Other Communication Commons^™

Accounting For Lesbian-Headed Families: Lesbian Mothers’ Responses To Discursive Challenges, Jody Koenig Kellas, Elizabeth A. Suter

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Although lesbian mothers are often called to justify their family’s legitimacy, we know little about these interactions. The current study included 44 female coparents across 10 focus groups discussing the interactive process of discursive legitimacy challenges. Using the theoretical framework of remedial accounts (Schönbach, 1990), inductive and deductive coding revealed several existing and new types of challenges, accounting strategies, and evaluations relevant to interactions of lesbian mothers. Communicative processes unique to the interactions of female coparents included challenges emerging from societal master narratives (e.g., health care, education, politics, religion); accounting strategies such as leading by example; and evaluations related to …

The Impact Of Competition In Forensics On Future Careers, Jace Thomas Lux

Dissertations

Each year, thousands of college students participate in forensics (competitive speech and debate). Despite previous studies that identify numerous benefits to forensics participation, the activity is often eliminated from college campuses due to financial constraints. Although previous literature identifies the benefits of forensics participation to competitors, these studies do not address the lasting impact of college forensics participation on the careers of former competitors.

This exploratory study sought to identify the forensics outcomes that former competitors felt are used most frequently in their current careers, as well as the amount of emphasis forensics programs are placing on teaching these particular …

The Right Call: Baseball Coaches' Attempts To Influence Umpires, Kevin Warneke, David C. Ogden

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

On-field conversations and confrontations between baseball coaches and umpires have long been a part of the game. An umpire's decision can alter the course of the game, but little has been written about the exchanges between a coach or manager and umpire, especially in relation to theoretical considerations. This study applies management and leadership theories in exploring the strategies baseball coaches use to contest an umpire's decision. By using leadership scholar John E. Barbuto's concept of influence tactics and the various types of social power discussed by sociologists John R. French and Bertram Raven, the study also tests the congruence …

Neocolonialism And The Global Prison In National Geographic’S Locked Up Abroad, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay examines the reformulation of colonial ideologies in National Geographic Channel’s Locked Up Abroad, a documentary program that chronicles the narratives of Westerner travelers incarcerated in foreign nations. An analysis of Locked Up Abroad evinces neocolonialism in contemporary media culture, including the historic association between dark-skin and savagery, the backwardness of the non-Western world, and the Western imperative to civilize it. The program’s documentary techniques and framing devices sustain an Otherizing gaze toward non-Western societies, and its portrayals elide a critical analysis of colonialism in its present forms. I advocate for neocolonial criticism to trace how NatGeo remains …

Thank You For Being A Friend: Women's Self-Disclosures And Social Support On Facebook, Emily A. Dolan

Media Studies - Theses

This study focused on women's self-disclosures on Facebook and how they functioned to both gain and give support on the site. After employing 17 textual analyses of participants' Facebook pages and 17 in-depth interviews, a variety of themes emerged in regards to how and why women give and seek support on the site, the types of information disclosed, and the benefits of self-disclosing to gain support on the site. More specifically, results indicate that gender role expectations, which for women include exhibiting behaviors that convey warmth, kindness and politeness, play a large role in giving and receiving support on the …

An Exploration Of Social Media Use In Local Television News Stations: An Evaluation And Development Of A Successful New Media Strategy, Aniseh Ebbini

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the ways in which Social media have gained popularity over the last decade, amongst the public, and especially in the television news industry. After evaluating the current ways Social media are being implemented and observing national trends, I developed a comprehensive new media strategy to serve as a guide and reference for any television station wanting to incorporate these tools into its regimen.

The Relationship Of Women's Magazines And Their Websites: A Comparative Analysis Of Print And Web Content, Allison Walker Ruff

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the digital expansion of magazines, it is essential to determine how a magazine's online and digital content compares to its print content. The editorial strategy for print content versus Web content could make a difference in consumers' brand attachment and loyalty to a magazine. Magazines must have a dynamic online strategy that offers a different experience than printed material in order to gain new relationships and strengthen those relationships people already have with the brand. A comparative analysis of the print content versus the online website content of four separate women's publications can help determine if each magazine is …

Prosody-Based Query-By-Example Spoken Utterance Retrieval, Steven D. Werner, Nigel G. Ward

COURI Symposium Abstracts, Summer 2012

Current spoken dialogue retrieval systems are almost entirely lexically based, using automatic transcription by imperfect speech recognition technology. Once audio is reduced to text, little more than existing text search methods are used to retrieve results. However, spoken dialogue contains rich latent prosodic information about dialogue activities - such as agreeing, arguing, deciding, planning, storytelling, showing surprise - and this extra information can often be relevant to the searchers aims. Searching for similar speech acts rather then similar words enables similar contextual results, returning points where the speaker had the same sentiment during a topic. Previous research yielded 76 dimensions …

A Study On Facebook Advertisement Strategies: Facebook Wall Posts Promote Higher Response Than Private Messages, Bria Park

Communication Studies

In this study, I focused on whether Facebook wall posts or private messages create a higher response rate from the receivers. First, I explain the background of internet communication and how certain strategies have created higher response in the past. Then, I present my method for discovering whether wall posts or private messages are more efficient in gaining response. Lastly, I reveal my results and discuss both what I could’ve done better to create more precise results and how this experiment is beneficial for modern day advertisement companies.

