Communication Commons^™

Portrayals Of Gender And Race In Instagram Advertising: An Exploratory Content Analysis, Taylor Moore

Honors College Theses

Race and gender stereotyping is a longstanding problem in the world of advertising. This research utilized content and statistical analysis to answer three questions regarding race and gender stereotyping in Instagram advertising: (1) what portrayals are being shown? (2) how are these portrayals being shown? And (3) are diverse advertisements reinforcing or challenging stereotypes? Tweny advertisements were chosen off Instagram to analyze. Through an analysis of literature on the topic, a code book defining race, person of color, sex, gender, and gender expression was created. Using these variables and classifying the ads as a stereotype/counterstereotype/neutral, allowed for the creation of …

Ability Of Detecting And Willingness To Share Fake News, K. Peren Arin, Deni Mazrekaj, Marcel Thum

All Works

By conducting large-scale surveys in Germany and the United Kingdom, we investigate the individual-level determinants of the ability to detect fake news and the inclination to share it. We distinguish between deliberate and accidental sharing of fake news. We document that accidental sharing is much more common than deliberate sharing. Furthermore, our results indicate that older, male, high-income, and politically left-leaning respondents better detect fake news. We also find that accidental sharing decreases with age and is more prevalent among right-leaning respondents. Deliberate sharing of fake news is more prevalent among younger respondents in the United Kingdom. Finally, our results …

Navigating Cultural Identity In The Classroom, Caroline V. Phillips

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports

As of 2016, ~25% of children in the United States are the children of immigrants (Nibbs & Brettell). Many of these youths struggle with the feeling that they belong neither to their parents’ cultural community nor to the locality in which they have been raised (Brockett, 2018). Furthermore, little academic research exists wherein these students share their experiences and engage in the processes of meaning making. This knowledge is essential for multicultural scholars and also for the (overwhelmingly white) population of K-6 teachers who help these youth construct personal identities. This project accomplishes the following:

1. I interview second-generation immigrants …

All Good Women Are Mothers: Exploring Gender Binaries In How I Met Your Mother, Jessica Marinho

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Television is thought to be a form of entertainment through its many genres from comedy to drama, however, it is more than a relaxing pastime. Television series construct messages that influence audiences to accept specific behaviors. In this thesis, I analyzed the portrayal of the two main female characters in the popular television series How I Met Your Mother (2005-2009) and I argued how their depiction served to represent childless women as unwomanly and mothers as the ideal woman.

Twitter Trends During The 82nd Session Of The Nevada Legislature, 2023, Annie Vong, Zachary Billot, Mary Blankenship, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Elections & Governance

This fact sheet examines Twitter trends during the 82nd Session of the Nevada Legislature (2023). Data are comprised of tweets posted on Twitter by users located in Nevada addressing the most discussed topics during the session.

Parents’ Perceptions Of The Philly Goat Project’S All Abilities Ramble: A Qualitative Study Of Animal-Assisted Intervention For Intellectual And Developmental Disorders, Patricia Flaherty-Fischette, Jenée Lee, Yvonne D'Uva-Howard, Elizabeth P. Cramer, Karen Krivit, Sarah Meehan

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are a growing population. Considering the wide diversity in IDD and the financial burden of traditional treatment modalities, Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) has emerged as an innovative and non-traditional treatment for individuals with a range of disabilities, including individuals with IDD. To the authors’ knowledge, the present study was one of the first to explore a goat-assisted therapy experience for children with IDD. This study explored the experiences of 23 children with the All Abilities RAMble – a goat-assisted therapeutic activity offered by the Philly Goat Project (PGP). Key themes in our study included …

Who Is (Communicatively More) Responsible Behind The Wheel? Applying The Theory Of Communicative Responsibility To Tam In The Context Of Using Navigation Technology, Sungbin Youk, Hee Sun Park

Human-Machine Communication

By examining how perceived usefulness and ease of use relate to the user’s perception (i.e., communicative responsibility), the communicative behavior of the navigation system (i.e., the landmarks used to give directions), and the context of driving (i.e., familiarity of the driving location), this study applies the theory of communicative responsibility to the technology acceptance model to better understand why users are more likely to adopt certain navigation technologies while driving. We hypothesized that users’ perceived symmetry in communicative responsibility independently and interactively (with communicative behavior of the navigation system and the driving situation) affects perceived ease of use and usefulness …

Human-Machine Communication: Complete Volume. Volume 6

Human-Machine Communication

his is the complete volume of HMC Volume 6.

