Other Communication Commons^™

Review: Sexualized Media Messages And Our Children: Teaching Kids To Be Smart Critics And Consumers, Becky Michelson

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Today’s youth are exposed to sexualized media at an alarming rate. The inundation of sexuality and gender stereotypes is further perpetuated by youth interactions with celebrity culture, the search for fame, and social media. In her book, Sexualized Media Messages and Our Children: Teaching Kids to be Smart Critics and Consumers, Jennifer Shewmaker explains the increasingly sexualized media’s effects on the self-esteem, identity formations, and sexual behavior of youth. Shewmaker offers a research-based approach to the detrimental effects of media that is supplemented by case studies, interactive media critique exercises, and discussion pointers for influential adults and educators in …

What Do Facts Have To Do With It? Exploring Instructional Emphasis In The Stony Brook News Literacy Curriculum, Jennifer Fleming

Journal of Media Literacy Education

An analytic matrix comprised of multiple media literacy teaching and learning principles is conceptualized to examine a model of news literacy developed by journalism educators at Stony Brook University. The multidimensional analysis indicates that news literacy instructors focus on teaching students how to question and assess the veracity of news texts, and their approach favors cognitive skill development over other ways people make meaning of media messages. Based on these findings, a cognitive theory of news literacy is proposed as a means to situate the journalistic methods and mindsets that informed the Stony Brook curriculum within the parameters of established …

Rap Music Literacy: A Case Study Of Millennial Audience Reception To Rap Lyrics Depicting Independent Women, Mia Moody-Ramirez, Lakia M. Scott

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Using a feminist lens and a constructivist approach as the theoretical framework, we used rap lyrics and videos to help college students explore mass media’s representation of the “independent” Black woman and the concept of “independence” in general. Students must be able to formulate their own concept of independence to counteract the messages and stereotypes they receive in popular culture through advertisements, film, print and music. The authors found that independence is situationally defined and it is a complex concept that is differentiated in consideration of age, race, and gender. Participants noted that rap music has the potential to influence …

Web-Based Media Literacy To Prevent Tobacco Use Among High School Students, Jane S. Phelps-Tschang, Elizabeth Miller, Kristen R. Rice, Brian A. Primack

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Facilitator-led smoking media literacy (SML) programs have improved media literacy and reduced intention to smoke. However, these programs face limitations including high costs and barriers to standardization. We examined the efficacy of a Web-based media literacy program in improving smoking media literacy skills among adolescents. Sixty-six 9th grade students participated in a Web-based SML tobacco education program based on health behavior theory. Pre- and post-test assessments demonstrated statistically significant changes in the primary outcome of total SML as well as each of the individual SML items. However, there were inconsistent changes in other theory-based outcomes including attitudes and normative beliefs.

College Students' Motivations For Using Podcasts, Mun-Young Chung, Hyang-Sook Kim

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Despite potential benefits of podcasts for college education, little research has examined students’ psychological drives for using podcasts. To explore the relationship between the use of podcasts and college students’ appreciation of them, this study investigated students’ motivations, attitudes and behaviors with regard to podcasts use including their learning environment. Based on a survey with 636 college students, this study found that six dimensions of motivations were prominent for podcasts use: (1) voyeurism/social interaction/companionship, (2) entertainment/relaxation/arousal, (3) education/information, (4) pastime/escape, (5) habit, and (6) convenience. In particular, motivations catering to relationship consolidation, excitement and educational achievement better explained the actual …

Debates About The Future Of Media Literacy In Turkey, Ebubekir Cakmak Ec, Sait Tuzel St

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Media literacy has been widely debated in Turkey since the early 2000s and has been in the curriculum of the secondary schools as an optional subject for nearly a decade. During this time period, about four million students have received media literacy education. The multidisciplinary structure of media literacy has contributed to the interest of many researchers from varying fields. These researchers, who have different viewpoints, acceptations and expectations, have formed certain groups in a short time period and have started to defend their particular media literacy approaches and practices. This study examines the basic debates and issues that have …

Age Differences In Cancer Treatment Decision Making And Social Support, Jessica Krok, Angela L. Palmer-Wackerly, Phokeng M. Dailey, Julianne C. Wojno, Janice L. Krieger

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the decision-making (DM) styles of younger (18-39 years), middle-aged (40-59 years), and older (≥60 years) cancer survivors, the type and role of social support, and patient satisfaction with cancer treatment DM.

