Communication Technology and New Media Commons^™

The Shift To Visual News Consumption: Exploring Egyptian Users' Motivations, Behaviors, And Perceptions Of News Values, Credibility, And Recognition On Instagram As A News Source., Hussein Battah

Theses and Dissertations

With the evolution of visual social media such as Instagram, news consumption and dissemination became different, focusing on Visual and Graphic content. With the current political and social-economic challenges in Egypt and the Region, such as The war in Gaza and the Egyptian economic crisis, the need for simple and immediate news updates became essential. Instagram has now satisfied that need among various users, specifically youth. This paper explores how consuming news over "Instagram" has influenced Egyptian users' perception of News Values and their definition of what to consider news. The paper also studies how several sources on Instagram have …

Podcasting Towards Togetherness: Utilizing Podcasts To Improve Departmental Camaraderie And Well-Being, Michael Petrauskis, Colleen Gutman, Rosemarie Fernandez

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: Physician burnout is on the rise, and this is of particular concern in emergency medicine. Burnout is associated with medical errors, adverse events, poor professionalism, and litigation. A sense of community can build engagement and mitigate workplace stressors on well-being. Emergency physicians may have trouble connecting due to the nature of shift-work and various practice settings. Communication technology, and particularly podcasting, has the potential to help overcome these barriers and positively impact relatedness and well-being.

Approach: We developed an inward-facing podcast, “The ER Break Room” within the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Florida. Through the …

Lindenwood Digest, February 12, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

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

Lindenwood Digest, February 5, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

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

The Association Between Online Health Information Characteristics And Appropriate Trust In Informational Quality Among Patients With High Cardiovascular Risk, Lim Woei Xian

Student Works (2020-2029)

More patients are turning to the Internet to understand their health and make health decisions. However, the quality of online health information (OHI) is highly variable, and it may contain misinformation. Patients who lack the necessary skills to appraise OHI may trust poor-quality OHI. Thus, this study aims to examine the association between OHI characteristics and appropriate trust in patients with high cardiovascular (CV) risk. This is a secondary analysis from a quantitative cohort study of 270 patients from a primary care clinic in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Patients recorded each OHI encountered over two months in a digital information diary …

Zombie-Auras: Genai And Hybrid Text Production, Joshua Nieubuurt

English Faculty Publications

This paper explores the iterative evolutions of textual production and their impact on the “aura” of texts, as conceptualized by Walter Benjamin. The study identifies three key phases of textual production: the natural, the mechanized, and the digitized, each progressively displacing the “cult value” of texts. This cult value is lost through increased ease of creation, reproduction, dissemination, and dislocation of creators and audiences in time and space. The advent of Generative AI (GenAI) marks the latest evolution, transforming the “aura” into a memetic “zombie” form—familiar yet opaque, evoking both the sublime and fear. By examining Benjamin’s notion of “aura” …

Impact Of Multidimensional Presence On User Well-Being In Metaverse Communities, Arslan Rafi, Sanjit K. Roy, Mohsin Abdur Rehman, Muhammad Junaid Shahid Hasni

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

In metaverse communities, users engage in various activities, such as socializing, gaming, and exploration. Presence in such communities refers to the feeling of being there and being fully immersed. This study examines the role of various dimensions of presence (e.g., social, spatial, and self) in driving user well-being in metaverse communities. Moreover, the study tests the mediating roles of social connectedness and social support. The data set comprised responses from 357 metaverse users. Data were analyzed using multigroup analysis (MGA), necessary condition analysis, partial least squares path modeling, and artificial neural network analysis. Results show that social presence, spatial presence, …

Revisiting The Diffusion Of Innovations Theory In The Digital Era: Adoption Of Artificial Intelligence In Social Media, Aliaa Khaled Elshabassy

Theses and Dissertations

The present study aims at revisiting the applicability of Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory in the digital era, particularly in relation to recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence and their use in social media. The role of generational differences in influencing the adoption and non-adoption of these technologies is also explored. Drawing on the rich insights of qualitative data, the researcher adopts a multi-method approach comprising seventeen interviews with academic and professional experts and four focus group discussions among different generations to collect first-hand insights on AI adoption in the present time. AI was itself used for qualitative data analysis, including …

Lindenwood Digest, January 29, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

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

Lindenwood Digest, January 22, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

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

A Multilayer, Multimethod Web And Language Accessibility Analysis Of U.S. Nonprofit Organization Websites: Considerations For The Marketing And Promotion Of Online Giving, Alicia Mason, Lauren Baldwin, Tatum Ahring

Faculty Submissions

In lieu of recent declines in individual giving to US nonprofits focused on social causes, education, environment, and animal welfare, this study examines the web and language accessibility of US nonprofit websites. By examining potential accessibility design barriers, we seek to understand whether US nonprofit organizations are limiting their outreach to online donors, specifically persons with disabilities (PwDs). Nonprofit websites were systematically and randomly sampled from Charity Navigator's Alphabetical Listing of the Top 1000 Most Visited Charities database. Using a multimethodological approach consisting of manual verification and computer-automated analysis techniques, we assess the web and language accessibility of leading US …

Lindenwood Digest, January 15, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

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

Joe Rogan Experience #2255 - Mark Zuckerberg, Joe Rogan, Mark Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg Transcripts

No abstract provided.