Boundary Regulation Processes And Privacy Concerns With (Non-)Use Of Voice-Based Assistants, Jessica Vitak, Priya C. Kumar, Yuting Liao, Michael Zimmer

Human-Machine Communication

An exemplar of human-machine communication, voice-based assistants (VBAs) embedded in smartphones and smart speakers simplify everyday tasks while collecting significant data about users and their environment. In recent years, devices using VBAs have continued to add new features and collect more data—in potentially invasive ways. Using Communication Privacy Management theory as a guiding framework, we analyze data from 11 focus groups with 65 US adult VBA users and nonusers. Findings highlight differences in attitudes and concerns toward VBAs broadly and provide insights into how attitudes are influenced by device features. We conclude with considerations for how to address boundary regulation …

Valenced Media Effects On Robot-Related Attitudes And Mental Models: A Parasocial Contact Approach, Jan-Philipp Stein, Jaime Banks

Human-Machine Communication

Despite rapid advancements in robotics, most people still only come into contact with robots via mass media. Consequently, robot-related attitudes are often discussed as the result of habituation and cultivation processes, as they unfold during repeated media exposure. In this paper, we introduce parasocial contact theory to this line of research— arguing that it better acknowledges interpersonal and intergroup dynamics found in modern human–robot interactions. Moreover, conceptualizing mediated robot encounters as parasocial contact integrates both qualitative and quantitative aspects into one comprehensive approach. A multi-method experiment offers empirical support for our arguments: Although many elements of participants’ beliefs and attitudes …

Triggered By Socialbots: Communicative Anthropomorphization Of Bots In Online Conversations, Salla-Maaria Laaksonen, Kaisa Laitinen, Minna Koivula, Tanja Sihvonen

Human-Machine Communication

This article examines communicative anthropomorphization, that is, assigning of humanlike features, of socialbots in communication between humans and bots. Situated in the field of human-machine communication, the article asks how socialbots are devised as anthropomorphized communication companions and explores the ways in which human users anthropomorphize bots through communication. Through an analysis of two datasets of bots interacting with humans on social media, we find that bots are communicatively anthropomorphized by directly addressing them, assigning agency to them, drawing parallels between humans and bots, and assigning emotions and opinions to bots. We suggest that socialbots inherently have anthropomorphized characteristics and …

An Interactional Account Of Empathy In Human-Machine Communication, Shauna Concannon, Ian Roberts, Marcus Tomalin

Human-Machine Communication

Efforts to develop empathetic agents, or systems capable of responding appropriately to emotional content, have increased as the deployment of such systems in socially complex scenarios becomes more commonplace. In the context of human-machine communication (HMC), the ability to create the perception of empathy is achieved in large part through linguistic behavior. However, studies of how language is used to display and respond to emotion in ways deemed empathetic are limited. This article aims to address this gap, demonstrating how an interactional linguistics informed methodological approach can be applied to the study of empathy in HMC. We present an analysis …

Human-Ai Teaming During An Ongoing Disaster: How Scripts Around Training And Feedback Reveal This Is A Form Of Human-Machine Communication, Keri K. Stephens, Anastazja G. Harris, Amanda L. Hughes, Carolyn E. Montagnolo, Karim Nader, S. Ashley Stevens, Tara Tasuji, Yifan Xu, Hemant Purohit, Christopher W. Zobel

Human-Machine Communication

Humans play an integral role in identifying important information from social media during disasters. While human annotation of social media data to train machine learning models is often viewed as human-computer interaction, this study interrogates the ontological boundary between such interaction and human-machine communication. We conducted multiple interviews with participants who both labeled data to train machine learning models and corrected machine-inferred data labels. Findings reveal three themes: scripts invoked to manage decision-making, contextual scripts, and scripts around perceptions of machines. Humans use scripts around training the machine—a form of behavioral anthropomorphism—to develop social relationships with them. Correcting machine-inferred data …