Method: Adult cancer survivors (N = 604) were surveyed using Qualtrics online software.

Results: Older adults reported significantly lower influence of support on DM than younger adults. The most common DM style for the age groups was collaborative DM with their doctors. Younger age was a significant predictor of independent (p < .05), collaborative with family (p < .001), delegated to doctor (p < .01), delegated to family (p < .001), and demanding (p < .001) DM styles.

Discussion: Despite having lower received social support in cancer …

Editor's Page, Joseph M. Valenzano Iii

Basic Communication Course Annual

We are now in the 28th volume of the Basic Communication Course Annual, a testament to the dedication of those concerned with the introductory course in communication. Over the years these pages have been graced with significant work that has influenced the nature of the basic communication course, thereby impacting the lives of thousands of students across the country. That said, I am struck by the fact we have no “motto,” no phrase that captures our feeling about this important educational experience. I would like to muse about what might work as a motto for what we do and teach.

American Indians And The Rhetoric Of Removal And Allotment (Book Review), Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

With the recent inflection in rhetorical scholarship on theorizing citizenship, Jason Edward Black’s American Indians and the Rhetoric of Removal and Allotment is a timely reminder that the early formation of U.S. civic identity was predicated on the erasure of indigenous sovereignty, culture, and identity. Black’s project also disabuses readers of the historical misconception that this erasure was a unidirectional process wherein indigenous peoples ultimately succumbed to the onslaught of Western colonization. Instead, Black begins with the assumption that U.S. public culture is, in part, the outcome of a dialectical struggle between Euro-Americans and American Indians over the meaning of …

My Friendship Story: Tanzanians’ Tales Of Friendship Analyzed Through Knapp’S Relational Model, Dorcus Nakalembe

Masters Theses

From both theoretical and practical considerations, there is a critical need to study friendship development processes within different sociocultural worlds, because today’s world has become a crossroads for a diversity of cultures. To date, research in friendship development mainly addresses cognitive and psychological implications to the process and rarely gives attention to the stages/ processes individuals of different sociocultural backgrounds experience as they build friendship. The present study aimed at comparing friendship development in a non-Westernized group to the stages of relational development suggested by a Western psychological theoretical framework. Tanzanian friendship experiences were analyzed through Knapp’s Relational Model to …

Informational Efficiency And The Reaction To Terrorism: A Financial Perspective, Nicholas Roland

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to measure the message terror organizations hope to convey using the financial markets as a proxy of measurement to determine patterns within the marketplace and the effects on the terrorists’ ability to deliver a desired message due to the increased use of digital devices and access to instantaneous news, seen over the past decade. Using death count, geographic location, and event type, this study identified 109 attacks between 1985 and 2015 to be analyzed against 5 market indices and 5 securities. Measuring the effects within a 10-day sample window from the time of the …

Intervention E-Mails And Retention: How E-Mails Tailored To Personality Impact An Undergraduate Student's Decision To Return To School Or Not, John Kelly Heffernon

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Universities and colleges constantly face a costly problem: low student retention rates. One potential solution to low student retention is a personality-tailored e-mail intervention. The researcher tested this idea with a sample of 59 first-year students from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Participants took a personality assessment in order to measure their personality trait of sociability. Then participants were split into an experimental group and a control group based on a matched-sample paradigm that ensured sociability was not significantly different between the two groups. Participants in the experimental group received four different intervention e-mails throughout the course of the 2015 fall …

Editor's Note, Janie M. H. Fritz

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the Editor’s Note to Volume 35, Issue 1 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

Editor's Note, Janie M. H. Fritz

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the Editor’s Note to Volume 35, Issue 2 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

Capstone-Ish: Student Success And The Rhetorical Functions Of A Different Kind Of Capstone Course, E. Michele Ramsey