Symposium Review: Strictly Observant: Amish And Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Women Negotiating Media [2nd Ed], Emma Rosenberg, Sheila Petre

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Far too often, female agency within strictly observant religious groups is dismissed. Especially in secular scholarship, the perceived voicelessness of these women remains largely unchallenged. Rivka Neriya-Ben Shahar’s sophisticated and compelling book, Strictly Observant: Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Women Negotiating Media, destroys this superficial and monolithic understanding. Using media consumption as a lens, Neriya-Ben Shahar reveals the pivotal role that Amish and Ultra-Orthodox Jewish women play in safeguarding their communities from the threats of secularism and immorality. [First paragraph.]

Riding The Wave: Tech Tsunami'S Rhetoric Enables Plain Anabaptist Adopters, Cory Anderson

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Arguably, no book has shaped plain Anabaptist discourse about technology more than Gary Miller’s Tech Tsunami. Since its 2016 publication, the book has achieved near-canonical status within certain Conservative and Old Order Anabaptist circles, particularly among business owners wrestling with technology adoption. The book’s influence extends beyond the original text—an audiobook and a youth edition (Tech Talk, 2021) circulate widely, discussion groups form around its ideas, and its vocabulary infiltrates conversations about church rules. The book’s success builds on Miller’s existing platform; his works Kingdom Focused Finances, Church Matters, and Life in a Global Village helped establish him as a …

Symposium Review: Virtually Amish: Preserving Community At The Internet’S Margins—Lindsay Ems, Harry Argo, Dan Raber, Jonathan Stoll

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Ems’s book, “Virtually Amish,” is a significant contribution to research on Amish survival and how the Amish continue to endure the influence of modernized technological capitalism on their faith, values, and way of life. The underlying questions address not only whether increased exposure to digitization will accelerate their assimilation but, more significantly, how they are able to address such challenges. [First paragraph.]

Symposium Review: Facing Infotainment Technologies: Evolution Beyond Human [2nd Ed], Steven Yoder, Gerald Mast, Karlin High

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Daniel Mast offers a very detailed review of the ever-changing world of information technology and entertainment. The book opens by addressing the pleasure and entertainment aspects of technology and later focuses on how technology has become more advanced and has the potential to be used to monitor and control people. The intended audience is the plain Mennonite, Amish, and Brethren people. He writes from the perspective that the Bible is the final authority and cites many Biblical verses to make his case clear; the Bible gives reason for concern about the infotainment flood. As well as the Bible, the author …

Victim/Perpetrator, David D. Moy

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout this text, David Moy will discuss the inner working of his investigation on image overload and materialization. Through tactics of blurring, erasure, and layering he achieves obfuscation in his printed media. In doing so, he questions the compounding nature of image/text that negate themselves in the larger context of time in the digital age.

Digital Identity Negotiation: How International Students Balance Home And Host Country Ideals On Social Networking Sites, Oluchi Ikwuakam

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Minority groups, including people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, various ethnicities or races, gender non-conforming individuals, and others who are not part of the societal majority, face daily challenges due to unequal access to digital technology. From elementary school through college, the gap between students with better access to digital tools and those without becomes evident in how these technologies are used in classrooms. International students, who may be a majority group in their home country, become part of a minority in their host country as they seek better educational opportunities. These technologies, such as social networking sites, often reflect the …

Media Viability In Resource-Constrained Newsrooms: The Case Of The Observer Newspaper In Uganda, Nakitimbo Amelia Martha

Executive Masters in Media Leadership and Innovation

The Observer newspaper in Uganda has built a solid reputation as an impartial, independent, and analytical publication that adheres to the ethical principles of good journalism. Founded and run by a small team of journalists, the newspaper has weathered many storms, including financial crises, political intimidation, newsroom equipment seizure, and the early death of the vision carrier, Kevin Aliro. This study analyzes and records the approaches used by The Observer's editorial staff to keep the newspaper afloat during two turbulent decades of financial, political, and economic difficulties. In contrast to other newsrooms that are frequently defined by strict hierarchies between …