masculinity that seek parasitic attachment and proximity to the hegemonic ideal of masculine authority in the neoliberal marketplace. We argue that these movies map the operations of an imitative form of white masculine subjectivity that thrives in precarity, even as they recuperate the status of late-stage neoliberalism by symbolically removing parasitic masculinity from the neoliberal social order that it feeds on.

Paths To Positivity: Relational Trajectories And Interaction In Positive Stepparent-Stepchild Dyads, Vincent R. Waldron, Dawn O. Braithwaite, Bailey M. Oliver-Blackburn, Brianna L. Avalos

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Stepfamilies are inherently complex family systems, marked by change, flexible boundaries, and early conflict. But the developmental pathways by which long-term stepparent relationships become positive require more study. We interviewed 38 stepchildren who had reached adulthood, to understand how their relationships with a stepparent became positive. Four relational trajectories defined these positive relationships: punctuated, consistent positive, progressive incline, and modulated turbulent. Distinctive communicative practices were associated with each trajectory, such as communicating assurances, “siding,” or revelations of character. In addition, the trajectories shared three common processes: responsiveness to stepchild vulnerability, stepparent “adding value” to the family, and maturation/ reframing of …

Cultural Impact On Identity And How It Is Expressed Through Dress, Jenifer Thao

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study examined how students at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Arkansas incorporate their cultural background into their clothing as a form of self-expression. The study included an online survey platform, Qualtrics, created with a series of Likert-type and open-ended response questions to gather data regarding student opinions on clothing impacts. Results indicated that there were no significant associations when it comes to cultural influences on identity and how it is expressed through dress.

The Trauma-Informed Equity-Minded Asset-Based Model (Team): The Six R’S For Social Justice-Oriented Educators, Srividya Ramasubramanian, Emily Riewestahl, Shelby Landmark

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This paper describes the Trauma-informed Equity-minded Asset-based Model (TEAM) framework for social justice-oriented educators. We draw on trauma-informed approaches to illustrate how systemic racism as systemic trauma and normative whiteness as dominant ideology are embedded in the U.S education and media institutions. From an equity-minded perspective, we critique notions such as egalitarianism, colorblind racism, neoliberal multiculturalism, and abstract liberalism. Using an asset-based model, we urge educators to avoid deficit ideologies to frame marginalized communities. The TEAM approach offers the following “Six R’s” as strategies: (1) Realizing that dominant ideologies are embedded in educational systems, (2) Recognizing the long-term effects of …

Online Daters’ Sexually Explicit Media Consumption And Imagined Interactions, Megan A. Vendemia, Kathryn D. Coduto

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Individuals oftentimes turn to interpersonal and mass media content to cope and satisfy their sexual needs in absence of offline interpersonal connection. Online dating platforms enable virtual and physical connections between users. The literature on imagined interactions suggests that people may play out these interpersonal scenarios in their minds; however, it is less clear the role sexually explicit media exposure and sexual mediated interactions may serve in facilitating imagined interactions. We conducted a survey to examine U.S. online daters’ relationship preferences, sexually explicit media consumption practices (pornography and sexting), and imagined interactions with potential mates focusing on three primary functions: …

The New American Dream: Neoliberal Transformation As Character Development In Schitt’S Creek, William Joseph Sipe

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This article contextualizes the popular sitcom Schitt’s Creek within an era of unprecedented economic inequality and growing distain for the ultrawealthy. Via its over-the-top and self-effacing humor, the program invites audiences to discipline the Rose family for their former life of leisure and ultimately celebrate as each character is transformed into an ideal neoliberal subject via economic precarity and entrepreneurism. Through an analysis of the show’s 6 seasons, this essay articulates how the myth of the American Dream has adapted to neoliberal ideology that prizes precarity as a state of possibility and rejects leisure as laziness. Schitt’s Creek is emblematic …

I’M More Than A Farmer’S Wife, Stevie Munz

The Qualitative Report

Women have always contributed to family farming operations; however, their labor was largely positioned as “women’s work” and ignored as contributing to the economics of the farming enterprise. Through examining the stories of farmers’ wives, this essay examined how the gender division of work and the ideology of domesticity silenced women’s contributions to family farming operations. Through oral history interviews and thematic analysis, this research project presents stories from two farmers’ wives (Annie and Belle) from western Illinois. The resultant analysis reveals that Annie and Belle labored on their family farming operations for most of their lives.