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

In response to a variety of contexts, most notably the national and academic rhetoric promoting STEM majors over those in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, a new way of thinking about the capstone course in communication may be warranted. More specifically, administrators of communication programs looking for ways not only to foster growth in students, but also to increase the status of their programs on campus and in the community, might find this course useful for those programmatic goals. This paper proposes a constructivist capstone-ish course that marries the theories and applications of communication studies with a student’s real …

Mission Statements As Naming Proposals: An Rsi Approach, Susan K. Opt

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This study explores the communication process used to generate and express communication program mission “names.” It argues that the process that underlies the creating, maintaining, and changing of names, ranging from the specific to the ideological, also generates academic unit “mission.” Viewing mission texts through the lens of the rhetoric of social intervention model reveals how the texts reason rhetorically as they propose and provide evidence for the “appropriateness” of a unit’s constituted mission name. Awareness of the rhetorical-reasoning pattern can help unit members make sense of mission-building or -revising work and provide a practical way for them to organize …

Dialogic Education In An Age Of Administrative Preening, Ronald C. Arnett

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Text of the address given by Ronald C. Arnett, recipient of the 2016 Paul H. Boase Prize for Scholarship, granted by the School of Communication Studies at Ohio University for outstanding scholarship in the field of communication

Complete Issue, Volume 35, Issue 2

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the complete issue for Volume 35, Issue 2 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

The Challenges Of Communicating Low Probability And High Consequence Risk: Recommendations For Earthquake Pre-Crisis And Emergency-Risk Communication, Emina Herovic

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

The Crisis and Emergency-Risk Communication (CERC) model is effective in providing communication recommendations for public health agencies and shows potential for use by other agencies with similar crises characterizations. The current study explores the challenges of earthquake scientists in communicating earthquake risk during the pre-crisis stage in order to grasp experts’ experience and gain insight into the complex and multifaceted world of communicating earthquake risk. The researcher integrates the in-depth knowledge with the recommendations of the pre-crisis stage of the CERC model. This study employs qualitative interviewing with earthquake scientists (N = 21) from the Southern California Earthquake Center …

Air Traffic Communications In Routine And Emergency Contexts: A Case Study Of Flight 1549 ‘Miracle On The Hudson’, Angela Garcia

Natural & Applied Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper is a conversation analytic investigation of Air Traffic Control (ATC) communications with U.S. Air Flight 1549 and other flights before, during, and after a critical emergency in which the plane (safely) landed in the Hudson River. While foundational conversation analytic research on air traffic communications has already been done, this method has not yet been systematically applied to air traffic communications during actual emergencies. This project will therefore fill a gap in previous research by analyzing ATC/plane interactions during an actual emergency and investigating whether routinized procedures alone are the most effective when emergency situations occur. I will …

Mitt Romney In Denver: “Obamacare” As Ideological Enthymeme, Justin Ward Kirk

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This paper argues that surface-level analysis of political argument fails to explain the effectiveness of ideological enthymemes, particularly within the context of presidential debates. This paper uses the first presidential debate of the 2012 election as a case study for the use of “Obamacare” as an ideological enthymeme. The choice of a terminological system limits and shapes the argumentative choices afforded the candidate. Presidential debates provide a unique context within which to examine the interaction of ideological constraints and argument due to their relatively committed and ideologically homogenous audiences.

Incorporating Learning Analytics Into Basic Course Administration: How To Embrace The Opportunity To Identify Inconsistencies And Inform Responses, Lindsey B. Anderson, Elizabeth E. Gardner, Andrew D. Wolvin, Rowie Kirby-Straker4, M. Adil Yalcin, Benjamin B. Bederson

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Consistency is imperative to the success of a multi-section basic course. However, establishing consistent practices is a difficult task, especially when coupled with maintaining instructor autonomy. Learning analytics tools, designed to improve learning and teaching by collecting and analyzing pertinent information through interactive databases, can be used by basic course administrators to improve consistency. Using a reflective case study methodology we share our experience incorporating a learning analytics platform into our basic course. In doing so, we highlight the role this technology can play in terms of identifying areas of inconsistency as well as informing ways to improve overall course …