Communicating Effectively In Rapidly Changing Times, Anne Marie Casey

Staff Works - Hunt Library

This presentation explores communication in academic libraries that experienced rapid changes during the Great Recession and its aftermath. The investigator conducted a multi-case study, in which she interviewed library and university participants in three U.S. academic libraries in 2010. Results show that communication existed for the most part in the three libraries, all of which were maintaining strategic priorities while experiencing dramatic changes.

Selective Amnesia And Racial Transcendence In News Coverage Of President Obama’S Inauguration, Kristen Hoerl

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The mainstream press frequently characterized the election of President Barack Obama the first African American US President as the realization of Martin Luther King’s dream, thus crafting a postracial narrative of national transcendence. I argue that this routine characterization of Obama’s election functions as a site for the production of selective amnesia, a form of remembrance that routinely negates and silences those who would contest hegemonic narratives of national progress and unity.

Out Of Our Depth: Hyper-Extensionality And The Return Of Three-Dimensional Media, Justin Alan Brecese

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work theorizes the contemporary attraction to three-dimensional media. In doing so, it reframes ongoing debates surrounding digital three-dimensional media in order to critique the neoliberal social relations such media engender. I argue that the contemporary interest in dimensionality, especially regarding digital media, is symptomatic of a broad cultural shift, wherein millions of lives are now essentially being lived through two-dimensional, "flat" media, which have consequently generated a lack of spatial relationships and a craving or desire for "depth." This "desire for depth" has arisen in contemporary society because people are being "spread too thin" through a combination of the …

Assessing The Presence And Use Of Nonverbal Communication In Primary Reading Instruction, Amelia C. Ferrell

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This research examined the presence and types of nonverbal communication presented in primary reading instruction. Primary instructors were surveyed about their use and types of nonverbal communication employed during reading instruction. Nonverbal communication variables studied were determined from relevant literature regarding nonverbal immediacy, primary education, and reading instruction. Findings revealed that almost all nonverbal communication variables studied were employed frequently and most respondents had no prior training. Findings suggest how future studies can better evaluate the role of nonverbal communication in reading instruction and provide education for primary teachers in hopes of improving literacy education.

Communication Strategies To Restore Working Relations: Comparing Relationships That Improved With Ones That Remained Problematic, Jon A. Hess, Katelyn A. Sneed

Communication Faculty Publications

When considering problematic workplace relationships, the question naturally arises of how people can deal most effectively with these challenges. What people most want with difficult relationships is a way to make the problems go away. That desire calls for research on strategies to transform problematic relationships into non-problematic relations. For this issue, there is both good news and bad news.

First, the bad news: There are few easy answers when dealing with problematic relations. Problematic relationships are difficult by definition. Relationships that involve challenges a person can easily resolve are not difficult relationships. The co-construction of these relationships often intertwines …

When Talking Helps: A Quantitative Study Of Privacy And Resilience After Bereavement, Carrie Lynn West

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Using the theoretical framework of Communication Privacy Management, this study sought to determine how trait resilience, state hopefulness, distress disclosure, use of social networks, and boundary turbulence relate to bereaved spouses' life satisfaction. Bereaved spouses (N=149) completed questionnaires at Camp Widow, a weekend-long conference for bereaved spouses held in San Diego, from August 12-14, 2011. Participants were single, engaged or remarried. The average age of the participants is 46.24 years. The average age at time of bereavement reported was 43.71 years. The amount of time that had passed since the death of their spouse was 2.83 years, and the average …

Speech Center Support Services, The Basic Course, And Oral Communication Assessment, Karen Kangas Dwyer, Marlina M. Davidson

Basic Communication Course Annual

This study examines the role a speech center plays in supporting university-wide oral communication assessment. Specifically, this study queries student usage of speech center support services and perceived changes in public speaking anxiety, public speaking confidence, and public speaking skills. The findings indicate that students who report more visits to the speech center also perceive that using the speech center helped reduce their speech anxiety and increase their confidence in public speaking. In addition, those who report it “helpful” to self-evaluate recordings of their in-class speeches also report a greater reduction in speech anxiety, a greater increase in confidence, and …