Critical Thinking As A Pedagogical Approach: Using Critical/Cultural Studies To Analyze Music Videos, Lukas John Pelliccio, Timothy Brown

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Teaching undergraduate students how to critically analyze a text is an important experience. However, it is not easy to do this because readings are often dense, and the process of writing and presenting a critique can be challenging for some students. In light of this, we have developed an assignment where students critically analyze music videos for their ideologies. In the assignment, students select three specific overt or latent content pieces from a music video and explain how those manifestations influence a particular ideology in a paper. Then they are asked to show the music video to their peers and …

When The Pandemic Impacts The Most Vulnerable: Analyzing Crisis And Risk Messages Aimed At Latinx Individuals About Covid-19, Sofia Salazar, Deanna D. Sellnow

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

Guided by the IDEA model, this pilot study analyzes the perceptions about coronavirus (COVID-19) messages created to be distributed to the Latinx community in the United States. This study has been conducted to test the research questions proposed and the instruments so a second study can be executed based on Latinx populations in Florida communities. A survey was distributed among students from different ethnicities. A comparative analysis was run with the responses from the students who identified as Latinx and the students who identified as non-Latinx. The results demonstrated that components such as internalization, explanation, and action are present in …

The Idea Model As An Effective Instructional Crisis And Risk Communication Framework To Analyze The Cdc’S Messages Aimed At Hispanics In The Covid-19 Era, Sofia E. Salazar

International Crisis and Risk Communication Conference

This study explores, through a thematic analysis, the messages published in Spanish in the Holiday Celebrations and Small Gatherings [Celebraciones y pequeñas reuniones por las fiestas] section of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's website (CDC). To analyze these messages, this study used the IDEA model. The conclusions suggest CDC prioritized internalization and action messages over distribution and explanation in this section of the website. The conclusions also show that although the CDC incorporated all elements of the IDEA model in the messages, the information shared was a mere translation of the English version of the Holiday Celebrations and …

Truth As A Victim: The Challenge Of Anti-Trafficking Education In The Age Of Q, Bond Benton, Daniela Peterka-Benton

College of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

The QAnon conspiracy threatens anti-trafficking education because of its broad dissemination and focus on a range of myths about trafficking. These myths are rooted in historic and ongoing misinformation about abductions, exploitation, and community threats. This article examines the extent of QAnon’s co-optation of human trafficking discourses and evaluates its connection to trafficking myths, particularly related to gender, race, class, and agency. From this perspective, the article considers how anti-trafficking education can respond to these myths and build a pedagogy in the age of Q.

Techniques And Forces And The Communicative Constitution Of Organization: A Deleuzian Approach To Organizational (In)Stability And Power, Jennifer J. Mease (Also Peeksmease)

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This article introduces five principles of Deleuzian ontology and the conceptual framework of techniques and forces into emerging CCO scholarship addressing (dis)organization and power. By introducing Deleuzian concepts of (1) the virtual, (2) mutual (in)stability of meaning and materiality, (3) forces (and techniques), (4) communication, and (5) power, this essay builds a relational ontology that centers communication, speaks across existing theories of CCO, and offers a more detailed emphasis on power. In doing so, it enhances the explanatory power of CCO in general, as a set of theories useful for describing how organizational constitution and power play out in an …

“Geeks And She-Eks”: The Relationship Between Younger Women’S Experiences In Popular Geek Culture And Their Interest In Stem Fields, Madeleine D. Butcher

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

There is conflicting evidence about whether women’s participation in recreational, popular geek culture (e.g., gaming, fandom, science fiction consumption) can help close the gender gap in STEM fields. On one hand, these leisure activities can give women skills and experience that they can employ in STEM activities and culture. However, research also suggests that experiencing sexism while participating in geek culture activities can lower women’s motivation to participate in STEM. This thesis proposed that womens’ engagement in geek culture correlated with STEM efficacy and an interest in the STEM field. However, the type of experiences women have in geek culture …