Chance Or Choice? An Analysis Of Assumed Biological Sex-Based Differences In Undergraduate Public Relations Course Teaching Distributions, Damion Waymer, Douglas Cannon, Joshua Street

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

In this study the authors explore the observed differences among the courses taught by public relations faculty at Carnegie doctoral institutions based on faculty members’ assumed biological sex. The findings indicate that rank faculty (assistant, associate, and full professor) females teach significantly more upper division courses than their male counterparts. The rank faculty males are teaching more introductory (100 and 200 level) courses than their female counterparts. If one follows the logic that upper division courses are more time and effort demanding for faculty, then these findings indicate that females are disproportionately represented as the primary instructors of record for …

Mainstreaming Disaster-Relief Service-Learning In Communication Departments: Integrating Communication Pedagogy, Praxis, And Engagement, Vinita Agarwal

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Communication is the primary mode through which students inculcate critical thinking skills for (re)construction of social reality and engagement with communities in need (Craig, 1989). Thus it is well-suited to disaster-relief service-learning approaches that provide a pathway for democratic engagement with the material consequences of inequality evidenced in disaster-struck communities. Communication administrators can advocate for disaster-relief service-learning programs by aligning theoretically-informed student input in faculty–administration partnerships to construct transformative learning experiences sustaining trusting relationships. This study is the first to employ the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1986) to identify themes comprising student composite disaster-relief volunteering belief-structure and disaster-relief volunteering …

Complete Issue, Volume 35, Issue 1

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This is the complete issue for Volume 35, Issue 1 of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration.

Creating Clusters Of Excellence Within Graduate Programs In Communication, Tatyana Dumova

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Effective recruitment and retention of graduate students by small-size colleges and universities requires innovative solutions, as they find themselves operating in an increasingly competitive market. Creating clusters of excellence within existing graduate programs offers a way to develop a competitive edge. By integrating high-impact educational practices such as faculty-guided research, small schools are uniquely positioned to make an impact on the quality of their students’ overall educational experiences. The author seeks to start a conversation about the challenges facing graduate programs in communication offered by small colleges and universities and discusses a strategy for potential solutions.

Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety: Midwestern Language Learner Exploration, Justin J. Mahutga

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

Numerous studies in the communication discipline have explored the negative impacts of communication apprehension on college students and ways instruction can help reduce such anxiety. Study of a specific form of apprehension, foreign language anxiety, has received far less scholarly attention, but could serve college students well. Therefore, the current study attempts to establish a solid basis for continuing research aimed at the currently underserved ESL/EFL (English as a second/foreign language) learning community as well as for English-speaking foreign language learners at one mid-sized Midwestern university. The objective of this study is to establish a baseline for understanding the extent …

Family Dinner Across Generations: My How Times Have Changed?, Dayna E. Parrett

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

In an effort to determine differences between family dinners across generations, this study examined typical family dinners of participants and how they have changed across the four generations addressed. Previous qualitative research has been conducted to determine communication frames that occur during family dinners and the effect of parenting styles on family dinners, but little research connecting generational differences to family dinners has been published. Data were collected from a homogeneous sample of twenty-four women living in three counties across the Commonwealth of Kentucky. By asking open ended questions during interviews, similarities and differences between family dinners across generations were …

Call For Manuscripts

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Every(Day) Identities In Forensics: Performing Identities Within The Constraints Of Intercollegiate Forensics, Julie Louceil Germain Walker

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Goffman's (1959) dramaturgical theory of identity provides a framework for making sense of complicated, mundane identity performances. Through in-depth interviews and focus groups conducted with intercollegiate forensic co-culture members, the current research builds on Goffman's dramaturgical theory of identity. Crystallization-based analysis showed identity performances are situated within one another like Russian matroyshka (nesting) dolls. Co-cultural expectations produce multi-level professionalism expectations, and overlapping co-cultures mean individuals manage conflicting conventions. Implications are offered for the forensics community, other co-cultures, and identity scholars.