Reconsidering Consultants’ Strategic Use Of The Business Case For Diversity, Jennifer Mease (Also Peeksmease)

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

The business case for diversity—the practice of connecting human differences to an organization’s bottom line—has been critiqued for its compromised treatment of human difference. Through a grounded in action discursive analysis of 19 interviews with diversity consultants, this research identifies three occupational demands that prompted consultants to use the business case: organizational access, motivation, and emotion work. The analysis also identifies strategies consultants used that met these demands without relying on the business case: connecting to mission statements, connecting to individual tasks, appealing to personal experience, sequencing, combining, balancing discourses of emotion and business, drawing on spiritual grounding, and using …

Clarifying Communication Competencies Through An Interdisciplinary Approach To Communication Pedagogy, Mary Mino

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

The increased focus on assessment has resulted in a greater demand and pressure for communication programs to validate that students have learned and can apply communication competencies. However, for the most part, communication educators have offered no well-defined guidelines or systematic approaches that have been endorsed unequivocally. Although literature has described Relationship Enhancement (RE) as an extremely successful approach for improving oral communication, it has not been studied by the majority of communication educators. Through its nine basic skills, the RE Approach offers specific guidelines that systematically operationalize how to communicate effectively. This essay shares integrative research that develops a …

From The Perspective Of A University President, Thomas J. Hynes Jr.

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

No abstract provided.

Editor’S Note, Don W. Stacks

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the Editor’s Note to Volume 31, Issue 1 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

From The Chair's Perspective, Michael D. Miller

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

No abstract provided.

Administrating Integration: The Principles Of Integrated Communication In The Institutional Setting, Brian G. Smith

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

As an emerging paradigm for communication management, integrated communication, also referred to as integrated marketing communication (IMC), poses challenges to communication administration, particularly when institutes of higher learning face a departmentalized context that may impede integration efforts. This article outlines the principles of integrated communication and illustrates them in a university’s integrated communication efforts. Integration may function as an organic process of interpersonal and social connected.

Forensics As A Correlate Of Graduate School Success, Todd T. Holm, Heather J. Carmack

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Forensics is an extremely popular extracurricular activity in the communication discipline and often provides competitors with skills required for success in graduate school. This exploratory study examines the relationships between forensics competition and success in graduate school. Through a survey of 169 graduate students, we compare graduate students with a forensics background (n = 35) and those without a forensics background (n = 134). The study generates several important findings. First, graduate students who competed in forensics report higher levels success in graduate school and are more likely to present conference papers and publish in academic journals. Second, the level …

Complete Issue, Volume 31, Issue 1

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the complete issue for Volume 31, Issue 1 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

From The Faculty Senate President’S Perspective, Mark Hickson Iii

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

No abstract provided.

Adapting Assessment For The Field Of Communication, Marcus Paroske, Sarah Rosaen

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

It has now become a universal mandate that communication programs conduct assessment of whether students attain selected learning outcomes. However, approaches to assessment unique to communication beyond the basic public speaking course are rare in the literature. This paper defends a “meta-assessment” approach to communication assessment as a key to negotiating the unique attributes of the field of communication, especially in heterogeneous academic departments and programs. It further argues that this approach can benefit assessment of similar, interdisciplinary academic programs.

Editor's Note, Don W. Stacks

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the Editor’s Note to Volume 31, Issue 2 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

Evaluating Basic Public Speaking Course Student Presentations: Some Assessment Considerations, Mary Mino

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Evaluating basic course students’ presentational speaking skills accurately and effectively has always been a challenging and vitally important instructional task. Considering the communication discipline’s need to clarify and to improve communication course assessment, this essay compares the effectiveness of four valid presentational speaking forms. In order to explain the need for this comparison, first, the essay emphasizes for basic public speaking course instructors the significance of increasing students’ understanding of communication competence both in theory and practice. Second, the essay supports a rationale for examining the effectiveness of presentational evaluation forms using a comparative analysis as the basis of this …

Best Practices In Faculty Evaluation, Sue Pendell

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

No abstract provided.

Assessing Organizational Image Through The College Open House: A Tool For Success, Andrea M. Pampaloni, Andrea Vadaro Tucker

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This study evaluates how effective colleges and universities are in presenting an accurate and positive organizational image via their open house events. The Open House Assessment for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) © was developed to determine how institutional characteristics identified by potential members as influential to their decision to affiliate with a school were made relevant through the organizational image presented by the school. Open house events at twenty-four colleges and universities were assessed using the tool. Findings indicate that there are overall modifications to open house events that might benefit all schools, suggesting that the tool can be an …