Social Influence and Political Communication Commons^™

An Imc Plan For The Blue Dolphin Company, A Local Nonprofit, Allison Evelyn Campbell

Journalism

Alan Godley's journey into marine preservation began as a dock boy, a role that brought him face-to-face with the environmental impact of boat cleaning practices. Witnessing the washing of harsh chemicals into the ocean and waterways fueled his environmental consciousness. Years later, he founded the Blue Dolphin Company in 1989, an “organization focused on furthering the awareness of whales and dolphins, and all marine life … [supporting] the rehabilitation and release of marine mammals and other wildlife”. Over the three decades, Mr. Godley has operated this nonprofit and small business, leveraging educational initiatives to inform people of all ages about …

Knowing Just Enough To Be Dangerous: The Sociological Effects Of Censoring Public Ai, David Hopkins

Cybersecurity Undergraduate Research Showcase

This paper will present the capabilities and security concerns of public AI, also called generative AI, and look at the societal and sociological effects of implementing regulations of this technology.

Everything Old Is Q Again: X Activity About #Pizzagate Increased 9501.5% After Musk Boosted The Conspiracy, Bond Benton, Daniela Peterka-Benton

College of Communication and Media Scholarship and Creative Works

The QAnon conspiracy is largely an extension of several older conspiracies. A particularly influential conspiracy includes PizzaGate, which alleged that coded words and symbols found in hacked emails of John Podesta, chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, point to a secret child trafficking ring in the basement of the Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant, Comet Ping Pong (Benton and Peterka-Benton, 2021). While the conspiracy was dismissed as absurd (there is no basement in the pizzeria targeted), Edgar Maddison Welch accepted it as true driving to Washington D.C. from North Carolina armed with an AR-15 rifle and a .38 calibre handgun …

Argumentation For Critical Heterogenous Political Discussions: Constructing A Rebuttal, Rebecca Oliver

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This activity seeks to explain to undergraduate students how to craft a proper attack and defense in argumentation and debate, persuasion, or political communication courses. The activity teaches students 1) the parts of a basic argument structure and 2) how to construct a rebuttal using a basic argument structure. Students will argue against their true political typology by selecting an opposing typology from the Pew Research Typology Quiz. Broadly, this exercise is designed to encourage students to engage in dialogues with people who disagree with their political positionality. Specifically, the activity accomplishes this by teaching students the value of basic …

Encoding & Decoding: Artfully Modeling Communication, Daniel L. Foster, Ashley D. Garcia

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Drawing objects and concepts, such as cats, trees, love, democracy, and family, is probably the last activity students expect to do in a communication course. Although this sounds like an introductory art activity, creating visual representations provides a nuanced understanding of the encoding and decoding processes. Encoding and decoding are the most hidden and often the most unfamiliar and complex fundamental components of communication for students to comprehend. By engaging in this activity, students translate their decoding process into drawings, which serve as personal artifacts representative of their encoding and decoding. Students come to better conceptualize this cognitive process with …

“Party In The Communication Classroom”: Exploring Communication Competence To Raise Social Awareness, Nancy Bressler

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

This activity demonstrates communication competence and allows students to observe, assess, and ultimately utilize the model of communication competence to engage with other people successfully. To understand how to engage in communication competence, students must recognize that appropriateness and effectiveness are crucial aspects of their communication. Through the communication competence model, students examine how to achieve effectiveness in their communication by setting goals for specific contexts; they also consider to what extent their goals are achievable given the particular situation. Using a 2014 MTV Video Music Award example, students can analyze why Miley Cyrus allowed a homeless man to accept …

Introducing Public Speaking Self-Concept (Pssc): A Novel, Qualitatively-Derived Communication Anxiety And Competence Variable, Karla M. Hunter, Joshua N. Westwick

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

Despite numerous quantitative assessments of teaching interventions that have helped mitigate public speaking anxiety (PSA), this common barrier to public speaking persists. In addition, quantitative measures may not be appropriate for all instructional goals, especially with students from across a variety of cultures. To enrich educators’ capacity to help diverse bodies of students overcome the challenges presented by PSA, this qualitative study asked students to “Please describe yourself as a public speaker” at the beginning and the end of a freshman-level, general education public speaking class. Thematic analysis identified a two-dimensional pattern within student responses (N = 51) (a …

Front Matter

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.

Discourse: The Journal Of The Scasd, Volume 8 (2023), The Speech Communication Association Of South Dakota

Discourse: The Journal of the SCASD

No abstract provided.