Chatgpt, Lamda, And The Hype Around Communicative Ai: The Automation Of Communication As A Field Of Research In Media And Communication Studies, Andreas Hepp, Wiebke Loosen, Stephan Dreyer, Juliane Jarke, Sigrid Kannengießer, Christian Katzenbach, Rainer Malaka, Michaela Pfadenhauer, Cornelius Puschmann, Wolfgang Schulz

Human-Machine Communication

The aim of this article is to more precisely define the field of research on the automation of communication, which is still only vaguely discernible. The central thesis argues that to be able to fully grasp the transformation of the media environment associated with the automation of communication, our view must be broadened from a preoccupation with direct interactions between humans and machines to societal communication. This more widely targeted question asks how the dynamics of societal communication change when communicative artificial intelligence—in short: communicative AI—is integrated into aspects of societal communication. To this end, we recommend an approach that …

Archipelagic Human-Machine Communication: Building Bridges Amidst Cultivated Ambiguity, Marco Dehnert

Human-Machine Communication

In this commentary, I call for maintaining the archipelagic character of human-machine communication (HMC). Utilizing the metaphor of the archipelago or a chain of connected islands indicates that HMC entails a variety of islands differing in shape, size, location, and proximity to one another. Rather than aiming for conceptual unity and definitional homogeneity, I call for embracing a cultivated ambiguity related to HMC key concepts. Ambiguity in the sense of allowing these concepts to be flexible enough to be explored in different contexts. Cultivated in the sense of demanding resonance across individual studies and theoretical lineages to allow for cumulative …

Disentangling Two Fundamental Paradigms In Human-Machine Communication Research: Media Equation And Media Evocation, Margot J. Van Der Goot, Katrin Etzrodt

Human-Machine Communication

In this theoretical paper, we delineate two fundamental paradigms in how scholars conceptualize the nature of machines in human-machine communication (HMC). In addition to the well-known Media Equation paradigm, we distinguish the Media Evocation paradigm. The Media Equation paradigm entails that people respond to machines as if they are humans, whereas the Media Evocation paradigm conceptualizes machines as objects that can evoke reflections about ontological categories. For each paradigm, we present the main propositions, research methodologies, and current challenges. We conclude with theoretical implications on how to integrate the two paradigms, and with a call for mixed-method research that includes …

Lindenwood Digest, July 12, 2023, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

From Archive To Anarchive: How Bereal Challenges Traditional Archival Concepts And Transforms Social Media Archival Practices, Mandi Li

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

BeReal, an “anti-Instagram” photo-sharing app, not only challenges the performative culture of social media but also revolutionizes the very concept of ‘archives.’ By employing the technical walkthrough method grounded in software studies, this research found that BeReal can be conceptualized as an anarchive that consists of diverse storytellers, decentralized micro-narratives, and interdependent contexts. More specifically, although some classical archival elements can be found in BeReal, the platform challenges the traditional archival industry in two ways: one, its ordinary record subjects and high level of accessibility shatter the centralization of traditional archives; two, it challenges the humanist value of archivists by …

Establishing Connectivity And Trust In High Schools During Covid-19, Lisa De Leon, Matthew D. Wilkens

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

Although meta-leadership was originally a framework used to examine healthcare leadership in crisis, it is also a valuable framework for educational leadership. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused school leaders to endure a crucible of fire in every area, such as balancing children’s safety with losses to education quality. The action plans of educators are frequently in flux as the pandemic evolves and unfolds. The continuation of this crisis has led to uncertainty, and at times, chaos.

This study examines how meta-leadership, with emphasis on connectivity, has been applied by educational leadership in American high schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020 …

The Reluctant Feminist: Angela Merkel’S Cautious Leadership, Ls Gaiek, Marlyn Garcia

The Scholarship Without Borders Journal

Abstract: What does it mean to be a modern feminist global leader today? Global leadership research is growing, but less research focuses on female leaders, even though the 21st century thus far contains a significant rise of female leaders. Angela Merkel’s infamously historic reticence and aversion, concerning speaking about feminism, irrevocably dissolves in an interview in January of 2019. This interview offers a glimpse into Angela Merkel’s cageyness, and provides an intimate insight into her circumspect perspective concerning feminism. This article aims to explore barriers and challenges to Angela Merkel’s rise as a global leader, how crisis forged and …