Parachuting In Cnn’S Clarissa Ward In Myanmar And Afghanistan, Syed Irfan Ashraf, Lisa Brooten

CBER Conference

Drawing from the growing body of critical literature on parachute journalism and employing framing and positioning theories, we provide a textual analysis of CNN’s coverage of the militarized conflicts in Afghanistan and Myanmar. We focus on Ward’s news reporting prac1ces to explore how the coverages framing and positioning of these conflicts function to create for each a moral universe and its key players.

Analyzing The Prophylactic And Therapeutic Role Of Inoculation To Facilitate Resistance To Conspiracy Theory Beliefs, Alicia Mason, Josh Compton, Emerson Tice, Brooklyn Peterson, Isaac Lewis, Tanner Glenn, Tricia Combs

Faculty Submissions

Conspiracy theories pose a variety of social and psychological consequences for individuals and society, and research suggests that around half of the U.S. population believes at least one. A two-phase inoculation experiment was conducted. Inoculated participants reported more negative general attitudes toward conspiracy theories and lower Phase II generic conspiracist beliefs, which are both indicators of harm-reduction and the beneficial healing impacts of therapeutic inoculation. The addition of therapeutic inoculation as a harm-reduction or healing technique in practitioners’ stakeholder response toolkit is a valuable contribution to both theory and practice.

Mapuche Women's Cooperative And Sustainable Development, Peter Kent

Peace and Conflict Studies Journal Conference

This study looks at a Mapuche cooperative (Chol-Chol) in southern Chile. The review focuses on how this woman owned and run enterprise overcomes primarily culturally ingrained indigenous biases, and how these women deal with a dominant Euro-centric culture that refuses to acknowledge them both as a distinct group within Chile and as capable and contributing members of the Chilean economy.

The study follows two specific members of the cooperative. One is the Executive Director of the organization, charged with oversight of the cooperative members, from financial accountability to negotiations, within the group and outside of the group with local municipal …

Partisan Selective Exposure On Social Media During The 2020 Presidential Election, Grayce Lemon

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

This study examines selective exposure and selective avoidance on social media during the 2020 presidential election. 147 voters participated in the survey conducted using Qualtrics. The purpose of this study was to understand whether selective exposure and avoidance behaviors differed based on voting outcome (Trump or Biden), and to test whether political ideological polarization was reflected in news consumption through social media. Taken together, the results indicate that although both voting bases engaged in selective exposure and avoidance, the propensity was the same between Trump and Biden voters. Additionally, results confirm existing hypotheses that strength of political ideology positively correlates …

Learning From Death: Health Education Considerations For Medical Tourists, Caregiving Companions, And Medical Tourism Providers, Alicia Mason, Sakshi Bhati, Ran Jiang, Elizabeth Spencer

Faculty Submissions

Medical tourism is a process in which a consumer travels from one’s health jurisdiction to receive biomedical treatments or services, thus becoming a patient. This chapter explores how global media frame cases of patient death associated with the medical tourism (MT) process between 2009-2019. A qualitative content analysis of 50 patient mortality cases found that (1) a majority of media representations of medical tourism patient death are of middle-class, minority females between 25-55 years of age seeking cosmetic surgery internationally; (2) sudden death, grief, and bereavement counseling is noticeably absent from medical tourism providers (MTPs); and (3) the acknowledgement of …

Building Solidarity Between Minority Groups, Seonwoo Kim

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Although a considerable number of scholars agree that an intergroup coalition among minorities will be more powerful in changing biased perceptions, regulations, and policies (e.g., Burson & Godfrey, 2020; Lane et al., 2019), cross-minority solidarity is challenging due to the inherent difficulties in establishing a shared goal and reaching a consensus on methods and tactics (Gawerc, 2021; Rogers, 2004) and competing policy stances and stereotypes (Hope, 2019; Nopper, 2006). Numerous instances of social movements that failed due to the failure of coalitions to form have been documented in the literature (e.g., Almeida, 2010; Ferree & Roth, 1998; Gelb & Shogan, …

Harnessing The Power Of The Bts Army Fandom To #Stopasianhate And Empower The Next Generation Of Aapi Leaders, Nicole Santero

Community Engagement Expo Research Posters

ARMY, fans of the widely popular music group BTS, has become one of the largest and most influential fan communities in popular culture. Music fans have long been misunderstood and dismissed, yet fandoms like ARMY have reshaped that narrative by demonstrating remarkable capacity for global collective action, teaching us important lessons in grassroots mobilization, social movements, and activism. Drawing on the fandom's impact and key strategies such as empowerment messaging, resource deployment, and leveraging media platforms, this poster presentation from the 2023 UNLV Community Engagement Expo details examples of how ARMY's power and strategies can be applied in a real-world …

Coverage Of The Israeli Military Spokespersons Of The Six Self-Liberated Palestinian Prisoners From The Maximum-Security Israeli Prison Of Gilboa, Moeen Koa, Neveen Alawneh, Rinad Mahmmoud

An-Najah University Journal for Research - B (Humanities)

This study aimed to find out how the spokespersons for the Israeli occupation army, specifically the "coordinator and Avichay Adraee" pages on Facebook, covered the issue of the six self-liberated Palestinian prisoners from the highly secure walls of Gilboa prison through a tunnel they dug under their cell's bathroom. The study used the total population sample to analyze the two pages' content from September 6, 2021, to November 30, 2021. The study found that these pages used media frames to distort the image of the Palestinian prisoners. The most dominant frame was the strategic frame by 40% to show the …

Outbreak Communication: Exploring The Relationships Between Health Information Seeking Behaviors, Vested Interests, And Covid-19 Knowledge In U.S. Midwest Populations, Alicia Mason, Josh Compton, Elizabeth Spencer, Kaitlin Barnett

Faculty Submissions

On February 15, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director, General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated at a Munich Security Conference, “We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic,” (Zarocostas, 2020, p. 676). The term ‘infodemic’ refers to the onslaught of both accurate and inaccurate health information surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The concept of an ‘infodemic’ was quickly integrated into mass media, popular culture (i.e., documentaries, podcasts), and eventually scholarly literature. In response to COVID-19, health communication scholars have centered on understanding specific messaging strategies such as the use of fear appeals (Stolow et al., 2020), nature of advertising …

The Pornography Industry's Disinformation Campaign On Addiction Recovery Resources, Darryl Mead

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

As pornography became increasingly popular online, many unsuspecting consumers reported adverse effects. These included sexual dysfunctions, such as lack of response with real partners, delayed ejaculation, erectile difficulties, and sexual compulsivity. Some pornography consumers began congregating in online self-help portals (forums and websites) to assist one another in quitting or reducing problematic pornography use. The popularity of the self-help resources and their potential to dampen the profits of a lucrative industry resulted in disinformation campaigns run by individuals connected to the pornography industry. In this article, I examine how a paper containing significant inaccuracies about the people organising the online …

From "Our Poor" To "Personal Responsibility": Changing Welfare Rhetoric In Political Party Platforms Of The Carolinas And The Nation, 1950-2005, Felicity N. Ropp

Senior Theses

In this thesis, I track political rhetoric surrounding poverty and welfare from 1950-2005. I first provide thorough context on the history of welfare policy in the United States and the way these issues were framed by politicians leading up to the period my data covers. My analysis centers on 108 political party platforms from the national Republican and Democratic parties and from state parties in North and South Carolina, ranging from 1950 to 2005 (31 of which I located in archives and manually digitized for the first time ever). I explain the significance of party platforms and review the literature …

Assessing The Threat Of Social Media To National Security: Information Operations In The 21st Century, Brendan M. Cullen

Senior Theses

The ubiquity of social media has enabled an unprecedented amount of personal data to be accessible to various entities. Social media platforms leverage this data to optimize algorithmic recommendation systems, persuade users to engage, and promote monetization. The social media ecosystem’s business model demands continuous engagement and the relentless collection of user data to grow and scale. Not only is social media massively popular around the world, but it has integrated heavily into users’ daily lives. This integration is driven by social platforms’ deliberate architectures and affordances. The intentionality of social media can be exploited by state and non-state actors …

Commentary: Black Or White? Wrong Or Right? Don't Rush To Take Sides On Complex Issues Such As Israel-Hamas Conflict, Siow-Heng Ong, Benjamin Joshua Ong

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

While responses to the Israel-Hamas conflict have been bitterly divided, they showcase a common phenomenon of people viewing complex situations in black-and-white terms. But how did we get here?

Another View On International Relations [Book Review International Public Relations And Public Diplomacy: Communication And Engagement], Isaac Antwiboasiako

Other

In their 2015 book International Public Relations and Public Diplomacy: Communication and Engagement, Guy J. Golan, Sung-Un Yang, and Denis F. Kinsey assembled renowned and leading scholars in public diplomacy and public relations to examine the conceptual and practical relationships between international public relations and public diplomacy. The book is a collection of various chapters integrating public diplomacy and public relations research. It argues that public diplomacy should be studied from the public relations perspective because public diplomacy is strategic communication management. Therefore, it should apply ‘key lessons from public relations literature’ (Golan, Yang, 2015, p. 3). It applies some …

Selection Homophily And Peer Influence For Adolescents’ Smoking And Vaping Norms And Outcomes In High And Middle-Income Settings, Jennifer M. Murray, Sharon Sánchez-Franco, Olga L. Sarmiento, Erik O. Kimbrough, Christopher Tate, Shannon C. Montgomery, Rajnish Kumar, Laura Dunne, Abhijit Ramalingam, Erin L. Krupka, Felipe Montes, Huiyu Zhou, Laurence Moore, Linda Bauld, Blanca Llorente, Frank Kee, Ruth F. Hunter

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

The MECHANISMS study investigates how social norms for adolescent smoking and vaping are transmitted through school friendship networks, and is the first study to use behavioral economics methodology to assess smoking-related social norms. Here, we investigate the effects of selection homophily (the tendency to form friendships with similar peers) and peer influence (a social process whereby an individual’s behavior or attitudes are affected by peers acting as reference points for the individual) on experimentally measured smoking and vaping norms, and other smoking outcomes, in adolescents from high and middle-income settings. Full school year groups in six secondary schools in Northern …

Casar Student Discussion Series: ‘Does Social Media Bring More Harm Than Good?’, The Prince Alwaleed Center For American Studies And Research Casar

Performances, Events, and Presentations

CASAR Student Debate Series - Launched in Fall 2023:

The Center of American Studies and Research (CASAR) launched a Student Discussion Series in Fall 2023 semester, it is a student-led debate on a plethora of current hot topics. In this student discussion series, students play the role of delving into topics together to understand one another. This event is broadcasted on Facebook live via the CASAR Facebook Page, where the entire record is still available to watch. Students passionately present their arguments in an organized manner, going back and forth between the two sides, and often students become excited about …

Ethnic Newspaper Industry In Pakistan And Impacts Of Corporate Ownership, Shafiq Ahmad Kamboh, Muhammad Ittefaq, Awais Hamed

School of Communication Studies - Faculty Scholarship

During the Indian independence movement, the Urdu-language ethnic newspapers played a significant role in instigating resistance against colonial authorities within local communities. However, later on, Urdu journalism underwent a transformation, shifting from the ‘advocate-journalist’ model to one dominated by corporate ownership in Pakistan. These commercial agents have faced criticism for using journalism as a shield for their other businesses, yet their presence has profoundly impacted current newspaper practices in various ways. Our case study of the Daily Express reveals that this newspaper, by implementing innovative journalism, technological advancements and efficient management practices, has influenced both preceding and subsequent Urdu dailies, …

A Consideration Of Coordinated Behavior In The #Aukus Conversation On X (Formerly Twitter), Timothy Graham, Darren Linvill, Patrick Warren, Katherine M. Fitzgerald

Media Forensics Hub Reports

No abstract provided.

Police Officers’ Perspectives On The Death Of George Floyd By Minneapolis Police Officers: A Descriptive Study, Janet Henderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On May 25, 2020, four Minneapolis police officers reported to the location where an African American man had been accused of trying to use a counterfeit $20 bill in a convenience store. After being taken outside of the store, the man, George Floyd, was eventually placed in the back of a police patrol car, after he was handcuffed. Saying he was claustrophobic and resisting arrest, Mr. Floyd was removed from the patrol car, and placed on the ground on his stomach. One of the patrol officers, the most senior officer present, and a field training officer, placed his knee on …

The Marginalised Nativism Strikes Back: Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Afd Party’S Anti-Refugee Campaign In Germany, Raihanna Athaayaa Ari Sudjono, Aditya Batara Gunawan

Jurnal Politik

Born as a Eurosceptic party in 2013, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) Party shifted its agenda to anti-refugee and anti-Islamic issues after the 2015 refugee crisis in Europe. This shift is evident in the discourse of traditional campaign posters distributed during the 2017 federal election in Germany. This article aims to map and conduct a critical discourse analysis of the refugee crisis issues constructed by the AfD Party through traditional campaign posters. The author argues that the AfD Party's anti-refugee and anti-Islam discourse is significantly influenced by factors such as interests, ideology, and social, economic, and political conditions. This research …

In Quest Of Mother’S Worth: How Millennial Instamoms’ Sharenting Revisits Women’S Traditional Roles, Rony Agustino Siahaan

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

This paper aims to investigate the performance of the so-called digital mothers "Instamom" in Indonesia in the cultural contradiction between the construction of women's subjectivity that commodifies motherhood and intersubjectivity as to fulfilling women’s traditional role. Using performativity theory, I argue that the phenomenon of Instamoms’ sharenting is a communicative practice in the digital space that demonstrates the performance of a fluid and dynamic maternal identity without rigid boundaries. This research applies a digital ethnography approach to the everyday life’s practices of Stay-At-Home-Mothers that focus on the complexities of women's experiences in engaging with social media throughout the transition to …